Bookpleasures.com welcomes as our guest Libby Sternberg. Libby is an Edgar Award finalist, a Launchpad Prose Top 50 finalist, and a BookLife quarter finalist twice, including once for her recent novel, DAISY.

She writes historical fiction, contemporary women’s fiction, young adult mysteries, and more, releasing her humorous works under the name Libby Malin, and her romantic comedy Fire Me was bought for film. 

Her novel Sloane Hall, a retelling of Jane Eyre, was one of only 14 books highlighted in the Huffington Post on the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth. 

She holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and sang with various opera companies before turning to writing. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, she lived in Vermont for many years and now makes her home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

Good day Libby and thanks for taking part in our interview.

Norm: What do you think is the future of reading/writing?  

Libby: I love the fact that we now live in a time when self-publishing has blossomed. It no longer holds a stigma of being “less than” traditional publishing—many established authors use both traditional and self-publishing to get their stories into readers’ hands.


So I think that is an exciting part of today’s reading/writing world, and I hope it continues to expand. I would love to see more book reviewers in the future taking a look at indie- and self-published books.

Norm: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? What keeps you going?

Libby: I loved telling stories in writing from a young age. I remember penning a soap-opera-esque play when I was a little girl. It took me until I was in my forties to realize, though, that I wanted to give it a serious try.

By that I mean spending the time to figure out how one gets published.

Norm: What do you think most characterizes your writing, and what are the preponderant influences on your writing?  

Libby: I like to say I tell “soulful” stories, and I guess by that I mean stories that move you, whether they have happy endings or not.

As to writing influences, I suppose, like most writers, my own experiences and observations of life affect what I write about.

Norm: What did you find most useful in learning to write? What was least useful or most destructive?  

Libby: Writing romance! That was most useful. I tell people this all the time – if you’ve never taken a writing course or gone to a writing workshop, and you really want to learn craft, write romance novels.

Seriously. I started out that way because my sister was a romance novel fan at the time, and she kept encouraging me to look into writing in that genre.

I picked up some romance novels, read them, thought, hey, I can do this and…many rejections later – ha! – Harlequin published my first adult novel, a “chick lit” book.

Writing romance requires great discipline because there’s a formula, yet at the same time, you have to keep the story and characters fresh. As to what was least useful or most destructive in my writing life, I guess wasting time worrying if I was good enough.

Norm: Has a review or profile ever changed your perspective on your work?

Libby: I’m not sure. I do know that even critical reviews can still attract readers. My romantic comedy Fire Me was reviewed somewhat critically by Publishers Weekly when it came out, but the review was so good at telling what the story offered readers that I still liked it.

I knew that some readers would see those details and think, okay, that book might not have been PW’s cuppa, but it is mine. So that review taught me you can write a critical review that is fair and that still lets readers choose for themselves if the book is for them.

Norm: How did you become involved with Daisy, and what were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them? 

Libby: I love The Great Gatsby, and when I heard it was entering the public domain, I began to wonder what I’d do with the story or aspects of the story, now that I was free to use it without worrying about copyright infringement.

I immediately thought of how unrealized the character of Daisy Buchanan is and thought: I want to tell the story from her point of view. 

Norm: What was your secret in keeping the intensity of the plot of Daisy throughout the narrative?

Libby: I wish I had a secret way of doing that. If I did, it sure would make writing novels in the future easier! I am a combination plotter and “pantser” – writing the story by the seat of my pants.

As I wrote Daisy, I had a general idea of where I wanted the story to go, and I also wanted to keep chapter endings pushing readers onward.

Other than that, there was no secret. If you find such a secret approach to maintaining intensity, please share it with me!

Norm: What was the most difficult part of writing this book? What did you enjoy most about writing this book? 

Libby: Oddly enough, the most difficult part of writing this book was resisting the temptation to pad it with extraneous material. The Great Gatsby itself is a short novel, just under 50,000 words, I believe.

And most editors and readers expect longer novels than that—between, say, 70k and 100k words.

I kept wondering if I was writing “long” enough, and if I should add material to boost the word count. I ultimately decided I had to tell the story I wanted to tell, short or long.

Norm: Did you write Daisy more by logic or intuition, or some combination of the two? Please summarize your writing process in creating Daisy.

Libby: As I mentioned, I’m both plotter and pantser, so I guess my technique uses both logic and intuition.

I knew when I started writing Daisy that her story would differ somewhat from the original.

We only saw her character through the eyes of men in the book, after all. Yet she still seemed witty and clever and intelligent to me, not at all the beautiful fool she wishes her daughter to be.

That desire came from how restricted women’s lives were at that time. It was probably easier to be a beautiful fool than a smart and articulate woman men might ignore or treat shabbily.

As I fleshed out this character, I was able to think how my Daisy would think, and that led me to decisions on where the plot would go.

Norm: Did you learn anything from writing Daisy? If so, what was it?

Libby: Be courageous, maybe. As I wrote Daisy’s character, her struggle with how to be courageous in her personal life is a lesson I think all people, especially women, have to learn.

Norm: What process did you go through to get your book published? 

Libby: I started by submitting it on my own to some editors who’d read some of my stuff in the past. But most publishing houses are closed to unagented submissions, so I ultimately went to Bruce Bortz at Bancroft Press and asked him to read it.

I’ve known Bruce a long time, and he published my first books, YA mysteries. He offered to try to get the book into a larger house, but ultimately offered to publish it himself.

Norm: Where can our readers find out more about you and Daisy?

Libby: My WEBSITE  and my BLOG

Norm: What is next for Libby Sternberg?

Libby: I’m working on a historical novel right now, a romance (I can’t seem to stay away from that genre!) set in 1919 about a woman who wants to become a doctor and enter Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

I’ve really enjoyed doing the research for this book, and it continues some of the feminist themes in Daisy.

Norm: As this interview comes to an end, what advice can you give aspiring writers that you wished you had received, or that you wished you would have listened to? 

Libby: Take the time to learn as much as you can about the book business. When I first started writing seriously, it surprised me that I had to spend almost as much time on that aspect of writing as I did on writing itself.

Norm: Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors

Libby: Thank you for having me here!

Follow Here To Read Norm's Review of Daisy