I read a lot as a writer and I’m often drawn to world news and current events.  I remember reading an article about slavery and thinking, “slavery was abolished 150 years ago!”  I think a lot of well-intentioned, well-read people are in the dark about what is going on to millions of women and children around the world.  We live in our first world bubbles and think that third world issues never cross our borders.  It’s egocentric, but I think we do it because life is easier to live everyday if you just don’t know.  I’m drawn to the parts of our society that we sweep under the rug and don’t like to think about.  The parts that make most people uncomfortable.  That’s why I wanted to write about it.  Because once you know, you can’t not know.

And so I started out to write a suspense novel about human trafficking.  And then the whole thing just kind of took on a life of its own.  When it was time for publication, there was a huge discussion about what genre to place the book under.  I’m still not sure we found the right one!  Paranormal was tossed around.  Thriller.  Crime drama.  It’s all of those I guess.  I kind of like that it isn’t pigeonholed!

There was no specific inspiration for the characters in Among the Shrouded.  I knew I wanted to write about human trafficking and I wanted characters that were going to be tough enough but vulnerable enough to take us on that journey.  Initially, I just had the idea for Mia to be able to see whether people were good or bad.  I thought that ability would be an amazing gift for a police officer to have and would be helpful especially in hunting down human traffickers.  I also knew that she wasn’t going to be able to see Thomas’ aura since would be the catalyst for their eventual connection.  But once she couldn’t see his, I knew that he needed to have something special about him which kept her in the dark.  I also knew that I wanted Kate to have some way to overcome what I knew I was going to have to do to her with regard to the trafficking.  In the initial manuscript, neither Thomas nor Kate were aware of their abilities and they were much less pronounced.  After the manuscript went through the first round of edits, it was suggested that I “beef up” their abilities.  I decided to make them aware, just as Mia was, and I believe that led to a better cohesive story line in the end.

Sadly, I don't have any of the vision or intuition Mia possesses.  In fact, I don’t have a single superpower.  Unless lightning fast sock folding counts.  In that case, I’ll make myself a cape to wear on laundry day!

I used to have a little hardbound journal when I was in about second or third grade.  I’d write little stories but mostly about stuff going on in my life.  In fifth grade I wrote an autobiography.  It was short. : )

Since then I’ve written a lot more.  You remember school and all the writing?  The essays?  The forced short stories?  I went to college and made a lot of stuff up.  I was pretty good at writing around a subject.  I became a teacher and wrote lesson plans.  And report card comments.  Those are fun.  How many different ways can you tell someone their kid’s a genius?  Or not living up to their potential?  Or crazy?  I’m most famous for my to-do lists.  I have at least six going at all times.  I will add something I’ve already done to the list to make myself feel better.  

For a long time I tried to write "a novel."  I have lots of half-finished manuscripts scattered on hard drives throughout my house, but it wasn't until The Clay Lion that I was finally able to complete an entire full-length manuscript.

These days I spend a lot of time answering interview questions, writing marketing blurbs, and occasionally, when I have the time, I work on writing another actual manuscript. ;)

I spent a lot of time researching the publication path I wanted to take and knew without a doubt that at least initially, I wanted my work independently published.  I learned pretty quickly that unless you are an “A list” author at a Big 6 house, there isn’t a lot of money in anyone’s budget for marketing.  I knew there was a very good chance I was going to be pounding the pavement to establish my brand, regardless of where I ended up and decided to maintain my copyrights, control, and royalties instead of handing them over to an agency.  I’ve never regretted my decision for a minute and am proud to say that I’ve found great success in the path I’ve chosen.  However, I am always open to negotiation should the right deal come along.

With that being said, I wish I would have known how dynamic the industry is, always changing the rules just when you get the hang of it.  I wish I’d been told how much time and effort I would need to spend on marketing outside the hours I spend writing.  And I also wish I’d known from the beginning how isolating it was going to be. 

