Seekerville Welcomes Love Inspired Associate Editor Elizabeth Mazer!

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Love Inspired Associate Editor
Elizabeth Mazer

Debby Giusti here! I'm thrilled to welcome Love Inspired Associate Editor Elizabeth Mazer to Seekerville today.  Her post focuses on the Love Inspired Suspense line, but Elizabeth promises to answer any questions you might have about all three of the Love Inspired imprints: Love Inspired, Love Inspired Historical and Love Inspired Suspense.  Plus, she's hosting a First Page Contest (see contest tab for rules and information) and giving away the four LIS releases for October and November, a total of eight books in all. That spells G-E-N-E-R-O-U-S!!! Thank you, Elizabeth.
Now, please help me welcome Five-Year Veteran, Love Inspired Associate Editor Elizabeth Mazer to Seekerville! 

Thanks for being with us, Elizabeth. Seekervillagers would love to learn more about you.  Will you tell us a bit aboutyour background and what you did before coming to Love Inspired? Did you alwayswant to work in publishing? 

I didn’t actually pickpublishing as my career path until I was halfway through college, but let’sjust say that when I made up my mind, no one was surprised! I spent most of mychildhood (and adulthood, for that matter) with my nose in a book. My firstpost-college job was in publishing, though not actually with a publishinghouse. I worked for the company that was then known as Bookspan that ran directmail book clubs such as Crossings, Book of the Month Club, etc. I made the moveover to Love Inspired in 2007, and have been happily settled here ever since. 

What’s a normal day like at the office? 

Normal? What’s that? J Truly, one of the things I love most about my job isthat no two days are the same. There’s always a never-ending pile of papers togo through—acceptance reads, edits, new submissions, copyedits to review,typesets to approve—but it rarely gets monotonous because each book is sodifferent. I work with authors on all three Love Inspired lines which means I getto tackle stories that range from sweet romances to edge-of-your-seat suspense,to historicals that take me all over the map, and all the way through recordedhistory. 

What about when you’re away from the job? Do you have anyhobbies? Favorite types of foods or restaurants you frequent? What do you dofor fun over the weekend? 

I’m a movie nut (everything fromclassics to contemporary—but no horror; I’m too much of a wuss), so heading tothe cinema is always a treat. For special occasions, I love going to see livetheater. A ticket to a Broadway show is my usual birthday present to myself.This year, Shana Smith (now Love Inspired’s new associate editor!) and I tookadvantage of a two-for-one special to go see Newsies. Great show! 

The beautiful Woolworth Building is Love Inspired's
New York City home.

What do you enjoy most about New York City? 

Opportunity! In New York,whatever interests you (theater, music, art, food, fashion), you can find anoutlet to explore it and learn new things. Of course, that can be the downsideto New York,also—there are so many options and so many venues to suit every interestand taste that it can get overwhelming. Sometimes I feel guilty for not gettingout more, seeing more, doing more…but I know I’d drive myself crazy if I triedto do it all. 

Thanks for that sneak peak into your life, Elizabeth. Now let’s talk about Love InspiredSuspense.
 Which types of stories work best for Love Inspired Suspense?Woman on the run? Medical? Gothic? Legal thriller? Amateur sleuth? Do you havea personal preference? Any feedback from readers about what they like to read?

I feel like our readers reallyrespond to characters—particularly heroines—who they can relate to. Personally,I’m always fascinated by the change that comes over a character when she goesfrom a law-abiding woman who always plays it safe, just like me, to someone willingto buck any authority to do what needs to be done. What brought her to thatpoint? A threat against her children? The murder of a beloved sibling? Thedesperate need to clear her name when she’s falsely accused of a crime? Whatwould I do in her shoes? That can bethe most interesting way to build a character—think of something that she wouldnever, ever do…and then come up with a set of circumstances that would make herdo it. 

As we all know, the opening of a book needs to hook thereader. What specific elements should be included in the beginning of a LoveInspired Suspense?

