HEY, YOU GUYS.... ASK HER QUESTIONS
don't make this look like a ghost-blog. Better go flog the blog....gack.
Fun Friday – Q & A
You know what Shakespeare said about the best laid plans? (wasn't it mice and Burns? Are you going to make me go look it up, Winfree?) Well, they often go awry and mine have. Or rather, my lack of organization killed them. I’d planned to show you pics from our recent trip to St. Augustine, but I seemed to have, er, misplaced my memory card to my camera.
So . . . how about a Q & A day? You leave questions for me in the comments area, I’ll pop in throughout the day and answer them (if Kate’s blog doesn’t decide to hate me – sometimes it won’t let me comment), and tonight I’ll choose two winners from this week’s visitors, for the choice of an ebook from my backlist and the choice of a signed copy of one of my print books.
Sound good? Get to askin’ questions, then!
Fun Friday – Q & A
You know what Shakespeare said about the best laid plans? (wasn't it mice and Burns? Are you going to make me go look it up, Winfree?) Well, they often go awry and mine have. Or rather, my lack of organization killed them. I’d planned to show you pics from our recent trip to St. Augustine, but I seemed to have, er, misplaced my memory card to my camera.
So . . . how about a Q & A day? You leave questions for me in the comments area, I’ll pop in throughout the day and answer them (if Kate’s blog doesn’t decide to hate me – sometimes it won’t let me comment), and tonight I’ll choose two winners from this week’s visitors, for the choice of an ebook from my backlist and the choice of a signed copy of one of my print books.
Sound good? Get to askin’ questions, then!
Spumoni, Pistachio, or Rocky Road?
ReplyDeletePistachio. With almonds. From Baskin Robbins.
ReplyDeleteOh, wait. I'm not allowed to *mention* Baskin Robbins after our misadventures in the Oldest City.
Kate - it's Burns. There's a REASON I teach American Lit. This would be it. ;-)
thanks for looking it up, Linda. I was going to....any minute now. really.
ReplyDeleteOh, thank goodness I can't remember what it was like before google. Must have been a nightmare having to go days and days not remembering song lyrics or attributions.
Hmmm...which of your books is currently your favorite?
ReplyDeleteThere was a time withough Google?! Whatever did we do . . .?
ReplyDeleteWe won't discuss how stupid I feel for mis-attributing that quote. I'm an English teacher, for Pete's sake!
Hey, Moira (aka Bree & Donna)!
ReplyDeleteCurrent favorite, huh? Gee, that's hard. If it's finished current favorite, probably HEARTS AWAKENED , because I just finished the edits on it and it's all pretty and shiny and good.
But absolute current favorite is SOMETHING MORE, the book I'm writing. I get involved and immersed and fall in love with the characters. Then I figure out the absolute worst thing I can do to them . . . and I do it. That's looming in the next chapter I'm writing. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!
hummmmmm are you a plotter or a spontaneous writer?
ReplyDeleteare you story's plot driven or character driven?
do you read your own reviews? do they influence your witting?
Hey, Tina!
ReplyDeleteLet's see. I'm a plotter -- I do a lot of thinking about a story before I begin writing and I generally know where it's going (although I tend to rewrite endings many, many times). I think most of what I write tends to be character-driven, even when there's an external suspense plot, as I really like to explore how a character responds to a certain plot event.
I do read reviews, even bad ones, but I don't think they influence my writing, per se, although I do look for patterns of comments -- like if a whole set of reviews mentions pacing or something like that. So, yes, I think the feedback of reviews can make one a more thoughtful writer.
Hey Lin!
ReplyDeleteI've finally got the entire Hearts of the South series, now I just have to read them...
Who was your favorite character in that series and why?
Consider yourself bugged! :)
Hey, Joy! I hope you like them!
ReplyDeleteOh, favorite character (y'all are into these have-to-think-hard questions, aren't you?!) . . .
It's Tick. I just love him. I think it's because he's been around so long for me (I've been writing him for more than ten years now). His "voice" is really easy to pick up, I like who he is as a person.
Cookie (Mark) is a close second. I adore him.
And the two of them together? Oh, I love that!
Tick and Cookie!! *hearts* I love them both oodles. They are magic in the same scene. :D
ReplyDeleteHmm. We know Hollywood screws up a lot (Nic Cage's accent in Con Air, anyone?). What movie, recent or old as dirt, do you think did the best job portraying the "feel" of the South?
Hey darlin',
ReplyDeleteI know Mark Cook's story is up next.YeeHAw! How many more books can we look forward to in the Hearts of the South series, one of my all time faves?
Angel
(bug,bug,bug!)
For a newcomer to your books, should I start at the beginning, or is there one somewhere down the list that I really shouldn't wait to read?
ReplyDeleteHi Linda - sorry I'm late to the party - my ? goes back a few comments.
ReplyDeleteI'm a new author and I find it hard to really down and dirty torture my characters. Any advice on how to totally go there?
Have a great weekend -
Kayla Gray
Hey, y'all -- sorry I'm late checking back. I've been hanging wall panels. :-D
ReplyDeleteOh, Moira, great question. The DH and I quibbled over this one. He says Georgia Rules, with Lindsay Lohan. I was surprised he didn't say Sweet Home Alabama, as he loves that movie. I'm not much of a movie watcher (no time, LOL), but my first thought was A Time to Kill, from back in the 90's.
My all-time favorite Southern-set movie is To Kill a Mockingbird. Sigh. Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. Sigh. I also love Gene Hackman in Mississippi Burning.
I think I kinda danced all around that question, didn't I?
Hey, Angel!
ReplyDeleteYes, Mark's book is up next: Hearts Awakened, due out in September. I cannot WAIT, as it's also Tori's book and I love them together.
Okay, as to more books . . . I recently sold Troy Lee's book to Samhain. It's called Something More, and I love it. My editor is reading Chris's book, but we'll have to see if it passes muster or not. ;-) And I've written Ash's book, although it's not subbed anywhere right now.
And all this, when there wasn't even supposed to BE a series. Darn Tick Calvert anyway . . .
Hi, LighthouseSandy. What a great name! I just climbed the St. Augustine lighthouse last week. Do you know how tall those things are?!
ReplyDeleteMy standard answer on the series is that each book is written to stand alone, although by reading them in order, you will see some threads unfolding (for example, you meet Tick in books one and two, but his book is book three).
The book that really seemed to take off with readers in this series is book 4, Anything But Mine. However, it's the only one that I would suggest you read *after* you read book 3, Hold On to Me, as Anything But Mine is closely related to HOLD and includes information that might ruin the ending to HOLD.
Does that make any sense, LOL?
Hey, Kayla, welcome! And what a great question!
ReplyDeleteHere's what I do . . . I spend a lot of time getting to know my characters. Who are they, what has happened in their pasts (even if it never goes in the book), why they do what they do, what they want and need most. From there, I figure out the absolute worst thing that could happen to them . . . and then I make it happen.
Who is your favorite superhero?
ReplyDeleteIf you was stranded on an island, what 3 things would you want with you?
How do you choose your character's names?
Hi, Amy!
ReplyDeleteOnly three things. Wow, that's tough. Um . . . I'm assuming the water has a food and water supply. (I keep thinking of Lord of the Flies, LOL). Something to read that it wouldn't bother me to re-read, coffee, and probably my AlphaSmart with extra batteries.
Characters names . . . you know, usually, they just kind of come to me as I'm thinking about the story. Tick honestly started out as a joke between me and a friend (he was only meant to be a secondary character in an earlier novel that I never finished which featured his heroine with another hero). Some of the deputies have names that in some way came from the DH's law enforcement buddies.