QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

If you are unfamiliar with the genre, m/m stand for male/male or man-on-man. Some people think it’s weird that I am interested in m/m romance, because I’m a happily married straight woman. Naturally, I don’t think so at all.

Truth be told, it was a natural progression. As voracious reader coming of age in the 1980s, I devoured dime novels (German: Groschenromane), specifically action-adventure fiction (Western novels were my thing), mysteries and thrillers, populated with tough male characters who lived through harrowing experiences and survived to save the day. I had hundreds of them. Occasionally, there was a very feminine female character, usually a damsel in distress, but this bookish tomboy couldn’t possibly identify with her, and romance was far from my mind.

Naturally when I started writing, I wrote from a male point of view, maybe because as a reader that was all I knew, but mostly because writing was about escaping my own awkward teenage girl reality and having fun. As I grew older my attitude changed from wanting to be a boy to wanting to be inside his head (and later inside his shorts), but there was always that pesky female character I could never identify with standing between me and my hero.

It wasn’t until the summer of 2000 that I read my first m/m romance. By that time, I was a married woman with her first child on the way. What a revelation! Hallelujah! Now for the span of a few hundred pages, I could escape into the mind, heart and soul of the hero AND get the gorgeous guy love interest. Two men for the price of one, if you will. And nary a damsel in sight.

So why do I like to read and write m/m fiction? 100% escapism.

If you are unfamiliar with the genre, m/m stand for male/male or man-on-man. Some people think it’s weird that I am interested in m/m romance, because I’m a happily married straight woman. Naturally, I don’t think so at all.

Truth be told, it was a natural progression. As voracious reader coming of age in the 1980s, I devoured dime novels (German: Groschenromane), specifically action-adventure fiction (Western novels were my thing), mysteries and thrillers, populated with tough male characters who lived through harrowing experiences and survived to save the day. I had hundreds of them. Occasionally, there was a very feminine female character, usually a damsel in distress, but this bookish tomboy couldn’t possibly identify with her, and romance was far from my mind.

Naturally when I started writing, I wrote from a male point of view, maybe because as a reader that was all I knew, but mostly because writing was about escaping my own awkward teenage girl reality and having fun. As I grew older my attitude changed from wanting to be a boy to wanting to be inside his head (and later inside his shorts), but there was always that pesky female character I could never identify with standing between me and my hero.

It wasn’t until the summer of 2000 that I read my first m/m romance. By that time, I was a married woman with her first child on the way. What a revelation! Hallelujah! Now for the span of a few hundred pages, I could escape into the mind, heart and soul of the hero AND get the gorgeous guy love interest. Two men for the price of one, if you will. And nary a damsel in sight.

So why do I like to read and write m/m fiction? 100% escapism.

If you are unfamiliar with the genre, m/m stand for male/male or man-on-man. Some people think it’s weird that I am interested in m/m romance, because I’m a happily married straight woman. Naturally, I don’t think so at all.

Truth be told, it was a natural progression. As voracious reader coming of age in the 1980s, I devoured dime novels (German: Groschenromane), specifically action-adventure fiction (Western novels were my thing), mysteries and thrillers, populated with tough male characters who lived through harrowing experiences and survived to save the day. I had hundreds of them. Occasionally, there was a very feminine female character, usually a damsel in distress, but this bookish tomboy couldn’t possibly identify with her, and romance was far from my mind.

Naturally when I started writing, I wrote from a male point of view, maybe because as a reader that was all I knew, but mostly because writing was about escaping my own awkward teenage girl reality and having fun. As I grew older my attitude changed from wanting to be a boy to wanting to be inside his head (and later inside his shorts), but there was always that pesky female character I could never identify with standing between me and my hero.

It wasn’t until the summer of 2000 that I read my first m/m romance. By that time, I was a married woman with her first child on the way. What a revelation! Hallelujah! Now for the span of a few hundred pages, I could escape into the mind, heart and soul of the hero AND get the gorgeous guy love interest. Two men for the price of one, if you will. And nary a damsel in sight.

So why do I like to read and write m/m fiction? 100% escapism.

I started the first draft in very late 2003 and finished in early 2005. A large chunk of it was written in a hotel bathroom (after moving from Japan to Hawaii, we spent two and a half months in a hotel; the bathroom was my writing refuge). When I began THE PROTECTOR, I didn’t have much of a plan, no outline, and certainly no plans for publication, which is to say I didn’t go “hmm, I think I’d like to write a gay romantic suspense novel.” That changed quickly enough (I’m a natural planner). But with ambition doesn’t come wisdom, so it took me a while to get organized. It wasn’t until 2006 that I found the wonderful Ken Harrison at Seventh Window Publications. Chances are you are here today, visiting my site, because you read the book he took a chance on, published in early 2008.

For two reasons really:

I was looking for an environment/setting I knew something about. At the time we lived on Okinawa, Japan. I’d briefly played with the idea of setting THE PROTECTOR on Okinawa, but with the police force and the law being Japanese I didn’t feel I could sustain a potential suspense series without a few years’ worth of research. Then a friend mentioned that Guam was the American equivalent to the little Japanese island: densely populated, super humid, horrible traffic and gorgeous beaches. Plus, it was around the corner, so to speak (only 1500 miles or 2400 km to the east).

But the deciding factor was its uniqueness. No one that I could find at the time had used it as a setting before, and indeed many people didn’t know where it was located exactly or that it was a US territory. In other words, Guam was on no one’s radar, it wasn’t a household setting and as far from conventional as I could get (literally and figuratively speaking).  

