On the blogs How I came up with Skin of Tattoos

Author Vicki Batman interviews me today on her blog as part of Mystery Thriller Week! It's a nice quick read in which I talk about writing and she included the first snippet to Skin of Tattoos. Thanks Vicki!
Read below or check it out at
http://vickibatman.blogspot.com/2017/...
TODAY’S GUEST IS AUTHOR CHRISTINA HOAG
author of Skin of Tattoos, a gangland thriller
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO WRITE?
I won a prize for “writing interesting stories” when I was six years old so I think writing was something I was born with. Iwas also a voracious reader so that made me want to write books when I grew up. In high school, I discovered journalism - a career that would pay me to write! I wrote short stories on and off until I really focused on my childhood goal of writing novels about a dozen years ago.
ARE YOU A PLOTTER OR PANTSER?
A bit of both. I like to know where I’m going so I have a loose outline to avoid writing myself into corners. That said, I change stuff as I go all the time. Having at least a mini-outlines, even covering just the next chapter or two, helps to get you started when you sit down at the computer every day so you avoid wasting time wondering what comes next.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA OF YOUR BOOK?
I went El Salvador back in 2000 to do a magazine story on gang members deported from Los Angeles to San Salvador, which most of them really didn’t know because their families had emigrated when they were infants with the result that they belonged neither in El Salvador or in the United States. Their story resonated with me. I could relate to them because I had moved around the world as a child, so I also feel I don’t really belong anywhere. Although my novel is not about deported gang members; it’s the tale of rival homeboys in L.A., the book was inspired by those interviews in El Salvador.