Aussie author Kylie Griffith - www.kyliegriffith.com - whose Berkley debut, Vengeance Born comes out February, sent me an interview questionnaire for her blog (to be published next year).
One of her questions was, Can you describe your writing process/timeframe from when you start a new book to handing it in at deadline?
Here's my draft answer:
Let's take the last book I turned in as it's fresh - Bring Him Home, out June 2012. I have an idea. A guy falls in love with his army buddy's widow. And I push it to the nth degree. What if he had to make a Sophy's Choice (lesser of two evils) in the ambush that killed his buddy. What if his buddy was complicit in that choice? What if he's so scarred emotionally he turns his back on his friends, the only family he has. What if his best friend's widow forces him to come home because his signature in a family trust is required in order for her sell the home and invest in a business. What if she hasn't forgiven her late husband for something and the hero acts as go between. What if his own redemption is increasingly tied to reconciling the widow to her late husband at the same time he falls in love with her.
I also look at genre conventions and try and twist them. Let's have a widow who adored her husband. Let's have the late husband a major character in the book. Let's have the love triangle about the hero's loyalty to his best friend as much as his love for his best friend's widow. Let's have a woman who's moving on and a hero who can't.
Can you have different kinds of soulmates? Or one? How will I explore that in a happy marriage? How will I resolve the story so the reader believes that this man and no other is the 'one' while developing an affection for the late husband.
It goes on for another few paragraphs. The point of posting. Yeah, crazy. Particularly now as I'm doing this again with a new book.
One of her questions was, Can you describe your writing process/timeframe from when you start a new book to handing it in at deadline?
Here's my draft answer:
Let's take the last book I turned in as it's fresh - Bring Him Home, out June 2012. I have an idea. A guy falls in love with his army buddy's widow. And I push it to the nth degree. What if he had to make a Sophy's Choice (lesser of two evils) in the ambush that killed his buddy. What if his buddy was complicit in that choice? What if he's so scarred emotionally he turns his back on his friends, the only family he has. What if his best friend's widow forces him to come home because his signature in a family trust is required in order for her sell the home and invest in a business. What if she hasn't forgiven her late husband for something and the hero acts as go between. What if his own redemption is increasingly tied to reconciling the widow to her late husband at the same time he falls in love with her.
I also look at genre conventions and try and twist them. Let's have a widow who adored her husband. Let's have the late husband a major character in the book. Let's have the love triangle about the hero's loyalty to his best friend as much as his love for his best friend's widow. Let's have a woman who's moving on and a hero who can't.
Can you have different kinds of soulmates? Or one? How will I explore that in a happy marriage? How will I resolve the story so the reader believes that this man and no other is the 'one' while developing an affection for the late husband.
It goes on for another few paragraphs. The point of posting. Yeah, crazy. Particularly now as I'm doing this again with a new book.
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