Ask the Author: Errin Stevens
Answered Questions (10)
Errin Stevens
Hi Felicia - You just made my day! Thank you for asking about Outrush, which is so deep in the works but not yet done, dang it. I had my favorite editor noodle over it during the holidays and she just got back to me this morning with some thoughts, meaning your question is kind of prescient! My hope is to bring it out late 2018, and I kind of can't wait. It is my favorite so far of this series... but then all my babies are my favorites when I'm working on them so you probably shouldn't listen to me. Happy New Year to you!
Errin Stevens
There aren't really any I can think of... mostly because the books I love always have some mortally dangerous element that makes their settings too frightening to move to. I mean, much as I loved Harry Potter, wouldn't want to run into Voldemort. Or worse, Aragog. Other places have too many snipers or warlords or poisons or white walkers... so I think I'll just sit tight here in Minnesota and keep to my garden and mermaid stories, thank you. ;-)
Errin Stevens
So... in one branch of my family three generations back, there's some evidence that a youngest daughter died by nefarious means. The death was ruled an accident by officials, but a deathbed confession of one of the great uncles - and a certain family dynamic protected to this day among the siblings of the girl - present compelling evidence of foul play.
Errin Stevens
That is an evil question and you are an evil person to ask it 'cause this could take me HOURS to answer... okay, I'm kidding/teasing you. I actually love this kind of rumination and always wonder this same thing about other authors I like to read. So, with the caveat that there are manymanymanymany fictional couples who make my heart go pitter-pat, I'll seize on this one for now: Seth and Raine from "Behind Closed Doors" by Shannon McKenna.
Maybe it's more their context - romance steeped in high-octane suspense - but I adore their mix of humor and heart; the way they relate to each other with the best of intentions; and the passion between them, which is foundationally, deliciously complex. (Okay I'm sorry I dissed you now. This was a great question and I had fun answering it. :-) )
Maybe it's more their context - romance steeped in high-octane suspense - but I adore their mix of humor and heart; the way they relate to each other with the best of intentions; and the passion between them, which is foundationally, deliciously complex. (Okay I'm sorry I dissed you now. This was a great question and I had fun answering it. :-) )
Errin Stevens
Updrift was probably kick-started when I was eight and a rabid read-a-holic and constantly stuck in my own head. I loved to swim and pretend I was a siren, would shut out the world for hours while I made-believe I was a beautiful siren princess. And I was and am such a fiction addict, I know I began interpreting as a child every experience I had via some story-telling lens I put between myself and reality. In this way, I think Updrift has always been with me, although I didn't give myself permission to try and write it until a few years ago. And as I said earlier, it probably started with a question I asked myself, "How would I tell this story if it were mine?"
Errin Stevens
That word "inspired" is kind of a challenge for me, because writing and inspiration are not often close companions in my work, at least not when I'm in fact writing at my desk. I do start a story with an overall idea/drive to say something or explore some 'what if...?' proposition, usually from something I've read, or an interaction I can't stop thinking over. And there is a kind of switch that goes off in my head that I literally cannot turn off. For instance, I might read a novel that really gets to me, and I think, "How would I tell that story? What about it is most compelling to me?" When I'm thinking about an idea day and night, I know it will be strong enough to carry me through what is for me the very long process of manuscript development.
Errin Stevens
I am still wrestling with my third manuscript, Outrush; and I'm thinking in the most sideways fashion imaginable about reading through my second, Breakwater, with an eye toward the editing I was asked to do on Updrift.
Errin Stevens
I'm afraid I have the same tired advice everyone else does: stay with it. Maintain a disciplined approach to writing so you do it every day or darn near every day, invest yourself in your ideas and any peripheral research they require, and work constantly to refine your writing and your stories. You already know this, I'm sure, but you'll face a crippling amount of rejection... and you cannot allow this to stop you.
Errin Stevens
The best thing for me is also the worst thing: the autonomy, the freedom to create something from whatever idea I decide to work with. The downside is there's no one else to relieve the burden of responsibility I feel for my work. Even when I blow off writing to focus on the production or business side of what I do, I'm never free of my "job." But I love it.
Errin Stevens
I fake it! No seriously, writer's block is no different than any other challenge related to writing, and the only way I can work through it is to sit in front of my laptop and make little charges at my ideas until I break through. The trick for me really is to break whatever problem I'm facing into smaller components and address them that way. Otherwise I feel overwhelmed and the problem gets too big for me.
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