Fangirl Friday Interview With The Incredible Lisa Desrochers
Lisa's debut novel, PERSONAL DEMONS was just released last month to an already terrific fan base and a movie already in the works! When not writing or spending time with her husband and two beautiful daughters, you can find her practicing Physical Therapy full-time or spending her weekends lecturing on a variety of health care topics. Her tenacity and ability to write a great novel and still maintain a full-time job is what inspires full-time workers, like me, to keep going! For more Lisa info you can go to: www.lisawrites.com or lisadesrochers.blogspot.com
Magan: For those who haven't heard of your debut novel PERSONAL DEMONS can you tell them what it's about?
Lisa: Frannie Cavanaugh is a good Catholic girl with a wicked streak and a unique skill set that has the king of Hell tingling with anticipation. She finds herself in the middle of a battle for her soul between Lucifer Cain, who works in Acquisitions for Hell, and Gabriel, the angel sent to protect her, and it isn’t long before Luc and Gabe find themselves fighting for more than just her soul.
Magan: Through the grapevine, I've heard that your main character is quite the kick butt girl. How did you come up with her character and did you use any part of your own adolescence to create this story?
Lisa: On the outside Frannie is pretty tough. She’s taken some hard knocks in her young life and has built walls to protect herself from getting hurt. As we get to know her, we find out that, on the inside, it’s a whole different story. She’s vulnerable and confused. She’s also very flawed. I think this describes a lot of us at adolescence. My own life experiences are very different than Frannie’s, but I can remember feeling like I had to put up the though front so people wouldn’t realize how seriously screwed up I felt on the inside.
Magan: Did you struggle through any part of writing this story and how did you push through it?
Lisa: Honestly, Personal Demons very nearly wrote itself. I was just the poorly paid help with the laptop. My characters had conversations in my head and I wrote them down. (Luc is much more clever than I am, and he’ll never let me forget it.) The first draft was done in about six weeks. A few pieces came to me after that and got added, but overall, it went pretty smoothly.
Magan: How did you find your agent? Did you face any rejection and how did you deal with that?
Lisa: I found my agent in the standard way—by sending queries. This is another part of the process that went pretty smoothly. Once I’d taken a few months to revise and polish Personal Demons, I spent a week or so crafting a kickass query, and another week researching agents. Out of the list of 20 agents I compiled who said they were looking for exactly what I’d written, I sent it off to five. I did this with the thought that, if no one requested, I’d revise my query and send it to the second group. It turned out that all but one of that original group of five requested manuscripts. In the end I had 12 manuscript requests and four offers of representation. I’m convinced the high request rate was because I was very careful who I sent queries to.
Magan: What's the best advice that you can give to writers?
Lisa: Write the story you were meant to write. In other words, write for yourself, and not what you think agents/editors are looking for. I wrote Personal Demons, which is a demon story that happens to have an angel or two, before angels were trending. If you write to a trend, you’ve already missed it. Start your own trend. You know if what you’re writing feels authentic. If it doesn’t, stop and write something that does.
Magan: Do you have any upcoming projects besides the sequel to PERSONAL DEMONS?
Lisa: There are actually two more books in the Personal Demons trilogy, so I’ve been very busy with that. There is another set of characters that have started having conversations in my head lately, though, so I won’t be able to ignore them for long. =)
Magan: Will you be doing any upcoming book tours?
Lisa: I have several appearances scheduled through November. They’re listed here:
http://lisadesrochers.blogspot.com/p/tour-stops.html
Magan: I heard that film rights were acquired for PERSONAL DEMONS, who is your dream cast?
Lisa: We’re still working on film rights, but I did need to come up with a cast, which I posted on my blog back in July. I chose Logan Lerman for Luc, Lucas Till for Gabe, and Chloe Mortez as Frannie. I think they’d all do a great job =)
(Fangirl note: I love me some Logan Lerman, ever since Jack&Bobby I just can't get enough!)
Magan: Favorite book, movie, and TV show?
Lisa: It’s impossible to choose a single book. I love anything by Melissa Marr, Kristin Cashore, J.K. Rowling and JRR Tolkien. My favorite movie is The Princess Bride. TV is tough, because I don’t watch it much, but I guess I’d say the early seasons of Supernatural.
Magan: Famous last words?
Lisa: Are you
serious????
