Interview with C. Lee McKenzie

Author of Alligators Overhead

Where are you from originally and where do you reside now?

I’m a California native who has left the state and the country to live other places, but I’ve always returned home, so I’m once again in the Golden State where I started.

If you currently reside somewhere besides where you were born, what’s the story that lead from there to here?

As I said above, I’ve lived different places in the world, including South East Asia, but I keep coming back to the state I was born in. I started in a California valley town called Modesto, moved to San Diego, Alhambra, San Bernardino then north to Gilroy and Morgan Hill and finally landed in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I think I’ll stay here.

What made you decide to write and publish your first book?

It was a newspaper article that started me down this writing/publishing path. I read that four out of five Ivy League students admitted to some form of self-abuse, so I set out to find out why. That led me to writing Sliding on the Edge, which was my first novel. I thought it would be my last, but I was wrong. By the time Alligators Overhead was published, I’d published four books. Now I’m at nine. I believe this is now officially an addiction.

How would you describe your books to first time readers?

I like variety. I love to write contemporary/realistic novels about young people, but when I get tired of teen angst and turmoil, I turn to middle grade fantasy/adventure.

My young adult books seem to appeal to a wider audience than I expected. A lot of my readers are way beyond their teen years. That may be because I like to delve into universal topics like justice, illiteracy, and bigotry, and I pepper my stories with characters that are many different ages.

With my middle grade stories reviewers like the adventure, the topics, (friendship, family, forgiveness) and the history I like include. I want my stories to be exciting for every reader, and I want the language to challenge the young reader while keeping the older ones engaged.

Who do you feel is most likely to connect with the topics you write about?

A book seller once demonstrated to me how a good story could capture anyone’s attention and keep them reading to find out what happens. She read a picture book story aloud to a senior audience and stopped just before the climax. There was a collective gasp “No!” from her audience. “See,” she said, “A good story is just that. It doesn’t matter what age group it was intended for.” So I guess my answer to your question is “anyone.”

What unexpected or surprising thing did you learn during the process of writing and publishing?

It’s easier to write a book than it is to publish it. More savvy writers should have told me that, but nobody did, so I naively thought when I’d written “The End” to my books I could sit back and relax. Little did I expect that the work had just begun.

If you could, what advice would you give to your past self before embarking on this journey?

Take up coal mining. Well, maybe not, but sometimes I think it might have been easier to go to the mines than to get into the writing and publishing business. I’d certainly tell myself to go more slowly, build my network, learn more about marketing. I’d always thought all I had to do was write a solid book, and then pat myself on the back. No so. I’d be sure to explain that to myself before starting if I had the chance.

How many people would you ideally like to reach with your books?

Of course, I’d love it if thousands would clamor to read my books. What author wouldn’t?

What has been the biggest challenge and frustration during the process to date?

Finding a good balance between time to write and time to spend on telling the world I have books out there has been my biggest challenge and frustration. There’s just not enough time to do both well and have a life. I often let several balls drop in the promotion and marketing arena because I’m not skilled at it, and I have other things I enjoy doing more.

What’s your biggest strengths when it comes to book a) writing, b) publishing and c) marketing?

I don’t give up. There have been times I’ve thought about throwing in the proverbial towel, but I know that will be the only sure fire way to guarantee failure, so I don’t do that. Instead, I write the next book and try to get better at my craft.

What’s your biggest weakness when it comes to book a) writing, b) publishing and c) marketing?

I’m not keen on using Facebook or Twitter or Instagram to promote my books, so I suppose my online presence is my biggest weakness on the marketing front. As to writing, I probably have many weaknesses. The biggest one is my inability to outline a story. I’m a “pantser” so it takes me a while to craft a story. I do manage to set down a tagline and put it in my header, but that’s only three sentences to get me from the beginning to the end of a book. I spend tons of time on re-writing.

When do you think you will write your next book?

I have three books in various stages of completion, so I think I already have written it, or them.

Are you self published or did you use a hybrid publisher, or a traditional publisher?

I’m a hybrid author. My young adult books are all traditionally published, but I self-published three of my middle grade novels, including Alligators Overhead and its sequel, The Great Time Lock, disaster before finding a publisher who wanted to handle my fourth. I’m now agented, so I guess I’ll be mostly traditionally published although I rather enjoy the freedom of doing it all myself.