L.S. Stratton

L.S. Stratton is a NAACP Image Award-nominated author and former crime newspaper reporter who has written more than a dozen books under different pen names in just about every genre from thrillers to romance to historical fiction. She currently lives in Maryland with her husband, their daughter, and their tuxedo cat.

Instagram: @ShellyStrattonBooks

Twitter: @Twitter@SStratonBooks

Are there particular films that have influenced your writing?

I remember watching Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, a Taiwanese film, during my senior year in high school. It was directed by Ang Lee, who would later direct major Hollywood films like Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson (another one of my favs). Eat, Drink, Man, Woman remains one of my comfort watches.

The story is about three sisters—Jia-Neng, Jia-Chien, and Jia-Jen— and their widowed father, Mr. Chu. It was executed so beautifully (even the film score!) and with such sensitivity to the characters and their stories. None of them are perfect people, by any means, but as a viewer we empathize with their imperfections. We root for them even when they’re making mistakes. I wanted to write nuanced novels like that with messy, memorable characters who are still beautiful in their imperfection and plot lines that keep you invested.

What’s the oddest thing a reader has ever asked you?

This wasn’t asked of me, but a reader asked in a review of one of my books once why I never talked about what happened during car rides in my novel. “She has the character get into the car and arrive at a place, but she doesn’t say what happened during the ride.” I thought as I was reading the review, “Nothing! Nothing happened during the car ride. That’s why I didn’t write anything! They just drove the car!” LOL

As a writer you have to make choices, and I believe in cutting out extraneous scenes that don’t add to the plot, character development, or theme. When it’s important, I will include what happens, including what happens during car rides. For example, in Not So Perfect Strangers, the protagonists Tasha and Madison meet and have their first conversation in Tasha’s Chevy Malibu. I go into great detail about Tasha’s first impressions of Madison during their drive and the events that led to their meeting. It’s important because later in the novel, Tasha starts to question that first impression on the night of their car ride and whether she saw Madison and the entire situation incorrectly.

Have you ever experienced Imposter Syndrome?

All . . . the . . . time! The idea of doing book signings is laughable to me. “You mean you want to stand in line with my book to get my signature? Lil’ ol’ me?” Or when I’m asked to speak on panels, I wonder if I should be sitting in the audience instead. I’ve been writing fiction professionally off and on for two decades now, but I’m still learning the intricacies of genre fiction and storytelling. I know what I like to read and try to reflect that in my writing, but I’m well aware that it may not be everyone’s cup of tea. What if I say something on a panel and the audience thinks what I’m saying is complete nonsense?

But then I remind myself of my accomplishments, how hard I’ve worked, and how much I’ve read and written to become a better writer. I remind myself of the rejection I’ve endured from publishers and agents and the many, many near misses that made me wonder if I should give up—but I didn’t.

Imposter syndrome will come, but enjoy what you earned for as long as you can.

What’s the difference (at least for you!) between being a writer and an author? How do you shift gears between the two?

I’m a “writer” when I’m writing strictly for my enjoyment and it’s done purely for the sake of creativity. Sometimes, I’ll put on my “writer hat” when I’m in a funk or when I’ve hit a wall with a novel I’m working on that’s under deadline. I start writing another story with no expectation that it will ever get published. I go back to the girl I was when I was 11 years old who used to write funny stories in her black and white composition notebooks to entertain herself. It serves as a reminder of why I became an author in the first place.

I’m an “author” when I become hyper aware of the reader, my audience, their expectations, and my publisher’s expectations. I think of it as the more business savvy or macro-version of my creative self. I ask myself questions like does the plot adhere enough to the genre to make it easy to market? How will the reader interpret this scene? Do I have any likable characters for them to root for? For example, when I wrote romance and steamy women’s fiction under another pseudonym for several years, I knew I had to hit at least three sex scenes in my novels. Did I always enjoy writing those sex scenes? Not really, but I knew readers expected a certain heat level under that brand. The author in me knew they would be disappointed if I didn’t include them.

Do you have another artistic outlet in addition to your writing? Do you sew? Paint? Draw? Knit? Dance?

I sketched and painted before I began writing. My parents tell me that I used to kneel at the coffee table in our living room and draw picture after picture for hours. Any guests who visited our apartment in Washington, D.C., left with one of my sketches.

I still paint when I have the time. I have several of my paintings hanging on my walls at home. My style is mostly abstract art.