So, my friend Deidre at The Red Velvet Chair  asked me to be a stopping point on a blog hop about The Writing Process. I told her I am the chainmail killer. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve actually tagged forward on one of these things. She was all, ‘pssh, don’t care, whateves’. So I agreed to answer the questions, on the off-chance you were curious as to the answers. It totally wasn’t hard and I’m not sure why I was whining in the first place (story of my life).

Gen’s Writing:

1. What are you working on?

I am currently writing The Good Life, a full length Dom & Kate novel. It features the characters in my popular free short romance The Bird Day Battalion  set in Nebraska. Even though Dom and Kate’s love story is still a major part of the plot, as it centers around their wedding (Ooops! Spoiler! LOL), the main romance is between Kate’s twin brother Kyle and Dom’s sister Demetria. It’s a funny, quirky romance with a strong emphasis on the bonds of family and friendship, a recurrent theme in all my writing. Fans of Bad Penny and Caroline in the V-Day Aversion (Dom&Kate#2) will be happy to know they both make an appearance.

2. How does your work differ from others?

Hmmn, that’s a tough one I guess in that we all write differently. All my stories are told 3rd person, in that manner in which the prose is narrated by the character, thus prone to vernacular. Also, Bird Day Battalion is the only book I’ve written in which there is only one point of view (Kate’s). All my other books have at least two points of view. First, I Love You  has six, (seven if you count the epilogue!) Some like that sort of “head-hopping”, others don’t, however it is not the same sort of head-hopping you would find in a Nora Roberts novel in which you are privy to the thoughts and feelings of more than one character in the same scene, omniscient style. In my books when it is Kate’s point of view, for instance, it is constrained to her and what she knows and feels like in Harry Potter. I also make it a point to include sex scenes from both the female and male point of view which is not always found in romance or family dramas, it’s usually one or the other.

3. Why do you write what you do?

Well…I don’t know. I write what I love, I guess. Family dynamics, love and loyalty, romance, cops and mobsters. I wrote  The Downey Trilogy set mostly in Chicago because I love that city; it is where my family is from. Likewise, I set Bird Day in Nebraska because that is where I was born and raised (mostly).

4. How does your writing process work?

I let ideas and scenes mull around in my head for a while before I write them down. Usually I type them up without writing them on paper, but sometimes I simply have to get them out and then if I am not near my computer, I’ll write them down on whatever I have nearby. I don’t usually write in sequence, or rather I do, but will leave out entire blocks if a later scene is just vivid in my head. Then I go back and bridge to it. I’ll write a scene, flesh it out, then rewrite it a bit, then edit, then edit, then edit. It’s a very circular or ebb and flow process. I try not to force myself to write if the mood is not with me. On those days I edit or proofread or block chapters out (meaning I write down who is in each chapter and what happens, so I can make sure it flows, and there are no major anachronisms or gaps). Oftentimes in the course of doing that, I will end up writing anyway. If all else fails, I strap my inner Hemingway on and fix myself some whiskey. ;p

Thank you, Dee! *smooches*