Luvmicah

What is one thing that you think the members here would be surprised to learn about you? I’m pretty much an open book so most of you know a lot about my life. What you don’t know isn’t meant for you to know. LOL


What sorts of things inspire you? Anything that I see inspires me. I once wrote a drabble that was inspired by a flyer I saw in the elevator at work.


What do you do in “real life”, and how, if at all, does it affect your writing? Does having a kid affect your writing schedule/style? How much time do you spend writing, and how much time would you like to spend writing? What times, places or situations are easiest for you to write in? I lumped these all together because the answers are pretty much the same. In real life I am a web developer/communications manager for a large corporation. The only real way it affects my writing is that it gives me quiet time to write during slow times. I also write later in the evening because I have a 12-year-old daughter and I don’t want her looking over my shoulder when I write about Micah stripping or Anita having sex with one of the guys. That would be bad. When I am really into a story I can write for two or three hours but mostly I try to write at least an hour a day when I am in the middle of a multi-chapter piece.


What is the motivation behind your writing, and do you feel compelled to write? Do any television shows influence your writing? When I get an idea in my head I sit down and type it. Sometimes it turns into a fic and sometimes it doesn’t. I have an easy time seeing the beginning and end of a story but have trouble getting from one to the other. As far as being compelled, some days I do feel that way. I’ll be sitting at my desk at work and a bunny will skip across my keyboard and I have to stop doing actual work and get it out of my head.

I really don’t watch much television so probably none of them. There are only five or six current shows that I watch weekly. The rest of the time I am watching the History and Discovery channels.


Do you have writing 'dry spells?' If so, how do you handle them? Unfortunately, I am in one right now. I can’t even get a string of drabbles to come out of my head. I sit down to write and just stare at the screen. Sigh. I am not sure how to handle my dry spell. I open an unfinished fic and nothing happens. I get a bunny and type the first paragraph and again nothing happens. I’m sure it will end and I’ll be just as prolific as before (I hope).


Who do you think is the greatest influence on your style of writing? MaryJanice Davidson. I love the way she writes. I didn’t realize it before but my writing is similar to hers. And since I knew Betsy before I began writing, I guess that’s where my style came from.


When you write, do you have everything all planned out before you start or do you tend to just wing it? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. If I know that a story will have more than one chapter I write a rough outline of how I would like the story to go. The only story that I really had planned out from beginning to end was “Memories”. I wrote an outline at the beginning and before I began writing each chapter I wrote down exactly what I wanted to happen in that chapter.


What's your strongest point as a writer.... and your weakest? My strongest point is my sense of humor and the ability to put it into a story. My weakest is descriptive text. Thank God for betas!


If you were to give writing tips to someone who had never written before and was just starting out in fanfic, what three things would you tell them as being most important? 1. Let your imagination lead you. Don’t get stuck with one direction. If the characters want to do something differently than you had planned, let them lead. If it doesn’t work you can always delete it.
2. If you think you can’t write, do a short test story and have a few friends read it that will give you an honest opinion. Not everyone can write and if it feels forced, readers will pick up on it and move along.
3. Listen closely – USE AT LEAST ONE BETA! Preferably two and preferably someone you don’t know in real life. I actually use three betas on multi-chapter fics. Celeste gets the first look and helps me with grammar and moving the story along. She also helps me talk the story through when I get stuck on a scene. Triscut gets the next look and helps me fill in holes and adds wonderfully descriptive text. Marasmine gets the last look to make sure we didn’t miss anything. Also, be nice to your beta. He or she is trying to help and if you get defensive then you are missing the point of a beta. (I actually used a beat for this so if there are any errors it is Celeste's fault.)


What do you think is more important for a writer to have? Punctuation and Grammar skills, or talent and imagination (no cheating and saying both!)? Definitely talent and imagination, a good beta/editor will take care of punctuation and grammar because that is their job. The writer’s job is to be creative.


Your fics have a fun, personal feeling to them. How much of your own personality is imbued in the way you write? A lot! When I write the characters, they say things the way I would say them. Sometimes it is hard to keep them in character that way but more often than not I somehow pull it off.


Given a choice, do you prefer to write drabbles or short stories? I prefer to write one-shot ficlets. Unfortunately, once I start writing my hands don’t stop when I tell them and I’ll have 2500 words and only be a quarter of the way through the story I was trying to tell. For the Girl Who Has Everything is a perfect example. It was supposed to be a ficlet about Nathaniel teaching Micah to strip and then Jason showed up in the kitchen and it turned into a six-chapter fic with a sequel. Not the first time he’s done something like that.


If you would ever foray into original fiction, what genre would you write? And, how would you feel to have something of yours published? Definitely humorous romance or would that be romantic comedy. I don’t know if it would have supernatural characters or not but that is beyond any doubt the genre I would write in. I love characters who are quirky and aren’t afraid to say what is on their minds.

As to having something of my published, I would be utterly amazed. LOL I have a few storylines in my head that I would like to write just to see if I could develop my own characters. I guess it could happen. Surely I wouldn’t be the first person to have a first book published in my early forties.


Have you ever written any fiction or fan fiction outside the ABVH world? If so what types and could we possibly read them? Nope, not a one. Sorry. I had never written anything that a teacher didn’t require me to write until July 2005 when I wrote my first drabble. I can’t even think of another fandom I would like to write. Since LKH writes from Anita’s point of view, and has so many characters, it is easy to make one of them your own. If I were challenged to write another fandom, I would probably write Stephanie Plum or Betsy Taylor the vampire queen but I would have to reread the books to get in the right mindset.