Danger! J It seems like a given,right? But here’s the twist—it can’t just be random, force-of-nature danger. Weneed to know, right from the start, that there are malicious, targeted forcesat play, and that they’re gunning for the hero or heroine. Running out of gaswhen you’re driving in the desert? That can be dangerous, but it’s not actuallysuspenseful—no one’s out to get you, you just made a mistake in not refillingthe tank. Waking up to discover you were knocked unconscious and dumped in thedesert by someone who wanted your death to look like an accident (as in ShirleeMcCoy’s excellent September 2011 book LoneDefender)? That’s suspenseful danger…becauseeven if you make it out of the desert alive, you still aren’t safe. Someone is still after you. 

The LI editorial team as of the 2011 holiday party (from left to right—Emily Rodmell, Tina James, Melissa Endlich, Joan Marlow Golan, Elizabeth Mazer, Rachel Burkot). New additions (Kathy Davis, Acquisitions Editor of Heartsong Presents; Shana Smith, Associate Editor of Love Inspired; Emily Brown, Editorial Assistant of Love Inspired Suspense and Love Inspired Historical)
will be joining LI for the 2012 holiday party picture!

We’ve been told Love Inspired readers like small townsettings. Does that hold true for LIS? Can authors use a city environment, andif so, how can they give the story a small town feel? What about foreignsettings?

Yes, small towns definitely workwell in LIS, but it’s possible to create a sense of community in a city or aforeign setting. It can be based around work (such as a private investigationagency), around faith (a close-knit church society), around family background (animmigrant group). A strong sense of community can be a great counterbalance ina suspense story—a network of people to help and support the hero and heroineas they battle against the villains who want to hurt them. They can also helpraise the stakes. When an Amish teenager turns up dead in Kit Wilkinson’s storyPlain Secrets (July 2012), the policeinvestigator hero is the only man for the job because of his own Amishbackground—but taking the case means returning to the community that he leftbehind, including the woman who rejected him and the father who hasn’t spokento him since he left. Building a strong community in your story can also giveyou some very interesting questions to ask—like who’s allowed in? Who is excluded?Who knows the secrets? Who can be trusted? Who’s looking for a way out—and howfar would they go? 

In LIS stories, secondary characters are sometimes killed.Heroines are captured. Heroes are wounded. Are there any guidelines for murderand mayhem? Anything you frown on or don’t want included in the stories?

Don’t kill the pets! You can setthe heroine’s house on fire if you want, but you’d better make sure theheroine’s trusty mutt has a dog door to slip out the back, or a window he canjump through. Nothing gets angry letters sent our way like an animal-killingvillain! 

What’s the ratio between romance and suspense for LIS? Howearly in the story should the hero and heroine get together, and how quicklyshould the romance develop?  Any tips onhow to keep the romance alive when the characters are on the run?

Always, always 50-50. We needthe love story and the suspense storyto kick off right at the beginning and not getting fully resolved until theend. That means that feelings need to take time to develop. As far as keepingthe romance alive…we actually tend to face the opposite problem. As the heroand heroine deal with life-or-death situations, we get a lot of stories where theystart depending on each other and trusting each other too fast. That’s why it’sso crucial for an author to nail in place good, solid conflicts—both internaland external—that make the characters convinced that a relationship betweenthem could never work. I’m always telling my authors, be meaner to yourcharacters! Give them angst, give them insecurity, give them “rules” they feelthey have to follow that they struggle with right up until the end. In LizJohnson’s terrific upcoming book APromise to Protect (December 2012), the heroine has a villain with a deeplysinister agenda driving her into the protective arms of the Navy SEAL hero…buton the emotional side of the coin, she’s also got some beautifully-realized,deep-seeded personal conflicts that make her afraid to trust a man with hersafety. The romantic conflict actually deepensthe suspenseful conflict because the heroine has so much at stake—not justher life, but also her heart. 

