LC Ahl Interview Published on: 08, Feb 2022

I had a childhood filled with school, play, and lots of friends. My Italian family was close knit when growing up in Brooklyn, NY. Every Sunday all the relatives got together for Sunday meals, holidays too. We lived in a diverse neighborhood and I was always curious about the other family’s traditions within our neighborhood. There were over 100 kids on our block so there was always someone to do something with. We roller-skated, rode our bikes, swam in the pool in summers, played stoop ball and played school. All in all, they are good memories. My mom was a housewife and my dad was a mechanic. I went to a private school. When we moved out of Brooklyn, we went to New Jersey where I went to public school for the first time. We lived in Jersey for a about five or six years and when I was in high school, we moved to California so my dad could start his own business.

I wouldn’t say a ‘childhood dream’ although one year for Christmas I received a tape recorder and I used to make up stories and record them in my own voice. I fell in love with writing when I was in the sixth grade. My English teacher gave us an assignment to write a short story about anything. I loved to ice skate, so I wrote a story about an ice-skating champion. I had so much fun writing it and when I received an A on the story, I figured I had done something right. I started writing short stories in a notebook, which I still have. Some of those stories I have expanded upon and some have been published on Coffeehouse Writers platform.

I’m a huge fan of true crime stories. I would cut out stories in the newspaper and follow up on how they were solved. I often wondered what caused a person to kill another. One case in particular was the John List murders. He killed his entire family, his mother, his wife and three children in November of 1971. His plan was so meticulous, a month passed before anyone knew the bodies were in the house and he had disappeared.

List went on living another life. Re-married in November, 1985, on the anniversary of the day he shot and killed his family. Talk about morbid. The thing that got me about this case is he went on living his life, care free. He was caught eighteen years later and was convicted and sentenced to five life sentences. He ended up dying in prison.

I lived in New Jersey when this happened and the story stayed with me.

I’d probably be teaching English as a Second Language on a beach somewhere in Costa Rica!

I’d have to say the typical romance genre. Though a lucrative genre for many writers, IMO I feel the boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back again story line has been worn out. I wrote a short story on missing people in Alaska and though it was partially a romance, it wasn’t the focal point. I classified it as a women’s fiction.

My biggest challenge while writing One in Eight was making sure I had my facts correct. I used many different sources and as you know, the science of cancer, especially breast cancer, is ever evolving. And since it was geared towards teens, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible for them to understand. I knew what to include from the workshops I performed in high schools to share my knowledge. It was actually the young women in my workshops that encouraged me to write the book because they wanted to share the information with their families and friends.

My co-author and I met after we both published a book in 2012 at an author event. It happens we both lived in a rural part of San Diego County and one day there had been a murder in our part of town. She called me and asked me if I’d like to write a murder mystery with her. It took us six or seven years with the plot changing along the way to complete the book. Most of the killings in the book were taken from true crime serial killers, only we changed a few things up. The first killing in the book is a true story, only it was a family who was killed while camping. My co-author did not want to include killing of children so we left it out.

Daniella is a fictional character who is much like Holly Hunter’s character in the series Saving Grace. In one of our first drafts, her counterparts called her Geezar but somehow that was written out in one of the many drafts & revisions. I wanted someone who was crass, sexy, tough, but still sensitive.

I don’t know if I do anything in particular. Stories seem to come to me. The ideas just pop into my head and I start writing. When I’m writing, I see it in my mind’s eye as if I’m watching a movie. For instance, my newest manuscript, which has Daniella Keezar in it as well, only she has gone to the academy to work for the FBI in their VICAP division, came to me while my husband and I were driving to Denver from Georgia along the Interstate 70. I saw an old farm house with shipping containers in the yard. And suddenly, a story started to develop in my head. I grabbed a piece of paper and started writing what I was seeing in my head.

I write bi-weekly articles or short stories, 2,000 words or less, for Coffeehouse Writers, an online publishing forum. Every other week I have to some up with a new idea or I end up writing a series. I find it’s not only fun but it keeps my creative juices flowing. I work with an editor so it’s also a learning experience because she points out different things to me and also encourages me.

