So, my writer friend, Jeremy Hicks, tagged me in a blog hop.
After nearly dying at birth, Jeremy Hicks gave up his ghost during the sorrowful autumn of his twelfth year. The outsider that occupied his body from that point onward did the best it could to imitate him. However, this being’s bizarre sense of humor and inability to fully mimic human emotions kept it an outsider. After many unhappy years of trying to assimilate to this plane of existence and its daily doldrums, he turned to the cadre of demons in his life for other options. He teamed up with one of them inhabiting a ginger known as Barry Hayes and together they turned their nightmares into fiction. The writing team of Hicks & Hayes created an original horror-fantasy environment (Faltyr™;), wrote a screenplay (The Cycle of Ages Saga: Finders Keepers) to introduce it, and then adapted it into a novelization of the same name. As a result, their first novel was published by Dark Oak Press in August 2013. Jeremy co-owns Broke Guys Productions and served as Associate Producer on the independent horror film, “Curse of the Rougarou.” He is also a poet and short story writer
Meander over to his page or blog to check him out and see his answers to the questions below.
So, here’s how this blog hop thing works. I get tagged and answer the listed questions. In turn, I chase down three authors and they get to answer those questions as well. It’s an interesting way to discover new writers and books.
What are you working on?My dissertation. It’ll be long, boring, and even I won’t want to read it. Yay science! What am I putting off to get that little thing called a PhD? I was hopping around among three works in progress: book 3 of Crossroads of Fate series, book 2 of Guardian series, and a stand alone science-fiction/fantasy novel, “Riding Time”.
How does your work differ from others of its genre?I completely ignore genre lines and use whatever makes my story work. This often causes editors to scratch their head in puzzlement as they try to figure out exactly what genre they should put it in.
Why do you write what you do?I want to have my cake and eat it too. Why can’t I have fantasy in a science fiction or science fiction elements in a fantasy story? Why can’t they both have romance? Why can’t there be intrigue and politics, and action? When I said as much to my sister years back, she laughed and said I’d probably have to write it. So, I did. By the time I finished that first draft, I was addicted to the process of creating characters and worlds. There’s nothing quite like it.
How does your writing process work?- Random idea pops into my head at worst possible moment.
- Obsessively think about idea until a character emerges from the mists of my brain.
- With a vague plot outline rattling in the attic of my mind, I sit down to write… in between barking dogs, complaining kids, work, cooking, cleaning, etc. It comes in fits and starts.
- I’ve learned to keep editing to a minimum on the first draft.– Get the story down.
- 1 or 2 rounds of edits for plot, have a beta reader give me feedback, export to Word and do another round for spelling, formatting, etc. and address any issues beta readers bring up.
- Send to publisher where the merry-go-round of edits begins again.
While I rarely write a formal outline, I do come up with one in a way in my head. Sometimes, with a particularly tricky work, I will actually jot out plot points, conflict and motivations. For me, that stuff has to be done in old school pen and paper. There’s just something about that process that requires me writing long hand. When I type a story, it’s already in my head. I’m merely transcribing it onto the page.
If you’d like to see what this miraculous process produces, check out any of the following:
Now, for the fun part, I get to tag three authors and y’all can check them out next week.
First: Jimmy Gillentine, quite possibly the world’s biggest Godzilla fan.
Second: Ethan Nahte’
Third: A. Christopher Drown
In the immortal words of Porky Pig, th-th-that’s all folks!
Author: H.C. Playa 