Hi everyone... Ava here, thought I'd pop in to say hello and give you a wee insight into my writing day and, well, me generally. Wow, that's scary... if you're me that is! My head is always full of weird and wonderful stories and it never stops. My husband can testify to that ... I wake him up all the time when I talk in my sleep, having full-blown conversations! My brain is always 'on the go' and I find it extremely hard to switch-off, but I'm not alone in that. I know many of my author friends who are the same. Too many characters and stories that just don't want to give us peace and quiet...
I live in Bonnie Scotland and I write paranormal romance and pnr suspense, with lots of action and steam in my stories and I have almost sixty books released at the moment over a number of series. I write everything from Vampires to Shifters, Dragons to Witches, with everything in between because I just love the paranormal world and the abilities they have. It's so exciting to write a scene when a Wolf transforms and their love interest watches them for the first time ... their heart pounding and things getting hot and steamy. Or a Witch using their power to get even with a 'baddie' and taking their revenge on them for what they've done. And I just love writing hot and heavy steamy Vampires with lots of action thrown in with suspense and thrills to keep readers hanging on to find out what's going to happen. There's so much to 'play' with in the paranormal world that I never get bored.
My brain keeps coming up with new angles ... surprising me sometimes. But, so long as it does, I'll keep on writing and enjoying what I do.
My latest series, for instance, Warrior of Darkness, is a little darker than my normal, but it's where my brain took the story and the characters so I can't argue with it. I've tried to do that in the past, and it's never turned out well! So I went with it and I loved how the series turned out. I hope you do too. It's one of my series that's in Kindle Unlimited, not all of mine are. I have a mix of 'wide' books and KU. You can check it out on Amazon if you have KU and want to find out more.
I have two companions when I write ... my puppies - Luna and Jinx, both of whom are characters in books of mine. Luna's character is in The Guild of Dragon Warriors, and Jinx's is in The Highland Wolf Clan series. I had Luna first and wrote her into the story, Jinx was the other way around, and named after the character in series.
They're not usually this quiet! Jinx, the black Lab, maybe, he's lazy, unless food is involved, he's a typical Lab, but Luna, the GSD, is a tad nuts. They do have their own beds, but always try to get onto the same one, at the same time... go figure.
Anyway, when they're not interrupting me, wanting out, or treats, or Luna wanting to eat the postman, (only kidding, she just sounds like she wants to), at least one of them is lying at my feet, or beside me, while I work.
I put in quite a long day, starting early with my black coffee, while I do the 'routine' stuff like checking emails and other boring things before I have to deal with the pups and get ready. After that, it's usually paperwork for a while and then it's time to get some writing done ... by now it's afternoon so it's not all writing. Sometimes I'll go over the previous day's work, maybe if I've been thinking about it, or not happy with things, or just to check it over, before I start on fresh chapters. Some days my characters 'play ball' and everything flows fantastic, other times they don't and I find myself arguing with ... myself. Or, to be more precise, the characters and the story. Yes, that happens, and I can be found talking aloud to the screen. Hubby is used to this ... he ignores me ... he is obviously very intelligent. Or has learned over the years ... 'Do not disturb an author while working.'
Oh... and the fun part... research! As I've said above, my books have a lot of action in them. I love fight scenes, and the 'baddies' getting their comeuppance! So, that means I have to research the heck out of stuff ... like for Flint, in my Vampire's Thirst series ... he was going to really hurt someone for ... well I'm not telling you here, that would spoil the story ha ha! But I had to research something really vicious and hubby brought me a drink and he looked at the screen and said ... "If the police ever take your PC, you're going to be locked up for life and the keys thrown away. They'll think they've caught a damn serial killer."
He's right, of course ... Author's computers ... their search histories are full of stuff that would get 'normal' people locked up. When mine went 'kaboom' last year and I took it to a shop because it couldn't be sorted and they were making me one from scratch but were going to retrieve my stuff and move it over... I had to warn them about what was on it and tell them I wasn't crazy, or dangerous, and everything was purely research. All the research I had saved for blades, knives, guns, and a host of other stuff ... it had taken me such a long time to accumulate and I didn't want to lose it! That was an embarrassing conversation but all part of being ... me.
And this is so true ... I'm always checking out people and situations to see if I can add them to my stories. I'll sometimes note random things down, or keep them in my head and they'll pop up in my books!
So, after I've argued with myself, and maybe got some writing done, while checking in with my team throughout the day, popping onto Facebook and doing another dozen or so things ... I usually finish around 8 at night, sometimes later if I've got a deadline or other things pop up through the day. Days change depending on what I've got going on, some are earlier, some are later, but generally, they're something like this ... but I can get sidetracked with things like research. If something needs my attention in that department, I get so engrossed in it, I can spend a long time looking into it. I mean, you have got to use just the right knife for the job, don't you? he he!
Okay, so that's a wee insight into me and my day. I hope I didn't bore you too much ... have a wonderful day and bye from me.
Ava
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