Guest author Blaine Arden
Sep. 16th, 2013 12:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charlie_cochraneWhat inspired you to start writing?
The stories in my head, I guess. As a child I was always making up stories. First to my favourite doll, then playing out scenarios with my Barbies, so, it was only logical for me to start writing them down. Though I didn't start writing until I was 12/13. I still have a box with my earlier work *shudders*.Do you have another job (paid or otherwise) apart from being an author? If so, how do you juggle your time?
I'm a stay-at-home-mum. Juggling is not my best trade, so we finally decided on delegating and chore lists. Between the five of us, the dishes are now done daily, and the bathroom(s) weekly. I still do the laundry, but as an extra chore, the boys now fold it.
I only wished the 'who cooks ratio' would be the other way around. I cook during the week, my husband during the weekends, but he's a much more inventive cook than I am.
What does it feel like watching your book fledge and leave the nest?
Nerve-wracking, exciting, scary, and wonderful :)
Are you character or plot driven? What do you do if one of your characters starts developing at a tangent?
Good question. I think one can't work without the other, so... a bit of both, I guess.
I tend to follow the characters. I've already had a couple of characters spring surprises on me. One of them showed me he's a transman in the middle of a sex-scene. It's what I like best about writing. So much can happen that I didn't plan :)
If you were in a tight corner and had to rely on one of your characters to save you, which would it be and why?Right now? Callum from my trans* WIP, tentatively titled "Beneath a Clear Blue Sky". He's a tough, intelligent security agent. And while he might be pushing forty (and is a bit self-conscious about it), he can get me out of any corner, I'd like to think :)
If you had no constraints of time and a guarantee of publication, what book would you write?
Err... the books I've been writing. I can't help it. I love my men :) Not to mention that I've been writing gay men into my stories since I was 16/17. Though, to be honest, I'd love to write more transmen.
Is there a classic book you started and simply couldn't finish?
One flew over a Cuckoo's Nest. *hides behind couch*
I saw the film, but when I started reading the book, I stumbled across the unending repetitions of "I been". I just couldn't get over/through that and had to put the book down.
What’s your favourite gay romance/other genre book? And why?
Maurice by EM Forster is my favourite gay romance, even if it might not be classed as such. I read it at a time where I thought my view on love between men was wrong.
As for other genre... that's difficult. I read a lot, but I'm so bad at remembering. I think I'll go with the Mrs. Pollifax series right now. I stumbled across that as a teen when I was getting a bit bored with romance novels, and I absolutely fell in love with it. Mysteries were so much cooler than romances.
Of course, these days, I feel mysteries and romances are a match made in heaven :)
What's your next project?
WIP wise, I've got several things lined up to write, but it all depends on timing, and whether I can get the story I'm writing right now—above mentioned Callum's story—finished according to my schedule. But, the one thing that I do know is that I'll be writing a YA fantasy for NaNoWriMo this year.
I never thought I'd write YA, and I've actually said so out loud a couple of times. Of course, we all know we should never say never, and when Dauwe wormed his way into my mind, I knew I'd spoken too soon... again.
It's tentatively called "The Tactician's Heir", and it's a bout a young carpenter's apprentice called Dauwe. Which is a nice old fashioned Dutch name. I thought it was time to throw in some Dutch in my writing. ;) Anyway, Dauwe’s ability to see numbers makes his job a lot easier. His and his uncle’s, who's his mentor. But when a group of strangers kidnap him, Dauwe realises his gift may just kill him.
As for next project to be published, that would be "The Forester: Lost and Found", part two in The Forester Trilogy. Another thing I said I'd never write, and, honestly, after I've done the third one, I am never going to write another series again. Some writers excel in it, but I kept having to re-read the first book and what I'd written constantly, because I kept forgetting bits and pieces. How I called my elves, who could fly and who couldn't. It drove me mad. I love writing stories set in The Forester world, but that's as far as I'll ever go with series again.
Oren's Right
Published by Storm Moon Press
Blurb
Veld, tree elf and Forester, fell in love with mute baker Oren, also a tree elf, when he first set eyes on him two turns ago, but Healer Haram, Oren's vowed, made it clear that he had no intention of sharing Oren with Veld. Now, with Oren in mourning after Haram is killed, Veld is torn between Haram's unwillingness to share and his desire to make Oren his. But when Haram's death turns out not to be quite the accident it seemed to be, Veld is drawn into the investigation. At the same time, others appear to claim Oren's independence, and Veld is forced to face his insecurities or risk losing Oren...
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Date: 2013-09-16 12:15 pm (UTC)can be usually found at the event in the company of nice young men
LOL I am rather fond of those particular young men.
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Date: 2013-09-16 12:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-16 09:10 pm (UTC)(and yes... I had to look that up lol)
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Date: 2013-09-17 11:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-17 03:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-17 08:02 pm (UTC)Which one's Bobby?
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Date: 2013-09-18 05:29 am (UTC)Both? They both have a bit of Dazzle, so... they both have a bit of Bobby LOL
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Date: 2013-09-18 10:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-16 01:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-16 03:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-16 05:41 pm (UTC)