Guest writer, Victoria Marie Lees, on the far right.
Since I’ve joined the South Jersey Writers Group at the urging of my
granddaughter, Katrina, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how very talented our
members are. One of the members is not only a good friend of mine, but one hell
of a good writer. I love reading about Victoria’s camping trips with her family
and you will, too.
Victoria with her family
I have the pleasure of introducing you to this week’s special guest,
Victoria Marie Lee’s.
Welcome Victoria and thank you for visiting Tall Tales and Short
Stories from South Jersey. Let me start off with my first question.
What inspires you to write?
My family and our adventures,
nature, camping, life in general.
Life itself is an adventure and
each experience, a mini adventure with some grander, some more remarkable.
I have always been a story teller.
Perhaps I get it from my father. He would tell us stories by candlelight every
night in the summertime. Each night one of his four children would be the hero
of the adventure, rescuing the others from imminent danger or leading the way
back home to safety. We would hold our breath during the climaxes every time,
even though we knew the story would end happily. Maybe that was it. Life
situations don’t always end happily, but in stories they can.
What do you enjoy writing about?
Adventure, family, I write poetry
and contemporary short stories, mostly YA. My stories are grounded in possibilities.
Some protagonists have parents, some don’t. But no matter what happens in the
story, somehow the protagonist learns to deal with the life situation he or she
is living. That’s not to say that nothing exciting happens in my stories. I
love adventure and nature, so I usually combine the two to create action in the
story. I have children lost in a cave while the protagonist deals with feelings
of loss and anger, and another situation where a young protagonist is the only
one home to rescue her grandfather from danger. My characters deal with
unwanted responsibilities and desires to make others happy. While I realize
that these are universal themes, I hope to make my stories unique in their
situations.
Have you been published and where?
I sold a non-fiction article to
Listen Magazine, a magazine geared to keep teens away from drugs and alcohol.
Because I sold only first-time rights to Listen Magazine, I could sell the
article again, and I did. A Minnesota school system bought it for their reading
test. An essay I wrote about raising my special-needs daughter is included in
the anthology Easy to Love, But Hard to Raise; a resource for parents of
special needs children. I’ve sold two short stories for teens to Cricket
Magazine. A few poems I wrote about nature and family won honorable mention at
the University of Pennsylvania’s poetry contest. I won second place in a haiku
poetry contest at West Chester Poetry Conference and had a short story
published in the University of Pennsylvania’s literary magazine, F-Word, a
feminist magazine.
Very impressive, Victoria, what are you working on now?
In addition to short stories and
poetry, I’m writing a memoir. I love to learn. I enjoy researching topics and
speaking with experts for short articles. I write for South Jersey Mom
Magazine. Whether I am learning something new with the students I substitute teach
or learning along with my classmates in a new online course I’m taking, I enjoy
telling stories of my learning experiences.
That’s what I am doing in my memoir
about going to college with five children in tow. My learning stories encompass
how to study on the go, attending my children’s sporting events, creating
chemistry presentations with the twins, and creating French videos with
NON-French speaking camera crew—okay, my younger children.
Do your children mind being part of your book?
It doesn’t seem like it. The
children have been listening to my stories about their growing up histories,
the camping adventures, as well as my college adventures for years. Whenever a
new friend joins the family or a new boyfriend is had, out come the stories
with a “Mom, remember the time when…” to let me know which ones to tell.
What advice can you give new writers?
Most times, the journey to
publication is long—at least mine was. If you truly believe in who you are and
the writing voice (style) you have created, never give up. This doesn’t mean
that your stories or writing won’t go through a revision process and perhaps
change slightly. It means that your beliefs in your characters and their
actions and reactions to situations should ring true and be unique to you. Don’t
worry about what is popular. Write what you believe in.
Do you recommend belonging to a writer’s group, and if so, how has SJWG
helped you?
Every writer needs writing friends
and the best place to find them is in a writer’s group and/or a critique group.
This is a safe environment to debut new material and raw ideas and learn about
the craft of writing. Writing groups are a place to share learning experiences
and help each other grow as writers.
South Jersey Writer’s Group has
been instrumental in helping me grow as a writer, from the Blogfests where I
could ask technical social media questions to our group’s social media expert
to critique groups where I could obtain ideas to strengthen my stories. I would
be lost without this writers group and the friends I’ve made there.
Where can our readers find you, Victoria?
Google+ Victoria Marie Lees
LinkedIn- Victoria Marie Lees
Thank you so very much, Victoria. It was a wonderful visit, and please
do keep our readers updated on all your adventures. Oh, and don’t forget…I want
to go on your next family trip.
