I’m so excited to introduce my readers, authors, and aspiring authors to Lorraine Bodger.  I discovered Lorraine when I first rented a desk at the Writer’s Room in downtown Manhattan.  I had been working on my first novel at the time and feeling very alone.  No one spoke to each other at the Writer’s Room where the rules were very understandably to quietly do your work at your cubicle.  I didn’t have any writer friends then and was extremely insecure about what I was embarking on: my first novel.

I remember feeling quite hopeless and full of self-doubt the day that Lorraine’s e-mail arrived in my inbox offering her editing services for doubtful, unconfident writers like me.  (Her e-mail said something much more positive and exciting, believe me.)  I immediately called Lorraine and six years and two books later I’m still so grateful I responded to her initial e-mail.

Lorraine really taught me how to write.  I learn by doing.  No matter how many writing workshops I take, or classes, or books I read on craft, the only way I can improve is by practicing.  And I wholeheartedly believe in unbiased opinions when it comes to writing.  I love my husband, but he often just reinforces my own insecurities on whatever piece I’m working on.  Let me clarify here – he has helped me tremendously with ideas when I’m stuck, but in terms of reading the overall piece or giving me input on a concept – it has not proven to be a productive experience.  And as far as friends or family – and even other writers, it’s too delicate to get any solid feedback.  With Lorrie editing my work before I show it to the professionals, I feel confident that I am submitting a polished piece that has been read by a kind, but honest, unbiased person.

Of course, Lorraine is a professional and I pay her for her work.  I very much look at my potential writing career as a business and I’m investing in myself.  It’s been worth every penny.  Lorraine has always been a pleasure to work with.  She’s efficient, truthful, dynamic, insightful, hard working, and caring.  I love that she’s a published author herself, and very much immersed in the literary world.

I highly recommend her books as gifts. I’m Happy If You’re Happy: 515 Things Only Mother’s and Daughters Understand is a wonderful Mother’s Day present.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Im-Happy-If-Youre-Happy/Lorraine-Bodger/e/9780740750144/?itm=15&USRI=lorraine+bodger

If you’re interested in Lorraine’s editing services, check out her website: www.lorrainebodger.com.

And now, for insight into Lorraine the writer…

WHEN DID YOU KNOW YOU WANTED TO BE A WRITER?
For many years I wrote (and illustrated) cookbooks, craft books, list books, and other service-oriented books to earn a living to support my life as a painter and printmaker.  I had a studio on Union Square, and juggled two entirely different careers.  But gradually I found myself writing more at home and going less to the studio.  When the balance tipped over to much more time spent writing than painting, I admitted that I wanted to write full time and closed my studio.  Fiction has taken the place of painting, though I have to say that my writing is definitely informed by all those years of visual work.

I still write nonfiction to earn money, but more important to me is the private editing I’ve been doing for many years, working with fiction writers of all kinds.  I also lead writers’ workshops that are quite different from the usual kind.

FAVORITE PART OF LIFE AS A WRITER?
Thinking.

LEAST FAVORITE PART?
Isolation.

WHO READS YOUR WORK BEFORE YOU SHOW IT TO THE PROFESSIONALS?
I have two trusted readers who are writers themselves; I also have a few other occasional readers—people whose special gifts make them good resources for specific projects.  Finding appropriate readers is difficult for most writers; it’s rarely a spouse, best friend, or relative.  Be extremely careful about letting a nonprofessional read for you; a bad read can be very damaging.

TYPICALLY ABOUT HOW MANY HOURS A DAY DO YOU WRITE?
This depends entirely on the project.  I can write for many hours at a time on a nonfiction piece, but fiction is slower.  For me, fiction needs to breathe, percolate, stew; it needs to be mulled, noodled, rewritten, revised.  But for nonfiction and fiction alike, faster isn’t necessarily better.  Think process.

WHERE/HOW DO YOU GET THE MOST INSPIRATION?
I confess to being most interested in the things I’ve experienced.  I’m less interested in the invention of stories completely unrelated to my life.  I admire wholesale invention, but I don’t aspire to it.  One reason I write is to find out what I think; another reason I write is to explore my own experiences.

WHAT’S YOUR PROCESS? DO YOU OUTLINE AND KNOW DETAILS ABOUT CHARACTERS LIKE WHAT KIND OF UNDERWEAR THEY WEAR? OR ARE YOU MORE OF A PANTSER (FLY BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTS)?
My process is a combination of planning (or note-taking) and finding out as I go.  Again, this depends on the project: I can wing a short story, but a novel takes planning.  It might also take replanning—and replanning again.

IF YOU WERE TO TRY ANOTHER FORMAT OR GENRE WHAT WOULD IT BE?
If you mean another genre of writing, I’d probably choose mystery.  There’s plenty of room for “literature” in the mystery genre.

DO YOU READ YOUR REVIEWS?
Always.

WHERE DO YOU WRITE?
I’m lucky: my apartment has a smallish shoebox-shaped room that I use exclusively as an office for writing.  It has two windows and I used to face one of them, since I find it helpful to look up from my work and stare at a bit of sky.  But facing the window I also saw my neighbors, and they saw me.  I like my neighbors, but I don’t like that lack of privacy—so now I face the wall.  I work on a MacBook with an additional (large) monitor, in order to have more space for more windows.  My computer is my true writing room; I have a very intimate relationship with my Mac.

FAVORITE DRINK AND SNACK WHILE WRITING?
Lots and lots of hot, sweet (Splenda!), milky tea gets me through, along with jam-on-matzoh, wedges of apple, and small handfuls of nuts.

WHEN YOU’RE NOT WRITING WHERE WOULD WE FIND YOU?
You’d find me taking a thinking-walk, having dinner with friends, at the movies, or searching out great food in the outer boroughs.

Lorraine Bodger has been editing for more than fifteen years, and publishing for twice as long.  She’s been published by many major houses: Andrews McMeel, Clarkson Potter, St. Martin’s Press, Simon & Schuster, Harmony Books, Doubleday, Warner Books, Universe Books, Sedgewood Press, and others.  Lorraine’s written more than thirty books about food, cooking, family relationships, love, friendship, crafts, and women, as well as working on her own short stories and novels.