Ask the Author: Michelle Hazen
Answered Questions (10)
Michelle Hazen
Do you mean Unbreak Me Wedding? It's currently available on my website, free in ebook form as a gift to my readers. My publisher has no plans to release a paperback edition, and I'm thinking it's a bit short to bother with re-formatting it for on-demand paperback. For the short pieces in my Sex, Love, and Rock and Roll series, I kept them all ebook for that reason, and also for price: once you print it you have to charge more to cover costs and that doesn't seem fair when it's a short piece. Here's the link to get the wedding ebook:
http://michellehazenbooks.com/unbreak...
BUT I do have good news. There will be another short story/novella (I think a bit more involved than the wedding story) following Breathe the Sky in which the characters in Unbreak Me and Breathe the Sky meet each other and become part of each other's lives. I feel it's the epilogue to both books because it shows (and changes) a lot of where they end up in life and makes an even happier ending for all four of them. Plus, more horses. That will be called Love Heals and I intend to release the ebook of that after Breathe the Sky has been out for a minute. Perhaps as a Christmas gift to my readers.
Thanks for reading!
http://michellehazenbooks.com/unbreak...
BUT I do have good news. There will be another short story/novella (I think a bit more involved than the wedding story) following Breathe the Sky in which the characters in Unbreak Me and Breathe the Sky meet each other and become part of each other's lives. I feel it's the epilogue to both books because it shows (and changes) a lot of where they end up in life and makes an even happier ending for all four of them. Plus, more horses. That will be called Love Heals and I intend to release the ebook of that after Breathe the Sky has been out for a minute. Perhaps as a Christmas gift to my readers.
Thanks for reading!
Michelle Hazen
So sorry I didn't see this until now! I'm working on a lot of projects, actually. My rock star romance series is all releasing this year. Pre-written so I can roll them out at binge-reading speed. After that, I've got a romantic suspense started with a group of badass female security contractors + a pair of brothers who run a Krav Maga fighting gym. Think Charlie's Angels meets Liam Neeson's TAKEN. I've also got a romance with a bit more literary bent, about a troubled rancher's daughter in Montana who falls for a black Creole cowboy from New Orleans. And, in case that's not enough, I have a YA book started, following some teen actors on a fictional TV show. Can't wait to share some of my new projects with you!
Michelle Hazen
Addiction. Dirty, inexcusable, and overwhelming addiction to writing fiction.
Michelle Hazen
This is the best question I have ever seen.
I have no idea why I have written any scenes that DON'T include wolverines.
I have no idea why I have written any scenes that DON'T include wolverines.
Michelle Hazen
Ha! How much space do I get? I rely very heavily on inspiration to know when I'm writing the right thing, so when I get blocked and have to write without inspiration, things get ugly really fast. Which is why I have an insanely long list of ways to deal with writer's block.
1. A cup of coffee and a walk in which I let my mind wander at will. Also, if you walk 10 minutes longer than you want to, those 10 minutes are usually the best.
2. Relax. For me, anxiety is ALWAYS the enemy of creativity so worrying about the writer's block and when it will end is the worst thing I can do. Easier said than done, I assure you.
3. Call my critique partner and talk about the story. She frequently has brilliant ideas for me, and even when she doesn't, just talking about it usually gets me started again.
4. Throw out everything I THINK I know about what needs to be written. Get outside the box. Do those two characters REALLY have to be the ones in this scene? Can you change the scene set up and put them somewhere else to spur some new dynamics? I find that whenever I try to make a character do something and I can't seem to write it, it's because I'm making them do the wrong thing.
5. Write something, anything. Preferably just for your own pleasure, not for any purpose
6. Read old writing of yours that you like, to remind yourself that yes, at one point you could in fact write, even if that part of your brain seems to currently be impersonating a piece of roadkill.
7. Answer Goodreads author questions as a form of procrastination before you go back to your Horrible Death Revisions That Never End. *looks guilty*
1. A cup of coffee and a walk in which I let my mind wander at will. Also, if you walk 10 minutes longer than you want to, those 10 minutes are usually the best.
2. Relax. For me, anxiety is ALWAYS the enemy of creativity so worrying about the writer's block and when it will end is the worst thing I can do. Easier said than done, I assure you.
3. Call my critique partner and talk about the story. She frequently has brilliant ideas for me, and even when she doesn't, just talking about it usually gets me started again.
4. Throw out everything I THINK I know about what needs to be written. Get outside the box. Do those two characters REALLY have to be the ones in this scene? Can you change the scene set up and put them somewhere else to spur some new dynamics? I find that whenever I try to make a character do something and I can't seem to write it, it's because I'm making them do the wrong thing.
5. Write something, anything. Preferably just for your own pleasure, not for any purpose
6. Read old writing of yours that you like, to remind yourself that yes, at one point you could in fact write, even if that part of your brain seems to currently be impersonating a piece of roadkill.
