This is Melissa Ford Lockin, Rosalie Petrouske, Susan Serafin-Jess, editors for the Washington Square Review. Washington Square On-Air showcases the poetry and fiction of the latest edition of LCC's literary journal, The Washington Square Review, read by the poets, authors, and editors themselves. Expect the unexpected as our contributors express experience and fantasy with humor, imagination, poetic license, irony, and passion. If you love language at its most original, please join us in our audio Town Square to celebrate a community of writers spanning from around the world to Lansing.

Hi. This is Melissa Ford Luckin, one of the editors with the Washington Square Review. I'm here today with DA Henneman, one of the authors from the Washington Square Review. Her piece Persecution was featured in our Summer 22 issue. Hi, Da.

Hi. How are you?

Good. So what I'd like to know is a little bit about your piece. How did the idea come to you? What was going on in your life while you were working on it?

So Persecution came out of some research that I was doing during the drafting of my Power of Series, which is a fantasy romance series. And it's about four women who find out they embody the powers of the four elements and effectively need to work together to balance the planet and stuff that's going on. And the series features three sisters, triplets in fact, that are the three fates. So in my story, they represent past, present, and future, and they are witches. And so I was doing quite a bit of research at the time and was going to school at the time and was in a creative writing class. And so there was kind of this whole just creative energy going on at the time. And then my girlfriends and I took a trip to Salem, and I started thinking about all of the people, not only in the US but also in Europe, that were persecuted at the time. And as I kind of fell deeper down the rabbit hole, I ended up coming up with this story. So it was also right around the time of the MeToo movement that I originally wrote it. So I think that all of the things kind of happening in the world around me is where that came from.

Did you write it in a short amount of time? It sounds like it came to you suddenly.

It did. Came out pretty quickly. And then as you do with with projects, they kind of get buried and stuffed in a drawer. And then maybe you pull it out a couple years later and look at it again or a few months later and look at it again. And so this story's kind of come back, back and forth in my life, and I definitely intend to do something more with it. But when the opportunity came up for your publication, I thought, well, I'm just going to throw it out there and see if it's well received and if it is, what I might want to do with it.

So you said it came from some research that you were doing for some other books. What kind of research were you working on?

So, primarily witchcraft. So the Origins of Witchcraft, which I do write quite a few blog posts on goddesses that basically were honored because of those types of things. So healing and those empowered things that women were doing at the time. I'm very fascinated with how that power structure transferred from female energy to male energy and then kind of what happened historically. So that's the type of stuff I find myself blogging about and kind of piecing together research as I go that just helps. I don't get real heavy and deep into it in my fiction, but I do like to have at least a knowledge base when I do write fictional characters because I feel that it kind of flavors them as you write them.

Talk a little bit more about the power structure you mentioned.

So I found in my research for some of the goddesses that are in the past for witchcraft in particular, that. That the women that honored them and used them, you know, had altars to them. And all of that were the ones that were primarily persecuted. And in, I believe it's Egypt, there were groups of women that were actually the priests. They were the ones that did all of the religious ceremonies. They were the ones that did the healing. And somewhere along the line, I think that power structure was either desired or wanted to be squelched because maybe these. These groups of people, women primarily had too much power or too much wealth and, you know, other groups wanted to have it for themselves kind of thing. So I think that over the centuries, those people. People kind of were pushed to the wayside. Christianity came up, and then the religions were all kind of blended into one thing that we have now, you know, one group. And we're just. We're seeing that kind of rise up again, I think now where people are just kind of reaching more to spirituality. In a lot of cases, less. Less structured religions.

So after you do the research and you start to work on the fiction, how do you balance the research with the story building and the character building, or do the characters come from the research or where do they come from?

So I think the characters kind of come first, and then I like to add the qualities of the pagan religions in with what they do every day. So they use crystals, they use herbs, they use tarot they just have that in their everyday lives, and it's. It's just second nature. It's something that everybody expects, and it's just part of who they are. And I. So I like the magic in my fiction to be approachable and earthbound, so things that you could use in everyday life that you can incorporate and infuse with intent.

