I was flattered when Diane Brandon  at http:\\eclecticintuitive.blogspot.com asked me to participate in a blog tour.  Diane is currently writing not one but two books:  Spiritually Aware Since Birth and 100 Dreams Interpreted, which will be a follow-up book to Dream Interpretation for Beginners — Understand the Wisdom of Your Sleeping Mind which is being published in March 2015.   I love the idea of sharing our work and process.  Writing cab be a lonely act and being connected with other writers through blog tours such as this or critique groups or other avenues are all what keep us going and inspired.

For this blog tour, each of us has been asked to answer four questions. Here they are, as well as my answers to them:

1) What Am I Working On?

I tend to work on a number of things at one time.  Right now, I have several stories in anthologies and am continuing to write short stories and a novella.  However, my primarily focus is editing my humorous paranormal amateur sleuth novel set in Savannah, Georgia.  I’m finding that the editing process is much more enjoyable than I thought it would be – and am headed back to Savannah later this summer to re-visit some of the places where the events in my occur.

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

The mystery genre requires certain conventions that our readers expect.  In that respect, my novel is similar to others in the genre.  However, my main character, Trisha is unique as well as her late Aunt Harriett who plays an active role in “helping “ Trisha solve the murder.  While I read lots of different kinds of books, including lots of mysteries and thrillers, I gravitate to those that make me laugh, give me a real sense of place and where I learn something.  All of those qualities are in my story to some extent and together with my characters, that makes my work different and distinctive.

3) How does my writing process work?

My process is like a lot of pantsers (we write by the seat of our pants).  I usually know the beginning of my story and an ending, although both tend to change some.  From there, I have a character that I work to get to know by writing scenes.  Somewhere along the way, the plot begins to order those scenes.  Then the editing and re-writing starts and I go back through, moving things around and adding missing pieces.  It’s a bit organic in nature but it seems to work for me.

As for inspiration – that can be from anything. I was telling my critique group last night that the beginning of the story I read came from watching “So You Think You Can Dance.”  I had it on as I was winding down and finishing up things for the night.  It was a first for me and we all had a good laugh over what I was inspired by – but you just never know.  But it was one of those times where my brain was focused on something else and however it works, the part that controls inspiration was watching and noted the kernel of an idea.

4)  Why Do I Write What I Do?

This one’s really easy. I write what I like to read.  I write what I am curious about.  I write what inspires me.  I write when the character in my head won’t leave me alone.  Finally, I write for my own enjoyment and share it so that hopefully others will enjoy it as well.  It’s a wonderful creative journey.

Three excellent writers and wonderful women will continue this blog tour, and they are the following writers:

LAURA BENEDICT

Laura Benedict’s latest dark suspense novel is BLISS HOUSE (Pegasus Crime), praised as “Eerie, seductive, and suspenseful,” by Edgar award-winning author, Meg Gardiner. Laura is also the author of DEVIL’S OVEN, a modern Frankenstein tale, and CALLING MR. LONELY HEARTS and ISABELLA MOON, both originally published by Ballantine Books. Her work has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, PANK, and numerous anthologies like Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads (Oceanview), and Slices of Flesh (Dark Moon Books)

 
A Cincinnati, Ohio native, Laura grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and claims both as hometowns. She currently lives with her family in the southern wilds of a Midwestern state, surrounded by bobcats, coyotes, and other less picturesque predators.
 
Visit laurabenedict.com to check out her books and enter her monthly contest in which she gives away books she likes and other goodies.

EMILY HANLON

 
Emily Hanlon is a writing coach and novelist. She holds private coaching sessions and weekly workshops for all levels of writers in her home in Westchester County, NY and on as a conference call/webinar. In addition, she holds an annual five day writing retreat in early May near Philadelphia and a ten day writing retreat in Bar Harbor, Maine, in September.

She is the author of Petersburg, an historical adventure and love story set against the Russian Revolution of 1904. Petersburg reached the Best Sellers List in England. In addition, she is the author of five novels for children and young adults as well as several picture books for young children.

The Art of Fiction Writing or How to Fall Down the Rabbit Hole Without Really Trying is a course in fiction writing based on her more than thirty years of coaching. It is comprised of a workbook and five audio journeys that open doorways to your imagination, and teach you ways of writing that will surprise, delight and free the writer in you!

Emily has an unpublished historical novel, Mistress of the Labyrinth, set against the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and Jerusulem at the time of Christ’s Crucifixion. At the center of the story is the burial Shroud of Christ, stolen from Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. In order to save the Shroud, a young Greek seeress journeys to a past life in time to Jerusalem at the time of the Crucificion.

Emily is currently working on a novel set in Maine in the 1920’s.

Emily websites are:

www.thefictionwritersjourney.com  and www.creativesoulworks.com

Emily’s blogs are:

http://fictionwritersjourney.blogspot.com/ and http://creativesoulworks.blogspot.com/

KARI KILGORE
 
 I’ve been a writer since forever, but I wouldn’t say I really started working consistently at it until 2005. Back in the early 90s, I wrote several short stories and started a novel, but a hard drive ate all of them. Yes. I know to back up now. After recreating a few of those and starting the novel again, it really took off in the fall of 2006. Since I didn’t start it on 11/1/06, it wasn’t technically a NaNoWriMo novel, but I used all of the tips and encouragement and energy to turn it on and finish by 12/31/06. That turned out to be a very long novel called Hand Me Downs.A whole lot of life intervened, and I didn’t start revisions on that one in any organized sense until May of 2012. By the start of 2013, I really dug into the second novel in that universe, again seriously fueled and encouraged by NaNo. I finished that one on 12/31/13. That one is called The Sheltering Souls. I’m still amazed by what happened in that story. Nothing I expected!Now I’m doing what I hope will be a final hard edit of Hand Me Downs, checking grammar, making sure everything makes sense with the second novel, etc.. I can feel novel #3 starting to percolate and demand my attention. I can’t wait to see what that one turns up!I have a day job doing page layout and editing on a mostly freelance basis. Some of those projects live over at Spiral Publishing, and that’s where my fiction will live someday too. I would love to help other writers with those parts. I’ve edited and designed some insanely complex things, like a current 300+ page book with over 1000 images, so I think working on a novel for someone else would be a great change of pace and a lot of fun. I will definitely be hiring help for the covers though!  See more about Kari at http:\\www.spiralwriter.com.