I love plugging my fellow authors – treating
someone who wanders by this page to information about books I’ve enjoyed. So
when I was invited to this Pass the Baton
blog hop, I couldn’t resist.
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| All Hallows at Eyre Hall cover |
I was twice tagged for this hop, and so introduce
you to two authors:
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| Luccia Gray |
The first is Luccia
Gray. Luccia blogs about Victorian literature and just published the first
volume of her Eyre Hall Trilogy, All
Hallows at Eyre Hall. It promises to be a dark and stormy one . . . [I
was lucky enough to be a beta reader, so can’t wait to read the final version].
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| Martyn V. Halm [too cool for school] |
The second author to tag me is Martyn V. Halm. Martyn’s addiction to verisimilitude in fiction has
produced the Amsterdam Assassin Series – about which I can’t say enough
marvellous things – featuring my current-favourite heroine Katla Sietjes.
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| Reprobate cover |
Visit
Martyn's phenomenal blog here,
and take a look-see at his Amazon
author page for all of his works. And seriously, read the books.
So, my turn to answer questions! I feel I’ve been writing a lot recently about my writing [LOL], so this will be the last for a long time. [Whew.]
What
am I working on?
I’m in the final edits for my next novel, The Value of Vulnerability. This book
shouldn’t be taking so long to finish, but my H is a sociopath – or perhaps
just borderline – so making him both sociopathic and likeable is a damnable
trial. It’s the story of two people who have suffered damages and deal with
those damages in different ways: the h, Erin, generally lets things wash over
her and moves on with her life; H, Ford, hoards hurts and seeks revenge for
slights whenever he can . . . and sees no problem with doing so!
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| The Value of Vulnerability cover |
I’m also participating in a very cool Facebook
event, Clever Quickies
Monday, wherein a writer must construct a unique passage in 140
characters or less. An exercise in economical writing, I’m determined to write
an entire short work comprised of these passages, to be shared at some future
date on this blog.
How
does my work differ from others in this genre?
Well,
there’s that sociopathic H. In most romances, the troubled H is rescued by his
love for h. In VV, I want him to
retain his character and rescue himself. I dislike when sober and/or cold h/Hs
turn warm and fuzzy and full of buoyant humour through their HEA. Love does
many things, but I don’t believe people at
their baseline essence really change. Not often, at any rate. So when Ford
“rescues” himself, he’s still going to be a sociopath – which is not inherently
a bad thing.
Why
do I write what I write?
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| A Bird Without Wings cover |
I
fell in love with romances at a young age and, always having wanted to write,
chose that genre as my go-to. I love thrillers and suspense, but I don’t write
plot-driven things well, and prefer character studies. I also like breaking clichés.
[In my last novel, A Bird Without Wings,
my h is smarter than her H. You almost never see that – at least, not
obviously.] And I love to write escapism. While I enjoy reading books that deal
with controversial subjects, I’m not fond of writing them . . .
How
does your writing process work?
I’m a pantser – that is, I write without an outline.
I imagine a scene and mull it over in my head for a [sometimes long] while,
then eventually get it down; hopefully a plot evolves from there. I work in
Word, drink copious amounts of coffee and sometimes wine [but cut off my wine
consumption at one-point-five glasses . . . there’s a fine line between in vino veritas and blathering with
typos].
I usually work on several projects at once; I find
it helps keep me fresh, and working on one novel can inspire another that’s
stalling. It’s also a handy procrastination tool. I’m a champion procrastinator
. . . except no one’s handing out awards for that!
Research is done while I’m writing, for the most
part. My characters start doing things I know nothing of, and so I have to stop
and check, making sure the things they’re doing are really possible. I love
knowing the correct name of things. I hate writing description. I love
inverting axioms. I hate rewriting. I love editing. [Yes, these are two
different things.]
Introducing . . .
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| Fire Angel cover |
Susanne Lee Matthews is
a romance novelist and fellow Ontarian, and I’ve been following her brilliant blog
for some time. Check out her Amazon
author page and the story of her writing process in this
post.
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| Chains of Prophecy cover |
Jason P. Crawford’s latest novel is the urban
fantasy Chains
of Prophecy.
Read about his writing process next week on his site.
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| Mad Days of Me I: Escaping Barcelona cover |
Henry Martin – ah, what does one write about
Henry? I recently read a review where he was dubbed “Minstrel Martin”. No
argument here. I’ve read nearly all of his work, including the dark and brilliant
Mad Days of Me trilogy. Discover more
about Henry at his Amazon
author page, and check out his blog, where he’ll be
posting about his writing process soon.