Love Inspired Associate Editor Elizabeth Mazer (L)
with Love Inspired Editor Emily Rodmell (R)

Cops? FBI agents? Private investigators? Any hero/heroineprofessions in short supply that you’d like to see in future submissions?

Surprise me! (I mean it—really surprise me.) Give me something Ihaven’t seen before.Give me characters with nospecial training who have to learn as they go and scramble to stay a step aheadof the bad guys on their trail. Give me characters with unusual training who figure out a way to make the most of theirspecialized knowledge or abilities to find a hidden truth, or defeat a villainwho arrogantly believed everythingwas going according to plan. Challenge yourself to think outside the box andthink of ways even the most danger-free professions could become a matter oflife or death. What could an accountant know that someone might kill for? Howabout the postman? Suddenly I’m picturing a story where a shoe salesman, whilefitting a customer, catches sight of a tell-tale scar that identifies a wantedman. Or maybe take a dangerous job—deep-sea diving instructor, test pilot,search-and-rescue volunteer—and think about how the dangers of their job mightgo from general and random to targeted andpersonal. What does a wildernesssurvival expert do when he realizes the training exercise he’s on is beingmanipulated to end in someone’s seemingly-accidental death? 

Internal conflict can be a stumbling block, especially forbeginning writers. What advice can you offer to help writers develop effectiveinternal conflicts for their heroes and heroines?

For starters, dig deep. And as Isaid before, be mean to your characters! Mess with their heads. Give them pastswhere their hearts were broken, their trust betrayed. Make them afraid—really,deeply afraid—of something that they’d do anything to avoid. And it doesn’talways have to be love that they fear. In the lovely and talented DebbyGiusti’s August 2012 book The Colonel’sDaughter, what the hero fears most is failure—the idea that he could letdown the people who rely on him. That fear nearly cripples him when he beginsto doubt himself and his abilities. Internal conflict works best when we cansee a character truly struggle with it, torn between what their head tells themis the “smart” or “safe” option, and the choice their heart wants to make. 

Elizabeth meets with LI authors
at ACFW 2011.

Writing for LIS means juggling three story arcs: faith,romance and suspense. Any tips on how to weave the three threads into aseamless plot?

My advice would be to “tie”those threads together as much as you can. In Susan Sleeman’s upcoming story No Way Out (May 2013), the heroine isn’tjust dealing with danger, she’s dealing with betrayal, from someone she’d really trusted. So even as she’sadjusting to the physical danger of her new situation, she’s also struggling todeal with the emotional turmoil of wondering who she can count on, and whethershe’ll ever be able to trust enough to let a man into her life again. The herohelps with both problems. J And of course, there’s nothing like danger—physical or emotional—tomake a character search for an anchor to hold on to. That’s where faith usuallycomes into our stories. 

How do you feel about prologues and epilogues? Any petpeeves or favorite scenarios?

Because our stories are sodeliciously fast-paced, it’s possible for the entire story to take place overthe span of just a handful of days. And while we definitely want resolution tothe romantic plot thread, with the characters finally willing to admit theirfeelings for each other and embrace the opportunity take a chance on a committedrelationship, it seems a little weird to have a guy propose marriage when he’sonly known the heroine for 36 hours. So yeah, I’m a fan of epilogues where wecan see the characters a few months down the road with a solid relationship inplace that the characters are finally ready to take to the next level. On theother hand, a prologue has to work pretty hard to prove its worth to me. Ifit’s just about set-up, then I usually ask the author to reconsider. It’s sopowerful to dive right into a story that starts when the action kicks off—wecan get the background later. 

Are you accepting submissions for all three lines:  Love Inspired, Love Inspired Historical andLove Inspired Suspense? How long should writers expect to wait before they hearback on their submission?

We are eagerly acceptingsubmissions for all three lines! As for turnaround time, we’ve actually got afun event coming up specifically targeted for LIS submissions, and that’s ourFast Track. Between October 15 and October 26, authors can email theirsynopsis (no more than 2 pages, single spaced) and first chapter to LISfasttrack@harlequin.ca and wewill guarantee a reply by November 26. We’re hoping to get people as excitedabout LIS as we are at the prospect of bringing in new authors, so pleasespread the word! 

