I’m sure you’ve seen this meme floating around the blog-o-sphere lately, and Fran Wilde roped me in tagged me to participate. So here we go!

Photo courtesy of Takashi of Flickr

What am I working on?

What am I not working on should be the question… Let’s see. I have two (soon to be three) short stories in circulation. I have a young adult science fiction novel that I’ve been querying off and on. I’ve drafted another YA SF project that I’m letting rest while plotting out a sparkly new story—the first one of my books that has built-in series potential, which is scary exciting. I’ve also drunk the Kool-Aid and joined Pinterest. I’ve decided to create boards for all my published stories, though I only have two going so far. It’s been a lot of fun!

Why do I write what I do?

For reasons. Oh, you want a real answer? Well then. It’s fair to say I’ve always wanted to be a writer, even if I wasn’t willing to admit it. I consumed copious amounts of books growing up, but it was usually speculative fiction or romance. Combine that with being a life-long learner, here I am.

I love writing about the unknown and exploring what-if questions in my work. As a fan of action movies and video games, I try to include action-adventure elements in my work. I’m also a romantic at heart, so sometimes that creeps into my stories as well. My background in social science research also informs some of the topics I explore. But at the end of the day, I want to write good words that mean something.

How does your writing process work?

My ideas usually start with a scene or situation, and I have to then figure out how that person got to that point and work my way backwards and forwards in time to construct a story around that event. I may do some exploratory writing at this stage or I may not. Once I have my starting point (or at least what I think is my starting point), I start writing. I get maybe ten percent of the way into the novel, then I put on the breaks and start outlining the book. This helps me identify story arcs, acts, and the information that needs to be layered in at the appropriate moment so the book all hangs together. Once I have a full draft, I try to let it sit before it is time to revise revise revise. I’m a chronic underwriter, so usually I have some fleshing out to do at the stage. Then I have a bunch of wonderful people who read for me and tell me what I’m doing wrong. I usually have to revise some more before I’m ready to cross my fingers and send it off into the world.

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Thanks again to Fran Wilde for tagging me in this meme. Her first novel debuts from Tor in 2015. Her short stories have appeared or will appear in Asimov’s, Nature, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies.