I want to thank K-lee Klein, at http://chaosinthemoonlight.blogspot.ca, for involving me in this blog hop.  She posted her writing process story a couple of weeks prior.  Be sure to check out her story too.  It’s fascinating and looks strangely familiar… 🙂  As you will see, she and I share similar writing process points. <3

I wanted to say how I got involved in this blog hop.  It wasn’t a scheduled, or themed, event.  Well, no more than you had three steps and find others who want to join: It was done by word of mouth.  K-Lee posted to her Facebook status looking for a third person to continue the blog hop along with the requirements.  I was the first person to comment:

“Sure. Sign me up.”

Then we finalized the details in Facebook Chat:  She sent me the rules, I sent her my blog info and short bio.  I so totally looked at her blog post when she posted to get an idea of formatting and asked to steal her picture to the right.  🙂 So, here I go with my questions!  Enjoy!

1) What am I working on?

I have just finished my first story to be published in the summer 2014 Cover Artist: Karrie Jax(June/July/August),  submitting it by May 1st to the moderators at M/M Romance Group on Goodreads.com for their Don’t Read in the Closet Love’s Landscape Event called Charon’s Dilemma.  I’m currently in the works editing it *brain frying* and it will be published in the event page in the group and in stand-alone anthologies following the initial publication in the group in the summer.

Did I mention it’s free?

All of the stories, and there are over 200 of them, are free.  The anthologies will be free as well.  If you are not a member, come join to see the fun we have!  Thank you to Karrie Jax for creating my lovely cover for Charon’s Dilemma.

I’m currently working on my three works in progress (WIPs) that I have been working on since I started this mess called writing in November of 2012.  The my first novel is called Space Love.  It is the first story I actively created about a tiger shifter and space travel and may turn into a series.  The second  is a short story called Elf Magic and is loosely based on the original Brothers’ Grimms Fairy Tale: Cat-Skin.  It’s not that dark, though.  Finally, the third story is an untitled urban fantasy novella about a very old Druid.  I’m sure I will have others.  I have been getting bitten by the muses every so often and another story line, character, or scene is born. Sigh.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre? 

Based on what I read and write, my work is different from others in that I write LGBT Romance that crosses genres.  All four works have more than one, and sometimes divergent, genres represented.  Charon’s Dilemma is Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Paranormal Romance.  Space Love is Science Fiction and Paranormal Romance.   Elf Magic is Fantasy, History, and Paranormal Romance.  Finally, the untitled Druid story is Urban Fantasy, sometimes called Contemporary Fantasy and a genre on it own now, Romance.  There is transgender, gay, and bisexual in these stories and I will probably dip into lesbian as well.  Orientation will cross-pollinate because everyone is different and there is a lot of diversity out there.  Never mind that people change over time and what ones’ orientation may be when younger could have changed later in life.

Diversity in genres, orientations, and life is pretty different and make interesting stories.  What do you think?

3) Why do I write what I do? 

Because when the muses hit you upside the head with a clue-by-four (think two-by-four and a strong arm and you get the picture), you listen.  I’ve dabbled in writing since I was young, mostly with poetry.  I never thought I could write anything in prose. I went through my teens, twenties and most of my thirties building a family, working in the tech industry in some form or fashion, and reading romance, science fiction, fantasy, paranormal, urban fantasy (before it was called that), and even historical romances.  If it interested me, I read it.  Then I found M/M Romance stories, and the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads, and I was hooked.  Inspiration abounded.  I found more related groups, and started hanging out to find beta reading because I love to read and I was running out stories to find.  If there is a lot of editing needed, it makes my brain hurt but I do it because I enjoy the stories, even if they are in their infancy.  Most authors usually have it polished somewhat but there were a few that needs some extra help.  And those people started telling me I should write.

“Yeah, right,” I said.

“No, really, you can do it,” They said.

I had already started blogging, and creating more poetry after a long hiatus, so the creative juices were there.  Enough people said it that I started to think maybe there was something to this writing thing.  SMACK. You remember that clue-by-four I was talking about? Well, apparently, I hadn’t been paying attention to the clues the universe was telling me and it upgraded to a bigger whack upside the head, figuratively speaking of course. Mostly. And I started listening to those muses and here I am about to be a published author.  Baby steps for, as I like to call myself, a baby author.  I think that is a good start.  Don’t you?

4) How does your writing process work?

