Magikflute: Hi Joan, where are you located, Massachusetts?
Joan Hovey: I can see why you might think that, since I often set my novels in Maine; the flora and fauna are very similar. But I actually live in Gondola Point, New Brunswick, Canada, on the banks of the beautiful Kennebecasis River with my husband, Mel, cat Sasha, and neurotic poodle, CoCo.
Magikflute: How did you get started doing voice overs? Were you inspired to do this or did it evolve?
Joan Hovey: I have always loved to act, and been involved in acting most of my life. Voiceover is acting, using only your voice. Although in essence you bring your whole self to the job, both emotionally and physically. You just don’t have to walk about, or remember your spot. J When I realized I could do this work from my home, using my computer, I was hooked. It took a while to build my state-of-the-art home recording studio, and a lot of online help. It’s been a big learning curve (and the road hasn’t straightened out yet) but it’s been well worth it. And a wonderful diversion from the writing, which comes from a different place, and is more cerebral and introverted.
Magikflute: What advice would you give to the aspiring voice over artist?
Joan Hovey:
Read lots of books on voiceover, and practice, practice,
practice. There are many helpful sites on the web. One of the best is
Connie Terwilliger’s site at
http://www.voiceover-talent.com/VOinfo.htm.
It’s filled with great information. Magikflute: Have you done acting as well?
Joan Hovey: Yes. As I child I put on shows in my backyard, singing and dancing and acting on a stage that consisted of a wooden plank. I loved the attention and applause. Later, I joined the Saint John Theatre Company www.saintjohntheatrecompany.com and acted in a number of plays, among them ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ (see photo on my site – www.joanhallhovey.com/author.html and ‘Waiting for the Parade.’ I was nominated for best supporting actress at the New Brunswick Drama Festival, for my role of Agnes in ‘The Shadow Box.
Magikflute: Wonderful! I see you are also an author, tell us about your new book, “Chill Waters”; also, you are an award winning author. Could you please tell us first what inspired you to write “Chill Waters”, how you went about having it published and the award you won, and how this all happened? I’m especially interested in your writing processes, since we all approach that differently:
Joan Hovey: I’ve been writing for more than 20 years, many short stories and articles, but my first book was published by Zebra Books, New York. I had no agent; it was plucked from the ‘Slush Pile.’
In my latest suspense novel, Chill Waters my heroine deals with loss and betrayal on several levels. Following the breakup of her marriage after learning of her husband’s infidelity, Rachael Warren retreats to the old beachhouse in Jenny's Cove, where as a young girl she lived with her grandmother. It is the one place where she had always felt safe and loved. But she is about to learn that ‘a safe place’ is mostly an illusion. And that evil can find us no matter where we go.
Jenny’s Cove is located in St. Clair, a fictional St. Andrews, a small town in New Brunswick, Canada. St. Andrews lies on the Passamoquoddy Bay, and is close to the American border. A place of charm and beauty, St. Andrews/St. Clair is a magnet for tourists and artists alike. But the beachhouse in Jenny’s cove is isolated. Waves crashing against the rocks, and the sudden summer storms that visit Jenny’s Cove add to that sense of isolation. As a child, Rachael had found the violence of the storms and the sound of the sea comforting. As a woman stalked and terrorized, that will change.
I like the blending of light and dark in a novel. Like using shadowing to enhance dramatic effect, in a painting.
I also enjoy writing about women who struggle against great odds and triumph, as did my grandmother. But, as in life, it’s never easy. In books, it must be even harder, damn near impossible. And in the suspense novel, there are always unseen dangers.
Magikflute: Are you affiliated with the drama theater that your site is linked to?
Joan Hovey: Not in any official way, although I’ve had the honor of performing there a number of times. That link on my site goes to the ‘Imperial Theatre’, http://www.imperialtheatre.nb.ca/site/index.php where the plays and concerts are held. It’s a gorgeous theatre, recently reinstated to its glory days.
Magikflute: Please highlight any other helpful links on your site, and I see you have quite a few, which might be of interest to our readers.
Joan Hovey: I’ve tried to do that in this interview, especially with the Voiceover sites. Hope you all enjoy your visits. Please visit mine at: www.joanhallhovey.com/Voice.html
Magikflute: Thank you so much for you time and for doing this interview...
Joan Hovey: It’s been my great pleasure to talk to you. More about writing:
The Road To Publication by Joan Hall Hovey
Like you, I started out as a story 'listener'. Both my parents were avid storytellers, and I needed only to hear the words, "I remember the time when..." to feel that rare and exquisite pleasure in the anticipation of a new story. The dark, scary ones were best - stories my father told of the man with the cloven foot who showed up at the card game, or the discovery of a young girl's body in the woods behind the school ... the town drunk found dead in the cemetery, his face as granite-white with frost as the tombstones surrounding him...
