The Writing Process–Author Blog Tour

Hi everyone!

Let’s let the blog-roll keep on going.  Thanks to my friend Dev (go visit her website when you get a chance…I linked it over there to the right) for asking me to participate on the Author Blog Tour.  It’s a quick few questions for authors to answer.  Short, sweet, and a little chance to get to know what’s happening in the author’s world.

Ready?  Ready!

Question Number ONE

What am I working on?

Oh how the fish have nibbled, but how they haven’t quite taken the big bite.  A while back, I received a kind rejection letter from a gaming company regarding some possible  freelance work for them.  One of my sci-fi pieces made it to the editor’s desk, they asked me for a follow-up piece, and then passed.  Close but no cigar.

This thing is called Eli 1.0.  It’s from Fantasy Flight Games  Android Netrunner.  If you play the game and see Eli, he can cause you problems.

In regards to picture book world, I’ve been working on a few different projects.  One of the editors at Two Lions (who now owns my book Baby Bear Eats the Night) and I have been going over a few manuscripts to see if they are ready to move forward.

Good people work here. 

Finally, I’m working on another School Counseling workbook with Youthlight Inc.   I’ve signed that contract some-time ago and the publisher and I are working through the details of getting it ready.  The turn-around time for workbooks are A LOT faster than picture books, so if all goes well, I’ll have a new school counseling book out in August or September.

Yup–that’s my School Counseling workbook!

As you can see–between Science Fiction Gaming Companies, Picture Book World, and School Counseling World, I like to put a lot of eggs in different baskets.  I think if I sold toasters for a living, I would probably try to write a Toaster Selling Handbook for Beginners.

I mean, I just love writing.

Question Number TWO

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Great question, Author Blog Tour!

I love writing about an Accepted Reality.  Why can’t a bear eat the sky?  If you take a look at my “Writing a Story Series” you’ll see that one of my favorite styles is to take the fantastic and make it an accepted idea.  Of course monsters are real!  Why wouldn’t they be?  The problem isn’t that monsters are real–the problem is that my main character can’t catch one!

To me, it’s fun to flip up the idea of the “profound.”  Rather than be surprised by the unnatural (or supernatural), I love it when characters are more like, “…But of course…”

Perhaps they even say that with some type of smarmy accent.

Question Number THREE

Why do I write what I write?

Shall we get existential?  No?  Oh.  Okay.

I think I write for the same reason that I enjoy a good fantasy fiction story or playing chess with a friend.  It kind of scratches that itch in my brain.  When I write, it’s like I get swallowed up into the screen.  There are times where I stop seeing the words on the page…I just see STORY in my mind.  It’s exciting and makes me feel incredibly happy to see ideas, worlds, and dreams happen.

For what it is worth, I think I would write even if the only people reading my stories were friends (and those in my critique group).  Writing makes my brain feel happy.

[side note--especially if you haven't read my Writing a Story series...FIND A CRITIQUE GROUP!  You will be a better writer for it.  Maybe even a happier human.  End side note]

Question Number FOUR

How does my individual writing process work?

Sorry for bringing this up one more time…but, I kind of touched on this at length with my 6 part series on writing.  But if you don’t want to read six parts of someone’s writing process, I can give you the more fun, slightly exaggerated version:

It starts with a small image or a small event.  And then turns into something I can’t stop thinking about.  Then it becomes something I just knead and knead inside my head.  Images show up.  I hear possible sentences happen.  Sometimes a story arc even appears.

My goodness–it sounds like a hallucinogenic experience.

Thanks for reading…onto the next author!  Who will it be?  Who WILL IT BE?

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