My friend Kate (also one of the three of us behind Anxiety Ink) tagged me to participate in a blog hop. I’ve never done one of these before, and it kind of feels like I’m joining a cult. But a fun cult!
1. What are you working on?
A rewrite of an urban fantasy novel using Japanese folklore. Surprisingly, the rewrite is allowing me to fall in love with it all over again — the opposite of what I expected. There’s also a short story I need to edit for an anthology and another one to send out again. My procrastination habits thrive on deadlines.
2. How does your work differ from others in the same genre?
I’m not so sure it does differ all that much. Then again, my reading trends heavily towards strong, complex female characters who get themselves into and out of impossible situations. Apparently, this is unusual? I write character-centric fantasy of many flavors — urban, epic, YA, weird mash-ups of times and technologies and cultures.
3. Why do you write what you write?
Because why not? And because my grandmother told me years ago that I could stop breathing easier than I could stop writing, and she was right. I write fantasy because I want to play in my own worlds with my own rules. (I have a total god complex.) And because the characters have to be even more real and identifiable when the story has such impossible elements. And because I like to wonder if ‘impossible’ really is.
4. How does your process work?
That’s often determined by what else is going on in my life. But most often, I have to put away the computer, sit down, and get just one word, one sentence on the page. After that, it’s easier. That’s a sort of daily process. On a larger scale, I still write longhand. When a draft finishes, I type it up, then print it out and edit it longhand. Of course, I have to let it sit for a while between drafts so I’ll have fresher eyes when I come back to it. But about 90% of my process is just showing up at the page.
I’m tagging my friend Laura of Designs by Nature Gems. She may not call herself a writer, but but I’m tagging her anyway because she’s an amazing artist and I can’t wait to find out more about her process. Tag!
Melissa Burkart 
I often find this with re-writes as well, I discover new things about my characters and new ways to make them suffer and grow stronger 😛 Incorporating Japanese folklore? interesting 🙂
It’s so much fun! (Both the rewriting and the folklore. 😛 ) Glad to know I’m not alone! Most people give me some variation of the, “Are you crazy?” reaction.
Haha, rather be a bit crazy than boring and normal. Plus, I think all writers have to have a bit of (good) crazy in them, otherwise who would devote so much time and energy to creating something as complex as a novel? 😛
Exactly!
Don’t you love it when you fall back in lov with a book after you got sick of it the first (13 or so) time(s)?
Lol! So much so, yes!