So if a reader reads one of your books in the series that we're talking about and they see some magic, so they could kind of reverse research and research what they see the characters doing.

Right, Right. And I think that they will understand what the character is doing and why, even if they're not super familiar with, say, Wicca or other pagan practices.

So it might be a way for them to get introduced to new ideas themselves, actually.

Yes. Yes.

So as you're working on your fiction, do you write every day? Every other day. How often do you write?

I wish I wrote every day. So I am what I think of as a binge writer, you know, whenever I have time. And it depends on the piece I'm working on. So if I write, say, a blog post, that's maybe something that I've been thinking about. And then all of a sudden when I feel like I have that idea melded, I could probably write it in a day or so. If it's a piece of fiction. If it's the first draft, I can usually come to it maybe a few hours on a weekend or a few hours every night. If it's something where I'm editing and I have, you know, the first round of editing where I'm really having to piece things in, I need a lot more time with it. So it's usually something where I'm going to have to set aside a weekend or a week or whatever the period of time is to get into it, because it takes me a little while. I have to read the last work that I did so about a chapter, get my head back into it, and then sit down and kind of just really relive it again. And that's really hard for me to do a couple hours a day. So I like to just have that whole weekend time. And it's hard to do with kids and family and whatever else. So writing retreats are very beneficial for me for that type of. Type of work. So it just depends on where I'm at in the manuscript.

What kind of writer retreats do you do?

So I like the ones where the writers I am with are 100% their writing. Also, I love talking about writing. I love Seeing what everybody else is doing. And after about a half an hour of that, I just want to get to work. So if I'm with other people that want to work too, and you know, it's. It might seem odd to people to have, you know, eight women in a room and all you hear are the typewriter keys going. But that to me is like the best, the best thing that can happen because that means that we're all working and we're all creating and then after the full day of writing, we can talk about it then.

Yeah, because when you say retreat, that sounds like it's going to be relaxing and taking it easy.

Yeah, no, it's, it's working. But I, but it's something I really enjoy. So it's kind of relaxing to me because I know at the end of it I'm gonna have something that I can really work with.

You mentioned you have one series. What other projects are you working on?

So I have one complete series which is my fantasy romance. I also have a series that I keep adding to. I have three books in, working on my fourth and that one is a mythology, Greek mythology retelling series. Those are shorter. They're. They're 99 cent books and they're a quick read, you can read over coffee kind of thing. My intent is to put four in a. What is that? An omnibus. So four books. That way you get kind of a nice sized book, maybe in a hardcover. And then I might switch to maybe Roman or Egyptian mythology really fascinates me. I just happen to like Greek. It's something that I've always read since I was a kid. So that's where I started. But all of the myths from all of the cultures really are cool, I think. So I would really like to touch on those as well. So. And then the other thing I'm working on is a cozy mystery vibe. It is a practical magic meets ghost whisperer type thing. So it's a flower shop owner who can speak to ghosts and she has to solve their mysteries.

I happen to know that you did used to own a flower shop.

Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Which is where I got the idea. And I did not. Well, I did speak to ghosts, but they didn't talk back. It was a very old building and I think there were some, some supernatural things going on. But I do have a very vivid imagination, so could just be that. But yes, I owned that until 2010 and then got a real job, you know, working where I'm working now when.

I'm listening to you Talk about all the different series and all the different projects. That's a lot to keep track of. Do you think that the work in the flower shop helped you as far as the organization?

I think so. I think so. And I think where that really helps me is I like to include visual elements as much as I can in my writing, so. So I'm probably a little more on the descriptive side, a little more prose, scenery, that sort of thing. But that's. That's how I see the world and that's how I figure out my mechanics. So how something moves or how something reacts to me is definitely attached to what I see and experience. And the flower shop helped with that. Because if somebody came in and said, I want this and they show you a picture, you have to think, okay, how am I going to create that? And what is the base going to be? And how am I going to cover my mechanics? And does it need wire, does it need tape? How am I going to get that line and have it hold? And is the tulip going to actually reach for the sun or is it going to stay where I put it? So you have to think about all those things. And so writing is no different. It's the same in my mind.

