I want to thank Rachel Eliason for asking me to participate in the World Blog Tour. If you haven’t read Rachel’s post, you can find it here.

What am I working on?

At present, I’m finishing up book 3 in the Fey Creations series, Re-enchanted. It’s almost ready to be sent to my awesome beta readers. Adjacent to that, I’m working on tie-in background stories for the series. Up first is how liosâlfar Alric Brand became a vampire.

How does my writing differ from other books in the same genre?

The contemporary/urban fantasy genre is populated with twenty-something, kick-butt main characters, frequently portrayed as detectives or protectors. Don’t get me wrong, I love those books and will continue to read them, but I wanted something different. Why couldn’t the main character be older? Why did they have to have a degree in self-defense? Why not an average job? Why not a fairly normal, happy childhood?

If I was looking for something outside the norm, surely, others were too. What did I have to lose? Nothing.

From all those whys emerged a middle-aged, hairstylist with the power to manipulate dead tissue and a whole heap of secrets surrounding her heritage. Oh, yeah, it’s set in small town Iowa.

Why do I write what I do?

I love adding a magical twist to everyday life.

How does my writing process work?

My writing process is a convoluted mess and I’ve covered it before, but here’s the condensed version.

I’m a scene writer, or so I’ve been told. I write random scenes, then stitch them together into a story. I don’t use a traditional outline; I’ve tried that technique and failed miserably. All I need a beginning, an end and sometimes a few random plot points along the way.

My brain doesn’t always work in a chronological format. I see interactions between characters, or snippets of things that will happen. Anything can spark a scene, a line of dialog, a character action or reaction, a prop, even a song. Once I’ve finished all these scenes—don’t ask me how I know it’s done, I just do—I begin stitching them together, filling in the spaces to connect each until I reach the end.

Once I’m satisfied with the flow, I give it a read, making notes for changes as I go. After implementing the changes I do it all over again. By that second pass I’m usually ready to hand it off to beta readers. If they have valid suggestions I implement them. I then reread and make any changes before passing it to my editor. Starting the whole read, rewrite, repeat cycle. Sooner or later, I have to stop or I’ll fiddle with it forever.

So there you have it, my back-assward writing process.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by my little strand of the web!

Your blog hopping journey continues with two fabulous ladies of the speculative fiction realm.

Cheryl Corbin writes adventures set in other worlds, aka science fiction and fantasy stories. She lives in Iowa and writes with her writing partner, Yuki, a Bichon Frise, though Yuki spends more time sleeping than contributing to the story in progress. You can find Cheryl at www.cherylcorbin.com.

Tamara Siler Jones started her academic career as a science geek, earned a degree in art, and, when she’s not making quilts or herding cats, writes grisly thrillers. Despite the violent nature of her work, Tam’s easygoing and friendly. Not sick or twisted at all. Honest. You can find Tamara at http://tambowrites.blogspot.com.