Let’s see… I’m what some author’s have dubbed a “panster.”  I basically write by the seat of my pants.  🙂 I’m not an outliner, a “plotter,” but I do little notes to myself (Evernote is your friend) both in my notes program and within the piece itself.  World building would be a separate file.  Reminding me what I was thinking in a particular scene? Bracketed information. 🙂 Sometimes, I get ideas while drive.  Then, I attached a voice note to my notes program.  Best. App. Ever.  Never mind the ideas that come at 4 am. Sigh.  I write it down and hope that I can use them later.

I haven’t written a piece the same way twice yet.  Space Love basically started with the first chapter and I’m on chapter 3 or 4 now.  Lots of world building.  I will probably go back and add a prologue since I’m mostly writing about one character right now.  Elf Magic went in scenes, starting with the last one first then the first and some parts in the middle.  It’s a Hodge-Podge of things as ideas hit.  Editing is going to be interesting on that one.  The Druid one basically started out with the first paragraph but it’s much shorter and it flowed really well.  Sometimes the main character, the Druid, starts waving frantically at me wanting attention.  Yes, dear.  I’ll be there soon.  I’m still not sure where it’s going yet.  Last, but not least, is Charon’s Dilemma.  It was from a prompt someone posted and had two pictures.  We, the authors, were to pick our prompt and write based on what the prompter wanted.  There were two prompts and I picked the one I got.  I’ve enjoyed writing it.  It, too, was one that the scene came to me in bursts and they were not necessarily in order.  The last scene was the toughest.  Come to find out editing is tougher than creating that last scene.  *still have the sweats and I have only a week left before submission time*

And now, we conclude this writer’s process of putting keyboard strokes to electronic paper to create a labor of love.  Especially when fighting a computer that doesn’t want me to work on it longer than a day before it has an issue with it’s wireless adapter.  Be sure to check out my friend’s blogs over the next three weeks on what they do for their writing processes.

MAY 3 – LEXI ANDERS

Lexi has always been an avid reader and at a young age started reading (secretly) her mother’s romances (the ones she was told not to touch). She was the only teenager she knew of who would be grounded from reading. Later, with a pencil and a note book, she wrote her own stories and shared them with friends because she loved to see their reactions. A Texas transplant, Lexi now kicks her boots up in the Midwest with her Yankee husband and her 80 lbs. puppies named after vacuum cleaners. Website: http://www.lexiander.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/LexiAnder1 Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lexi.ander.9

MAY 10 – LESLIE LEE SANDERS

The author of several books of fiction with spice, Leslie Lee Sanders resides in Queen Creek, Arizona, with her husband, three
daughters, and a wild beast she calls her imagination. She’s known for writing erotic romance, mostly in the MM and MMF categories, and recently plunged into writing deep, dark romantic sci-fi with her post-apocalyptic and dystopian series, Refuge Inc. She’s published with Breathless Press and Xcite Books.

MAY 10 – ALINA POPESCU

Writer, traveler, and coffee addict, Alina Popescu has been in love with books all her life. She started writing when she was ten and even won awards in local competitions. She has always been drawn to sci-fi, fantasy, and the supernatural realm, which explains her deep love for vampires and is also to blame for this trilogy.

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MAY 17 – VICKTOR ALEXANDER

Vicktor Alexander (everyone calls him “Vic”) is a southern gentleman by day, and a writer and purveyor of steamy, sticky, hot man on man (sometimes on man on man on man on man on man) sex by night. He started out writing about his sister
destroying the world with her breath, went on to writing steamy, erotic interracial historical romances in the middle of his classes but noticed the guys seemed to enjoy each other’s company much more than being with the women. He now enjoys writing about shifters, humanoids, cowboys, firemen, rent boys, fairies, elves, dancers, doctors, Doms, Subs, and anything else that catches his fancy, all sexy men falling in love with each other and having lots of naughty, dirty, man-on-man sex. He is a huge fan of the “happily-ever-after” ending, but while all his characters all ride off into the proverbial sunset, all sexually satisfied and in love (because it’s the least he can do), they all bear the scars of fighting for that love, just like in real life. Out and proud, he doesn’t believe that love only comes in one form, one race, one gender and that not only is gender fluid, by sexuality as well. He loves to make people laugh (and guys hot) and when he’s not writing, or rather, procrastinating in writing, he’s reading, playing the Sims 3, talking to his adopted daughter whom he calls Chipmunk, seeking the man or men who can handle his crazy, stressful, soap opera-esque life and being distracted from said writing by pictures of John Barrowman, Charlie David and Shemar Moore. All interested men in the role of “Future Husband(s) may apply, auditions are being held every night… multiple times.