Saturday, September 13, 2014

Fabulous 5 Blog Hop

Okay, I know I'm well past my own deadline on Ben and Gavin's first time, but that doesn't surprise anyone who knows me! Since I'm so late for *that* post, maybe I should get off my butt and post my answers to the Fabulous 5 Blog Hop!

I was tagged by the amazing Piper Vaughn.

What am I working on?

Ha! That kind of depends on the day? I have several (too many?) projects going, so, have a list!

Ben and Gavin’s (untitled) first time is almost ready for beta. What was supposed to be a little 2K erotic scene to get me writing again turned into a short story because letting those two talk to me was A Bad Idea.

Irrevocable (working title) is Monty’s story. A lot of readers loved to hate him and, well, I wanted to slap him too, but he’s not such a bad guy once you get to know him. Skip liked him well enough to throw away several years on him. And, I really like watching his new love (yes, love!) interest rake his ass over the coals on a regular basis.

Breakthrough is a short story about an older man who finds love in an unexpected place. I’ve been polishing that one for a while now and it’s nearly ready for a second round of beta.

Between Now and Never is a novella dealing with life in the closet, suicide, and second chances. The angst in that one pretty much guts me, so it’s slow going for now.

I’ve got a few others on the backburner, but those are the ones I’m hoping to finish by the end of this year. Which means I'll be lucky to get them finished before the end of 2015. >_<

How does my work differ from others in its genre?

This is kind of a cheat answer, because it applies to all the authors I’ve read in the M/M Romance genre, but I think (hope?) my characters feel real and unique to readers and my dialogue seems natural. I think we all take parts of our real life, or people we know or have met, and weave bits and pieces of them into our stories, so each story and each character is as different as the author writing them. It’s really one of the most beautiful things about writing, or any art form for that matter. Give ten authors the same prompt and you’re going to get back ten very different stories. Shifters, BDSM, fluffy romance, full on erotica, mystery, time travel… and every character would be different. That’s amazing, isn’t it?

Why do I write what I do?

My first thought is simply “because I love it” but I love high fantasy novels and mysteries too. I couldn’t write one worth reading.  I guess I write what I do because those are the characters who speak to me. They pop into my head and tell me their stories and I write them down. I’ve written a couple of (unpublished) het stories too, but M/M Romance is simply where my heart is.

How does my writing process work?

Lol, when it’s working, it usually goes something like this: I hear a song or see someone on the street corner or have a dream and I start to see their story play in my head like a movie. I write down the scene, then the characters start talking. I pound out 10K or so and then read it back and maybe don’t hate it. Then I keep writing a few more days, get to the halfway point, start making notes on what I’ve written and maybe a few points of what I think is going to happen—because my first synopsis to a Dreamspinner nearly killed me. Seriously, I had A Simple Romance FINISHED for over a year before I sent it in because of the synopsis—then I usually take a break from it for a while. I come back to it, look at my notes and read what I already have, then I write some more. I almost never have a plan and pretty much everything you read is spontaneously written in fits and starts. When I finish, I’ll send it off to beta, then pick at it for a while. This is why it takes me roughly two years from spark of idea to sending it in with a query. I’m trying to get better and really focus on one project at a time, trying to get to a point where I can maybe send in a manuscript every 3-4 months, but, uh, that goal is probably a long way off.

The free reads I’ve done for Don’t Read in the Closet are a little different. I get two months for those. Nothing more. Two months. Which is why they’re usually very short. The first time I signed up for that event, I ended up getting horribly sick and then having to do a bunch of stuff for my best friend’s wedding. I wrote Pillow Talk in roughly four days. Maybe I just really need do-or-die deadlines?

Who’s next on the blog hop?

Kade Boehme, Hank Edwards, and RJ Scott! There were supposed to be five, but, uh, those three are fabulous enough to make up for the other two. >_>

Also, I was going to tag the wonderful Nico Jaye, but Piper got to her first. You can check out her answers here. :D