Originally appeared online in June 2009 at Book Wenches
- I see from your website that you have a full-time job along with writing. How do you manage to be so incredibly productive given that there are only 24 hours in a day?
- Well, one thing you must keep in mind is that publishers schedule books for release months in advance. Unfortunately I'm not very good at scheduling new releases, and it seems I often have multiple books published in a short span of time! Working with multiple publishers only adds to this, as they schedule independently of each other. The books I have scheduled for release in July, for instance, were written months ago; in the case of one (Skaterboy), it was written YEARS ago and available as a free story on my site for a while before I decided to release it as an e-book for sale.
- Scheduling aside, I AM a very busy person. I work full-time from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM; every morning I get up at 6 AM to write for two hours before getting ready to leave for work. I try to get at least 1,000 words written then, and sometimes manage more in the evenings, but for the most part, those two hours in the morning are my only writing time. On weekends and evenings I focus on promotion, editing, and marketing. Sitting down and actually "writing" is only part of what it means to be an author, a fact I had to learn the hard way!
- Tell me the story of the first book/novella/story you sold. Was seeing your work published all that you thought it would be?
- It depends on what you consider "sold." The first work of mine to ever appear in print was a poem in a local newspaper. After that, I "sold" more poems and a short story to small press 'zines, but the only payment I received were complementary copies of the publication in which my writing appeared.
- My first published novel wasn't actually sold -- I began self-publishing in 2002, and didn't work with a publisher until four years later, when my e-book Trin was released. In the interim, my short stories were published online at Ruthie's Club, which pays contributors.
- Because my beginnings as a writer are a bit unconventional, my experiences are probably unorthodox compared to other e-published authors. Still, I always experience a thrill when a new story is released, and I love receiving author copies of my titles in print, whether from a publishing company or self-published, just to hold in my hands a copy of a book with my name on the cover or, in the case of anthologies, with a story of mine printed inside.
- Your work is published by several different publishers. What makes you choose one for a particular story over another?
- Often the publishers' guidelines dictate whether or not they'll receive a particular story. Some publishers don't take reprints, so any stories I've had published elsewhere wouldn't be accepted if submitted. Some stories I write with a particular publisher in mind, specifically series that I've pitched to a publisher or stories involving characters I've used in other stories released by that publisher.
- When I have a completely new story -- meaning it isn't part of a series or doesn't contain characters appearing in other stories -- then I consider it against other stories in a publisher's catalogue to see if it will be a good fit. I would like to work with a traditional print publisher at some point, and have stories in the works which might better fit with the more well-known GLBT print publishers than with e-publishers. When I finish those stories, I'll submit them to the publisher I think will work best for them.
- Your stories set during the Civil War are very detailed and realistic. Are you a Civil War buff? What strikes you as so fascinating about that time? During the course of your research, what is the most interesting thing that you've learned about the days of the Civil War?
- I grew up and live in Virginia, where the Civil War is still very much alive. What other authors would spend months researching, I've already learned, mostly through school or visits to museums. I also love to read military history, mostly pre-Vietnam, and am fascinated by nonfiction about America's involvement in conflicts both international and domestic.
- What makes the Civil War so interesting to me is how misconstrued our perception of the conflict is at this late date. If you live in the South, you don't learn the fight was about slavery; instead, it was over state's rights. But why did the average soldier fight? What were his reasons for going into battle against his own countrymen to the North? Against people who were once his friends, his brothers? Those personal relationships that were torn apart by the Civil War are what fascinate me.
- Another thing I find interesting is the number of women who donned male apparel and passed as men to join in the fight. You'd be surprised how many soldiers were women in disguise. That's something I'd like to explore in a future story somewhere. What were their reasons for fighting? For shirking the conventions of women in their time to go to war? Thankfully many of these women left behind a whole literature of letters and diaries to help us understand their motives. How you can not be intrigued while researching the Civil War would surprise me.
- I enjoyed your recent release For the Boys that is set during the Korean Conflict. Some aspects of it made me think of the television series and movie M*A*S*H (I hope that doesn't disappoint you -- I loved that show). What made you want to set a story during this era?
- No, I'm not disappointed. I love M*A*S*H and the setting of the TV show was very much in my mind while writing the story, so I'm glad you got the connection! I even reference Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in the story (not by name, but if you're a careful reader, you'll catch it).
- The story For the Boys came to me in the oddest of places -- I was sitting in the crowd at a concert at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC. This was in October of 2001, right after the attacks of 9/11, and the concert was the United We Stand benefit show. Carole King was onstage talking about the USO and Bob Hope playing for the troops in Korea.
- Well, that comment got me thinking, and before I left the stadium that night, the seed for a story had taken root in my mind. I didn't know much about the Korean Conflict except that my grandfather had served in it, but I love researching new stories and For the Boys was born.
- You have written stories that span just about every genre I can think of: Contemporary, Sci Fi, Fantasy, Historical, even Superhero. Which is your favorite genre to work in ... what comes natural?
- Contemporary stories come the most natural to me, which is odd because there was a time when I would've said "fantasy" or "sci-fi." That said, my favorite genre to write in is futuristic, particularly dystopic or post-apocalyptic settings. I don't write as many of those stories as I would like.
- The easiest to write, though, would have to be superhero stories. Why? Probably because I'm a comic book geek and X-Men fangirl at heart, or maybe because my superhero characters Vic and Matt have become so real to me that writing them is now second-nature. It's almost like writing fan-fic in a way; the characters have been outlined in previous stories so I don't have to rehash their appearances or their personalities. I just sit down and write, and readers know what to expect. Writing an ongoing series with the same characters allows me to get into the story immediately without having to reintroduce everything. At times the story flows easier for me because I already have so much of it internalized already.