What do you wish every writer knew before she or hesubmitted to LIS?

Make sure you have strong suspenseand romance threads that begin at the start of the book and don’t concludeuntil the ending! 

Elizabeth (L) with Love Inspired’s new 
Associate Editor Shana Smith (R)

What are your top FIVE tips for submitting to LIS?

5. Do your homework!There’s no better preparation for writing LIS than reading LIS books—and we’vegot so many excellent authors writing for us that “homework” has never been somuch fun.
4. Know your characters. I answered a lot of questions in this interview, but youmay notice I asked a lot of them,too. These are questions you need to be asking yourself—what does my characterwant? What is essential to them? What would drive them to break the rules? Whatdo they love? What do they fear? Check out the book GMC: Goal, Motivation & Conflict by Debra Dixon. It’s a greatcraft lesson in how to solidify your characters.
3. You’ll always learnfrom research—but start with what you know.There’s nothing like a book that feels truly grounded in its world. When LenoraWorth writes Southern-set stories, they feel so vividly real that you couldswear you smell the magnolias in the air. If you entrench your story insomething very familiar—a medical drama you can easily envision after twentyyears working as a nurse; a deadly chase in the dense forests near where yougrew up; an eerie mystery that bears a striking resemblance to an old familylegend—it’ll feel that much more real to your readers. But no matter how wellyou think you know a subject, still do some research on it—hit the library, goonline, set up a time to interview/brainstorm with a friend who has a backgroundin the subject or setting. You never know what new ideas might spark!
2. Figure out your villain’s game plan, and make himstick to it. Heroes and heroines don’talways know what they’re doing—sometimes they’re thrown into danger with nowarning, and have to scramble to figure out what to do. That’s not the casewith villains. They always have aplan—there’s always something they want to get, or something they want to do,or something they want to hide. And they always think they’ve planned everythingso well that they’re going to get away with it. Make sure you know that plan. Make sure that everything the villaindoes ties into that plan. If the badguy wants the safe combination that no one but the heroine knows then he’s notgoing to try to scare her by running her car off the road—she’s no good to himif she’s dead or in a coma. On the other hand, there’s nothing stopping himfrom threatening the people around her. He needs her alive, but he could easily kill her best friend, or her babysister…or the guy she’s started to fall for.
1. Sit down and write! It’s okay to begin a book and not be certain how it’s going to end.It’s okay to begin a book and change your mind about how it’s going to end!Characters and plotlines will take turns you never expected, and go indirections you never planned—don’t stress over it. You can fix it or polish itor even ditch it and rewrite it after it’s done. For now, just put the words onthe page, and see where they take you. 

Can you give us a brief overview of the process a submissiongoes through before it is either rejected or selected for publication?

When someone sends in asubmission, it gets logged in by the person who received it. And since I knowsome people have misconceptions, let me say that there is no “designated”person who reads the submissions our group receives. If you address it to me(on the envelope, please—not just on the cover letter), I’m the one who’s goingto read it. (The only exception to this rule is Tina James, the senior editorfor Love Inspired Suspense—she has an assistant, Emily Brown, who gets hermail.) We do our best to get to submissions quickly, but a major chunk of ourtime is devoted to handling our books currently under contract, so it generallytakes 60-90 days to evaluate submissions.
Let’s say you send me yourproposal—synopsis and first three chapters. I’ll read it to see if I think itcould work for our line. If it’s not right for us, I’ll write back to let youknow. If it has potential, I’ll request the full manuscript. I don’t have theauthority to buy a book on just my say-so—it has to be approved by Tina, so asI’m reading the complete, I’ll be keeping notes on the strengths, weaknesses,possible issues and potential solutions to put into a memo. If the story needssubstantial revisions, I’ll send it back along with a letter laying out myconcerns. If I think we should go ahead and buy, I’ll give Tina the memo andthe manuscript. She’ll read them both, and decide whether she agrees with me.If she does, it goes to Joan Marlow Golan, our executive editor. She makes thedecision about whether we can go forward with a contract offer—she’ll give thego-head to Tina, who will give the go-ahead to me. Then I get to make the call. 

