Check out all the other entries over at Shallee’s Blog!

So the idea is to tell you a little about how I write, the ways I create characters and stories and such. Since I’m a bit of a “pantser” (I write “by the seat of my pants” or without any pre-planning) that’s a little complicated. Every story is different, but I’ll detail some general things.

First, I get the idea. This can come from anything, from a story prompt to a dream. Story prompts rarely inspire my imagination, so I rarely look at them, but once in a while one will spark something for me. I’ve had several rather good ideas from dreams however. I get vivid dreams when I’m in a certain state, where I can almost control the characters and the dream (unlike most) has an internal narrative consistency. It’s kind of cool, but I always wake up before the story is finished so I never know how it ends, and somehow the ending I come up with never quite meshes wholly with the rest of it. I imagine that will get better with practice.
continue reading "Blogfest: What’s Your Process?"

Pseudonyms are hard.

A year ago I posted that I had chosen a Pen-name for myself, Lia Booke. I had difficulty choosing it, but I finally was forced to in order to submit a story with that name. I’ve since submitted a few other things with it, and have generally worn it about the internet for a whole year. Unfortunately, I’ve found that the name did not wear well. So, rather than just bite my tongue and deal with it I’ve decided to change it. Far better to change it now than to wait until I absolutely can’t stand it but have one or more books published under it.

After some serious consideration, I’ve settled on Lia Wolff. I still like the Lia part, and am reasonably well-known by that name now. Naturally I will be changing the information on my blog accordingly.
continue reading "A Rose by Any Other Name"

If you don’t know what Girl Genius is yet, shame on you.

Yes that’s right. Today is officially Girl Genius Day. I’ve mentioned before how much I love the webcomic Girl Genius, and how it started my interest in steampunk. It is an amazing comic about a girl, her adventures, and the crazy things she does with bits of clockwork, especially in her castle. It originally came out in comic-book format. The emergence of webcomics as a dominant form of comic apparently then influenced them to create a web-version as well. Naturally this means the archives are huge, but entirely worth reading through from the beginning.

Now, the reason today is Girl Genius Day is they recently wrote a novelized version of the comic called Agatha H and the Airship City. It is now available on Amazon.com and other retailers. I firmly believe in supporting my favorite artists in any way possible, so go buy the book (or the comic if you prefer) and help celebrate Girl Genius Day!

As for me, I’m going to spend this afternoon upping my daily word-count again. I rather think working on TBG is in order.

Currently Reading: By the Book by Scarlett Parrish

How I write, and why.

I was taught to write at an early age just about the same time I was taught to read, like most children. As I got older, I started to make up stories in imitation of the ones I read, and naturally my first thought was to write them down. Because this was the early 90’s and we weren’t precisely wealthy, my family had no computers at all. So my only option was to pick up a pen and a notebook and start writing them down. The only one I can really remember was a thriller-type mystery, with a tall beautiful blonde of international repute as the detective. I think I got about four or five handwritten pages finished before I gave up from hand-cramp and abandoned the story. After all, it was much more interesting to read other people’s stories than it was to spend all that time getting my own out of my head and onto paper. I already knew what happened in my own.
continue reading "Handwritten"

Daniel Cross, from By the Book.

Sunday I hinted at a surprise for today’s post. I am very pleased to announce that Crossbones, the Daniel Cross Official Fanclub scored an exclusive release-day interview with the aforesaid Daniel. He stars prominently in Scarlett Parrish’s excellent new release, By The Book. An erotic romance with plenty of snark and wit, I highly recommend it as a fast enjoyable read. But mostly you should read it for the Daniel. Hot, intelligent, and brash, he steals the story.

Excitingly, he is here to talk with us today! So without further ado, a transcript of my interview with him. Be warned, Daniel is a thoroughly spicy character, so if you are easily offended, please do not click through.
continue reading "Character Interview"

Slightly belated, but no less heart-felt.

A very happy New Year to my faithful readers, few though you may be. I just want to say again that I appreciate the comments, encouragement and weekly reading of all of you. Part of what makes this place special for me is knowing that I’m not entirely talking to myself (again). So, I hope you all have a happy, healthy, and productive 2011 full of laughter, fun, friends, family, and plenty of good stories.
continue reading "Happy New Year"