This is a stop on a blog hop with several authors discussing their writing processes. I’ve been tagged by the lovely and talented Nikka Michaels and I’ve tagged three authors to follow my post in the hop. There are more authors to visit at Nikka’s post and you can continue hopping from there or here. What is this hop all about? It’s about authors offering others a glimpse into their work, their work schedules, and perhaps their innermost thoughts. Come take a hop on the wild side!

Before I get to the questions, I have to make sure you know about Nikka. She’s a writer of m/m erotic romance, a genre I have discovered recently. I read her Chasing Matt (co-written with Eileen Griffin) in one sitting, and boy was it good. With the right balance of steamy, romantic, a little edgy, and before all, characters to die (drool) for, you don’t want to miss it!

Nikka Michaels’ writing process post can be found here.

QUESTION TIME:

Q. What am I working on?

I have three works in progress. The erotica High Risk Fever will hopefully be completed this week—woohoo!—and I can’t wait to start the submission process with this one. In parallel, I’m writing the sequel to my first book, a dirty, gritty gangster thriller called Carnivora that explores some of the most disturbing deviances of human kind. Not for the faint-hearted. And then there’s the suspense romance Kill for Desire, a sexy, hold-your-breath cop novel that I’m co-writing with D.C. Stone 🙂

Q. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I’m not sure how to answer this, because I’m writing several very different genres. But what I make sure to include in all of my works, whether they be erotic romance, cartoonish street crime or gory thriller, is one or more socio-political messages as well as a personal edge. My characters have reasons to be angry. Also, I am brutally honest: my stories are explicit both in terms of eroticism and grotesque violence. You get what my characters get!

Q. Why do I write what I do?

I have read a lot since I was a small child, and only on a few occasions come across a book that I could qualify as ‘perfect’ (to my taste). Therefore I wrote the stories that I wanted to read, and only in the past year dared have other people read them as well…

I have also written a few stories in response to challenges, a quite tough task as in those cases I couldn’t use my fantasies but needed to mobilize my imagination.

Q. How does your writing process work?

Either I have a clearly outlined plot in my head, like a puzzle where I know where all the pieces belong and place them at the same time—one here, one there, sometimes filling the middle before finishing a corner. That’s the easy way.

Or I have a vague idea of what I want to write about and build the story as I go. This is the case with Carnivora. I know most of the things my main characters will experience from start to finish, but there are several non-outlined sub-plots with other characters and controversial topics that I haven’t researched yet, which makes the overall story-weaving very complex. It’s exhausting.

Q. Who will we meet next?

I’m passing the question baton to three fellow writers:

Cait Jarrod is a writer of romantic suspense. Her debut novel Kidnapped Hearts was published in Feb 2013, and the novelette Rekindled in April. Look out for several new releases this year as she is a prolific writer. Cait is a lovely, funny person to chat with, and I can always count on her proofreading my stories (which is no easy task)! You can find her post here.

D.C. Stone is not only my very inspiring and humbling co-writer but a dear friend. Her writing concentrates on romance with specifics in paranormal, suspense, and erotica. She has three published books under her belt: the erotic romance High Scandal, the paranormal-military romance Feral Craving, and the erotic romance Armed and Desired. As you will see in 2014, there are many, many more to come. She shares her post here.

Michaela Miles is also a terrific author who writes the same genres as me. I love what I’ve read of her works so far and can’t wait to see her published! Here is her writing process post.

Thanks for taking the time to read about my writing process and be sure to check out Cait, D.C. and Michaela!