Editors say they enjoy making “The Call” to debut authors.What’s the funniest response you’ve received from a writer who just learned LIwas offering a contract?

I don’t want to embarrass her soI won’t name names, but one author I could barely even reach! She hadn’tincluded her phone number on her cover letter, so I tried looking it up onlinewith just the address. When that didn’t work, I emailed her to ask if she couldgive me a call—she replied, full of apologies, and said she actually couldn’t call me because she was hometaking care of a sick child and her house phone didn’t have long distanceservice. She gave me her number, so I tried calling her, but I got no answer.Ten minutes later, she emailed me again to apologize—she’d been vacuuming andhadn’t heard the phone ring! On the next try, I was actually able to speak withher. By then, I think she was pretty sure I was offering her a book contractbecause otherwise I’d have given up! 

Melissa Endlich, Betsy St. Amant and
Elizabeth at the ACFW 2011 Carol Awards

Where do you hope to be in FIVE years, Elizabeth? Any predictions about LoveInspired’s future?

In the five and a half yearsI’ve been with Love Inspired, I’ve been amazed at our growth. When I began in2007, we published 8 books a month—4 Love Inspired and 4 Love InspiredSuspense. Love Inspired Historical hadn’t even launched yet! Now, we have 14titles a month in our retail calendar (6 LI, 4 LIS, 4 LIH) plus 4 books eachmonth from our direct-only line, Love Inspired Heartsong Presents. In thattime, I’ve also risen from Editorial Assistant to Associate Editor. So clearly,if we stay on track with our growth patterns, and if our fantastic authors keepbringing in dedicated, enthusiastic readers hungry for more great stories, thenanother five years will see all our lines expanding and flourishing, with mewell on my way to my clearly merited position as Benevolent Overlady of All ISurvey. J
Thanks, Elizabeth,for providing such valuable information today. We’ve learned so much about the LIS line and what makes a greatstory shine.  In honor of your visit, we’reserving a typical Southern buffet breakfast: scrambled eggs, country fried ham,buttermilk biscuits, sliced fruit and grits. Enjoy!
Leave a comment to be entered in today's drawings.  Thanks to Elizabeth and the Seekers we have the following books to give away...  
Four lucky winners will each receive two Love Inspired Suspense stories from Elizabeth.  
The LIS October releases: Critical Condition by Sandra Orchard, Survive theNight by Vicki Hinze, Dangeron the Mountain by LynetteEason, and The Doctor’s Defender byTerri Reed. 
The LIS November releases: ChristmasStalking by MargaretDaley, DangerousMelody by Dana Mentink,Dead Wrongby Susan Sleeman,and Freefall by Jodie Bailey.
Seeker Giveaways:
A House Full of Hopeby Missy Tippens.
Wanted: A Family by Janet Dean, and thenovella Last Minute Bride, by Janet Dean, featured in Brides of theWest.
Yuletide Hearts by Ruth Logan Herne and A Family to Cherishby RuthLogan Herne.
Dreaming of Homeby Glynna Kaye, Second Chance Courtshipby Glynna Kaye, At Home in His Heartby Glynna Kaye, and High Country Heartsby Glynna Kaye.
The Officer’s Secretby Debby Giusti, The Captain’s Missionby Debby Giusti, and The Colonel’sDaughter by Debby Giusti.
A surprise package from Tina Radcliffe.
Four Heartsong Presents giveaways from Mary Connealy.
Grab a cup of coffee and let's talk to Elizabeth about the books we love to read from Love Inspired!

Happy Birthday Seekerville