So to new authors I say:

Trust your gut.  Be true to yourself not only in your writing but in your marketing as well.  Surround yourself with great authors who understand what it’s like in the trenches and will help pull you up by your bootstraps.  Know that your books won’t be liked by everyone and that’s okay.  Just because a few people don’t like meatloaf doesn’t mean others won’t think it’s delicious.  Find an editor who isn’t afraid to be brutally honest.  And above all else, keep reading and keep writing.   

50 Shades of Grey author EL James was reported to make around £100k a day at the book's height, and the upcoming film will make her millions. Some are outspoken about the fact that one of the most lucrative and famous book franchise of the moment is one so widely derided for its lack of literary value.  But I tend to disagree.
 
You know, I never, ever snub my nose at other people’s tastes.  There is room enough in this world for every type of literature for every type of reader.  Reading should bring pleasure.  It should make you laugh and cry and feel things that are bigger than yourself.  A story doesn’t necessarily need to be refined literature to be enjoyable and satisfying.  So do I think the 50 Shades series is the most well-written trilogy on the market?  Probably not.  (And yes, I read all three.)  But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have worth.

I’ve been told that my character development is one of my greatest strengths as an author.  People have connected with my characters and can’t stop reading because they need to find out what happens to them.  I think it’s a good thing that my readers take a vested interest in what happens to my characters.  So I guess what I like most about my characters is that people seem to like and relate to them.

My favorite character is Thomas from Among the Shrouded.  When I first started writing I didn’t connect with him.  I had trouble writing from his point of view and I think it was mainly because he was the first male character I’d attempted to convey.  I kept asking men, “what do you think Thomas would think about this?” to which the men would respond, “Nothing, men don’t think!”  Thomas eventually found his voice once I got to really know him and he became my absolute favorite.  He grew as a character and yet remained true to himself.  I love that about him.  And he’s cute in my head, so there’s that.

So far, the genre of both of my published works chose me more than I chose them.  The Clay Lion ended up being YA simply because of the age of the characters and the way the story needed to be told.  Among the Shrouded is probably older YA or perhaps NA because of some of the more adult issues the story addresses.  I think I’d like to do more YA, but I also like to tackle real world topics that are sometime considered controversial.  I like feeling like I’m leaving my readers a little wise than I found them, both young and old alike.

What I love most about YA is that the young are impressionable.  They’re not jaded yet.  You can reach them and make them feel important things.  And you can make them fall in love with the written word.  It’s what I set out to do.

I also love that YA is not just for the young.  It’s also for anyone who’s ever been young.  And we all have been.  We remember all those firsts and how wonderful they were, even if they didn’t feel so wonderful at the time.  It’s fun as an adult to go back to those times when life was… simpler.  Reading (and writing) YA allows us to do that.

As far as reading goes, although I'm partial to YA, I love all types of literature.  I’m a huge Dean Koontz fan.  I’ve read every book he’s ever written.  And my writing is nothing like his which is hysterical to me since you would think he would be a greater influence!  I like historic fiction.  I love Barbara Kingsolver because I feel smarter for having read her works.  I’ve read the Twilight Saga.  And of course, Harry Potter!  Loved them all.  I don’t think there is any genre I won’t read, but I’m not a big fan of tragedies.  Is anyone?  The House of Sand and Fog destroyed me.  So did The Pilot’s Wife.  Please don’t write books with horrible endings.  There’s enough of that in real life, don’t you think!?

Brooke, the main character in The Clay Lion was loosely based on a family friend who served as the bone marrow donor to her sister and my own daughter.  She has a lot of my personality traits (an author can never truly take herself out of her work!) but eventually she grows to become her own person throughout the course of the book.

Most of my characters find their personalities in bits and pieces of people I’ve known throughout my life.  They are sometimes the people I wish others could have been in my life.

My characters develop gradually and it usually takes me a while to really get to know them fully.  I’ll often go back several times after a book is finished and rework areas that don’t seem right based on the people my characters eventually become. 

There’s a lot of me all over my work.  My values, my belief systems, who I am as a person.  I’ve worked through a lot of my own feelings and issues through my writing.  It’s very cathartic.

