Writing Process Blog Tour

I was tagged by Linden Hughes, the dynamic, fresh new author of the bestselling book "Taste of Lacey" to do a writing process blog tour. Below, I'll answer some questions about my work and how I write. Enjoy! 

What are you working on currently?

I'm currently writing a "Full Circle" follow up. It's the story of Vanya's nephew Zhenya, a rising professional soccer star. Persephone and Vanya will be strong figures in the story, as Zhenya has looked to his uncle for advice and as a role model his entire life. As some readers may recall, Zhenya is the son of Vanya's older sister, Lina. She gave him up for adoption to a second cousin at age eighteen.  

Zhenya was conceived when Lina was raped by two of her classmates at a party.    Her father, Kirill, sent her to Russia with a disapproving uncle and meek aunt to have the child in secret since Lina refused to have an abortion. She suffered from depression throughout the pregnancy, experienced severe postpartum depression, and has no desire to meet Zhenya. Vanya took care of baby Zhenya the first couple of months of his life before arranging the adoption with a second cousin. Vanya moved the family to the United States and has maintained a close, positive relationship with Zhenya. They share a deep bond. 

Zhenya will be falling in love with Martinique Vaughan-Garrison, a charismatic and wily documentary filmmaker. They'll be helping each other out through some transitional times in their lives. Their personalities and relationships are very different than Vanya and Persephone's. Hopefully, that will translate into a refreshing, solid novel. 

How does your work differ from others of its genre?

My book features Russian characters, but they could be classified more as Russian oligarchs rather than Russian mafia. The two are often confused. I also feature a lot more of the Russian language. Russian is my third language; I began learning it after I had to do a research project that required me to survey Russian blogs. It was fun; I had become fluent in a second language after years of studying Spanish, and I was ready for something new. Currently, I only understand about 15% of what I read and write in Russian though. I hope to be fluent in two to three years' time. 

My work is also very detailed because I do a lot of research on locations, current events, and backgrounds. A common thing readers say of my work is that "the characters are very real and compelling." That didn't happen on accident. 

To achieve this sense of reality I read all the time. It's become a habit because I've had to do it for so long to remain competitive in school settings. Reading good, well edited, professional books and articles is one of the best things one can do to improve their writing. I've been reading the Wall Street Journal on an almost daily basis since my junior year of high school. I read that and the New York Times, paying special interest to fashion and world news.  

Since I began writing "Full Circle" I stay on the lookout for interesting things involving Russia. Reading major papers known for their excellent research (WSJ, NYT, Washington Post, The Economist, The Financial Times) gives one insight on how things like governments contracting for weapons works, or how major gas and utilities companies make deals abroad, or the evolving history of a nation. I also looked up articles, Web sites, and ethnographic data to learn about Russian American communities. Where do they live? How did they come to the United States? What are tenets of their culture?
  
It's important to me to ask questions about my characters. For instance, what would be the life experience of a person from Russia who is the same age as the character Kirill? I bought the memoir A Mountain of Crumbs to get a peek into that kind of life. Kirill's life by no means mirrored that of the memoir's author, but I did learn how immigration could work for a person that age or the type of circumstances in which they would have grown up.   

I also read articles on Russian business people and wealthy Russians convicted of crimes, like the father of Dasha Zhukova, a popular Russian socialite. To get "real sounding" Russian names I search popular Russian political blogs or watched current Russian network news reels on YouTube.  

I don't just rip what I read from headlines and put them to the page. I take inspiration from the real world and create a believable fiction. For example, I also read Vogue and Elle Decor pretty regularly. Many of the styles I see in these magazines are described in my story. Vogue did a profile on a Russian socialite recently, her deep involvement in the art scene, and how it stemmed from her education and wealth. You'll notice that the character Lina, Vanya's older sister, has a sincere interest in anthropology. This is revealed at Lina's wedding. She is still in contact with her favorite college professor and turned down a promising career as a researcher to work for Kirill. So, because I read all this stuff, my story comes off as seeming more real even though it's not. It gives the reader a false sense of authenticity because it's well informed. 

I also try to have my characters respect sexual equality. I recently told another author that I enjoy a good alpha/caveman novel, but that's not something I could write. I had a recent slut-shaming rant about this, so I won't go into detail here. It will suffice to say that my heroines will always be intelligent, educated, rational, and shrewd women that aren't afraid to live outside of society's constraints.

Why do you write what you do?

I write what I do simply because it started out as an ultimate fantasy of my own life. Persephone and I have way too much in common. I'm branching out with the heroine in this next book.

I thought I could write a book just as well as the many authors I read, and I wanted to read a novel with everything I wanted in it. What better way to do that than to write one yourself?  

I've thought of branching into Non-Human genres, but I'm such a practical person. I'm not sure if my imagination is strong enough to sustain a good Non-Human novel. Time will tell. 


How does your writing process work?

I usually draw inspiration from a random scene on a television show, or a dream that I have, or an article I read. I think of the person at the focus of whatever vignette I'm considering and imagine them falling in love. That's when the writing begins. 

Who are they? Who do they love? Why do they love who they love? What happens when they fall in love? Scenes just start pouring out of me and I have to write them as they come. Imagine one of your favorite scenes from a romantic movie you enjoy just popping into your head. The scene may make you laugh or it may make you cry. Whatever the case, it's good to remember how great the movie was. In my case, that movie is my current story and I've only got a few minutes to get the scene written down before I forget it–I have a terrible attention span!

Sometimes it can take days to get a whole scene written. Sometimes it only takes a minute. It depends on the length of the scene and its place in the overall novel. 

I wrote the final hospital scene of the "Full Circle" trilogy almost four years ago. It's toward the end of the book and I just finished writing the story just a few weeks before publishing! Most of my writing is constructing the story around these major scenes and the main plot.  Right now, I'm having a fun time finding out where Zhenya's story begins. 




That's all for now!  I've tagged the awesome Shyla Colt for the next author on the tour.  Enjoy!