Introduction
Pediatric ER doctor turned New York Times bestselling thriller writer CJ Lyons has been a storyteller all her life—something that landed her in many time-outs as a kid. She writes her “Thrillers with Heart” for the same reason that she became a doctor: because she believes we all have the power to change our world.
In the ER she witnessed many acts of courage by her patients and their families, learning that heroes truly are born every day. When not writing, she can be found walking the beaches near her Lowcountry home, listening to the voices in her head and plotting new and devious ways to create mayhem for her characters.
CJ has been called a “master within the genre” (Pittsburgh Magazine) and her work has been praised as “breathtakingly fast-paced” and “riveting” (Publishers Weekly) with “characters with beating hearts and three dimensions” (Newsday).
Her novels have won the International Thriller Writers’ prestigious Thriller Award, the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Readers’ Choice Award, the RT Seal of Excellence, and the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery and Suspense.
Learn more about CJ’s Thrillers with Heart at www.CJLyons.net
About Lucy Guardino and Blood Stained
NT: Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview! I “met” you first through Joanna Penn’s Creative Penn podcast, and then again through The Self Publishing Podcast, and I’m a huge fan of the Lucy Guardino series.
First, let’s get to know you. Before I read your bio, I was familiar with your FBI thrillers, , and I was sure you had a background in law enforcement. I was shocked to find out you were actually a pediatrician in an ER. As I read more, I saw you’ve always been a story teller. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey growing up telling stories, to med school, to your career change?
CJ: Telling stories has always been my way of coping with the chaos surrounding me, making sense of the “real” world. I wrote my first novel (a YA fantasy) when I was fifteen and two SF novels in med school, but never seriously thought of publishing until years later when fellow members of a writing group who were multi-published convinced me to enter a national writing contest. I was a finalist, which garnered me the attention of agents and editors and eventually my first contract. After my second contract, I realized I couldn’t give both my patients and my writing 120% of my time and energy, so I took a leap of faith and left my pediatric practice to write full time. It was terrifying but well worth it—I’ve been supporting myself with my writing for over nine years now.
NT: The two books you have available on NoiseTrade right now are Snake Skin and Blood Stained the first two books in the Lucy Guardino FBI Thrillers series. Tell us about the series.
CJ: The Lucy Guardino FBI Thrillers series is my most popular series by far with over 650,000 books sold. I think people love Lucy because she embodies the universal emotional struggle every working parent faces: how to balance work and family.
Only, in Lucy’s case, her work is chasing the worst predators imaginable, so how can she abandon her victims to tend to her family? Like so many of us she wants to have it all and has to learn how to compromise and sacrifice in order to protect both her family and the victims she serves at work. She’s flawed and very human, sometimes makes the wrong choice, but her heart is always in the right place and she never gives up fighting for what she believes in.
NT: How did you come up with the character of Lucy?
CJ: I was sick of reading so many stereotyped female thriller protagonists who were “driven by demons” or faced addiction issues or had been stalked by serial killers…their emotional baggage was so unrealistic (and never would have allowed them to keep their jobs!) that I wanted to create a realistic law enforcement character who had a happy marriage, a great family, and no demons in the closet dragging her down.
To make Lucy as realistic as possible, I actually went to the FBI academy in Quantico and stayed with a Supervisory Special Agent and her wonderfully normal husband and two kids. I interviewed agents who worked crimes against children and learned how they compartmentalized their work and family so that the horrific events they witnessed at work didn’t bleed through into their home life.
I feel so honored to have received so many reviews and letters from real life law enforcement officers who tell me I nailed Lucy—several have even asked if she’s based on people they work with!
NT: Your tagline is “Thrillers with Heart” and I think that is such a perfect description of your work. In Blood Stained we know who one of the villains is right away, but you do such an amazing job of making him a sympathetic character. I had a really hard time wanting the cops to find him, both because of the way you wrote him and because Lucy was so conflicted about it. Are you able to naturally write characters with that much depth, or does that have to come later in the editing process?
CJ: I always start with characters and their emotional arc; that drives my first draft. For me, without understanding the characters, there is no story—the plot comes from my characters.
Usually, it starts with a scene from the end of the book when they’re facing their greatest fear and having to overcome it, or failing, and that tells a lot right there. I don’t preplan and interview characters, but I tend to know where there story is going (upbeat ending or not, who is alive and who is dead). When I know where the characters’ emotional story is ending, I usually know where they’re coming from. But no two books are written alike; it keeps me excited about the process and opens me up to be surprised in the middle of the book.
