Ask the Author: writing styles

Ask the Author – The Question: What makes an author’s style of writing unique? This will sound sort of trite, but: personal experience. Here’s the thing, and this, again, sounds trite, and indeed, it’s overused, but it’s also true: no one can write the story that *you* can write. Because everyone’s personal experience shapes them differently, and they approach stories differently. I have an exercise I do when I teach creative writing classes. I give everybody the same 5 sentences, the opening of a fairy tale type story written in…

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The blue cover of BABA YAGA'S DAUGHTER features aa beautiful Eastern European woman with dark hair with a stained glass image of Baba Yaga's chicken-legged hut in the background.

Ask the Author: favorite character

Ask the Author – the Question: Of all your books, do you have a favorite character? *looks into the camera again* Not to repeat myself from last week, but oh, come on! Honestly, this is sort of like a favorite child question. First, it’s hard to pick because of course I *do* love them all, and second, I actually feel guilty admitting that I *do* have some favorites, as if they might somehow be offended. And at the same time, well…I do have some favorites. :) I mean, my leads,…

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Ask The Author: favorite books & writers?

Ask The Author – the Question: Dare I ask? Favorite authors? Books? oh come on :) No, no, okay, look, I do have some answers to this. My husband says my favorite book is TIGANA by Guy Gavriel Kay, and I can never argue with that even though who can, in fact, choose a single favorite? But if it’s not my favorite, I have a hard time telling you what is in its place. OTOH, I am now like a…decade? behind? on reading Guy’s books, which makes it feel hard…

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Ask the Author: writing for Zoe Chant

Ask the Author – the Question: I am curious about how you got in on the Zoe Chant action. And how exactly does it work when multiple authors write under a single pen name? Hah! I got in on it because I have a friend who writes for Zoe and she spent years trying to get me to apply to write for them. Eventually I did. And while that sounds easy enough on the surface, it took me two rewrites of one book and then another entire book entirely to…

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Ask the Author: genres I’d like to write in

The Question: Are there any genres in which you’d like to write (that you’ve not written in already)? Once upon a time the answer to this question was “cozy mysteries!” but since I’ve been writing the Dublin Driver series for a while now, it’s less of a pointed answer. :) Genres, wow, well, actually yes! Having spent the past several years learning to write romance novels (which was NOT an easy task!), I’d really love to try writing romantic suspense. I have a pile of research novels to read for…

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