Four Questions About My Writing

As you can see, I survived the week. I’m so glad I don’t have another job. I think I would have had to take a vacation to recover, if I didn’t just up and die, that is. I guess there’s a reason we have the saying: When it rains, it pours. And while I’m still in the editing cave, at least it’s quieter. I can stand to have some more quiet.

Now on with my post. I’ve been tagged in a Blog Hop by Jennette Marie Powell. I know her through my Cincinnati RWA Chapter and I’ve read all her books and loved them. If you like aliens or time travel romances, check her out.

I have four questions to answer regarding my writing. Hopefully you’re interested to read further! Let’s see how I do.

1. WHAT AM I WORKING ON? Well…I’ll skip those I’m editing for my publisher and talk about the ones that aren’t sold (yet!). I’ve finished the first draft of my next vampire romance, BLIND TEMPTATION, which I’m in the middle of revising. It’s about a vampire who is forced to attend driver’s ed (or lose her position on the Committee). Her love interest is her teacher, who is blind. Yeah, I know. A blind driver’s ed teacher? Believe it or not, I think I make it work! The vampire was turned at the age of 17 and the teacher is 39. Yep, age difference here (physically--emotionally, she’s centuries older!), and she’s kind of glad he can’t see her (thus, the title). I can’t wait to get back to it so I can then submit this one.

I’m also writing the first draft of my next ghost romance, GHOSTLY INTERLUDE, which is about a woman who is being possessed. Her love interest is the private investigator she hires (who was featured in GHOSTLY LIAISON). She doesn’t know she’s being possessed; she thinks someone is drugging her (this is why she hires the PI). He thinks she might have a split personality. I’ve barely gotten started on it, so I don’t know much more than that, but look forward to getting back to the story (because, you know, everything stops when you’re working for your publisher!). I do have this writers’ retreat coming up soon, so hopefully I’ll be able to add LOTS of words to this one!

2. HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS OF ITS GENRE? I really hate this question. I mean, how does anyone’s work differ? It’s my work, so it’s different. Anyway…regarding the romance genre, my characters usually start out liking each other. I’m not fond of those stories where they start out disliking (or hating) one another. I’m all about the love. While the characters do have enough emotional conflict of their own, I basically have them work together to fight an outside conflict before they can reach their happy ever after. As for the paranormal part? Well, I strive for realism. Is that different? I don’t know. I haven’t read every paranormal romance book out there. Give me time!

3. WHY DO I WRITE WHAT I DO? I love paranormal/supernatural stories. Heck, I lived on horror books for years before I wrote. But I always felt they missed something. Turned out to be romance! While I don’t write horror, I get a little gritty with my characters. They certainly get beat up a lot! Who knew I’d have such fun torturing them!

4. HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS WORK? Hmmm… I write. Not enough? Well…for BLIND TEMPATION I came up with the idea of having a blind character (like Auggie on Covert Affairs). Then I came up with a vampire forced to take driver’s ed. I started writing from that. As for GHOSTLY INTERLUDE… I was given a prompt on another blog and came up with a beginning to a story. Didn’t know which story. Vampire or ghost? Well, turned out to be ghost and I already had the perfect man for my damsel in distress. I started writing from that.

And what am I writing when I’m writing? Sometimes it’s just dialogue. I have my characters talk. You’d be surprised at how much I learn just from that. Of course, it makes for a very thin first draft (or a lengthy outline), but once the story is in place, I go back and “beef” it up by adding descriptions and emotional content. So far the process is working. I haven’t NOT finished a book yet. Can I pat myself on the back for that?

This is the part where I’m supposed to tag up to three other authors. Unfortunately, I haven’t had any takers, so this arm of the blog hop will die with me.

So…did you read to the end? Did you find this interesting? Are you anxiously awaiting me to finish these stories so you can go out and buy them? Huh? Huh? You can be honest! J

Have a great Monday!!

Stacy