One of the perks of writing is to be able to create book forts. This was my first one with my debut novel, Relics, and my chihuahua, Tréa. It symbolizes what I do in a unique (and fun) way. So how did I get invited to this blog hop? Why, through the author Larry Crane! Let’s find out some more about him. 🙂
Larry Crane
Transplanted to Maine mid-westerner Larry Crane brings a Heartland sensibility to his writing. Larry graduated from West Point, served in the Army, and commuted to Wall Street from New Jersey. His writing includes articles for outdoor magazines, stage plays, short fiction, and his most recent thriller novel, A Bridge to Treachery. Crane is a volunteer videographer for his local Public Access Television Station. Larry and wife Jan now live on the coast of Maine.
Larry is also the author of Baghdad on the Wabash and Other Plays and Stories, an unconventional collection of stories that capture “slice of the life” looks at quirky couples. Both are available at Amazon.
Last week Larry talked about his own writing process on his blog. Be sure to check that out!
Maer’s Writing Process
What am I working on?
I’ve got several projects in various degrees of completion.
The Hourglass – This started life as a very bad musical play in 2000. I resurrected it and rewrote it as a screenplay in 2004. I still tweak it now and then.
The Journal – This historical fantasy is something I plan to get back to finishing within the next two years. An excerpt can be found here.
Magics – Book 3 of The Thulukan Chronicles is currently in revisions and is slated for a summer 2014 release.
The Other Side of PKD (tentative title) – is a Biography/Memoir of the author Philip K. Dick. He and I were friends for the last ten years of his life. This book will cover those years from my perspective.
Arie Costas series – A new sci fi series set about 200 years in the future.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Like so many others these days, my work is genre-bending. It doesn’t fit into a nice, neat little box, but spans several genres. I write the stories then try to figure out which genres they best fit into, but I don’t usually have just one. A little fantasy here, a little sci fi there, with a dash of mystery, history or whatever else I’m sprinkling about at the moment.
3) Why do I write what I do?
I write across all these genres because these are the kind of stories I like to read. It’s really that simple.
4) How does your writing process work?
I write organically. I have the characters first, then they determine the story. I usually have an idea where it’s going, but not always in some of the stories. The books? Yes, I know where those are going to end before I start, but I don’t have any outlines and only a vague idea how to get to where I want to. I let the characters take over and tell their own stories within the parameters I set for them.
Coming up Next Week
Lucy Pireel
Lucy is an avid reader of books in most, if not all, genres. Her writing follows the same varied path, not only in length, but also in genre and mood. And Lucy loves to write. She does not limit herself to one genre there either, but writes what she thinks would work for a story. At times it means writing Science Fiction, or fairy tales, while some are pure erotica.
Lucy was very happy to announce the publication Red Gone Bad on December 1st 2012. Her very first ebook, a collection of twisted fairy tales. After that more books followed, resulting in three stand alone books, a sci-fi dyptich in #3 of Isotropic Fiction, and a zombie flash fiction piece in the anthology A Quick Bite of Flesh.
These days she creates her own covers–with a little help from friends sometimes–and learned how to edit, but still uses a second and third pair of eyes before being confident enough to publish her work. She blogs and features other authors, because she knows how difficult it is to get your work noticed in the vast sea of books out there. She also tries to keep up her reading and reviewing, also because indies need reviews and such.
You can find Lucy’s post next week at Lucy’s Blog.
And you can find Lucy at her links:
Kyra Dune
Kyra Dune was born in Oklahoma, but spent most of her life travelling with her family. She is the author of more than a dozen fantasy novels, including: Shadow of the Dragon, Elfblood, and Firebrand. As a child, her favorite stories were those that told of ordinary children being whisked away to magical lands. She has yet to find her own secret wardrobe or rabbit hole, but she hasn’t given up the search. You never know what might be waiting over the next rainbow.
You can find Kyra’s post next week at Kyra’s Blog.
You can find Kyra at these links:
Hi Maer – You have a lot of projects going on at the same time, kind of like balancing spinning plates, but I think a lot of writers are doing similar things. I like the layout of your site. Is Ghost Dancer a completely new story tangential to the Thulukan Chronicles or is it Story #3 in the series. You don’t mention the Myth Behaving Book Tours that you are involved with, and you podcast interviews. You’re a very busy person!
Hi Larry and thanks! “Ghost Dancer” is the third of the the novelettes that take place before the main events in Relcis. It is actually about 4 months before Thulu & La Fi meet Jones. As the other stories, it’s one of their paranormal cases.
And yes, I have lots of things going on. 🙂 I kept the blog hop post just to my writing projects, but there are others. I have one big project that I’ll be announcing soon.
Busy girl. By the way, Maer, I’ve revised my blog hop post to include your later bio wording and some if not all your links. After all, blog posts hang around a long time. Might as well get it right if you can.
You are awesome. Thanks, Larry!