I’ve only received one bad review and by what it said I knew the person had never read the book. It was on One in Eight and the review said, “The author doesn’t believe in science or doctors.” First of all, if the reviewer had read the book, they’d have found I say nothing in the book about not believing in science or doctors. I tell my personal story and have personal stories of other breast cancer survivors. The book also has facts about breast cancer, the myths of breast cancer, how a person needs to be their own advocate when it comes to their health. That to me is not someone who doesn’t believe in science or doctors. I believe knowledge is power and the more knowledge a person has, the better they can advocate for themselves.

If someone is going to give a book a one-star review, they should be brave enough to say why they are giving that review. If they don’t, I just ignore it. With the amount of 4- and 5-star reviews we are getting, if a review comes in as a one or two star, I chalk it up as they didn’t like the genre.

I usually go with the flow unless I’m writing with NaNoWriMo, the contest in November to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I have done this contest two years in a row. I didn’t make it the first year but I did surpass the 50,000 this past November. It taught me to treat my writing as a job and to schedule writing time every day.

My all-time favorite author is Nora Ephron. She has written some funny, down to earth screenplays and books. Her candid essays about life, on being a woman, on dating as in When Harry Met Sally, or You’ve Got Mail. Other movies she wrote was Julie & Julia Her book, I feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman, I mean, every woman who is getting older is experiencing all these hilarious scenarios. And even though she wrote romantic comedies, she did it in a way that wasn’t cheesy. If I ever decide to write a romantic comedy, I hope I do it as well as she did.

I plan on writing a screen play for The Purple Lily, as many readers have told me they can see this story as a movie. So, I hope to be able to channel Ms. Ephron’s spirit while writing it!!

I don’t know if I have any tricks. In fact, if someone knows how to promote their book without using social media, I want to know how it’s done successfully! Early on before The Purple Lily was finished, I started a Facebook page and invited all my friends to join. I kept them up to date on what was happening with the book. When we found our publisher, Black Rose Writing Publishing, we were excited not to have to self-publish, as we did with our first books. I sent out the Prologue of the book to several people, and it really piqued their interest, many said they couldn’t wait to read more. Mind you, the Prologue to the book went through about twenty revisions. I was in college at the time and used it to get critiques from my fellow classmates and professors. With their help and suggestions, the Prologue is what has kept people turning the pages.

In order to successfully market your book, you have to keep it in the forefront of everything you do. One reason I joined AllAuthor. It helps keep my book in the forefront. It was well worth the money to get the exclusive package.

I also talk about my book to anyone I come in contact with at parties, at a bar, at my doctor’s office, my hairdresser. I give away free copies to people to read or give them away as gifts for birthdays and Christmas. That set the word of mouth. I also encouraged my beta readers and my book purchasers to post a review. Reviews will help sell a book. There is nothing wrong with promoting and talking up your book, after all, it’s been a part of you for so long.

I am working on a new manuscript as I stated earlier, it is still in the works and Daniella Keezar is our main protagonist. The antagonist is a creepy guy and I hope with my descriptions, people will get the perfect image of him. Daniella will have a new love interest, of course, since she is a very sexual person. And this story takes place in Blue Springs, Missouri. Women disappear while driving on a certain stretch of road on Interstate 70. With no evidence to go on, the police finally call in the FBI’s VICAP team to help them solve the ten-year span of missing people. This book will also include the victim’s POV as well as the serial killer and of course, Daniella’s.

As far as when you can expect it, I’d say most likely 2023 since I’m only on my first draft.

My experience has a been a pleasant one and I promote AllAuthor to all my writing friends. We put our cover up in the cover contest and even though we didn’t win, we were in the top ten. Every week I get a new mock up of our book, which I love and use in my social media markets. I also was never a Twitter fan but ended up with an account so you guys could promote my book.

My only feedback is keep up the good work. You guys are doing a great job!