Thanks jmspettoli! Hmm. Not really, no, because the characters are so different, but there have been a few times where a line of dialogue or exposition has snuck in and when I reread I’m like, “Hey! That’s not something Chess would say, that’s a Megan line!” or vice versa. But it gets easier as time goes on.

I actually was a stay-home mom when I really started writing; I gave up tending bar when I was a few months pregnant with my first. So it really wasn’t too much of a change, although I think once I started selling and having deadlines and everything it was a bit of a transition for my family. They didn’t have access to me all the time anymore, and sometimes I’d be busy and they’d have to wait. I mean, they did before I started writing as well, but it took on a new meaning once I started writing.

Oh, and a Ricardian is someone who believes Richard III was innocent of the murders of the Princes in the Tower and was actually a good King, a victim of slander and propaganda spread by the Tudor usurpers. A good place to start if you’re at all interested is by reading Josephine Tey’s THE DAUGHTER OF TIME. It’s fiction, but it provides a decent overview of the facts.

Thanks Stella! Oh, I’m definitely a linear writer; I start at the beginning and don’t stop until I’m done. I do end up going back and rewriting those first chapters or adding completely new first chapters, but in general I have a decent enough idea of where the story is going (even though I don’t know how it ends, really) that I can just keep moving. The only time I ever left a blank spot in a book was when writing PERSONAL DEMONS. After the scene in the park I just had no idea what to do next; I sat on it for a few weeks and finally just decided to skip it and fill it in later, and started writing with the next scene I had in my head, which was the charity ball. So everything in between there was written after the book had an ending. But that’s the only time I’ve ever done that. It felt weird!

Lol, Sharli, that’s a great question! I admit I have a real weakness for my heroes. They do make me kind of melty and full of sighs. I figure if they didn’t they wouldn’t be very good heroes, though, so I don’t get too embarrassed about it (just a little bit embarrassed)!

Hi Mona! I’m definitely a computer girl. Sometimes I make notes in longhand, or will use pen & paper to sketch out some ideas, but in general I don’t write longhand at all. I like to have a bit of background noise when I work, and I can work anywhere, really, although I like to be on the couch in the living room–I like to have everything I need close by, and I like to at least feel like I’m sitting with my family even though they’re watching TV or whatever and I’m in my own little world.

I keep everything in my head. On very rare occasions I might write something down so I’ll remember it later, but in general it’s all up there; plots, characters, story lines, clues, everything. I keep thinking that one of these days I’ll need to put together some sort of worldbuilding bible, but I never seem to have the time for a project like that and it just seems like such a slog. I’m too lazy!

Oh, gosh, Raelena, all of them! I don’t think I could point to any one specific author or title; it was just something I always wanted to do. I’ve always been a huge reader, and somewhere in there at a very young age I decided that was what I wanted to do for a living. I didn’t get serious about it until my first daughter was almost a year old, but really, every book I ever read, good or bad, inspired me.

Ha ha, Qwill, I wish! If I knew a guy like Greyson I probably wouldn’t be writing, I’d be spending all my time following him around. No, I don’t base characters on real people; if there’s any person who seems to influence my characters it’s me, really. Like Megan has some of my tastes in food and she’s allergic to peppers just like me. Chess listens to the same music I listen to and, actually, is probably the character who’s the most like me in a lot of ways.

But generally, rather than writing about people I know…I write about people I’d like to know.

Thank you.

So my question is: Are you a fan of your own characters?? And I mean giggly fan girl type lol

Thanks! I love knowing more about writers