I’ve been tagged by my friend and fellow author Anne Elisabeth Stengl. If you haven’t checked out her books, you need to. Seriously. She writes fantasy stories with a mythical/fairytale kind of flavor. Tales of Goldstone Wood are some of my favorites stories (and quickly becoming my daughter’s as well).

With that, onto the questions she sent to me!

1) What am I working on at the moment?

I just finished Heir of Hope, the third and final book in the Follower of the Word series and now it is in my editor’s hands. Wahoo! It is not slated to be released until 2015, but it will be worth the wait. Not sure? Here the response from one of my beta readers after she finished the book: “Wow, just wow.”

Now I’m working on a completely new project, a Victorian steampunk. To find out more about steampunk, check out Nadine Brande’s article here. In a nutshell, it is genre where the story takes place in a world where technology is run on steam. My world will have a Victorian era flavor to it, which has been a lot of fun to research the last few weeks.

My new story revolves around a high society young woman and bounty hunter in a Victorian world where science is crossing into the mystic in search of secret knowledge.

 

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

Well, for one thing I write for adults. There are not that many Christian fantasy novels that are geared toward the adult reader. That doesn’t mean teens shouldn’t read my book (they do, and I have received some great emails from teens who were encouraged by my books). It simply means my characters are adults and they deal with adult issues.

I also don’t have the fantasy creatures and world building that people usually associate with the fantasy genre. There are no dragons, no elves, no orcs, etc… Don’t get me wrong, I love that stuff, but I write more about people who are given extraordinary gifts and then explore what they do with them.

My work has been compared to The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind and Shannara by Terry Brooks. If you’ve heard of either of these authors and like their stories, then you’ll probably enjoy the Follower of the Word series.

 

3) Why do I write what I do?

Hmm, good question. Probably because I couldn’t write anything else.  I love historical fiction, and I have thought about writing in that genre, but I’m sure something magical or fantastical would make its way into my story and then it would end up being a fantasy 😉

Since I was little girl, I have always had a very colorful imagination. The fantasy genre gives me a place to explore my ideas and stories. That and I love the freedom that comes with being able to create my own world.

 

4) How does my writing process work?

It usually starts with a character. I see this character in some kind of situation and start asking who are they? What happened to them to get them into this situation? And what will happen to them next?

For example, when I first saw Caleb Tala, the assassin in the Follower of the Word series, he had just murdered a man. I wondered who Caleb really was, why had he done this, and what was going to happen to him next? From there his story grew.

I collect the pieces of the story in a folder on my computer, accumulating dialogue, character information, and plots for months and years. When I am finally read to sit down and write the story, I know the majority of the story (like the beginning, the end, and major plotlines). Then I write.

As a mother and a pastor’s wife, I only have a couple hours a day to write, Monday-Thursday. I’m also a slow writer (sloooooowwww!) so it takes me about a year to write a book. However, I’m very meticulous while I write, so when I go back and edit, there is usually very little change to the story, just cleanup.

After cleanup, the manuscript is shipped off to my editor and I start my next story 🙂

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Thank you so much for stopping by! Now it is time for me to tag two more authors.

First is Nadine Brandes. Nadine’s debut novel, A Time to Die, will be releasing this fall. It is a YA dystopian about a world in which everyone has a clock that is ticking down to the day they die. I can’t wait! Anyway, Nadine will be posting next Wednesday, June 25th. Go check out what she has to say: www.nadinebrandes.com

And my second author is Angie Brashear. Her debut novel, Of the Persecuted, just released! It is currently on my to-be-read pile (so no spoilers!). Angie will post her part of the blog tour on Saturday, June 28th. Check out her blog here: www.angiebrashear.com