A little about me
1) What are you working on?
My current project is a slight vacation away from the realm of Kaldalangra, and takes place in an unnamed, small town in the United States (I should probably change that...). The story revolves around Alyssa Doe, a teenage girl who has been bounced around the foster care system for reasons beyond her control, and her journey to try to find faith in herself and in the world around her.
After that, it's back into the realm of Kaldalangra with the fourth book in the series, which will star Katrina, a Princess of the realm who feels completely secluded from her family, and finds that sometimes it's okay to not be like your parents.
2) How does your work differ from others in its genre?
Well....I think my biggest change is that I don't like to wrap my books up into nice neat packages. There is no "ride off into the sunset" happy ending, because I don't really believe those exist. Life is messy, love is messy, adventure is most definitely messy. My books don't play nice with you. One chapter you will be happy and the next devastated. One reader once told me, "Most books I'm able to just skim the last few pages, because I know what will happen. With your books, you may change the entire premise of the book in the last paragraph."
3) Why do you write what you do?
Mostly, it just comes out. I'll often start a book with just an idea, maybe an interaction I witnessed while running errands, or a strange dream, or an emotion. Then the story just begins to build upon itself. Then there are cases like my current project which actually began as a back story to a book that is now a few years from being written. I needed to come up with a story for how the main character became the way she is, and "foster child" was the first thing that came to my mind. Then I started researching foster care and needed to tell the bigger story.
Then there's the case of Katrina's story, which the character took over. I just heard her in my head, tap tap tapping, and going, "Hey, you there, author lady. You kind of gave me a bad rap in Soul of Asimina, and I don't appreciate it. Why don't you tel the whole story?" And so that is what book 4 in the Land of Kaldalangra series will do.
4) How does your writing process work?
It's a very odd combination of spastic and outlined. Between working full-time and motherhood, I don't have much time to write, so my books often happen in little snippits that I jot down when I have a second. Then when I have time to sit down, the story will flow (or sometimes not) and actions will unfold. I really should take a picture one day (but not today, because my toddler has hidden the camera) of my giant post-it wall, because most of the time everything starts on a post-it (and then makes it into my Mega Book of Stuff)
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So there you have it! More about my writing style :) Are you an aspiring author who wants more ideas? A reader who is just curious about writing styles or what goes on in our heads? Then check out other stops on the blog hop, like A. R. Rivera's post on her writing style!
I was born in Portland, Oregon, to two loving parents and three older siblings. We didn’t have a lot of money but we were showered with an abundance of love and faith – and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The absolute, unyielding love from my parents gave me a light-hearted attitude that won’t let me take life too seriously and the confidence to believe I can move any mountain that gets in my way. As a child, it looked like I thought the world revolved around me.
I did.
The day I turned five, Mount Saint Helens erupted. My dad told me the mountain was so overjoyed that it was my birthday, it had to explode because it couldn’t dance. Of course, now I’m old enough to know that volcanoes don’t use the Gregorian Calendar.
In high school, I found joy in socializing and not much else – much to my family’s chagrin. As a young woman of eighteen, I met and married the love of my life. We now have four wonderful, talented sons whose passion for music has kept me busy and sleep deprived for the last decade.
Some years ago, I read a little book by a lady with the surname of Meyer. Then I read the next three books she wrote. In the process, I fell back in love with reading and it sparked a passion I never knew I had.
The Muse that gave me Between Octobers appeared one morning as I cracked open my Bible. Large black letters telling the story of Queen Esther peered up from my desk. As one of strongest females in literature, I felt compelled to write her, possibly give her a modern day setting and a few plot twists. I became possessed—stealing time whenever I could, late at night or early morning, it didn’t matter. If I was awake, I was writing. And before I knew it, a beautiful story about a woman and her king seemed to morph into something entirely different as I explored the lives of my characters. I am overjoyed that my book, Between Octobers, will be released through Take Two Publishing in 2014.
Today, I spend every minute I can with my sons and husband, sharing an abiding faith and love with them as I nurture my soul with writing.
