I was very privileged to be able to interview one of my favorite homeschooling authors, Lisa M Cottrell-Bentley. Lisa started writing at a early age and even won a writing contest at the age of 9. She is not only the author of the Wright on Time book series but she is the publisher/owner of www.DoLifeRightInc.com publishing company. Even with her busy schedule, Lisa also is a homeschooling mom of two beautiful girls and believes in writing stories that the whole family will enjoy reading. Thank you, Lisa for letting us into your very creative world! HL~Could you provide us with some personal insights into your background/history? LCB~My name is Lisa M. Cottrell-Bentley. I was born in Iowa and I lived in Iowa and Illinois for my whole childhood. My parents moved every couple of years, and I really enjoyed being "new" in various environments. I went to Iowa State University and graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics. I went on to graduate school in Computer Science, but decided the corporate world was more my style after a year. As an adult, I've held a variety of jobs that I really loved: Network Engineer, Computer Software Engineer, Photographer, Webpage Designer, and more (all technical). I've also owned a couple of companies. Yet, the most influential thing to happen to me was becoming a mother. Once I was pregnant with my oldest (Zoë, who is currently 13.5), my whole perspective on life changed. She become my number one priority and I started rethinking every aspect of life and how I lived. I read everything I could get my hands on about all aspects of parenting and I talked to as many people as I could. I followed my daughter's lead on how she has been raised and I'm thankful every day for this! When she was two, we made the decision to homeschool her due to her personality and extreme intelligence. We've had no regrets with this decision and now happily homeschool both of our daughters (my younger daughter, Teagan, is currently 9.5). HL~Were your parents creative at all? Did they give you a lot of encouragement? LCB~In my opinion, my parents are geniuses and very creative. While their careers haven't always brought out their artistic creativity, they have always been busy doing creative projects my whole life. My mom is an artist in a variety of mediums. My dad is one of those people who can just do *anything*. I don't think it's ever occurred to him that he couldn't fix or make something, and he's always been right. My parents have always been very encouraging and supportive of me, my aspirations, and my dreams. After years as a "struggling" writer, it was my parents who finally said to me, "We believe in you. Go and do it your way." That was the last push I needed before I started my own publishing company in 2009. I'd done every other part of my life in my own way, so why not this part, too? HL~When did you first discover that you had a talent for writing? And what was your first story about? LCB~I started making up stories when I was a really young child. The first written story that I recall was a story of how my family's pet dog, Shannon, found and licked a baby bunny. Its mother abandoned it then, and my family took it in, named it Hercules, raised him until he was an adult, and then set him free in the wild. I was around 8 when I wrote this. When I was 9, I entered and won a creative writing contest. This made a huge impression on me. I'd taken a class by a children's book author, Evelyn Witter, and I found her very inspiring. I won a thesaurus (and a certificate) and it is one of the few things from my childhood that I still own. It was then that I said that I wanted to be a children's book author when I was grown, but the lure of money (and the fact that I loved math and science, too) took me in a different direction for a number of years. For this, I have no regrets, it's just an interesting path. HL~Who or what inspired you to take up writing as a career? LCB~My family! I wrote a lot as a child and teen, but then stopped for a number of years. I started seriously writing again when my youngest was born. Typing and thinking about stories was something very quiet that I could do while breastfeeding her, comforting her, and taking care of her. I started talking about my stories to my older daughter and husband and they were very encouraging to me that I get the stories down on paper. I wrote five or so adult novels before I started writing for children. My older daughter, Zoë, was a very early reader. She was reading novels by age 3 and she's been a fast reader since then, too. So, rather than pre-read everything she read, I bought and borrowed books that were recommended to us. We spent a lot of time discussing everything she read. One day, while swimming, she confided that she was frustrated with all the books she'd been reading. They were full of school angst, abandoned (or orphaned) children, siblings who hated each other, best friends who constantly backstabbed, and more. After she voiced all her issues with modern fiction, I asked the question, "What would the perfect book be?" Well, both of my daughters were full of ideas! We talked for endless hours over weeks about the perfect stories. Out of these conversations, the Wright family was born. Since my kids had seen me writing and knew I loved it, they encouraged me to get the Wright's stories down on paper, and I did. HL~Were there any authors that were your favorite as a child or adult? LCB~As a child, I loved Beverly Cleary and Roald Dahl the most, but I read anything I could get my hands on. As an adult, I've continued to love children's and YA authors, as well as adult fiction. Some of my favorite authors include Meg Cabot, Sophie Kinsella, Jennifer Weiner, Orson Scott Card, Joanna Fluke, and many more. I'm constantly either reading (more often "listening" to books now though, thanks to my iPod and audio books), writing, or thinking or talking about stories. Fiction is a huge part of my life. I've always had a love for children's books. If I wanted a book, my parents never hesitated to buy it for me. I've remained that way with my own kids, too. I even signed up for a "children's book of the month" club for my oldest before she was born. Since I needed a name and kid's birthday to join the club, I used my cat's. He enjoyed getting books addressed to him in the mail each month. 