How about the marketing aspects?

Gosh, you know, marketing flowers was probably a little easier, I think. Yeah, marketing fiction is pretty tough. Nonfiction might be a little easier because you're. And I don't know, because I don't have nonfiction. But I'm thinking you're solving a problem generally with that. So they're seeking you out. With fiction, you're. You're entertaining. So if they're interested in that type of entertainment, maybe it's easier. But finding the people that are interested in that is the trick. So what I am finding is networking with other fellow authors that are kind of trying to do the same thing. If you can share customers, you know, a reader isn't going to just read one book a year generally. So while they're waiting for you to come out with your next book, which could take six months to a year, they could be reading one of your friends books or, you know, one of the other people's books in your group. So I think networking is a very, very key part of the marketing.

What other kinds of marketing do you do?

Social media. I'm on social media. I've tried Tick Tock. I'm not very successful because I think I'm a little too goofy. So if you like somebody acting like they're talking like Elmo, search me out. I Am on Facebook. That's probably my primary in that, in Instagram, and I like to dabble in that. But I do find it's kind of a rabbit hole its own. And so after I'm on there for a little while, I get to thinking, okay, all this time that I've been, you know, messing around on social media, I could have been writing, say, for instance, so. Or writing a blog post or whatever it is. So I always try to put my writing first. But if I haven't been writing, creating ads, doing ad copy, doing little comments on Facebook, those are all a form of writing also, because you're using your creativity to send a message and to get people's interests. So if I can't do anything else, I at least try to do that and try to engage with people on social media. But, yeah, I'm on. I'm on all the channels that I can think of that are of interest to me.

What do you do when you get stuck, like, if you have writer's block?

I write a blog post. I write a blog post, especially research ones. So I will start. Usually I stick with characters that I'm interested in maybe morphing into my fiction. So a Greek goddess. Right now I'm researching Morpheus, who's the God of dreams. Arachne. I just wrote a post on her, Tiresias, who was the hero in book three, who ended up with Athena. And so just researching those gods and goddesses kind of gets me unstuck. Because then I think, even though I'm changing their story because it's a retelling, I need to understand who they were, or at least our impression of who they were as a starting point. And so researching, I think, sometimes helps me with that, because when I'm blocked, it's because I don't understand something, so I can't really write it till I do.

If you were going to offer a newbie writer some advice, what do you think you would offer?

So I have this story. So I went to one of my first book events, and they were having pitching there, and so I was trying to find an agent, and I had already written book one of my series, and I thought I was gonna go and I was gonna pitch book two. Well, they don't want to take book two if they can't publish book one as their publication. And it was already out there in the world. So they're like, well, we're not interested in your series. And I said, but it's a new book. I haven't even published it yet. And they said, yeah, but it's part of that series. What else do you got? And I didn't have anything. I was putting all of my eggs into the power of four basket. So my biggest piece of advice is always have something in your back pocket. If you're pitching an idea for a series or for a book or whatever it is. If they don't want that, have something else to pitch. Even if it's just a nugget of an idea. Do not go unprepared because it could be that little nugget of an idea that actually gets you a contract.

What other kinds of events do you do besides those formal kinds of conferences?

So I do conferences. I do book signing events. So there are a few that are happening in Michigan. I've done the one in downtown Detroit in July. So the book festival there is Louisville Book Festival in Kentucky that is just starting up. So this will be the second year in person. I should be attending that as well. That's in beginning of November. I do like to do the retreats. I do like to do as many courses and classes as I can. So always learning how to better myself. So I'm in competition with myself to get better. So as many classes as I think I can take and just try to learn as much as I can from my peers. We at Greater Detroit Romance Writers, I'm the president of that as well. And we have presentations every month where we invite someone to come talk about craft or marketing or any. We sometimes pitch to agents. So I have found that that's been a very valuable thing to do as well. There are all kinds of writer resources out there. Sometimes they're a little hard to find. But if anybody is looking for anything that I've either tried or that I'm familiar with, I do have a writer resource tab on my website, so they could check that out.

