AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: Molly Cochran

Molly Cochran is the author of the upcoming novel (due out: 12/20/2011) LEGACY.

 Here's what the novel is all about:   

When her widowed father dumps 16-year-old Katy Jessevar in a boarding school in Whitfield, Massachusetts, she has no idea that fate has just opened the door to both her future and her past. Nearly everyone in Whitfield is a witch, as is Katy herself, although she has struggled all her life to hide her unusual talents. Stuck at a boarding school where her fellow students seem to despise her, Katy soon discovers that Whitfield is the place where her mother committed suicide under mysterious circumstances when Katy was just a small child. With dark forces converging on Whitfield, it’s up to Katy to unravel her family’s many secrets to save the boy she loves and the town itself from destruction.

I was very lucky to get an interview with Molly :)  And I'm very excited to share this with you!

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
I have lots of advice for aspiring writers, but most of it can be summarized thus: FINISH THE FIRST DRAFT. You can't do anything with a book -- even talk about it -- until you've at least finished the first go-through. Writing a book is all about fear, and conquering that fear. Finish the first draft, and you prove yourself worthy. Then the journey can begin.

What’s your favorite/least favorite part about writing?

My favorite part of writing is the writing. That is, the laying down of words. I like plotting less, although I recognize it as necessary, and I try to make plotting more fun by discussing my plots with certain friends who, although they're not writers themselves, actually enjoy plotting. My very least favorite aspect of this business is promotion. I hate trying to convince people to read my work. I hate showing off. I just want to stay in my office and write.

Now that you’re published, how has your life changed (or your writing changed)?

You may not know this, but I've been published for a long time. The books I co-authored with Warren Murphy have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list and won a number of awards.The reasons why I ended that collaboration might seem like a novel in themselves, so I won't go into them here, but these days I'm writing YA. It gives me an opportunity to use my own voice and explore emotional and spiritual aspects of myself that I wasn't able to do writing thrillers. And so yes, my writing has changed, but my life hasn't. I'm still focused. I believe that in another life I wanted so much to be a writer but wasn't able to achieve that goal. So this life is a gift. I get to write. That's what I think every morning: Hey, I get to write today! Lucky me.

What books inspired you most as a writer?

One book has inspired me all my life, to such a degree that no other book even comes close. That book was Anne Frank's DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL. I was 12 years old when I read it. It set me afire. From the moment I set the book down, I wanted nothing more than to write, to be a writer. At that time I asked myself this question: "If you never achieve any success through your writing, ever, in your whole life, would you still spend that life writing?" I thought about that question for three days. In the end, I answered it. The answer was yes. So whenever I get discouraged, I think about that decision. The answer is still yes.

Can you describe the basics to your writing process?

The basics of my process. Hmm. That sounds like a complicated question, but I don't really think it is. First, I have an outline. When I lecture, I always stress the importance of working from an outline. And there is always someone who either argues with  me or walks out, so maybe it only works for me, but I truly believe that an outline is a life line. You don't always feel inspired. But if you don't write every day, you lose your flow. So you have to write, whether you want to or not. An outline makes this possible. Second, I am willing to write badly. Books are never written; they are rewritten. Having something bad on the page is a lot better than having nothing at all. Everything can be fixed. Third, I write every day. This isn't so hard once you make it a habit. When I don't feel like writing, I tell myself that I can't call myself a writer if I don't write, right? But these days I almost never  feel like I don't want to write. It does get easier with practice.

For more information on Molly Cochran be sure to check out her author website:  http://mollycochran.com/#