HL~What advice would you give to inspiring writers, looking to get into writing books about homeschooling? LCB~Make sure you know who you are writing about. While I feel that it is really important for everyone to write the story that is in them, it's even more important to know who/what you are writing about. If this means stories about homeschoolers, then great! (Send them to me at http://www.DoLifeRightInc.com and I might publish them.) If that means stories about aliens or bunnies or schooled kids, then go for that. If your stories aren't authentic, they won't be believable by the readers. Once you believe it, you can write about anything and it'll sound true and you'll get fans. The more you read and write, the better you'll be as a writer. Immerse yourself fully into your imagination. Don't hold back with your first draft–put everything you think of into it. HL~In writing a book in which homeschooling is a major theme, did you feel any pressure or responsibility about how you represented it? LCB~I'd like to say no to this, but the answer is most definitely yes. There are very few fictional books with homeschoolers as characters. I've found that most of these characters have been written by authors who have had very little, if any, experience with real-life homeschoolers. Assumptions about how "all" homeschoolers behave have become inaccurate mainstream mythology. With the Wright on Time books, I am trying to show an ideal homeschooling family accurately portrayed. The parents and children get along with each other. There is no sibling rivalry (I just don't see this very often in homeschooling families). The parents are respectful of the children, and vice versa. The families are active, enjoy life, and are learning all the time. With the thousands of homeschooling families that I've witnessed in action, these are the characteristics that I keep seeing over and over. HL~Do you think writing about homeschooling changes the audience for the book? LCB~The initial audience, yes, but not the longterm audience. I believe that children seek out books with characters who they can relate to, so the first readers of the Wright on Time series have mostly been homeschoolers. As the books are becoming more and more popular, schooled children are finding them. I've had several schooled kids tell me that they've really enjoyed writing their book reports with my books since they've been so fun to read and have been packed with so much information. One of my many goals with these books is to help normalize homeschooling for the general public. Homeschoolers aren't the "radical fringe" of society anymore. Everyone probably knows at least one homeschooler who they've never realized is homeschooled. While, for my family homeschooling is a lifestyle, it isn't for all homeschooling families. It's usually just a mode of education. Like the book, I Am Learning All the Time by Rain Fordyce, the Wright on Time books show that homeschooling is a personal and legitimate option in today's world. Homeschoolers aren't weird anymore, we're mainstream and here to stay. HL~Why did you decide to make this series about a road-schooling family? LCB~Through talking with my own kids (and husband), we determined that a really great way for the Wright family to always be thrown into a new environment would be if they were always on the move. A very fun and easy way to do this was to have them live in an RV. Since my own family loves traveling, this was just a natural extension for the Wrights. Using traveling in an RV as a mode of living, it didn't even become a question of how the kids would be schooled. Homeschooling was their only option, unlike for families who live in stuck-to-the-ground-houses. Since homeschooling on the road is called roadschooling by those doing it, that's what the Wright's call it, too. HL~Are all the places in your books that the Wrights visit going to be real places that families can visit in real life? LCB~For the most part, yes. In Wright on Time: Arizona, the cave the family goes to is actually a combination of four real life caves that my own family has been to. So, to fully get the experience that the Wrights had, you'd have to spend a week exploring caves, rather than just a day. There will be a real aspect in the locations of every single book, but I've taken fictional liberties in order to make the Wrights' experiences even more