Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian peeps. And happy nearly July 4th to my American friends. For those of you elsewhere, happy summer reading season. Hope you've all found some great new reads to sink your teeth into as you relax in the heat.
For those of you that made your way here from my new bud, Vicki Mixon, a big welcome! I have to say that I love that she has a character named Scar, don't you?
Now enough preamble. I'm excited to jump into this week's questions so let's get er done, shall we?
1. Do any characters you've written into your books remind you of yourself? Explain which ones and why.
Not as a whole. There are characters who do have bits of me in them, but none of my characters are me, that's for certain. Let's see if I can identify which traits each of my four heroines have that I can identify with.
Elsie. Hmmm. She's way to organized to be like me. But we are both short. And she loves berries. Oh, yea. Now I remember. There's a scene where she talks about how terrible she is at berry picking because she eats more than she picks. That's me.
Daphne. I think the only thing she and I have in common is a love for bright, bold colours. And comfy dresses. Other than than, I can't think of a thing. After all, I'm certainly not a peeping tom. ;)
Fiona. I wrote Fiona when I was 27 years old. In retrospect, she has some of the younger me wildness. And like Fiona, I adore folk music. But I can't play to save my soul.
Grace. Ahhhh. Grace. Grace's love of romance novels and role playing games are totally stolen from my life. But again, I think it ends there.
2. Was there a teacher or mentor in your life who helped nurture your writing?
Nurture my writing, no. Nurture my creativity, totally. My grade five teacher was awesome (most of my teachers were). Every friday afternoon the last hour of school was dedicated to skits, dances, poetry readings, whatever we wanted. I often hosted a weekly version of the school news and also acted out ads for various products. One time I built a cardboard car and did an ad for a Ford Festiva. Why, I don't know. I was a weird kid, I think. No wonder I grew up to be both a journalist and a copywriter. Thanks Mrs. Roche.
3. Every author has that moment when they doubt their ability to write. When that happens to you, how doyou pull yourself up by the bootstraps and continue? What do you do to inspire YOURSELF?
How timely is this question or what? This happens to me quite often. Normally just after I've published a book. I can't stand to go back and read a newly published book because all of a sudden I feel as if I could have done so much better. But my husband is how I pull myself together. He's my biggest fan, and he's very good at pointing out to me all the good things that I need to keep in mind when I write. He'll read me reviews, or even bits from a book that he knows that I was excited to write at the time. And when I feel like I just can't write one more word, he's there to let me off the hook and remind me that it's okay to take a break and wait to be inspired. As for me inspiring myself, I think about my goals. Why am I writing? Who am I writing for? What would I be doing if I wasn't writing? And above all else, would I be happy? (Hell no!) That reality check gets me going again.
Now, don't stop here! Make your way over to Susan Peterson Wisnewski's wicked blog and see how she answered these very questions. And while you're there, make sure you enter her Goodread's giveaway for her novel, Chasing the Rainbow.
Happy romance weekly blog hopping all. And remember, we love to get comments. It makes us very happy romance writers. And a happy romance writer is a productive romance writer.