I develop my characters by writing them.  I always have to go back to those beginning chapters and revise because my characters aren’t completely fleshed out at that point, but I find the only way I can really get inside them is to let them tell the story and see the plot emerge through their eyes.  I give them a lot of freedom when it comes to taking a story where they want it to go.

(SPOILER ALERT – If you have not yet read the book, you may choose NOT to read this post until after you are familiar with the full plot of the story.)

The time travel piece of the book was by far the hardest part to write about.  The entire idea for The Clay Lion came from a dream.  I woke up having had a particularly vivid dream involving my sister and me traveling through time to fix problems.  I do not remember much more of the dream than that, but I immediately wrote down a few ideas about time travel and how I could incorporate it into a story.  I began writing the book with only a skeleton idea of how the time travel portion of the story was going to work out.  About a third of the way through the original manuscript, I realized that how I envisioned the time travel working would be impossible for Brooke to do in real life.  I had planned on her family and everyone around her remembering what had happened to her before her first trip, but as I continued writing, I determined that it would be impossible for them to remember if her timeline was reset to account for the changes she was making.  It would have to be reset over the origin of the trip, thereby erasing the memories of everyone but the traveler, in this case, Brooke.

Another issue I encountered with the time travel was whether or not the travelers were gone in the present for the same amount of time they were spending in the past.  For example, during her first trip, Brooke traveled into the past for six months.  In the original manuscript, Brooke returned to the present having missed six months of her own life because of the trip.  Knowing that Brooke would be traveling several times throughout the course of the novel, I knew that this was going to be an impossibility, not only because it would have taken years of her life away, but also because then every traveler would end up with large spans of time within their lives that they would not be present for.  This would be a huge problem for many travelers, so it was something that I needed to rectify.  I finally decided that in the present day, no time would be lost for the traveler.  You leave and return in the same day, effectively missing nothing of your present life.

Both of these issues, along with several others, required a significant amount of editing and revisions as I wrote.  There were many days (and nights) that I was not able to write any of the storyline because I was bogged down in the intricacies of the time travel.  Strangely, most of my inspiration was given to me in the middle of the night and I was forced awake by bursts of inspiration regarding the time travel that needed my immediate attention.  I was never so glad for my overactive subconscious!

In the end, I believe that I was able to work out many of the details regarding the time travel that exists in Brooke and Branson’s world.  Having grappled for so many months with the difficulties that it involves, I firmly believe that I will never experience time travel in my own life.  I believe it may very well be an impossibility in our world.  But if it isn’t, just in case, I’m already making my list of what things I would like to do with my trip.   

What would you do with yours?  Let me know, I’d love to hear from you!

Yesterday I introduced my book to the world.  It was a scary day.  The part about putting something you've thrown your entire heart and soul into and then waiting to see how everyone would respond - that was the scary part.

I cried a lot yesterday.  Not sad, but happy.  Happy because people who have loved me my whole life and people who only knew me for a season jumped into my world for a little while yesterday to let me know they cared about this little accomplishment of mine.  In reality, everyone I heard from has done far greater things in their lives.  I strung some words (albeit a whole lot of words) together to tell a story, but the reality is, each of you who reached out to me yesterday have done some pretty amazing things with your life too.  And I think you are awesome.  I didn't want to let another moment go by without reminding you of that.

Today, things are more peaceful.  Online at least.  But I sold 46 copies of The Clay Lion yesterday (THANK YOU!), and today, a bunch of you are maybe, possibly, going to be reading it.  And that is terrifying.  And so I am not peaceful at all!  I keep thinking about you, out there, wherever you are, reading about Brooke and Branson and I am wondering if you've fallen in love with them the way I did.  I hope you have.

So here I am.  Waiting.  Waiting to hear what you think.  Waiting for you to tell me that I should write another.  Or that I should hang up my computer and consider needlepoint.  The waiting is always the hardest part. 

Tick tock.  Happy reading : )