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| Lisa Unger with yours truly |
It’s been far too long since I allowed myself either an
artist’s date or a Field Trip Friday, so today I rolled them into one and
headed to Tampa for a Friends of the Library event featuring bestselling author
Lisa Unger.
Unger is the author of 17 novels, her books have been
published in 26 languages, and she’s been nominated for multiple awards,
notably two Edgars* in 2019, an honor only a few authors can claim. She describes her work as “character-driven psychological suspense,” and I can attest that her books are hard to put down. I've only
read a few of them, so I was excited to see how many I have left to enjoy. My next read will be the signed copy of her most recent book, The Stranger Inside, that came home with me!
After we enjoyed lunch provided by local restaurant La Segunda, Unger shared some of her background and her writing process. Then she
took questions. After her talk and the question and answer period, she signed
books and chatted with attendees. Her husband kindly took the photo of us
together that you see above.
A few things that I found especially interesting:
Her family moved a lot and Unger was frequently the new kid.
“The page was my first home,” she said. (Me, too!)
She’s been a writer all her life (“I don’t remember a time
in my life when I didn’t define myself that way,” she said), though she didn't
think she’d be able to write for a living, a belief influenced by her engineer
father who didn’t think writing was a job.
She inherited her love of story from her librarian mother,
who shared all types of books and movies with her daughter as she was growing
up. Of her mother’s bookshelves, Unger said, “If I could reach it, I could read
it.”
After attending college in New York, where she studied all
kinds of writing from poetry, to screenwriting, to journalism, Unger took a job
in book publishing, because it was the closest thing she could find to her
dream. She worked in publicity, helping authors with book tours and planning
events, and was so good at it that her time available to write kept shrinking.
Eventually, she had an epiphany. “I was in the wrong job and
I was with the wrong guy. I wasn’t doing the thing I wanted to do. I’d never
even tried.” She decided she could live with failure, but not a “slow fade to
nothing.” She kept her job (but broke up with that guy), and started writing
every day, making it a priority to work on a novel she’d started at age
19. One and a half years later, at age
29, she finished.
When Unger completed her novel and went about trying to find
an agent for it, she admits she was scared. It wasn’t just her book that was on
the line, it was her identity: “Who am I if I am not this?” she said.
Fortunately for all of us, that book found an agent, and that agent got Unger a
two-book deal. Angel Fire, the first of four books in the Lydia Strong
series, was published in 2002. (Miscione is Unger’s maiden name.)
It takes her nine months to a year to complete a first
draft, followed by several more drafts, as well as “the second part of the
creative process,” which she explained is the discussion and incorporation of
notes she receives from her husband, editor, and agent. These help her
manuscript to become the best possible book. It takes another year between when
the book is first turned in until it’s ready for publishing. She never opens
the finished book, because by then there’s nothing she can change about it!
She met her husband at Sloppy Joe’s in Key West. It was love
at first sight, at least on her part, she said. They’ve been married for 20
years, and have a 14-year-old daughter.
On writing books:
A lot of people want to write a book, even make plans to
write one. It’s an accomplishment just to finish a manuscript. Whether or not
it gets published.
You should do it because you cannot not do it.
Getting published is beside the point. It’s always about the work, the writing.
I’ve been feeling very blah about writing lately (witness
the lack of entries on this here blog), and while I’ve been making it a point
to sit down to write something nearly every day, I’ve definitely been
lacking a spark. I’m so glad I took the time to go to this author talk, because
not only was Unger herself charming, warm, and easy to approach, she inspired
me to come home and sit down in front of my laptop. It’s a start.
*Edgar Allan Poe Awards, presented annually by the Mystery Writers of America
To learn more about Lisa Unger and her books, please visit
lisaunger.com, or her Amazon author’s page.
