Bounty Blog Tour Questions
What do you do to unwind and relax?
I do a few things. About a year or so back I caved and got a VR system. I admit it was because there was a particular game I wanted to play. Beat Saber, I play this nearly every day and I have to say I’m pretty good. I certainly wouldn’t video myself doing it for others to see, but I can hold my own!
I also do other gaming. I call myself nerd-adjacent, because I like to game, but not all the time. I ebb and flow. When I ebb though, you’ll find me controlling lives in Sims 2(only sims 2 because it’s the best out of the franchise. Don’t get me started!) Taking over lands in Age of Empires, or killing squishy things in Ratchet and Clank. I’ve also been known to raid some tomes.
The biggest thing I do to unwind is craft. I work with sculpy clay and for some time I used to make Christmas bear ornaments. But last year I switched to dragons I’ve come up with a few ideas of different types of dragons. I find this to be very relaxing.
What are you passionate about these days?
A little over ten years ago I took an online photography course. It was just before digital camera’s were popular and smart phones were starting to make their debuts. (Yes, that long ago.) Anyway, photography was something I had always loved, mostly night skies. I badly wanted to get a telescope to hook my camera to so I could take astronomy photos. Then my writing started taking up my thougts and the photography fell away.
I’ve been following a number of different photographers and photo tip sites and would really like to get back into it again.
Describe yourself in 5 words or less!
I’m loyal, passionate, hilarious, sarcastic, and a little weird.
As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
A dragon, absolutely without a doubt. Mind you I am finding the older I get the more I sleep. So maybe my spirit animal is a cat, or an extremely lazy dragon.
What inspired you to write this book?
I had just come off of writing a four book series over about five years. I wanted to try something different, a kind of cleansing of the palate. So I decided to write a standalone title. So I wouldn’t say that I was inspired, just a little series fatigued and needed a short break.
How did you come up with the concept and characters for the book?
When I started writing Bounty I knew I wanted the characters to be from another world and that they suffered an illness that would cause a confused amnesia type state.
The idea of them being from Greek mythology had come much later in the writing. I was several chapters in when the idea of them being Gods came to me. When I started researching the different Gods I knew I wanted to do a slightly different take on it.
How did you come up with name of this book?
It’s really very simple. The main character, Rion, is a bounty hunter. But very quickly in we discover that he is no longer the hunter but the hunted, he’s the Bounty.
What did you edit out of this book?
I actually edited out the original ending to the book. About two or three chapters at the end of the book were taken out and another six were added in. My beta readers for this book felt it was unsatisfying and left too much open.
I too felt a little unsatisfied with the ending so completely rewrote it. It went from a 59k book to nearly 80k.
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing since about 2009-2010, I’ve been writing full time since 2012.
What kind of research do you do before you begin writing a book?
Normally I don’t do much research since I work in worlds of complete fantasy. But for Bounty I had to do a great deal of learning about Greek Gods. Their connections to one another, what they were gods of. I was surprised to find out what an incestuous bunch they all are. LOL.
A day in the life of the author?
My days are pretty boring really. Even before covid. However this year is looking a little different because I have decided on a few changes. Normally I would do my words for the day and then move to the TV. This year though that routine has changed.
I do watch a little TV in the morning, then I will do an hour or so of learning about marketing, writing, publishing. I would spend some time making sure my promos are ready, set up event dates. Then I do at least an hour of writing.
Normally I would be prepping for a launch every four months but this year is a “gap” year for me. So I won’t be launching anything new so that I can concentrate on just writing, learning how to be a stronger writer, and marketing.
What is your writing process? For instance do you do an outline first? Do you do the chapters first?
I was always 100% a pantser, I would just sit and start typing. Eventually the story would unfold in front of me. I would also never write in sequence. My thoughts would be everywhere. From chapter eight to chapter two then back to fifteen.
Now I’m trying a slightly different method. I will always be a pantser, but I have also done some planning out when writing a series. The main plot line, the arc across several books will be thought out. Decided on before I start. But how I get there will be pantsed.
As well, my way of writing will switch from the chaos that I normally do to a consecutive order chapter one through to the end. I have found in the last two books, that when I wrote the final chapters in order I was able to write faster and there was less “fixing” in the editing process.
What are common traps for aspiring writers?
Sometimes they get ahead of themselves. Many new writers haven’t even started writing and are already asking about how to publish. Yes, publishing is the end goal, but it is not the first step. The first step is to actually write the book then think about publishing it.
A huge trap though, one that I see far too often and not only with new writers. It’s the editing while writing trap. Which sometimes runs hand in hand with critique groups/partners. My way of writing and the way I tell anyone who asks what they should do, is get everything down first. Finish that first draft BEFORE editing any of it. Always move forward. If you are constantly editing and reediting the same chapter and you only have two chapters, you will never finish the book.
This is a huge obstacle for many writers.
What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?
Their speech and the way they would react to a situation. It’s the same with age, a sixteen year old, thirty year old, and eighty year old will all react to the same situation differently.
Thank you for the wonderful spotlight!
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