From the time I could find my way to the Saint John Library, I was a constant visitor. For me, the library was a magical place - a hushed, warm haven where, through the pages of a book I could travel to far off exotic places in my imagination. I could experience vicariously all the joy, romance, terror, tragedy and triumph of the characters in the stories.
Among my favorite authors were Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Charlotte Bronte, Shirley Jackson and Phyllis Whitney. Far too many to list here. I am forever grateful to them all, for it was through reading their works that the seed to be a writer was planted in me. I wanted to join the ranks of those authors who had given me so much pleasure, and in turn tell my own stories. I had learned about the power of words.
Reading is, of course, where it all begins for all writers. Although it might surprise you to know that a number of aspiring writers have told me they didn't have time to read. Or that they didn't read because they didn't want anything in their own work to be totally original. Sadly, I don't expect to read much of their work in published form. So the first key to publication is to Read! Read! Read! Nothing you didn't already know. But it's true; we learn by osmosis. And we learn by doing.
When I first set pen to paper with thought of publication, I didn't know bad literature from good. I devoured it all, and learned from it all. I came across the True Confessions in the market section of a copy of Writer's Digest Magazine, and it seemed possible to me that I could write one. I was right. That first story was titled: I Didn't Kill My Husband, But I Might As Well Have. Pretty bad, I know. But looking at the models on the page portraying the characters in my story, I felt like I'd won the lottery. The only downside was that my name wasn't on my story. You don't get a bi-line from the confessions. The stories are supposed to be true. Or at least read like they're true.
My children were small then, three under six years of age, and I was squeezing in writing time when I could find it. Usually, in the evenings after they were in bed. (Ah, to be so young again! ) Later, I wrote while holding down a full-time job. You do what you have to do. John Grisham rose at 4:00 a.m. to get in his stint of writing before going off to his law office.
My second story, God's Special Gift, made the rounds for a couple of years and finally sold to Home Life magazine in Nashville. It was about my grandmother, who died in a house fire when I was 15. Writing that story, albeit many years later, was very cathartic for me. And I got a bi-line.
Pregnant with my fourth child, I determined to pursue my lifelong dream of writing a novel. That summer, I sat on our back deck and read a stack of suspense novels of the sort I wanted to write. I reread Poe, Patricia Highsmith, Shirley Jackson and many of the new authors who were also becoming my favorites. In the fall, I began writing my own suspense novel, The Strawman. (Later Zebra Books would change the title to Listen to the Shadows.) I wrote it at our kitchen table in longhand, and the book took a long time to write. I worked on it off and on over a period of maybe four years.
Finally the novel was finished. I'd already gone through my Writer's Market, as well as checking out the books on the shelves of our local bookstore, and Zebra seemed right for The Strawman. I sent it off. It came flying back within a few weeks, but the attached slip of paper wasn't quite a rejection. Anne Lafarge, acquisitions editor at the time, had scribbled a note saying she liked the book, but it was too short. They needed 100,000 words; mine was about 75,000 words.
I settled down to work. It took another four months to add the other 25,000 words, which I did by weaving in a couple of subplots. In November I sent the manuscript off again, addressing it to Anne LaFarge. On the outside of the package, in bold black marker, I printed: Requested Material, just in case she forgot me, which I'm sure she did. One day in February the phone rang. I knew intuitively that it was Zebra. They wanted to publish The Strawman. When my husband came home that night I was at the stove cooking spaghetti. He took one look at my face, and said, "You sold your book." It was a dream come true. I felt weepy and humbled, and very happy. Nowhere To Hide sold on the heels of Listen To The Shadows, on the basis of an outline. I managed easily to get an agent to negotiate the contract. Zebra wanted to publish a book a year with me.
End of story? Hardly. I completed and sent out the third manuscript and it was returned. I was told Zebra was no longer publishing suspense. At least the kind of psychological suspense I like to write. And I'm convinced you should only write what you really want to write. Otherwise, it's just too damn hard. The moral of the story: You're never there. (Unless you're Stephen King; but he's a genius.) Back to square one? Well, not quite. What I have now is a track record.
Publishers tend to give my work a little longer look before they turn it down. This is a precarious business, with no guarantees for any of us. So you must love the actual process of writing. In the end, the only thing we have any control over is the writing itself. It takes courage to be a writer, to put our work (ourselves) out there, never knowing if it will be praised or ridiculed. We must rise above the fear, and do what we know we can when all cylinders are firing.
So give that critical editor on your shoulder the bum's rush (He gets called in for work later.) and write your novel. Enjoy the writing; give yourself to it like a lover. Get out of your own way by focusing on the characters and their story. And know that you are not alone. All around the globe, at this very moment, writers are sitting at kitchen tables with pen and paper, or at their computers, struggling to write their own novels. Lastly, go where the passion, the pain, is. Write with joy! And believe in yourself. No one can tell your stories but you. No one. And if you need a little inspiration, check out the books on my site. Of course I'd be delighted if you read my books.
As
well as penning suspense novels like "Chill Waters,” "Listen
To The Shadows" and "Nowhere To Hide,"
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