I'm really curious. You mentioned book signings. So a lot of us have been to book signings as book buyers. Can you give us a behind the scenes look at what it's like to be the author doing it?

Oh my gosh, it's chaos. And I'm all sweaty by the time my table is set up. So yeah, there's. There's a lot of preparation. You have to make sure you have inventory, especially if you're an indie author, because you, you're the one ordering the books to make sure you have them there. Swag is really important. So what do you think the customer is going to want to take home with them sometimes? It could Be a bookmark. It could be a pen, it could be pad of paper. So thinking about that and taking that with you. And books are really heavy. So if you write a lot or you have a large six books in my series, and you figure you take five book, you know, that's 30 books or whatever. I mean, a case of books from Amazon, it's really heavy. And if you have more than six books, you know, what do you take? So that's sometimes hard to judge. And then you, of course, have to have a way to take money and credit cards and all the business stuff. And so I think the most stressful part of it is the setup. I like when the events have the setup, maybe the night before. Then you just go down there and it's all set. I've been treated once where I went to the event and my books were all set up for me. That was like. I felt like a princess that day. That was amazing. But usually it's me hauling my books in a suitcase, setting up the display, getting the table all set, and then hoping somebody will come by and talk to me about my covers or talk to me about what they like to read. And I honestly don't care if they don't like fantasy romance. I just want to talk about books. I want to talk about writing. I want to talk about how cute they look in their purple blouse. Like, whatever it is, the authors just want to talk to you and engage, even if you're not necessarily interested in what they write. Stop by and say hi, because we just want to. We just want to talk.

What's the most unique reader you've met at a book signing event?

Oh, my gosh. You know, so I'll actually say this. What I thought was interesting is just how excited and fangirly other authors get about the authors they like. So even though they're writing books and putting, you know, the book babies out there, you should see some of these authors at these conferences. I mean, they're going gaga. I was one of them. I went up to an author that I adore, Jake JR Ward, and embarrassed myself. I'm like, take a picture with me. Yeah, it's. We're readers too, first and foremost, so. So I. You just. I didn't even think of that. And then I'm here at this conference and seeing all these people just gushing for each other's work, and it's the coolest thing. So I just love it.

That's part of the behind the scenes.

It is. It. Well, I did it in front of Everybody, it was open. So, yeah.

All right, so before we say goodbye, if somebody was gonna start with you, after they read the piece that we have in our journal, what would you suggest the first thing that they read?

Well, if you like fantasy romance, then I would say Sea of Dreams. That is book one of the series. The prequel to that, which is Twist of Fate isn't necessarily happily ever after, so I kind of failed on the promise to the romance readers on that one. But it does give you a little extra information if you're okay with dark fantasy. And then if you like the mythology retellings, then I would just start with Love for All Seasons, which is the first book in that series. And then if you like cozy mysteries, you're gonna have to wait a little while longer.

How much longer?

Oh, gosh. I am hoping that 2024 will see me publishing it one way or the other.

Okay, and what social media are you on?

I'm thinking that if you really want to catch me on social media, Instagram is probably your best bet or possibly the Facebook page. But if you want to find me and see what I'm doing, my website is the best place to go, which is dahennemann.com. That is where I'm putting really all the precursor to anything I do goes there. So I write a series soundtrack of my life where I hear a piece of music and I write on it and kind of what it means to me and what I thought of when I heard the song and that sort of thing. So you get a little insight into what I do. All of the goddess and mystical creature research is on there in my blog. And then I also have writer resource, so I kind of just put everything there. It's my catch all. So that's probably the best place to catch up with me. And then there's a free book offer on there too, the Genie's Wish, if they wanted to check out my fiction.

Nice. Well, thanks a lot for hanging out with us today.

Thanks for having me. It was great.

Thank you for listening to our talented poets and authors. Until next time, this has been Washington Square On-Air, where we showcase selections from Lansing Community College's literary journal, The Washington Square Review, a publication featuring writers from the Great Lakes State, across the nation and around the world. To find out more about The Washington Square Review, visit lcc.edu/wsr. We hope you enjoyed listening as much as we enjoyed sharing.