Lisa Regan
Missing Husband
Fear prickles her skin. “Noah?” Photos and trinkets from their simple but perfect life together litter the carpet. The coffee table is cracked, blood along its edges. She should be taking in details, but her heart is racing too fast. A strangled cry works its way from Josie’s chest. Where is her husband?
The Writer’s Dossier 9/17/2024 – The Lisa Regan interview
DOSSIER: You quote William Faulkner’s advice, “Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.” The Dossier is curious to hear what mistakes you could have possibly made over your stunning career of selling over four million books. Anything we can learn from your particular path to success?
REGAN: I made several mistakes early on in my career. What I’ve learned is that it’s important to always be honing your craft. Even after selling more than four million books, I still take online classes and read books on the craft. I’m never done learning or trying to improve. I strive to make every book better than the last. One mistake I made with my debut novel, FINDING CLAIRE FLETCHER, while querying agents, was not drilling down on a single genre. One agent told me that it didn’t know what kind of book it wanted to be. There was so much focus on the relationship between Claire and Connor that it wasn’t clear whether I was trying to write romantic suspense or a crime novel. Another mistake I made often was being too precious about my work. I didn’t want to make changes or cut scenes or characters, even if it meant improving the work, just because I had worked so hard on them, and I was attached to them. Eventually, I had to accept that writing the best book was more important than keeping things that I was emotionally invested in. Some of the best scenes I’ve ever written have been cut from my books, and I can now objectively say that those edits made my work exponentially better. When I wrote my second book, now titled KILL FOR YOU, I had written an entire subplot that I absolutely loved. It was one of my favorite things I’d written to that point but in the editing process, it became clear that if I lifted all of those scenes out of the manuscript, it would make no difference at all. That meant that it did not belong in the book. It served no purpose. It didn’t matter how hard I had worked on the subplot or how much I loved it. Cutting it made the book better. In addition, I loved the title Aberration for that book. I always wanted to call a book Aberration. Then it came out and no one could remember the title. Readers called it Apparition or Adoration or any number of four-syllable words beginning with the letter A. When I got my rights back and reissued it as KILL FOR YOU, the sales increased significantly. Sometimes the things that we, as writers, think are really cool just don’t resonate with readers or work to sell copies.
So many benefits from learning
DOSSIER: Besides perhaps the memories of a few long weekends in the Poconos during college, what can you recall about earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Bloomsburg University that’s helped you as a writer? Is there anything you still apply to your writing today?
REGAN: Earning my degrees at Bloomsburg University was such a wonderful experience. The atmosphere on campus was so positive. Being an English major was a lot of fun. The entire English faculty was phenomenal. The professors were encouraging, inspiring, and very invested in the success of students. My favorite professor, Dr. Danny Robinson, taught me so much about writing clearly and concisely. I took four classes with him, and we still keep in touch today. My fellow English majors were awesome, too. I did not take any creative writing courses but what I learned was valuable to my career. I learned how to deconstruct texts to determine what an author did that was effective in terms of what they were trying to accomplish. I do that now when I read books by my favorite authors. I read their books once quickly as a reader—for enjoyment—and then again more slowly as a writer to try to figure out how they’re engaging readers so well. I learned what one of my professors called “economy of words,” which I still try to use today in my work. I’ve applied that broad concept to plot as well. If something doesn’t advance the plot, then it doesn’t belong in the book. Grad school was also a great experience but what I learned was that I wasn’t cut out to be a school teacher. It was best just to stick to writing!
The great new office
DOSSIER: When and where do you write, and what kind of environment do you prefer? (Thrilling music/deadly silence/sitting on a park bench next to the Liberty Bell?)
REGAN: I’m so lucky now to finally have my own office which is where I do all of my writing. Unless the weather is nice, then I’ll sit on our back deck and work. I can and have written in just about any environment. I was a Certified Nursing Assistant when I wrote FINDING CLAIRE FLETCHER and I wrote most of the scenes from that book on scraps of paper I kept in my scrubs in the break room. I used to write in a notebook I kept in my purse while waiting in doctor’s office waiting rooms or in line at the post office. When I was writing the first several Josie books, the only area I had for writing was one side of the loveseat in our living room. Now I find I work best in my office, uninterrupted, in my giant writing chair with Mr. Phillip pressed against my right side, snoring. My husband always promised me that if I ever got my own office, he’d build a door identical to Monica’s apartment door in one of my favorite television shows, FRIENDS and he kept that promise. It’s one of the coolest things about my new office. In terms of what I listen to, I can’t listen to music. It’s too distracting. I prefer brown noise. My friend and fellow author, Katie Mettner bought me a little brown noise machine which has been awesome.
A love letter to fans
DOSSIER: Five years elapsed between your FINDING CLAIRE FLETCHER debut and your follow up LOSING LEAH HOLLOWAY. We hear that you have a lifetime to write your first novel, and then the second one crushes you with deadlines. Can you tell Dossier readers what happened in those five years that ended up setting you on a path to eventually go onto publishing 20 Josie Quinn novels (and a handful of others)?
REGAN: Actually, what happened was I finished FINDING CLAIRE FLETCHER in 2006. It then took me four years to find an agent and two years to find a publisher. After that, the publisher went under and I reissued it myself. It was later picked up by Thomas & Mercer along with its sequel and republished in 2017. I started writing LOSING LEAH HOLLOWAY in 2015 so there was a nine-year gap between them in terms of when they were written. During that time, I wrote three other books. I was working full-time as a paralegal. I met my husband and got married. We had our daughter. I wasn’t even thinking about a sequel to FINDING CLAIRE FLETCHER but my readers really wanted one so LOSING LEAH HOLLOWAY is my love letter to those fans. I think the four books I wrote between FINDING CLAIRE FLETCHER and the first Josie Quinn book really helped me improve my writing. It also gave me better insight into my writing process which allowed me to begin writing more quickly.
That old typewriter
DOSSIER: You got a typewriter from your parents when you were eleven, and then you were off to the races. Whatever happened to that old thing? Do you still use one like Dossier member Henry Wise, or are you longhand or keyboard?
REGAN: I wish I still had that typewriter! I have no idea what happened to it. As soon as word processors came out, my parents replaced the typewriter with one of those. I wrote four terrible young adult books on that word processor. Then I moved to writing longhand for many years. Up until 2017, in fact. Once I started writing the Josie Quinn books, I switched to using my laptop. It was quicker and more efficient although it took some getting used to. A few years ago, my mom sent me an old typewriter to commemorate that time in my young writing life. I keep it in my office although I don’t use it.
Fictional town in Central Pennsylvania
DOSSIER: Your book covers suggest that nothing bad happens in big cities … but try living on a country road in a cabin surrounded by tall grass and an ominous old tree, and something’s gonna go down! Please tell us about how you choose your settings.
REGAN: With my Josie Quinn series, I decided to make up the city of Denton. I also chose to set it in Central Pennsylvania because I had lived and worked there for many years. When I was a Certified Nursing Assistant, I worked for an agency for a few years which meant that I got sent to a different skilled nursing facility or hospital almost every day. I got to see and experience a lot of Central Pennsylvania. I loved the idea of using all of that in my work. I made Denton a small city so that there would be an urban element to it that would support at least some of the crime that happens there but it’s also smack in the middle of a more rural, remote area that would allow for creepier scenarios.
Discover more about Lisa at: Lisa Regan | Facebook | Instagram | Amazon Author Page