1. The best part of your job is _____ .

Ack! See, I don’t want to talk about my day job here! (Actually, more on that tomorrow.) So, let’s pretend that writing is my full time job (Ha!). The best part is getting feedback and knowing that I brought joy to someone’s life.

2. My favorite quote is _____ .

Uh. I don’t know that I’ve ever had one. I’ll have to put some thought into it…

Okay, I did some googling and thinking and I picked one (author unknown): I choose you. And I’ll choose you, over and over and over. Without pause, without a doubt, in a heartbeat. I’ll keep choosing you.

Love is forefront on my mind lately (that’s what happens when you fall rapidly in love). But so many quotes and thoughts about love center around that ONE person who “completes” you and other such BS. I have one person who I’ve been in love with for over 15 years. I choose him every day, and I will continue to choose him. But I also choose several other partners who enrich our lives. We choose those partners together. Anyway, that’s what I like about this quote–it doesn’t suppose that there’s only one person involved. (Uh oh, I feel a rant coming on… Maybe I should save that for another blog post… stay tuned. Maybe Thursday.)

3. The best part of my day is _____ .

The best part of my day is usually bedtime. It’s the time I get to spend with the person/people I love. Being cuddled and touched (often not sexually) is the best feeling in the world for me. And I am lucky enough to have several partners who offer me that. Very, very lucky. Lucky enough that I often worry no one deserves this much love.

4. What is the hardest part of your job? How do you deal with it?

The hardest part of writing is fact checking. Cross checking details, “Was she wearing pink or green?” I once had a main character change hair color halfway through the book. It wasn’t even remotely intentional. Whoops! The problem for me is that I tend to write more about feelings and emotions than about physical appearance. On one hand, I like that because it offers the reader the opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of the main character. The moment I’ve described her as a brunette, my blonde readers aren’t picturing themselves anymore. I don’t know if it’s “right” or “wrong” in terms of writing, but it’s the way I like to write.

So how do I deal with it? Well, for starters, I stopped caring what other people think. Maybe that’s stupid. I want people to buy my books (obviously). But I also like the advice to write what you want to read. So I do. And if it doesn’t fit with what publishers want (Hint: It doesn’t), then I’ll publish it myself (I do).

In terms of fact checking myself, I keep a side by side view document where I keep detailed notes on my character’s physical and mental characteristics, their life experiences, etc. I also keep an outline of what’s happening in each chapter. And when I wrote my first choose your own adventure, I kept a literal note card (3×5) for each chapter. Let me tell you how much fun that way! (A lot of fun, actually…)

5. You must write a “how to guide” about something for which you have expertise. What is this guide about or tell us the title?

Ack. I don’t know that I feel like an expert on much. Not much I would talk about here. I think I would probably write a how to guide titled, “How to be uniquely yourself when the world wants to put labels on you.” How’s that?

Bonus: What would you name your boat?

The Sea Rose

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