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My Writing Process blog tour
Oct. 16th, 2014 01:54 pmI was tagged by my lovely mate Meg whose post you can find here. Meg and I met through a mutual affection for Horatio Hornblower and Archie Kennedy. Good taste, that gal.
What are you working on?
At this very moment, book 12 of the Cambridge Fellows series, so up to my oxters in Jonty and Orlando, with added Ariadne and Lavinia to keep the little toads under control. Slight digression from the norm in this book in that the central case touches obliquely on real people and a real mystery, this tragic double drowning at Oxford. On holiday last year I read a wonderful book called Peter Pan's XI, which has been a real inspiration for CF 11 and 12.
How does your work differ from others of its genre?
It's the dash of slash. My romances (historical and contemporary) feature boy meets boy, boy loses boy, boy gets boy back. And my cosy mysteries ditto. It all goes back to the many golden age cosy mysteries I've read, delighting over Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, or Inspector Alleyn and Agatha Troy, but wishing there were a pair of nice young men to do the sleuthing. I couldn't find any books like that so had to write my own.
Why do you write what you do?
The answer to this reminds me of that thing that Mallory is supposed to have said about Everest, but probably didn't because a journalist could well have inserted it into an interview; Mallory would never have been so succinct. By which I mean, "Because it's there." I think I write what I do because those are the stories which come into my head. Simple as that. If different stories came - science fiction or het love stories or whatever - or other characters spoke to me, then they'd go down the old neural axons to the fingers and onto the screen, but they don't.
How does your writing process work?
Like constructing a jigsaw puzzle, only I don't necessarily know what picture is on the box. Unless it's a short story, in which case I write in 100 word chunks, from start of story to end, with almost no changes to the finished product. Alas, I can't do that for anything over about 5000 words. I have to construct longer pieces in terms of key scenes, which I then rearrange into the correct order and glue together with linking scenes, necessary description and the like. This is fun, but can be awkward if you suddenly discover a whole new, vital piece (story idea) which means the final picture will change and you have to rework what you'd already done!
I've nominated:
My old mucker Liam Lvings, to pick up the baton. He's a fellow RNA member and UK Meet organiser, all round good egg and writer of light, amusing, believable m/m romances.
Stuart Wakefield, who - despite the fact he seems to prefer Haribo to jelly babies - is an excellent chap. And he bears a remarkable resemblance to someone I used to be on a governing body with, although I suspect said person wouldn't write as well as Stuart does.
The ridiculously talented Carol Westron, whose book "About the Children" I'm currently devouring. She does a good police procedural, does Carol.
DT Dragon - a Ty Rosa and UK Meet pal - whose post is here!
They'll be posting sometime over the next week or so.
What are you working on?
At this very moment, book 12 of the Cambridge Fellows series, so up to my oxters in Jonty and Orlando, with added Ariadne and Lavinia to keep the little toads under control. Slight digression from the norm in this book in that the central case touches obliquely on real people and a real mystery, this tragic double drowning at Oxford. On holiday last year I read a wonderful book called Peter Pan's XI, which has been a real inspiration for CF 11 and 12.
How does your work differ from others of its genre?
It's the dash of slash. My romances (historical and contemporary) feature boy meets boy, boy loses boy, boy gets boy back. And my cosy mysteries ditto. It all goes back to the many golden age cosy mysteries I've read, delighting over Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, or Inspector Alleyn and Agatha Troy, but wishing there were a pair of nice young men to do the sleuthing. I couldn't find any books like that so had to write my own.
Why do you write what you do?
The answer to this reminds me of that thing that Mallory is supposed to have said about Everest, but probably didn't because a journalist could well have inserted it into an interview; Mallory would never have been so succinct. By which I mean, "Because it's there." I think I write what I do because those are the stories which come into my head. Simple as that. If different stories came - science fiction or het love stories or whatever - or other characters spoke to me, then they'd go down the old neural axons to the fingers and onto the screen, but they don't.
How does your writing process work?
Like constructing a jigsaw puzzle, only I don't necessarily know what picture is on the box. Unless it's a short story, in which case I write in 100 word chunks, from start of story to end, with almost no changes to the finished product. Alas, I can't do that for anything over about 5000 words. I have to construct longer pieces in terms of key scenes, which I then rearrange into the correct order and glue together with linking scenes, necessary description and the like. This is fun, but can be awkward if you suddenly discover a whole new, vital piece (story idea) which means the final picture will change and you have to rework what you'd already done!
I've nominated:
My old mucker Liam Lvings, to pick up the baton. He's a fellow RNA member and UK Meet organiser, all round good egg and writer of light, amusing, believable m/m romances.
Stuart Wakefield, who - despite the fact he seems to prefer Haribo to jelly babies - is an excellent chap. And he bears a remarkable resemblance to someone I used to be on a governing body with, although I suspect said person wouldn't write as well as Stuart does.
The ridiculously talented Carol Westron, whose book "About the Children" I'm currently devouring. She does a good police procedural, does Carol.
DT Dragon - a Ty Rosa and UK Meet pal - whose post is here!
They'll be posting sometime over the next week or so.