I’m a moon-ruled Pisces, which makes me a night owl. I prefer to write in the early evenings and up into the middle of the night. Before children and day jobs, I wrote until the sun came up. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been hyper-attuned to other people’s energies, but I like to write when the house is quiet and the energy of the day has settled.

In truth, I don’t have a set writing routine; I have three children with homework and soccer practice and swim meets and their never-ending need to eat dinner. Then 2020 happened, and we all pandemicked in lockdown. I discovered that early mornings are nice and quiet, too (although there’s a subtle difference to the waking energy of a new day). So in reality, I squeeze in as much writing whenever I can: a few weeknights, depending on schedules, but mostly weekends nowadays.

You need to show up at the keyboard. Trust me, I know that’s sometimes easier said than done, but the truth is, nothing gets written if you don’t show up.

I’m no fan of the “write every day” adage, though. I’m a busy mom with a day job and a chronic illness. Some days, unless you count the tweet I sent during my lunch hour, I simply can’t find the time, energy or discipline to write. Instead, I’ve opted for a flexible approach. My goal is to write a chapter a week by Sunday night. I write when I can. Every week looks different, but there’s generally time in every week to get some writing done.

Keep it real and practical. Squeeze in as much writing as you can get away with. Commit to whatever routine or schedule fits into your life. An hour a day? Great. Thirty minutes every other day? Totally cool. One page every other Wednesday? Sure thing. Trust me, your novel will get written, albeit it slowly. So long as you show up.

A paranormal romance featuring a vampire special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Therianthropy Office who accidentally blood-bonds with a deaf mink-shifter who has enemies in high places.

Languishing in my drawer, waiting for an edit, is a paranormal romance I co-wrote with a friend about an innkeeper with spirit guests and an attraction to the television ghost hunter who’s filming an episode of his show at the inn, both of them battling personal demons, in the literal and figurative sense.

And if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a co-written contemporary hacker-entrepreneur/personal chef romance that needs an edit desperately.

Book 2 in the Buchanan-Ward universe is never far from my thoughts. I’m not done with Soren and Mason just yet. I did write a good chunk of THE STALKER, but the story got away from me and is sitting unfinished on my desktop. I have a feeling that while I liked my idea for a sequel, Soren and Mason have other ideas, none of which they’ve shared with me as of yet.

Third person—for me it’s third or nothing—deep/close third person. And because I write romance, I write dual POVs. It’s a personal preference, for sure, but I enjoy getting to know both partners in a relationship. If I read a romance written from a single point-of-view, I often feel like I’m only getting half the story. Not every reader or writer feels this way, though, and that’s okay.

I do my writing on the computer, but I take all my notes by hand. I always have my notebook open next to me when I write. I jot down research and details as they happen and so slowly create a character/story bible as I work. (Like figuring out Riley’s father’s workhours; he’s a nightshift custodian. Or how often regular folks can donate blood, and how that would work if you have to feed a vampire.)
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When I’m stuck or struggling with a particular passage, I switch from typing to handwriting. Words flow differently when you handwrite.

I love reading series, but I prefer to write standalones. They suit me.
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My current WIP is a standalone. All my previous work are standalones. Is there potential to carry on? Sure, there is. I do make strategic choices that create backdoors, if you will, that would allow me to continue writing, but I’m really not seeing myself taking advantage of those choices. Still, that’s a “not yet” rather than a “never will I ever.”
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Although those are my least favorite series to read, I could see myself writing a series that consists of standalones set in the same “universe.” For right now, I will stick with standalones. I like them.

I prefer peace and quiet, but then 2020 happened. With everyone being home and the house never being empty, there was constant “noise.” I started wearing headphones and listening to instrumental music. Nothing in particular, a little bit of everything. Classical music. Movie soundtracks. Game soundtracks. I worked my way through the “4 hours of study music for concentration” playlists on YouTube.
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I’ve even worked with my headphones on and no music at all (they do have a noise cancelling effect all on their own).

I like to think of myself as a writer with an easy, casual voice and a lean writing style. I’m not big on descriptions. I prefer “no-nonsense” sentences that come to the point. Clean and clear writing. Succinct. No flab. Very much influenced by my professional/non-fiction writing education, which was all about conveying the most information using the lowest number of words possible.
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Having said that, I’m working on adding complexity to my writing and that does mean my sentences are becoming a bit “meatier,” if you will. As does my storytelling.

I’m a plantser. I do most of my actual writing by the seat of my comfy pants, but I do some plotting/planning. I tend to roughly plot two, max three, chapters ahead, so I know what plot points to hit and what to write towards. Knowing where I need to end up in a particular chapter and where to pick up the next one makes for smooth transitions.
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You may have heard writers complain that plotting kills their momentum. I’m one of those writers. To me, writing is a journey, which is why I like the term discovery writer. No, that doesn’t mean I don’t have a plan. I know plenty when I begin: the big picture is there, characters have been developed enough to take on a life of their own (very important!) and the ending is set (it’s a romance after all).
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It’s like going on a road trip with a destination in mind. I know what vehicle I will be traveling in. I know where I’m leaving from and where I’m going. I know how much time I have to get there and which direction to travel in. I just don’t know the exact route.
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To me the difference between pantsing and plotting is taking the scenic route versus barreling down the highway. I get to my destination (I may have to consult a map every now and again). You get to your destination (you may encounter a detour along the way). We both get to where we need to go in a manner we enjoy (note to novice writers: if you don’t enjoy the journey, you may want to look into alternate travel arrangements).