exciting and faster (e.g. sometimes it would take a lot longer to get to a location than I've had it take for the Wrights). Some upcoming places we'll be exploring with the Wrights include: geysers in Yellowstone, a hydroelectric water plant, a wind farm, the Black Hills in South Dakota, a newspaper press, the Minneapolis Sculpture garden, Franconia Sculpture garden, a corn maze in Iowa, Lincoln's house, a bayou in Louisiana, a hot air balloon in New Mexico, and so much more! If a family is wanting to recreate a Wright on Time vacation, there will be ample real-life places they can go to for each state. Nadia's blog, on the <http://www.WrightOnTimeBooks.com> website will be pointing out even more. HL~Is the mysterious item that the family found in the cave in book one going to be continued though the entire series? Or will new items be introduced? LCB~I don't want to give too much away, but I'll say the following: the Wrights start figuring out how to control the Time Tuner (as they name the mysterious device in the second book) in the fourth book, Wright on Time: South Dakota. Over the next several books we'll get to see them deliberately use the device in interesting ways. Right when they think they've mastered it, they'll be thrown for a loop. The Wright family will have a series of new questions about the device, but all will be answered by the 50th book. As for new items… Hmm. 
HL~Can you tell us if the family’s extended family might be introduced in later books? LCB~In the third book, Wright on Time: Wyoming, we get to "meet" Aidan and Nadia's maternal grandparents over the phone. We'll get to meet them in person in the fourth book, Wright on Time: South Dakota. In the sixth book, Wright on Time: Iowa, the Wrights are staying with Harrison's older brother and his family. There, Aidan and Nadia get to hang out with their cousins for the entire book. It's a really fun one! These extended family members are going to be popping up here and there throughout the series (their cousin, Kestrel, is Nadia's best friend). We'll also meet Uncle "Crash", Harrison's younger brother, a little later in the series when the kids get to explore some more adventure sports such as indoor skydiving, rock climbing, and much more. Uncle Crash wasn't given his nickname accidentally… HL~My favorite character was Aidan, because of his desire to have new learning experiences reminds me of my youngest son Anthony. Which character in the book was the most fun for you to write about and why? LCB~I purposefully made every character someone who I love, but I'll admit that Nadia has been the easiest for me to write. There is more of me in her than any of the other characters, yet she's uniquely different than me. I really love each of the five main characters. Yes, I include Prince Pumpkin III, the family's pet turtle, as one of the main characters. My family is constantly talking about the Wright family as real people. We see things in stores that we think they'd like. We have to remind each other that while Aidan would really like a particular toy, we can't actually buy it for him. HL~The scene that I liked the most in the books was the secret room, because of the way you described all the beautiful soda straw formations. Out of all the books you have written so far, what is your favorite scene, place or event, and please tell us why? LCB~Before I sit down to write a particular book, it's important to me that something about that state really calls to me. *That* scene in my head is my favorite for each book. Overall, my favorite scenes so far are ones that haven't been published yet. I'll give sneak peeks: the kids will do some high flying in Wyoming, they'll play with some Harleys in South Dakota, they'll pause to look at some freaky sculptures in Minnesota, and they'll get a taste for serious adventure in Iowa. Writing the Iowa book was probably the easiest for me since I grew up in Iowa and Illinois. Rather that describing the scenery as a newcomer, I was able to really feel what it was like to be in the various Iowa locations. I'm really looking forward to having that one published! If you would like to know more about the Wright On Time book series please visit Lisa's website at http://www.wrightontimebooks.com/2009/07/16/lisa-m-cottrell-bentley-author/
If you have read this book, leave a comment to let our visitors know what you thought of it too!