Do you write one book at a time or do you have several going at a time?
Due to my rapid release schedule, I'll have several books going on at the same time. I will have one manuscript that's in it's rough draft stage and being written. Sometimes I'll have two books in the manuscript phase. Then there is one in the editing stage where I'm trying to clean up a story and get it prepped for publishing.
If you could have been the author of any book ever written, which book would you choose?
My books speak to me so I'm proud to have my name attached to them. While I adore Dorothy Parker's work, H.C. Anderson's fairy tales and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. I don't think I could take ownership of those works. I would rather meet with them and discuss their works and hang out with them.
Pen
or type writer or computer?
I typically will write on
the computer since that's where I'm comfortable to work on. But there
are times when it's best for me to hand write it out so I'll keep a
notebook with me and I'll write it out in pencil. I dislike writing
in pen since I make too many adjustments and I want a page to look
more or less clean. Scratch out marks will bug me.
Tell us about a favorite character from your books.
I have two. Scotty Wheiland. He's always been the hero for me and the one that I dream about the most in a sexual way. It's why he's my first hero and he appears in every book thus far. Then I also love Klaus Lagerfield. Like Scotty, he's appeared in all the books but with him you get to see a real character development. In the Loving the Sound Series, he started off as a kid of three and right now is currently age six in that series. Then in the Loving the Puckers series, he's now twenty six. He gets his love story first and then plays a role in the friend group that the subsequent books come from. So while you still see that kid from before, you see him turn into a real man.
What made you want to become an author and do you feel it was the right decision?
It
happened over time. As a little girl, I thought Murder, She Wrote was
amazing and I wanted to live a life like Jessica Fletcher and be an
author but I seldom voiced that it seemed crazy and something that
couldn't happen.
In high school and
university, I knew that I needed to improve my writing skills so
I joined a Star Trek roleplaying site. I realized I love creating
stories and it was a great way to hone my writing. Then
when I lived in Pittsburgh that urge to write was still there but I
wasn't being satisfied as much through the Star Trek roleplaying
site. At the urging of my ex and my family, I was encouraged to
join some groups in the area to create a social circle. I joined the
Homestead Writers Circle that met at a local Barnes & Noble.
It gave me a platform to learn about writing and share some of my
short stories. I started a couple urban fantasy pieces but those
never really got off the ground. I left the group when I moved
back to Philly for a second round of grad school. Due to school, I
stopped writing for a bit. Then I saw that the leader of the Writers
group in Pittsburgh passed away and I realized I didn't want to pass
away without completing my goal of becoming a novelist and publishing
my books. I told myself it was time to write a novel and to
continue working on it no matter what. At the time, I was
reading a lot of hockey romance and I wanted to write my own. I know
the sport, I liked the structure of a romance novel and I went for
it. I finished my first novel in a span of a year.
While my closest friends and people in Cleveland aren't surprised that I'm writing hockey romance novels. I surprised a lot of other people since they always saw me in the urban fantasy or sci-fi realm since that's what my interest was for so long but I couldn't finish a story in those genres.
It
was totally the right decision to become an author. I loved the idea
of being an author and respect them so much. I have these
stories in my head that I want to share. After I finish one
story, I have another story that I want to write. As a result,
I now have three novels and five novellas completely written with
more in the works.
A day in the life of the author?
It means writing everyday and being curious about how to improve my writing. This means reading books on the craft of writing, taking various webinars, and listening to my more successful peers. I also read books in my niche. I wouldn't be writing hockey romance books if I didn't adore hockey romance novels as a reader. I'll read while I'm on the bus commuting between my two jobs. I make sure that I'm writing at least a thousand words a day. That means writing whenever I have a break or conceptualizing stories when I can. Since I work two jobs in addition to my writing, I'm also doing things like teaching swim lessons or lifeguarding the swim team.
What is your writing process? For instance do you do an outline first? Do you do the chapters first? What are common traps for aspiring writers?
I'm a pantser who needs a basic outline. I will do about a six line outline with the major plot points that I want to hit. From there the story will develop and sometimes the story will take a left turn that I wasn't expecting but it turns out to be a good thing.
I think the common traps are getting too attached to a method and not being willing to adjust to a story as it's needed. There are times I think of the story out of order but I want to write everything all at once but that always isn't the answer. I can tend to write better stories if I write what's coming to my head.
How long on average does it take you to write a book?
My novellas will take about a month to really write and get ready for publication. Those tend to come to me in a more complete story and I know where I want to go with it from on the onset. The novels are something that's harder for me to predict and take longer. Falling Fast took me about a year. Crashing Hard took me six months. Stepping Up took me four months. My next novel looks like it'll be the same amount of time.
Do you believe in writer’s block?
I do but I don't think it's a traditional idea of writer's block.
One of the things I studied and find fascinating is positive psychology. Within in the field of positive psychology, one of the most zen and productive periods of people are when they are in a state of flow. Concentration is there, you're at your peak performance, and things just emerge. I've often gone into states of flow when I'm writing my stories. Things are coming out and it's effortless.
I'll say that I've hit a writer's block when I'm not working in flow. The words are coming in at a trickle. Then I get frustrated and I will fight the story more. I used to go into a stage where I stopped writing. After reading books about successful leaders and people, I learned how you should do it regardless how easy or hard it is. So I'll continue to write a thousand words a day and I try to take the stress off myself since flow isn't something we can be in constantly. Professional athletes have bad games/performances, business leaders make bad decisions and etc. For writers when we'll have periods when things start to dry up. Then the next thing I know that the story is coming together and I'm in my state of flow.
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