Adam, the character you’re referring to from Blood Stained, was especially challenging because he truly was an innocent raised by a family of wolves—he didn’t know what “normal” was, all he knew was his love for his family even as he grew to understand that the only way he could live with himself was to eventually betray them. He’s actually one of my favorite characters because we fall in love with him and are cheering for him to triumph even as we despise some of the actions he’s forced to take.
He does all the wrong things for all the right reasons—that’s one of the reasons why I created my subgenre of Thrillers with Heart. They’re less about car chases and explosions and more about exploring the shades of grey between the black and white of good and evil, right and wrong.
NT: Adam is only 14 years old. He’s seen unspeakable evil. The kids he kidnaps are all in terrible situations. Many people shy away from writing evil children, or children that have been through evil situations. How was that process for you?
CJ: As a pediatrician and victims’ advocate, I despise gratuitous violence, especially against children or women, on the page, so it’s always tricky balancing that. Even in my latest Lucy book, Hard Fall, which shares a realistic view of the psychological impact of long-term abuse, there are no on-page descriptions of any of the violence the character experienced. The reader fills in the blanks as they read—which can make for an uncomfortable experience compared to more escapist reads where the blood and screams litter the pages with gleeful abandon.
I was worried I might lose some readers with Hard Fall, because it is so very realistic and quite frankly a bit brutal, but the reviews have been fantastic and it was recently nominated for the International Thriller Writers’ prestigious Thriller Award.
NT: I know I mentioned this earlier, but I have to say it again— I was shocked to find out your background was in medicine rather than law enforcement. How did you research these books? Do you have people with FBI experience that fact-check for you?
CJ: I’ve been lucky enough to visit Quantico twice (even participating in their classes for New Agents in Training and firing weapons on their range) as well as attending several Writer Police Academies. Also, the great thing about being a thriller writer is you meet tons of law enforcement officers from all walks and specialties, so there are plenty of people to help when I get stuck on a detail. Plus, when I was in the ER, I taught first responders—firefighters, EMS, and police officers, and we share a very similar mindset.
NT: The sixth book in the series, Bad Break, will release in July (giving NoiseTraders just enough time to devour the rest of the books!) Lucy has been through so much! What is she facing in this book?
CJ: Bad Break is a “refresher” story for Lucy. At the end of the last book, Hard Fall, she was faced with a career-changing decision. In Bad Break, she’s actually taking a short vacation while she debates her future, going on spring break with her fourteen-year-old daughter. Of course, all is not what it seems on the remote barrier island they’re staying at, and they both quickly get dragged into a murder investigation. It’s a great place for new readers to start as you don’t need to have read the previous five books to understand what’s happening.
NT: Without spoiling anything…will there be more Lucy books?
CJ: Yes! Lucy’s life and career are taking a new turn—she’ll be leading a new team in the civilian world, working with a non-profit that’s a fictional version of the Vidocq Society (an elite group that investigates cold cases). These books will actually have a new series title: The Beacon Falls novels, plus a fresh look to them that I hope will entice new readers as well as delight Lucy’s current fans, and will start with Last Light as the first title, due out next spring.
Speaking of planning…let’s talk about your writing process.
NT: You got your first book deal while you were still practicing medicine. How many books did you write why you were practicing? How did you find time to write with an ER schedule?
CJ: At the time of my first book deal I was actually working as a community pediatrician in my hometown in Pennsylvania—which meant much, much longer hours than the ER! Full time partners worked around seventy hours a week. That was one of the reasons why I decided to leave—with hours that long, it was simply too exhausting to juggle two careers.
As for finding time, when you want something bad enough, you do. I would binge write on my days off, pounding away at the keyboard for hours. But writing isn’t something I can ever stop (not even with a twelve-step program!) so I really don’t have a choice.
NT: How long does it typically take to write a book?
CJ: There’s no average. Length doesn’t matter—it’s more about the characters and how familiar I am with them and what they’re going through emotionally. The Lucy books aren’t getting easier, because each book is a challenge, but they were coming a little faster because I knew the world. That’s all changing now, as there are so many changes in her life with this next book.
The fastest book I’ve ever written was Life Line. The first draft was written in 29 days. I was so excited, I didn’t even have the contract from the publisher yet but I was like “I have to write this now, that will give us plenty of time to play with revisions, notes and editorial changes.” That book went on to win a bunch of awards and was a bestseller.
It took me the longest to write Farewell to Dreams, the first in the Fatal Insomnia Series. The book was started in 2008, but I got busy with NYC contracts and just had space last year to finish it.
NT: You’ve been writing full time for several years now. I heard in an interview you did a few years ago that you had finished/submitted seven books that year. 7! Do you have a daily writing schedule? How do you write so much so fast? How did that time when you were both practicing medicine and writing influence your current work habits?
CJ: Nope, I’m totally undisciplined as far as schedule—I don’t keep track of word count or page counts either. And I write totally out of order, so often have no idea how far I am from “the end” as I work. All I need is a deadline and I’ll beat it every time.
NT: Do you use index cards for organization?
CJ: No, I don’t do the index cards at all. I usually know where in the emotional arc it is, but [using Scrivener] I tag the POV with a color. I also use the folders to keep things organized, make sure there is the right balance, etc.
I think that attitude comes from medicine where deadlines, delivering on any promises you make, are pretty important—also from the fact that given my work hours, I had to learn how to let a story ferment in my subconscious and then basically blitz-write when I had any free time.
NT: Are you a plotter or a pantser? What advice do you have for writers trying to pick one over the other?
CJ: Why choose at all? Play with both, find what works best for you and your story. I’ve written over 30 books and no two have been written the same way…one of them I even wrote backward, scene by scene from the finale to the opening line.
When what I usually do isn’t working, I ask myself, “What can I try to do that’s different?”
NT: Tell me about the book you wrote backwards.
CJ: It was the finale of the Angels of Mercy series, Critical Care. With four main characters, all the story arcs had to be tied up, plus each of the characters had their own storyline in the book. And, to make things even harder, it was basically Die Hard in a hospital—all the action took place in the span of about five hours. The timing had to be maintained down to the second to make sure one character didn’t die and show up later in the book. I knew who survived at the end, so I went from there. It drove my editor nuts, when she wanted the first three chapters all I had done was the last three. In the end, it worked out really well, the timing and the pacing were really tight. By writing it backwards I didn’t have any blind alleys to distract me.
For my latest project I am for the first time ever experimenting with starting with an outline of the entire story before I begin writing any scenes. I’ve never done that before, so it’s exciting to try something new!
NT: What is your editing process like? Is it different for Indie vs traditionally published books?
CJ: Pretty much the same for both: a few rounds of developmental edits focusing on pacing, character development, eliminating plot holes, etc. Then I have two copy-editors who tease through the manuscript followed by my eagle-eyed team of proofreaders. Depending on the project and my deadline, sometimes I’ll also have a chance to get feedback from beta readers as well.
NT: Do you work on one project from start to finish, or do you work on several projects at one time? If more than one, how do you keep everything straight?
CJ: I work on multiple projects at once, usually writing fresh material in the morning (when my brain is most creative), attending to business issues and working on edits/revisions in the afternoon. Sometimes if a deadline is charging at me I’ll do another writing sprint at night as well.
As for staying organized, I have lists everywhere! On whiteboards, paper, Post-it notes, and on my computer both in a calendar and on a great piece of software called One Note. I love crossing things off my to-do lists. But the greatest productivity help came when I switched to a Mac and software called Scrivener. Since I write out of order, random scenes would get jumbled if I wrote in a traditional linear-style word processor. Scrivener has been my life saver—tripled my output after I found it, plus I can keep all my research right there in the same file, such a time-saver!
NT: Speaking of work habits, in my opinion, you are easily one of the highest-profile indie authors around, both because of your prolific catalogue, but also because you spend so much time teaching other authors through your website, NoRulesJustWRITE.com, your interviews, and your speaking engagements. In addition, you have started the Buy a Book, Make a Difference program to fund forensics training for small-town law enforcement, and you have established a scholarship fund in honor of the friend of yours that was murdered. Plus, you write and publish both independently and through traditional publishing houses. How do you balance everything? Any productivity tips/secrets you can share?
CJ: This is how I pay the bills, so really it’s like any other job—if you have a deadline, you make it, no excuses. The only secret I have is ABC: Apply Butt to Chair.
