So here goes nothing....
What are you working on?
What aren't I working on would be a better question. I wear many hats. Along with trying to make my way in the world of semi-pro photography, I also knit, and crochet. I've even taken to making jewelry from my photography thanks to inspiration by Amanda Makepeace once again but my passion is writing, a hobby that I came back to after a 7 year hiatus. I am currently working on Divided, the last book in the four part Path series and what a bittersweet event it has turned out to be as I'll be leaving a family I have created and visited with daily in my mind for the past 2 years. Star Trek TNG's Lt. Commander Data once said: "As I experience certain sensory input patterns, my mental pathways become accustomed to them. The input is eventually anticipated, and even missed when absent." it's going to be a heartbreak, for certain, when I have to close the book, so to speak, on my fictional friends. The first book in the series, "Descent" is out on Kindle, the second book in the series, Ascension, is due out later this summer.
How does your work differ from others of its genre?
At the moment, the genre I am working in is FanFiction, an area which Is gaining exposure due to the brilliant writing of some of the fans out there which has become impossible to ignore though many have tried. For example, the blockbuster "Fifty Shades of Grey" started life as a Twilight FanFiction. My work in the field differs from others in its content, in the way I portray my main character, Loki. When I started writing Loki's world, I rather gutted it out and made it my own, introducing completely new characters, imagining an alternate universe in the literal sense of the phrase. My readers often tell me they love how I've kept some of Loki's stronger traits while combining them with a strong sense of familial loyalty and an almost fanatic devotion to his love interest, my OC Eidra. I believe my angle on Loki and his family is quite unique.
Why do you write/create what you do?
For as long as I can remember, I have made up stories in my head. Some I put to paper, others lived a brief life inside my mind until they were filed into the recesses of my memory. Finally, one day roughly ten years ago, I returned from a vacation in the Acadia region of Maine, struck by the beauty of Mount Desert Island and its environs, a story began to form once again around the setting of Bar Harbor, Ellsworth and the other small towns. This time, I decided to write it down. That story was Finding Home, and it was never formally published though that may change in the future. I wrote this story in the early years of my writing career for the same reason I returned to the craft years later. To get the book out of my head. To let others share in my imagination, the joy that writing brings me. I create so that I might share the joy of creation, the beauty of the world in its ever changing dance through life.
How does your writing/creative process work?
Have you ever thrown a stone into a pond and watched the ripples it creates? My creative process is quite similar. Sometimes, as in my stories, "Finding Home", and "Hiding in Plain Sight" it may be a setting that starts the wheels turning, or as in
"Descent" perhaps the spark is created by a person or character I feel the need to flesh out like Loki. It has happened before with an era, as in "Life's Precious Lessons" a shelved story which I may return to after the Descent series. It's set in one of my favorite ages the 19th century which will require more research but if you love something, you must at least try. After the initial stone hits the water, the ripples start, flowing just as rapidly as scenes pop into my head moving backwards and forwards until I have a whole plot-line mapped out before me (Think Tony Stark's holograms) ready to refine and connect into one great story. I feel almost as if its a sort of revelation, a cascade of ideas, the synapses synapping and it is wonderful. It always leaves me in awe.
So there you have it, why I do what I do compacted into four little questions. I've tagged three talented artist friends of mine, look for their blogs on June 9th, 2014
The sweetest person I know and an incredible pottery artist,
Dorie Stevenson: https://www.etsy.com/shop/HappyHeartPottery/about
The artist who gave me my first gallery show,
Bev Saunders: http://www.bjsartworks.com/
And a new friend and fellow writer, Phyll Campbell: http://www.phylcampbell.com/
Hey, if you made it this far, thanks for reading....don't try to make sense of it, just back away very slowly......any sudden movement only excites the author...