- Your story VR Palace is about a man who gets caught up in Virtual Reality until he is consumed by the system. I found the uncertainty at the end to be fascinating; however, I still feel compelled to ask you: in your opinion, does the story have a happy ending, or is it a bug in the computer and technology gone haywire?
- Readers who don't like VR Palace don't think it has an HEA. But to me, if the characters end up together, isn't that a happy ending? I've never understood why people say Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. Yes, they die at the end, but they die together. They end up together, in whatever afterlife there might be, so aren't they just as happy there as they would be in this life? Titanic was tragic because Jack died and Rose lived (sorry to ruin it for you if you're that 1% of the population who hasn't seen the movie yet), but in the end, they're together and it's happily ever after after all. Right?
- In VR Palace, the characters end up together. The narrator and his lover are in the same world, together, and it doesn't matter whether that world is real or virtual. The fact is they are together. That's enough for me to make it a happy ending.
- Your heroes from The Powers of Love series, Vic and Matt, have almost taken on a life of their own. Did you have any idea when you first started this series that they would take off the way that they have? Off all the powers that Vic has experienced, which was your favorite one to write?
- In one word, no. When I wrote the first short story, The Powers of Love, I thought that would be the end of it. I never envisioned the characters taking on a life of their own as they have. But I had a scene in mind for the characters, a scene where one man is shot during a robbery and doesn't die, and by the time I finished writing The The Powers of Love, I hadn't written that scene. So I wrote another story, An Evening With the Rush Hour Hero, thinking this would be the story that would tell that scene.
- But no. Still no robbery scene, no gunfight, no bullet-proof super powers. So I wrote another story, which became a novel (The Bonds of Love). And the scene finally got written, but by the time I was finished with the book, I had another idea in mind, this one triggered by a random mention of the Kama Sutra early on in the novel. That one line sparked a whole series, The Positions of Love.
- And by the time I started that series, the characters had taken up residence in my head. They were here to stay, basically, and as long as I was willing to write down their adventures, they would continue to tell me what to write. How could any author say no to that?
- My favorite power ... now that's a tough one. Of the powers Vic has gotten to date, I have to say the most fun to write was the invisibility he had in An Evening With the Rush Hour Hero. The most fun story to write so far, though, has to be Outage. That one practically wrote itself, but the focus of the story isn't Vic's power so much as it is Matt's outing his abilities to his coworker Roxie. The title works on many levels in that story, and it was neat to see how everything all tied together in the end.
- So tell me ... what do you do when you're not slaving away over a hot computer?
- Mostly spoiling my cats, going to the movies, playing video games. Watching the Discovery channel (I think Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs is sexy, what can I say?). Reading. Sleeping, which I don't do enough!
- If you were to take a day and do something just for yourself -- indulge yourself, even -- what would you do?
- Sleep, probably. Or read a really good book I've read before and love, such as Watership Down by Richard Adams or one of Stephen King's post-apocalyptic titles (The Stand, Cell, or maybe finally treat myself to finishing the entire Dark Tower series). Or get another tattoo. I have a $50 gift certificate that my office gave me on Administrative Professionals Day (whatever happened to "Secretaries Day?") that is for the tattoo parlor I went to on my birthday this year, and it's burning a hole in my pocket. I just need to set aside a solid two hours or so to get the new tattoo I'm jonesing for -- a rainbow flag on the inside of my left arm above the pink triangle I had done in January.
- If I were to poke through your CD collection, what titles and artists would I find?
- Everything, and I mean that literally! The last CDs I bought were Britney Spears' Circus and Eminem's Relapse. I love pop, rock, heavy metal, country, opera, oldies, Christian rock, 80's music, dance, showtunes ... boybands and pop princesses make up most of my collection, which is 500+ CDs strong, but I have such eclectic taste when it comes to music.
- If you had to choose one of your stories to hold up as an example of your best and favorite of your work, which one would it be and why?
- My favorite novel to date is Stepping Up to the Plate. The characters really came alive for me while writing it and I thoroughly enjoyed living in their world for the time it took to write their story. I've revisited some of the same characters in a short story called Caught Off Base and would like to write another follow-up to see what Stacy and Darian are up to later on down the road.
- What are you working on right now? Can you give us a peek into what your readers can expect to see from you in the future?
- This morning I finished the second short story in an upcoming Vic and Matt series entitled V: The V in Vengeance. So I'm currently between projects, though I won't stay that way for long! There's no rest for the wicked. I have the next story in my Playing the Field series to get underway and have a short story idea I'd like to take a crack at this week if I get a chance. The idea came to me over the weekend while I was at the tattoo parlor getting inked, and I think it'll be a good romance short story if I can pull it off.
- Tell us one thing about yourself that we might find surprising.
- Um, I collect Barbies? Not so much any more, but I have over 100 dolls in my collection and I still love browsing through fashion doll ads and magazines, particularly the larger dolls like Gene Marshall, Kitty Collier, and those in the Robert Tonner collections. I try to go to a local doll show every year, even though I'm no longer adding to my collection-I love the 80's Midge or Diva-faced dolls, and actually own all but one or two international releases. I'm such a doll nerd, too, it'd surprise you. I can talk about Shani arms and the different face molds Mattel uses, and which countries produce better screening on the play line dolls than others. Very few people who visit my website or read my books know I have a closet full of fashion dolls, clothing, sewing patterns, and accessories!