As an indie, deadlines are now tighter with indie work than with the traditional stuff. When publishing traditionally, things like editing and production are done in house. As an indie, everything has to be scheduled exactly. Copyeditors are booked 3 months in advance. There is a nine-month sell-in for to get physical books into stores.
NT: You get so much done, it feels like you have forty hours in a day!
CJ: Sometimes I feel like I need 40 hours in a day! My yardstick is “What’s going to make my readers happy?” Like the physical books- it takes time, but the readers were asking for it. But other things, like going away for a week to speak at a writer’s conference— that doesn’t serve my readers. They’re impatient for the next book and that is a good thing!
Time management is the biggest issue for indie authors. Time becomes more valuable than money, and I have had to learn ways to get myself more time.
My team now includes a VA, Editors, Graphic Designers, a new assistant to help with marketing, specifically Facebook and social media. But there are things I’ll never give up, like answering fans’ email. I love connecting with them.
NT: Tell us more about Buy a Book, Make a Difference.
CJ: When I was young, I wrote SF and fantasy. I didn’t turn to writing crime fiction and thrillers until my internship in Pittsburgh when one of my fellow interns was murdered. It was a horrific crime, thankfully solved due to the hard work and cooperation of three Crime Scene Units (city, county, and state). After I was published, I dedicated several novels to Jeff’s memory and once I started hitting the bestseller lists and making pretty good money, I established the Buy a Book, Make a Difference charity foundation.
Together my readers and I raise money for worthy charities and also provide scholarships for underserved community police officers to get forensic training they couldn’t otherwise afford. So far we’ve raised almost $80,000 and have given away 72 forensic scholarships—so there are now 72 less places in this country where you can get away with murder!
The scholarship isn’t a marketing or publicity ploy—in fact, it’s in Jeff’s name, not mine. If anyone knows of a police department that might need a little extra help, they can learn more at http://cjlyons.net/buy-a-book-make-a-difference.
What’s Next
NT: What’s next for you? What are you working on now?
CJ: I’m finishing edits on the second book in the Fatal Insomnia series, A RAGING DAWN—it will be available as an ebook in August and as a hardcover/trade paperback January, 2016. Also starting the new Lucy book, Last Light, the first in her new Beacon Falls series of novels. It’s taking more ground work than usual since she’ll be joining a whole new cast of characters with all their foibles and quirks flavoring their investigations.
I’m also working on audiobooks. That was put on the back burner for a while because all of my narrators are full time actors and got other jobs.
NT: With everything you have going on, what do you do to relax?
CJ: I love walking on the beach (although that often turns into work as I’ll get new ideas and have to hurry home to write them down), going out with friends trying new restaurants/cuisines, curling up with a good book (something I wish I had more time for as so much of my reading is research or work related), and really enjoy the great storytelling we’re seeing now from places like HBO and Netflix.
NT: What are you watching?
CJ: Grace & Frankie is quirky and fresh. Also, Daredevil and House of Cards. House of Cards is one of the few shows I’ll go back and re-watch. The first time is for fun, the second time is to go back and see how they did what they did. I’ve also been watching Game of Thrones and True Detective. A lot of HBO documentaries too. They’re great for crime writers because you can get insight into the psychopathology people have to make and use that to make your characters more realistic.
NT: NoiseTrade started as a music site. Does music play a roll in your writing at all?
CJ: I can’t write without music—and I have eclectic tastes (my playlist shuffles from rock to jazz to zydeco to ceili bands, depending on the book I’m working on) so I first discovered NoiseTrade as a place to find new music. I have tons of downloads from your artists—and several have gone on to take their place as my favorites.
NT: What music is on heavy rotation in your life?
CJ: Kick ass rock n’ roll: everything from Zeppelin to Mudvayne, Tool (for some reason these past two books have been all Tool all the time to get into the writing mood), the Stones, Slipknot, Seether, Dead Sara…anything with a hard-hitting beat coupled with evocative lyrics.
NT: Do you have a favorite book/author that you want everyone to read?
CJ: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel—I’ve even convinced my book club to read it, so I’m re-reading it to prep for the discussion.
NT: What are you reading right now?
CJ: I always have several books going at once. Right now, in addition to Station Eleven, I’m reading a wonderful book on writing called Into the Woods by John Yorke, a fantastic study of PTSD by David J. Morris titled The Evil Hours, catching up on the latest in the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, and an advance copy of If I Fall, If I Die by Michael Christie.
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