Interview with Molly Ringle

Author of All the Better Part of Me

 

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

I’ve been a Pacific Northwesterner for nearly my whole life: I was born in Corvallis, Oregon, and moved to Seattle about twenty years ago. I’ve always had family up here, and my parents have a vacation cabin on Puget Sound, so it feels as much like home as Oregon does.

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

I moved to Seattle with my husband (boyfriend at the time) in the late 1990s because we were both just out of college and wanted to go where the biggest job market was, but also because I’d always felt a special fondness for Seattle.

When I was growing up and visiting my grandparents on Queen Anne Hill (a neighborhood I could not afford now!), Seattle always seemed like the height of urban glamour to me. I’m used to the city these days, of course, but I still love the way the skyline sparkles at night.

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

I wrote lots of books before any of them got published, and the very first was short novel (really more of a novella) I wrote in middle school, about a real-life episode of social strife involving me, my younger sister, and a handful of our friends. That’s never been published and probably won’t ever be, which is for the best! But I kept writing books, kept having no luck submitting them to publishers.

Then after having my first baby, I was pondering the future and started going through my already-written manuscripts. I picked one in pretty good shape, a ghost story set in Seattle, and fixed it up, and queried The Wild Rose Press. To my delight, they accepted, and that became The Ghost Downstairs, my first true published book.

How would you describe your books to first time readers?

I always write a love story, even if they sometimes bend or break the genre rules of romance. I always include humor that may or may not be funny to anyone but me (but I crack myself up). And I always try to create characters you can relate to, in situations you can relate to, even if those situations are outside of literally possible reality. (E.g., what would it be like if you found out you were the reincarnation of a Greek goddess? Or what if you under a goblin curse, and not able to tell anyone?) I like to keep things emotionally real even when the circumstances are crazy.

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

People with a somewhat absurd sense of humor, a healthy appreciation for weirdness, and an everlasting fondness for love stories. And given that I’m sometimes inappropriate, I suppose I should add “people over 16” or thereabouts, to stay out of trouble.

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

On the publishing side, I’ve had a number of occasions over the years where small presses I was contracted with went out of business or underwent some other kind of meltdown, stranding me and my manuscript. That’s always been a surprise, and never a fun one. At least I’m definitely not alone in that: it’s happened to practically every writer, so it helps to remember we’re in good company. And the presses I’m with now have been doing wonderfully; knock on wood!

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

Read up a lot more on plot structure! And, related to that, outline your plots a lot more ahead of time. It will save you several rounds of revision.

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

A cool one million would be nice, financially speaking! But truthfully, I would only want my writing to reach the people who actually like the kind of thing I write. I’d rather have a thousand loyal fans than a million haters (even if they also came with a million fans).

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

There’s often a long wait between finishing a book and its official release. I wish the industry were structured differently, so that I could share the new release much sooner, when I still felt the maximum excitement about it. Usually by the time a book is released, I’m well into the next project, and am most excited about that new one, but it doesn’t make sense to talk about it yet.

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

In writing, I care about telling a satisfying story, not just about picking lovely words or examining a character’s personality. In publishing, I can be counted on to respond to emails promptly and stick to agreed-upon schedules. In marketing, I can be amusing on social media at least occasionally. 🙂

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

Writing: I have a habit of wanting to be witty or funny too often, even at moments that aren’t the best choice for humor. We often have to edit those moments to tone them down. Publishing: the industry remains a mystery to me, in terms of why some books become massive favorites and others don’t, and what trends are popular and why.

I feel my writing’s usually a bit different from what’s “hot” in the mainstream, and probably always will be. Marketing: most of it, honestly. It’s so hard to stand out when there are a thousand books being released each week, and it’s equally hard to tell which marketing efforts made any difference and were worth the cost.

When do you think you will write your next book?

I’m already writing it! Or “them,” really. I have a m/m urban fantasy novel coming out in fall 2020, and am going to embark on edits for that soon; and meanwhile, on an impulse that seized me, I’m writing a m/m high-fantasy novella, my first proper foray into high fantasy.

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

I’m traditionally published with small presses. The majority of my work has been through Central Avenue Publishing, a truly outstanding publisher in Vancouver, BC, who I’ll be working with for my 2020 novel.