Friendy Friday with Kim Fielding and Updates!
Greetings and Salutations from a sleepy Ro! Had a wonderful adventure today in The Castro and my brain is full and my heart is hopeful. Fantastic reviews continue to come in for Summer of Hush AND Ghoul Me Once comes out MONDAY! What a wacky October, huh? But I wouldn't change a thing!
Well...if I was a greedy person, I'd change the fact that I'm not in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Gay Romance Lit convention...BUT I have Kim Fielding here today for Friendy Friday! I hope you will check out her books, which are fab, and find something you dig as well! Click on any of the pics to take you to Amazon!
I think I met Kim a couple of times before we really got to hang out. It was at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books that we had a great conversation and it was such a delight meeting a fellow mom/educator dealing with teens and college and all of the things I'm going through at present. I fell in love with her voice through one of the Dreamspinner Holiday Advent stories Exit Through The Gift Shop, which came out last year and was one of my favorite holiday reads. I'm so grateful to have her on the Rock 'n' Romance blog today to talk about all the things!
1. Clue us into your "era" by sharing a few of your favorite songs.
Clash, "Should I Stay or Should I Go"; Leonard Cohen, "Hallelujah"; Kinks, "Lola"; Ramones, "Wanna Be Sedated"
I totally feel you on Clash, Ramones and Kinks. So a part of my formative years.
2. What’s one thing every reader should know about you?
I write in a lot of genres and occasionally torture my heroes, but always give a happy ending.
I'm looking forward to trying more of your genres. Love your contemporary and paranormal stories I've read so far!
3. Which of these describes your writing process: charts, calendars and colorful post-its hung on the wall of a brightly lit tidy office space? Or a desk piled high with notes written on napkins and receipts, notebooks half-filled with scribbles and partial outlines you never finished because you're a pantser? Explain and attach memes or pics if they apply.
Neither. I'm a complete pantser, which means no outlines for me! I start at the beginning and wing it through the end with occasional notes to myself about ideas. And I write mostly at the kitchen table or in airports and hotels.
High-five on the guerilla writing, although it sounds like you do more traveling than I do. Mine is more local haunts.
4. Describe your most awkward author moment ever. Then describe your most rewarding experience as an author.
On a very crowded plane, I chatted with the woman crammed in next to me. When she learned that I'm an author, she bought one of my books on her Kindle, right then and there. And then she read it for the whole flight, with me right next to her and trying not to assess her reactions. It was like sitting through a 3-hour test. My most rewarding experiences are when readers contact me to let me know my books meant something to them. One person said my book had inspired them to begin writing again after a long hiatus.
OMG I gotta hear more about this one!
5. What is the best reader response you’ve ever received?
See above? Seriously, any time I get a message from a reader about one of my books, it makes my day. Sometimes it makes my week. I especially love hearing from people all over the globe.
6. What is the most fascinating/creepy/disgusting thing you’ve discovered because of writing?
I love research so I've learned a lot of things, some of the deliciously obscure, such as the fair market value of a healthy male slave in 15th century Bosnia. While the Internet is great for research, I also like more hands-on approaches, such as the time I toured a porn studio or the time I went shooting at a gun range. One of my more interesting in-person experiences was a tour of my local coroner's office, complete with viewing an autopsy of a man who got hit by a train.
Yikes!
7. Name a book that inspired you, one you disliked that everyone loves, and one that made you cry. Or, if you never shed tears, made you uncomfortable in some way.
I find inspiration in lots of books! Isaac Bahsevis Singer's "The Golem" has always been a favorite, so I once wrote an m/m take on the golem fable. People don't hate Tali Spencer's "Thick As Thieves," but I seem to love it more than the average. It's funny but also deep, with really great protagonists and world-building.
Definitely need to check these out!
8. Music or silence when you write? if music, what's on your current playlist?
It depends. I tend to play music that fits the time or theme of my WIP, and my playlist varies wildly. For example, "Rattlesnake" meant lots of Johnny Cash, and "Chained" (which is set in the 80s) involved 80s pop music. "Drawing the Prince" is set in a fictional Central European country, so I listen to traditional Croatian klapa music as well as Bosnian punk.
Love it! Need your playlists for Drawing the Prince...
9. Did a teacher in school ever encourage or discourage your desire to write? Care to share?
Not creative writing. But I adored my Advanced Placement English teacher (shout-out to Mrs. Brandon!), who taught me so much. I remember her reading one of my essays to the class--an analysis of Auden's Musee des Beaux-Arts--as an outstanding example. She was really particular so I knew I'd truly done well. Her reading it meant a lot to me.
10. What's your favorite genre to write? And...what's a genre you haven't written but would LOVE to write?
I love all the genres but have a special place in my heart for spec fic, especially fantasy and paranormal. I've never written a cozy mystery but I think that could be a whole lot of fun.
Somehow I think it might get a little dark...you definitely have the tales to tell from your other life!
11. Best and worst jobs you've ever had other than writing.
My day job is criminal justice professor, and I love a lot of things about it. I enjoy my students and get to do interesting research. Probably my worst job was a minimum wage gig at a deli where I got robbed at gunpoint, or maybe the pizza place where I cut my finger to the bone on the meat slicer and still had to finish the day's work. I also once did a temp gig as poop scooper at a big dog show, but that was sort of fun despite the crap.
Gunpoint? Uh, no thanks! How long did you stay in that job after that happened, I wonder? Petting pups would be a good reward!
Thanks so much to Kim for her great interview today. You can follow her @KFieldingWrites (Twitter & Instagram), or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/KFieldingWritesand for the latest on new releases, check her out Bookbub. Be sure to check out Drawing the Prince! AND we're also going to be featured together in this year's Advent Collection from Dreamspinner, Home Made for the Holidays! You can pre-order it. now on the Dreamspinner site or pick up individual stories on December 1.
FOR A CHANCE TO WIN...
I'd love to give away one of Kim's books. In order to win, share with me in the comments a zany, awful, crazy job you've had at some point! I'll choose a winner next week.
This weekend is going to be chock-a-block full of adventures:
Saturday afternoon at 2:00 PDT, I'll be hanging out at the Paranormal Romance Party for Love Romance Reads with my gal pal Karysa Faire. THEN she and I are headed to the Meek Mansion here in Hayward for a PARANORMAL INVESTIGATION! That's right, so be prepared. I will definitely be going LIVE on Facebook if they allow it!
THEN on Sunday I'll be attending a panel featuring the lovely Maida Malby, Celebrating Filipino-American Culture in Romantic Fiction. We've been friends for a couple of years now and she's so fabulous, I can't wait to meet her in person. There could be hijinks, especially when you factor in the presence of my partner in crime, Eva Moore.
THEN Monday is release day for Ghoul Me Once! Gators, ghouls and witches in the Bayou! Definitely going to be a fun one. Join all of us on Saturday October 26th for a celebratory shindig! Details for all of these will be on my Facebook page.
Phew that was a lot of updates! Have a great weekend, stay spooky. and Stay Tuned for more Rock 'n' Romance...
