My fellow Soul Mate Publishing author, Christina Kirby, tagged me on the Writing Process Blog Hop, and I realized this is my second Hop go-around.

But several months have gone by, and I do have some new answers to the Hop questions:

1) What are you working on right now?

Currently I’m working on the next book in my Regency series, which will be number three. This book picks up the story of the steward of book two’s hero, who, as it turns out is not so lowly after all–he is the first-born, albeit illegitimate son of an earl. I’d started this book in June, then put it aside to spiff up a contest-finalist manuscript for a possible submission (umm, yeah, that didn’t go anywhere), and attend RWA Nationals, so now I’m back at it.

2) How does your work differ from others in the genre?

Regency romance encompasses everything from sweet traditional to smokin’ hot, from suspenseful spy stories to domestic comedies to paranormal, so it’s very hard to be really “different”. My work, so far, is shorter than current blockbuster Regency romances. Rosalyn’s Ring, which Soul Mate Publishing released in July 2013, is a novella. The sequel, Bella’s Band, which will be released September 3, 2014, is a 50,000 word high energy story with lots of action.

Oh and there’s one other difference: neither of my heroines would be admitted to Almack’s!

3) Why do you write?

I write for the joy of it. Of course, those moments of tearing my hair out trying to figure out what the characters do next can be challenging, but when the breakthrough comes it’s marvelous (to me, hopefully, eventually to the reader also). I love the cadence and flow of language. As a kid I never studied music, but I did sing in choirs, I read and wrote poetry, and I studied foreign languages. I could spend hours fiddling with words so they sound right. I love big, glorious, swash-buckling, happy-ending stories. For my own writing, happy endings are a must.

4) What is your process?

I try to nail down a conflict first. The old adage, “if the hero is a fire-fighter, the heroine had better be an arsonist” has become a cliché, but you get the idea. I’m not a plotter, but I’m not a total seat-of-the-pants writer either. I like to have an idea of the main turning points of the story, and I change them as the story develops. For me, the best way to figure out the story is to put my fingers to the keyboard and start writing, permission to write cr-p fully granted. I like the fast-draft process, and I’ve done NaNoWriMo the last two years as well as my local RWA chapter’s Book-in-a-Year contest. Last year I actually completed three fast drafts. One of them is Bella’s Band, which as I mentioned above, is coming out on September 3rd.

And now I’m handing off the bunny baton to two more Soul Mate Publishing authors, Caroline Warfield, and Elle Hill.

All Images: Wikimedia