The Blog Tour, My Writing Process

Theo dictates when I take a break!

Thanks to my friend and fellow author Lynne Kennedy for inviting me to participate in this new blog tour. It’s kind of like a virtual studio open house tour. I’ve not yet met Lynne in person, but we talk online and discuss historical fiction, the process and dogs. She has also given me a lot of information about the process involved in self-publishing using Amazon. 

But before I get sidetracked here is my contribution to the tour. 

WHAT AM I CURRENTLY WORKING ON?

I’m currently working on a work-for-hire screenplay project for a client with a great idea. That’s about all I’m allowed to say about that. Hopefully he’ll be able to sell it so I can talk about it. I’m also working on a historical fiction novel for teens set in WWII Strasbourg, France (well it’s France now, it wasn’t then). And I’m editing my novel “Out in the Dark” with the idea of self-publishing it. That decision kind of depends on where this feud between Hachette Book Group and Amazon goes. 

HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS OF ITS GENRE?

Those of you who have read my novella “Tales from the Fountain Pen” will have some idea of what I mean when I say that one of the main differences in my stories is the emotional component. A sense of feeling what the characters are feeling and making an at times difficult era very real, making you feel like you are there. Often my characters are quite ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances and having to make difficult choices, not only for themselves, but choices that will affect others. 

HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS WORK?

I’m not so sure I have an actual process at this point. It’s really about showing up and sitting down at the computer every day. Most of my stories or books start with either an idea, or simply the first line. There are times when I’m playing with a thought or feeling and trying to figure out how to put it into words. From there the story either flows or it doesn’t, if it doesn’t it goes away for a while till some other time. Sometimes I start handwriting a story because the very act of writing by hand stimulate a different part of the brain than typing does. 

But if you want me to get technical on what my writing day looks like:

After the morning chores such as driving off-spring to school & walking the dog & feeding the cats then letting them out, letting them in and maybe letting them out again, I’ll make a large cup of tea and fire up my laptop. 

First there is the pure and unadulterated pleasure of reading an email from a very dear friend overseas, then a quick check of the news headlines - why is it always bad news? - and after these morning rituals I get to work until lunch time. After lunch I’ll work some more, often there’s a translation that’s due in that time too so I’ll take a break and work on that. The change in work can help refresh the writing, and the rewriting, and the editing and polishing. 

UP NEXT:  And now I hand you off to another one of my writing friends, Richard Hardie of the Temporal Detective Agency series fame, all the way in England.