#Writing Process Blog Tour

I’ve been tagged by the fabulous Jami Gray, urban fantasy and paranormal suspense author, to participate in this blog hop that introduces you to author’s you may not know and gives a little insight into each author’s writing process.

I’m tagging Alisha Paige who writes under several pen names in a variety of genres. I’m supposed to tag three, but Alisha was the only one I found that hadn’t done the blog hop already. 🙂

Now for my four questions:

What am I working on?
Several things actually. I’m currently writing a new paranormal romance featuring a witch and a hunky guy set in a small East Texas town full of secrets and mystery tentatively called PETALS & POTIONS. It’s been a lot of fun to write so far. I hope to have the draft done by early June. I’m also rewriting my contemporary romance, SEX, LUST & MARTINIS for May release. Learn how you can be a walk-on character in that book! And lastly, I’m preparing my first urban fantasy, TWO STEPS FROM HELL, for serialization starting in June with weekly releases and the full novel release in late August. It’s going to be kickass.

How Does My Work Differ from Others of its Genre?
Hard question. I like taking story tropes and turning them on their head. I also like adding an element of the paranormal – fairies, dragons, elves, etc. For my UF/PNR/Fantasy stories, there is usually some type of magic involved. There is always a super evil bad guy. There is always the main theme of Good vs. Evil. I suppose that’s my thing. 😉 My contemporary romances feature strong heroines who know what they want and how to get it. And they all drink coffee!

Why Do I Write What I Do?
Because I love it. It’s a form of escapism for me and something that lets me mentally check out for the moment. I love being in that world with my characters and creating their stories. It’s so much fun. I’ve always loved stories about other places, other lands, with magic and mayhem. I guess that’s what draws me to the UF/PNR/Fantasy worlds.

How Does Your Writing Process Work?
It’s different from book to book. I’m mostly a “pantser” – I write by the seat of my pants. But lately I’ve been trying to train myself to be more of a plotter. It’s hard for me because I never know what’s going to happen until I start writing. So I’ve allowed myself a compromise: idea, some pre-plotting to get the high concept down, and then start writing. I usually have to go back and figure out backstory or story problems before I can move on. That’s about one quarter through the book. If I’m writing a series, I try to have an over-arching story arc, either plot or character or both. For my UF, I plotted the entire series from book one to book five to figure out my main character’s story arc as well as figure out some of the major plot points for each book. It’s my roadmap. Book one is finished and will be serialized this summer. Book two is in the back of my head as it waits for its turn in the queue. 😉

Thank you for stopping by. Remember to check Jami’s from last week. And on March 31st please remember to visit ALISHA to learn more about her.