A gathering of friends on their Writing Process

I’m participating in a blog hop about my writing process on the invitation of Marylee MacDonald, whose new novel, Montpelier Tomorrow, is just out. Marylee is the intrepid leader of my critique group, and she is one heck of a writer and editor. Don’t miss her gripping emotional debut. You’ll lose yourself in it.

About Montpelier Tomorrow:

Mid-life mom, Colleen Gallagher would do anything to protect her children from harm. When her daughter’s husband falls ill with ALS, Colleen rolls up her sleeves and moves in, juggling the multiple roles of grandma, cook, and caregiver, only to discover that even her superhuman efforts can’t fix what’s wrong.

 

An engaging and heartfelt novel about the intricate relationships among family dealing with disease and disability. Characters are vivid, relatable, and all too imperfectly human. An emotional read.
—Jewell Parker Rhodes, author of Douglass’ Women and Ninth Ward

Her blog post about her writing process is here.

Visit Marylee on her website, Facebook or Goodreads.

Here are my 4 questions and answers about my writing process.

1. What am I working on?

At the moment I’m promoting my debut Hand of Fire, which takes far more time than ideally I’d like but I enjoy connecting with people both online and face to face. But as far as writing work, while there will be a sequel to Hand of Fire, at the present I’m in the middle of a historical mystery featuring the Hittite Queen Puduhepa as “sleuth.” She would be as famous as Cleopatra if she hadn’t been buried by the sands of time. Her seal is on the first extant peace treaty in history next to her foe, Pharaoh Ramses II. Now that she’s been dug out, she’s getting a series.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Hand of Fire is historical fiction set within the Trojan War. It was vital to me to build a realistic historical world of that exotic, far away place and time, but the story also involves Greek and Hittite mythological strands. When you have a half-immortal hero among your characters and a main character who connects with her gods in a mystical but very sensual way, there’s a fantasy element to the history. It just happens to be an element that the people living in the period would have considered entirely normal, not fantasy at all, so I didn’t really think of myself as writing historical fantasy. My friends in the historical fiction community call it historical fiction, so maybe I’ll get away with this bit of genre-bending! So far, from the reviews, both sides of the reading community, fantasy and historical, are happy readers, so I’m a happy writer.

3. Why do I write what I do?

I wanted to give Briseis, my main character, a voice. She’s the woman who caused the bitter conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon in Homer’s Iliad. Homer gave her a handful of lines and says she loves Achilles. I wanted more of this untold story. I also wanted to know what the source of love was between Achilles and Briseis. He has killed her brothers and destroyed her city. Not exactly the way to win a woman’s heart. But he’s no brainwasher, so it wasn’t some creepy ancient Stockholm Syndrome. I went digging. I love archaeology and history, so I enjoyed giving an ancient woman a voice and turning her into flesh and blood.

4. How does my writing process work?

At the best of times, I sit down and write daily. Promoting Hand of Fire is making that a bit tricky. I use a back and forth mixture of outlining and letting the story come out as I write. My characters tend to have their own opinions about what they will or will not do. I always lose those fights, so I try to listen and follow orders. I find using the Scrivener writing program helps me get an overview of the work in progress.

Up next on this blog hop are Nancy Bilyeau and Faith Justice

Nancy Bilyeau, author of the award-winning Joanna Stafford historical-thriller trilogy, which centers on a Dominican novice struggling to survive the treacheries of Henry VIII’s England. The first two books in this series are The Crown and The Chalice. The Tapestry will be out March 24, 2015.

“No-one reflects the paranoid state of Tudor England better than Nancy Bilyeau. She paints a graphic picture of the uncertainties of the time. The squalor of the poor, the careless brutality, the fear and threat of the mob and the deadly dance of shifting alliances and ambition both at the court and in Henry’s new church are all there. Sharply observed, cleverly paced and sympathetically written, this book more than fulfills the promise of THE CROWN, itself named as last year’s most impressive debut novel by the CWA Ellis Peters judges.”

—crimereview.co.uk

Read her post about her writing process here.

Visit Nancy on her website or FB.

Faith L. Justice writes award-winning novels, short stories, and articles from her historic home in Brooklyn, New York. Her historical novel Selene of Alexandria was a finalist in the 2011 Global eBook Awards. Her book Hypatia: Her Life and Times ranked in the top twenty best sellers in ancient history on iTunes. Faith has published in venues such as Salon.com, Writer’s Digest, The Copperfield Review, and Bygone Days. She’s an Associate Editor for Space & Time Magazine, a frequent contributor to Strange Horizons, and co-founded a writer’s workshop more years ago than she cares to admit. For fun, Faith likes to dig in the dirt—her garden and various archaeological sites. To contact Faith, read her essays and interviews, or get a sneak preview of her upcoming historical novels, visit her website. Follow her on the blog hop.

About Selene of Alexandria “… does what historical fiction does best—weave historical fact, real-life historical figures, and attention to detail with page-turning, plot-driven fiction.” – The Copperfield Review

Read Faith Justice’s post about her writing process on her blog here.