7. Answer Goodreads author questions as a form of procrastination before you go back to your Horrible Death Revisions That Never End. *looks guilty*
Michelle Hazen
Believe in yourself because if you don't, no one else will get the chance to and the message you have to offer the world will be lost.
In life, but especially in writing, there are uncountable opportunities where it seems wiser to give up than to keep going. If you keep going, you won't always succeed, but if you give up, you will always fail.
This is especially crucial in writing because you have to live the impossible Zen koan of believing you are good enough while constantly trying to get better.
Maggie Stiefvater (whose blog is like my Magic 8 Ball for life advice) wrote very wisely on this topic: http://maggiestiefvater.com/blog/in-w...
In life, but especially in writing, there are uncountable opportunities where it seems wiser to give up than to keep going. If you keep going, you won't always succeed, but if you give up, you will always fail.
This is especially crucial in writing because you have to live the impossible Zen koan of believing you are good enough while constantly trying to get better.
Maggie Stiefvater (whose blog is like my Magic 8 Ball for life advice) wrote very wisely on this topic: http://maggiestiefvater.com/blog/in-w...
Michelle Hazen
My most recently PUBLISHED book would be the In Time We Trust trilogy. I originally started that one because I loved examining the idea of how differently you would experience time and meaning if you were an immortal vampire. I had characters who were in their 20s, their 200s and their 1000s, and I tried to show how the concept of a meaningful life warps over time and becomes something very different than what we can see with our set 50-80 year lifespan.
As I wrote the books, the theme changed a bit and became more about how meaning emerges over time, and events that seemed cruel or random earlier in life start to fit into a broader picture that seems much more kind and purposeful. *laughs* And now that I think about it, that's exactly how books tend to play out: they start as a series of random events and by the end you are stunned by the beauty of how everything came to fit together.
As I wrote the books, the theme changed a bit and became more about how meaning emerges over time, and events that seemed cruel or random earlier in life start to fit into a broader picture that seems much more kind and purposeful. *laughs* And now that I think about it, that's exactly how books tend to play out: they start as a series of random events and by the end you are stunned by the beauty of how everything came to fit together.
Michelle Hazen
For me, inspiration just drops in little bright packages from the heavens, like those gifts from sponsors in the Hunger Games. And for as lovely as that sounds, it's not always particularly helpful. I frequently get inspiration for projects that I don't have time to work on, or for pieces of a story that I have no idea how to fit together into a coherent, sympathetic narrative.
But usually the way it works is I'll get a bright little bit of something, a concept or a character, and I'll start to try and build a story around it. Once I get going, I'll get lines of dialogue and images and all kinds of things when I'm lucky. And when I'm not lucky *shrugs* I have to make all that stuff up and it's much harder.
For instance, once I wrote a story about a mainstream actor filming a very sexual movie (think 50 Shades) and the inspiration for the story was this one scene where his thoughts begin to blend together with the thoughts of the character he's playing and it all becomes very schizophrenic and he breaks down emotionally because he's so ashamed of his own reactions. Or for my most recent project, the heroine just started talking inside my head and the girl was so funny, I had to write her a book!
I very frequently get inspiration for things that I know I HAVE to write, and I don't understand what they are doing in the story, and then they always end up sort of automatically fitting into place later. This is some of the magic of writing for me, because it feels like there is something out there with a Master Plan for each of my stories, and I'm just writing blind, hoping I can get as close as I can to that Master Plan.
But usually the way it works is I'll get a bright little bit of something, a concept or a character, and I'll start to try and build a story around it. Once I get going, I'll get lines of dialogue and images and all kinds of things when I'm lucky. And when I'm not lucky *shrugs* I have to make all that stuff up and it's much harder.
For instance, once I wrote a story about a mainstream actor filming a very sexual movie (think 50 Shades) and the inspiration for the story was this one scene where his thoughts begin to blend together with the thoughts of the character he's playing and it all becomes very schizophrenic and he breaks down emotionally because he's so ashamed of his own reactions. Or for my most recent project, the heroine just started talking inside my head and the girl was so funny, I had to write her a book!
I very frequently get inspiration for things that I know I HAVE to write, and I don't understand what they are doing in the story, and then they always end up sort of automatically fitting into place later. This is some of the magic of writing for me, because it feels like there is something out there with a Master Plan for each of my stories, and I'm just writing blind, hoping I can get as close as I can to that Master Plan.
Michelle Hazen
Ahh *wriggles with joy* I'm currently working on my "guilty pleasure" project. It slammed into my mind like a freight train, at exactly the wrong time, and I was absolutely helpless to keep from writing it. It's about a talented young drummer/songwriter who suffers from female sexual dysfunction, and the lovely nude model with a secret who she falls for.
And now, because my muse is determined to wreck my life, it seems like it wants to be a trilogy.
And now, because my muse is determined to wreck my life, it seems like it wants to be a trilogy.
Michelle Hazen
The best thing about being a writer is the creative rush when everything comes together perfectly. It feels like the ring of a knife against a flawless crystal glass and there's no other activity that can match that, for me.
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