Writing Process

Today’s post peeks into my writing process as part of a blog hop/chain. Since we’re in the midst of the Olympics, you can think of it as one writer passing the “blog torch” to another.

Thank you to Dale Harcombe who passed the torch to me. Dale’s latest novel Streets on a Map published in December 2010, also an E book, has received excellent reviews. You can find some of them on her website www.daleharcombe.com/

As well as fiction, Dale has Kaleidoscope, a published collection of poetry. She also likes to write children’s fiction. Since Chasing after the Wind, she has had 7 children’s novels published. She has run workshops at the NSW Writers Centre, Parramatta Evening College and Central West Community College in poetry and creative writing. She worked for many years as a manuscript assessor and is an avid reader and book reviewer. Find Dale at:
Author Site: www.daleharcombe.com
Blog; Write and Read with Dale http://www.livejournal.com/users/oran...
Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Here is what Dale asked me to share about my writing process. 

1) What am I working on?

For over a year, my writing time has been devoted to blogging, editing, and learning to publish PEACE BY PIECE and CAPE MAYBE. Now, I’m trying to master the marketing ropes while finding a balance between the business side of publishing and still having time to write.

I have been thrilled and humbled—and truthfully a bit overwhelmed—by the number of readers who have asked for sequels to PEACE BY PIECE and CAPE MAYBE. While I haven’t committed to a sequel, the seeds of a story are starting to percolate in my over-crowded-head.

It’s too early to say much about it, but I would love to hear your thoughts about a story that combines characters from both novels—essentially, one novel that is a sequel to both.

I’m also toying with two other writing projects—writing the children’s book about Frangelica, the colorful flounder Maggie imagines in PEACE BY PIECE and starting a new blog about eating disorders that could grow into a non-fiction book.

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

The best way to respond might be to share snippets from readers’ reviews:

PEACE BY PIECE

“Her characters reveal themselves through a myriad of small, delicious details-- Maggie wonders if a cream-colored skirt makes her hips look big; Maggie’s mother blots a teabag and puts it away for a second use . . .”

“Marvelous job of getting inside the head of someone suffering from anorexia/bulimia. But the story is about more than that.”

CAPE MAYBE

“A young girl growing up in the shadow of her mother's alcoholism and mental illness is tender, honest, and real.”

In PEACE BY PIECE, Maggie is anorexic and bulimic. In CAPE MAYBE, Katie faces alcoholism. In real life, woman who struggle with addictions are not simply addicts—they are daughters, mothers, wives, and friends with a lifetime of people they love who care about them. I wanted readers to relate to Maggie and Katie and recognize that addiction is only one piece of their stories. 

3) Why do I write what I do?

I’m an avid reader and my favorite genre is contemporary women’s fiction—recognizable women facing real every day relationships, desires, and worries. When I started writing PEACE BY PIECE, I thought women were ready for a realistic female character dealing with the same challenges they face—love lost and found, friendships, step-parenting—and who also happens to have an eating disorder.

With CAPE MAYBE, I wanted to accurately depict the chaos and daily realities of growing up with an alcoholic parent and also convey the power of creating your own second chances and hope.

4) How does my writing process work?

Morning has always been my best writing time and you will often find me at my computer in the dark hours before the sun is up rereading and editing what I most recently wrote.

Before starting a new piece, I spend a lot of time in my head, envisioning the beginning and ending. For longer pieces, I write character bibles. Once I start writing, the characters reveal the middle to me, sometimes scene by scene. Other times, huge chucks of the character’s motivation emerge and it takes many chapters for me and the writing to catch up. 

So what are your thought and questions about my writing process? If you’ve read PEACE BY PIECE and CAPE MAYBE, I hope you’ll comment about my idea for a combined sequel mentioned in question # 1.  

Now it’s time for me to pass the “blog torch” and introduce you to a few more writers and their books.

Please follow the blog hop and visit the authors highlighted here.

J. H. Cardwell - Julie's long-time passion, writing, is fueled by her mounds of experience both personally and professionally in the medical field, first as a Cardiac Specialty Nurse, and over the last decade as a pharmaceutical and medical sales representative.  After years of power points in the corporate world, she has published her first romantic suspense novels, the Attainment Series. Attainment hit the top ranked status for romance fiction and Atonement landed in the top 100 books on Amazon. She’s also working on her first stand-alone novel, Identical Dream, due out 2014. Julie resides in a small town in NC with her husband and four children. She continues working full time in sales, exploring her writing late at night and in the wee hours of the morning when her children are tucked safely in bed. 

www.jhcardwell.com

www.facebook.com/jhcardwell

https://www.goodreads.com/JHCardwell

http://jhcardwell.blogspot.com/

Amazon

Lori Duff
is a popular humor Blogger for the Patch and various Your Local News, Inc. outlets, including the Monroe Local and the Grayson Local. She also writes a more serious column about law stuff for Your Local News. By day, she is the managing law partner of Jones& Duff, LLC and wages war for a living. She prefers making people laugh.
Lori is married to her husband of 15 years, Mike, and together they have two children, Jacob and Marin. Mike, Jacob, and Marin are good sports about having embarrassing stuff written about them all the time.
I can be found at:

https://www.facebook.com/loribduffauthor

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7544435.Lori_B_Duff

http://www.amazon.com/Mismatched-Shoes-Upside-Down-Pizza-ebook/dp/B00H9351NW/

https://www.createspace.com/4570952

http://loganville.patch.com/blogs/lori-duffs-blog?content_subdomain=loganville

http://monroelocal.org/author/lduff/

http://www.jonesandduff.com

Uvi Poznansky is a California-based author, poet and artist. “I paint with my pen,” she says, “and write with my paintbrush.” She received a Fellowship grant and a Teaching Assistantship from the Architecture department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she earned her M.A. in Architecture. Then, taking a sharp turn in her education, she earned her M.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of Michigan. Uvi writes across a variety of genres: Apart From Love (contemporary fiction, Rise to Power (historical fiction, A Favorite Son (biblical fiction), Home (poetry), Twisted (fantasy) Now I Am Paper (children’s book) and Jess and Wiggle (children’s book.)

http://uviart.blogspot.com   

http://www.facebook.com/uviart

https://twitter.com/UviPoznansky

http://www.amazon.com/Uvi-Poznansky/e/B006WW4ZFG/

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5758946.Uvi_Poznansky

Book Links:

RISE TO POWER

♥ Print ♥ http://bookShow.me/098499324X   ♥ Ebook ♥ http://bookShow.me/B00H6PMZ0U 

A FAVORITE SON

♥ Print ♥ http://bookShow.me/0984993258  ♥ Ebook ♥ http://bookShow.me/B00AUZ3LGU

♥ Audio ♥ http://tinyurl.com/fvort-a

HOME

♥ Ebook ♥ http://bookShow.me/B00960TE3Y  ♥ Print ♥ http://bookShow.me/0984993231

♥ Audio ♥ http://tinyurl.com/Home-audible 

APART FROM LOVE

♥ Ebook ♥ http://BookShow.me/B006WPITP0  ♥ Audio ♥ http://tinyurl.com/aprtl-a

♥ Print ♥ http://bookShow.me/0984993207

TWISTED

♥ Audio ♥ http://tinyurl.com/Twisted-audio  ♥ Ebook ♥ http://bookShow.me/B00D7Q3IY4

♥ Print ♥ http://bookShow.me/0984993266

Children books:

♥ Now I Am Paper ♥ http://bookshow.me/1494919427  ♥ Jess and Wiggle ♥ http://bookshow.me/1494920964