Codi Gary, who I totally fangirl and love, tagged me for this hop! Check the bottom of the post for the authors I tagged, who will all be posting their own answers next Monday!
The purpose of this hop is to talk about our writing process! I don't know that I really have a process, but I'm going to try to answer these four questions and make it interesting!
1. What am I working on right now?
I am working on book four in The Griffin Brothers series, Learning to Love. This is Luke and Olivia's book. It is also the last book in the series, although I will have two novellas that follow it. This book has been the hardest of the series for me to write. I feel protective of Luke as he's the youngest and feels like a disappointment for not following in his brother's footsteps to join the family business. His girl, Olivia is trying to be the perfect daughter for her parents, so falling for a guy they hate is not going to go over well.
.I should get edits back on book two, Building Our Love, later this week, so I'll soon be working on that book as well. I can't wait for everyone to read Ryan and Chloe's story next month!
2.How does my work differ from others in the genre?
This is a hard one. There are several series featuring brothers that I enjoy very much. Maybe what's different is the family dynamic. The entire family-brothers, parents and niece are extremely close and support each other in everything they do. They all play a part in every book. Also, the group of girls who were friends to start, along with the new girls who are introduced, is really strong. They fight sometimes, but ultimately, they are there for each other. In Building Our Love especially, it's the girls who work to reveal the big secret that Chloe has had to hide.
I also have a book, Creating A Love (#3), that will feature an interracial couple and also involve a lesbian couple. I didn't intentionally set out to include these groups, they just came from the characters-my friend, Candice, really wanted Candi to have a bigger part, so I obliged her and paired her with Owen. I HATE love triangles and cheating in books, so I made a character gay to avoid that. I realized that both situations had to be addressed in the book, although in life, to me, they are normal rec alationships that shouldn't be considered "different" at all.
3. Why do I write what I do?
I fell in love with the New Adult genre when I read Easy by Tammara Webber in 2012. I devoured a bunch more over the next year and still read quite a few. I claimed my first book boyfriend ever from a NA book-Reece from Foreplay by Sophie Jordan. I just loved the stories by people like Tracy Wolff, Jay Crownover, Cora Carmack, Sawyer Bennett, Christina Lee and many others. I think what drew me in is that the characters are still young enough to be figuring themselves out, but they aren't living at home for the most part, so they don't always have to answer to their parents as much as the teens in YA books-which is what I had read primarily before (and still love).
In January of this year, I read an NA book that I just couldn't connect with. I had loved the authors other books, but this one just didn't resonate with me. I started thinking about what I'd like to see in a book. Gaming For Love came about with just a pool scene and a special custom dress as the inspiration. I sat down and just wrote the first draft. I intended for it to only be for me and my friends to read, but an author friend convinced me to at least self-publish it, so I did.
4. How does my writing process work?
I need to start out by saying that I am not a plotter. At all. I knew which brother I was writing for each book and when I started, I knew who their girl would be. I generally have a conflict in mind, but that's pretty much it.
I just start writing and let the story take me wherever it will. I feel like I'm reading when I'm writing. Sometimes, things go like I think they will and sometimes things happen that I had never thought about before (like the game controller scene in Gaming For Love-I never once thought about something like that, but it fit that scene). Sometimes, when I'm in the middle of a story and am driving in the car, an idea for a twist or a scene will pop into my head, but that's pretty much it for planning.
I did have to make a "cheat sheet" for myself about the series as a whole. I had to remember what time of year the books started and ended, how old everyone was in the previous book, etc. I also drew a picture of Scott with his tattoos when I was writing the first book so I would know where I wanted each one.
1. What am I working on right now?
I am working on book four in The Griffin Brothers series, Learning to Love. This is Luke and Olivia's book. It is also the last book in the series, although I will have two novellas that follow it. This book has been the hardest of the series for me to write. I feel protective of Luke as he's the youngest and feels like a disappointment for not following in his brother's footsteps to join the family business. His girl, Olivia is trying to be the perfect daughter for her parents, so falling for a guy they hate is not going to go over well.
.I should get edits back on book two, Building Our Love, later this week, so I'll soon be working on that book as well. I can't wait for everyone to read Ryan and Chloe's story next month!
2.How does my work differ from others in the genre?
This is a hard one. There are several series featuring brothers that I enjoy very much. Maybe what's different is the family dynamic. The entire family-brothers, parents and niece are extremely close and support each other in everything they do. They all play a part in every book. Also, the group of girls who were friends to start, along with the new girls who are introduced, is really strong. They fight sometimes, but ultimately, they are there for each other. In Building Our Love especially, it's the girls who work to reveal the big secret that Chloe has had to hide.
I also have a book, Creating A Love (#3), that will feature an interracial couple and also involve a lesbian couple. I didn't intentionally set out to include these groups, they just came from the characters-my friend, Candice, really wanted Candi to have a bigger part, so I obliged her and paired her with Owen. I HATE love triangles and cheating in books, so I made a character gay to avoid that. I realized that both situations had to be addressed in the book, although in life, to me, they are normal rec alationships that shouldn't be considered "different" at all.
3. Why do I write what I do?
I fell in love with the New Adult genre when I read Easy by Tammara Webber in 2012. I devoured a bunch more over the next year and still read quite a few. I claimed my first book boyfriend ever from a NA book-Reece from Foreplay by Sophie Jordan. I just loved the stories by people like Tracy Wolff, Jay Crownover, Cora Carmack, Sawyer Bennett, Christina Lee and many others. I think what drew me in is that the characters are still young enough to be figuring themselves out, but they aren't living at home for the most part, so they don't always have to answer to their parents as much as the teens in YA books-which is what I had read primarily before (and still love).
In January of this year, I read an NA book that I just couldn't connect with. I had loved the authors other books, but this one just didn't resonate with me. I started thinking about what I'd like to see in a book. Gaming For Love came about with just a pool scene and a special custom dress as the inspiration. I sat down and just wrote the first draft. I intended for it to only be for me and my friends to read, but an author friend convinced me to at least self-publish it, so I did.
4. How does my writing process work?
I need to start out by saying that I am not a plotter. At all. I knew which brother I was writing for each book and when I started, I knew who their girl would be. I generally have a conflict in mind, but that's pretty much it.
I just start writing and let the story take me wherever it will. I feel like I'm reading when I'm writing. Sometimes, things go like I think they will and sometimes things happen that I had never thought about before (like the game controller scene in Gaming For Love-I never once thought about something like that, but it fit that scene). Sometimes, when I'm in the middle of a story and am driving in the car, an idea for a twist or a scene will pop into my head, but that's pretty much it for planning.
I did have to make a "cheat sheet" for myself about the series as a whole. I had to remember what time of year the books started and ended, how old everyone was in the previous book, etc. I also drew a picture of Scott with his tattoos when I was writing the first book so I would know where I wanted each one.
Look for blog posts by these awesome author friends of mine next Monday:
Tera Lynn Childs, Tracy Wolff and Alison Packard!
Tera Lynn Childs, Tracy Wolff and Alison Packard!
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