Which of your stories is your personal favorite? That would be Cookie Monster. I had so much fun writing it and still chuckle when I reread it. It was actually Mara’s plot bunny, she wanted to do it as a drabble for Valentine’s Day but didn’t think she could keep it to just a drabble. I begged her to write it, she said no, I begged her to let me write it, she said yes! Then again, writing Micah stripping in For The Girl Who Has Everything and having to run the routine through my head over and over while listening to the song I had him dancing to as I wrote it was quite a treat also. I wrote that whole scene at work and had to “act” out a few parts of the routine in my cubical to make sure I got them right. That was a fun day!


What's the worst idea for a story you've ever had? Anita using Gil to feed the ardeur. I have half of it written but just can’t bring myself to write the rest. I love Gil too much.


What is the one story on PDS you'll always regret not writing yourself? There is more than one! I have found myself reading a fic and thinking “I wish I had thought of that” more than once.


What unresolved plot bunnies are currently haunting you? Hang on, let me go look. In my “Unfinished Shorts” file I have the Anita/Gil thing, a fic about Edward hunting JC to save Anita but he doesn’t know about the marks, and a fic about someone close to Jean-Claude being kidnapped and him going into panic mode. In my “Chapters in Progress” file I have a Caleb fic, a Gil fic, a Damian fic, two parodies, and a fic about JC, Richard and Anita going to Gwen for therapy. They all started out as wonderful plot bunnies that I want to finish but the bunny ran away before I could. If somebody sees them running around, please let me know.


What was the first book that you read, that really started your reading habits? I really have no idea what my first book was. I have loved to read since I was a small child. I remember lying in my bed at naptime looking at picture books until I fell asleep. It seems I have always had a stack of books sitting on my dresser. I still remember a Christmas when I was seven or eight and the present I was most excited about was a stack of books without pictures, my first chapter books. I also read a lot of Archie comic books when I was in elementary school and still take a peak at them in the checkout lines. In middle school the book I remember the most is “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton. It was set in my hometown of Tulsa and when the movie, which was filmed in Tulsa, came out, my friends and I spent one Saturday going to all the locations where the movie was shot. My best friend actually had a part as an extra in the movie. In high school my best friend and I discovered teen romances and often spent more time reading those in class than doing our schoolwork. As you can see, books have always been a part of my life.


If you were left stranded on an island, what books would you want to be stranded with? Is there a limit to how many I can take? You said books! I would like to be stranded with an assortment of current fiction, written within the last five years, in many genres.


What was/is it about the Anita Blake books that drew you in, in the first place? And, how would you like the Anita Blake series to develop? I was on a beach and my sister-in-law was reading Bloody Bones. I picked it up later that evening to look at it and was intrigued with Jean-Claude. I had never read a book about vampires before and when we got home I started with Guilty Pleasures and read through Obsidian Butterfly in a week. I was hooked.

As for development, I would like to see Anita get control of the ardeur and only have to feed it once a day so she can concentrate on something besides that. I would like to see Jean-Claude become as ruthless and conniving as he was in the earlier books. I would like to see Asher find someone of his own to love, possibly a human servant that Anita will get along with. I would like to see Jason find that special someone. I would like to see more of Caleb and the pard as a whole and more of the wolves. We have had quite a few vampire-centered books and I feel it is time for the other preternaturals to get some page time.


If Laurell K. Hamilton were ever to read your fics, what do you think she'd say? “So that’s what Anita is like when she’s not fighting monsters or feeding the ardeur.”


Why the love for Micah? Would you continue to read the series if Micah were to be written out as a character? And, where would you like to see LKH take the character of Micah? How would you like to seem him develop?

Why Micah? Micah stood out from the moment I read about him in NiC (no, not for that reason!). I just took an immediate like to the guy. After reading CS and ID, he was firmly imbedded in my mind as a person I wanted to know more about. I like that he is easy going, but doesn’t let people walk all over him, contrary to what others think. I am the same way. I’ll do my best to get along with everyone but can only be pushed so far. I could go on and on about the wonderfulness that is my Micah but I’ll let you off easy and just say that I would love to have a Micah of my own.

Micah written out of the series? Don’t even think it! LOL But since it hasn’t happened I can say ‘Of course I wouldn’t stop reading the books’. Were it to actually happen I would not be a happy camper. I would be heart-broken. Would I continue to read the series? I hope I never, ever have to find out!

How would I like to see Micah develop? First, I would like to see him kick Richard’s ass! Not because I don’t like Richard, because most of the time I do. It’s because the wolf needs to be taken down a peg or two. LOL Then, I would like to see more of his work with the Coalition. I would like to see some of his family (hell anyone’s family) come to town. I would like to see him struggle with the fact that he isn’t connected to Anita and will age while she and others don’t.


What other minor characters, besides Gil, catch your fancy? Caleb. I would love to see more of Caleb in the books. He is the underdog (cat?) and I always have a fondness for those types. Also Claudia. I fell in love with Claudia in DM and plan to give her parts in future fics.


Micah is your favorite LKH character, but who do you prefer to write? Nathaniel. I love to borrow him from Mara. I also have enjoyed writing the softer side of Anita that we don’t get to see in the books. I don’t think I have ever written her as a bitch.


Anything big on the horizon for you? In writing, no, nothing big. In life, there is always something on the horizon. I like to plan things far in advance so that I always have something to look forward to. For instance, I am already excited about a trip with my daughter to Hershey, PA next summer. Not only will we be pampered at the Hershey Hotel, but also Celeste will be right there with us!!


Posted: October 23, 2006