writing

How much of myself is in my writing?

October 12, 2018 by admin

How much of myself is in my writing?

I get asked this occasionally. The answer: some.

Every character I write has some little piece of me. Alayna, the heroine from “Air of Darkenss,” has a lot of my younger self in her. She makes many of her choices based on instinct. She has a hard time thinking outside her preconceived notions. She’s far too trusting.

For Jen, the heroine from “Inside the Fire,” I gave her some some experiences that were similar to painful episodes of my own (but hers were turned up to 11). In some ways, Jen is what I could have become, emotionally speaking, if I didn’t have friends and family around to support me through a difficult time.

Other characters have very small pieces of me. For example, Alex, the hero in “Air of Darkness,” suffers from panic attacks. So do I. I know exactly how they feel. When it came time to write them into the book, I think I did a good job of capturing how it feels for the reader.

As for the plots of the books, I write paranormal and urban fantasy. All that comes from a very active imagination. Other bits come from a lot of research. A lot comes from my favorite folklore texts. I swear, I’ve never summoned La Llorona on the banks of Lady Bird Lake in real life.

Please follow and like us:

My favorite thing I’ve written and why

September 21, 2018 by admin

I love my first book. It’s my baby. It’s funny and romantic and the characters have been with me a long time.

I thought up the basic premise for “Air of Darkness” and the Elemental Mages series back in college. That was about 15 years ago. I didn’t actively write the thing until about five years ago and finished it three years ago.

It’s been through a lot of revisions since then. It’s a very different book than the one I started with. And that’s a good thing. It’s a much better, deeper book than what I started out with, as good as I thought it was at the time.

I think the thing I love most about “Air of Darkness” is the heroine. A lot of people ask me if there’s any of me in Alayna. Not really. Alayna is aspirational. I would like to react like she does. I would like to be able to carry the burdens she does with the kind of toughness she displays. I’m not as strong or as fearless as Alayna is, but I wish I was.

At the same time, I’m glad I don’t have to deal with her problems.

But….

I also love my second book. Don’t ask me which one I love more. That’s like asking me to pick between my children. I love them both for different reasons.

I wrote “Inside the Fire,” the second book in the Elemental Mages series, in the wake of some pretty hefty trauma and it was very cathartic. I handed a lot of my own pain and experience to the heroine in that book. Then, I gave her a heap more. And I feel like it’s good and it’s real and it’s raw. Jen handles what happens to her in a very different way than I did and it was so interesting to write her story.

It was incredibly freeing to be able to write that way. There are also a lot of really fun characters in that book. Theron will always be a hero close to my heart.

“Air of Darkness” is slated for release this fall.

“Inside the Fire” will be released in early 2019.

Please follow and like us:

4 Ways to Find Your Writer Community

August 24, 2018 by admin

I’ve been thinking about my community a lot lately. My writer community. I’ve been involved in my local Romance Writers of America chapter for about 4 years now. I cannot say enough about how wonderful and welcoming this group of men and women has been.

Four years ago, I had just finished a manuscript and had no idea what to do with it. This group has walked me through the process of querying and now, self-publishing.

Let’s get something straight. Writing is hard. And it’s scary. As I prepare to publish my first book, I fully acknowledge that I would not have been able to do this without the support of the people in this writing community.

My local RWA chapter has everyone from writers that are just starting out to best-sellers who are constantly offering their time and advice. It’s amazing and I’m so lucky to be a part of it.

I will also give a shout out to the awesome romance writers on Twitter that have been a chorus of supportive voices. They are funny and helpful and you should follow them.

With all this being said, I will say that not all writers groups are created equal. When I was first starting out, before I discovered RWA, I visited some of my local writers groups that were generally focused. The reception when I told people I write romance was open derision. Noses were stuck in the air. People literally ended conversations mid-sentence and walked away when I told them what I wrote. It was sad and demoralizing and I’m so glad I didn’t let that experience keep me from finding my tribe.

So, my tips for finding your writing community:

1. Look around Twitter. Follow hashtags like #amwriting #amediting and genre-specific hashtags.

2. Find a local group of writers through either a national organization or on Meetup.com. Meeting up in person is very different from meeting online and it makes a huge difference.

3. Reach out to established writers in your genre. You’d be surprised how willing they are to help.

4. If a group doesn’t exist in your community, start one. Chances are there are other people writing the same thing you are that would love to meet you.

Please follow and like us: