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"Hey all - sorry about this hiatus I'm taking, I have to crack out the next book mighty quick, and it's like chewing tacks in the sweltering sun while having someone serenade you with fingernails on chalkboards."

That's a little slice of the writing life straight from the MySpace blog of novelist Heather McElhatton. She just finished her choose-your-own adventure book for adults, Pretty Little Mistakes, and she's already being hounded by the publishers for another.

McElhatton keeps close tabs on her readers on the blog, asking for research help, sharing stories, and generally just sharing with her growing readership.

She's our special guest this week, and today she explains how blogging and online promotions helped her writing career.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing. 

Jason Boog:

You have a webpage, Myspace page, and some interesting web promotions for your book. How did you establish these links to your readers, and how to you keep them interacting with you? What are the websites/web resources you like to read, and why?

Heather McElhatton:

I like maintaining my own webpage and Myspace page because I get a better feeling for the people reading my book. Continue reading...

"[T]here was waitressing and photography school, an MFA, decent success as a short-story writer, and a downright solid career as a radio producer, which allowed her to rub elbows with the likes of Rushdie. (She currently hosts an occasional live variety show, Stage Sessions, which can be heard on MPR.) For her, the end of the chapter didn't read, "Sell novel, flip to page 86. Live life in obscure penury, flip to page 119."

That's a brief look at novelist Heather McElhatton's crazy resume before she finished her choose-your-own adventure book for adults, Pretty Little Mistakes.

Her book lets readers explore some fictional and semi-autobiographical paths that a life can take, a very addictive formula for a novel. She's our special guest this week, and today she tells how a radio career helped (and hurt) her writing career. 

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing. 

Jason Boog:
You've spent a lot of time working on some of the world's best radio programs. How is writing for radio different than writing on the page? How do you conceive and pitch stories to radio producers? Any advice for writers looking to break into radio writing?

Heather McElhatton:
I think writing for radio might have really damaged my "literary abilities."

"You’re graduating. Rushing headlong into the unknown rest of your life. Your friends are drifting off in every direction. Some are going to college, some are going to work and some are going to their parents' basements to watch reality TV. As you see it, there are two options. Go to college and get ahead or take some time off and go traveling."

That's the opening of Heather McElhatton's choose-your-own adventure book for adults, Pretty Little Mistakes. You start your life over again at graduation, and you actually get a chance to choose where the book goes next. 

McElhatton is our special guest this week, sharing some writing wisdom. Test drive her novel here, and then read her advice for developing the lives of your own characters. 

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing. 

Jason Boog:

Each decision in Pretty Little Mistakes literally creates a whole new character. How did you turn these hundreds of different versions of you into fully fleshed-out characters?  Any specific tips for painting stronger characters in our novels?

Heather McElhatton:
Everyone works differently, but I need visuals. Continue reading...

In novelist Heather McElhatton's City Pages profile, the author grimly describes your life before publishing her first book: "35 years old, living with her mother, having just heard from her agent, 'Honey, there just isn't anywhere else to send it.'"

If that description doesn't give you the shivers about your own writing career, then you are either a trust-fund baby or a bank robber who writes books on the side. Writing is a hard, thankless, low-to-no-paying job, and it is hard to know how to survive the lean years.

This week McElhatton is our special guest, explaining how she survived that early-life crisis and wrote a choose-your-own adventure book for adults. Her twisty book Pretty Little Mistakes lets readers actually choose where to take their heroine over the course of the book. 

Jason Boog:

How did you survive this frustrating time? What's your advice for any writer hoping to cope with "the grueling tar pits" that all first-time writers face in this crazy writing business?

Heather McElhatton:  
You survive it because you have no choice. Continue reading...