As part of the promotion of the Bikers-Babes & Books signing next month, I wrote up a few fun facts for the Damaged series. Since I'm vegging at the end of the year, I figured I'd write up a few fun facts for the La La blog.
Fun Fact #1: Pen Names
Bijou is the name of a character in my Angelic Redemption series written by Dakota Shepherd. Dakota is the name of a character in the Vivi Rios series written by Angela Horn. Angie is the name of the whore who cheated with Tony and suffered Belladonna's ghostly wrath in Blood Tide. Circle of life.
Fun Fact #2: Character Names
In my first series (Angelic Redemption), I just used my favorite names for characters - Lila, Sophie, Ivy, etc. As I wrote more books and needed more names, I relied on the Baby Name Wizard book.
I also like to theme family names. Lola, Jules, Rocco, Bruno, and Maisy from the Shadowburbia series were "Guys and Dolls." Cooper, Tucker, Bailey, and Sawyer were "Last Names First." Lark and Raven were "Charms and Graces." A crazy method to my madness.
Fun Fact #3: Angelic Redemption stuck in a loop.
I worked on the first book for several years. I could let it go. Finally, I started on the second then third. Eventually, I found the urban fantasy genre and began writing Vivi, Gigi, and Shadow Sisters. Now, I average seven books a year. I guess that means I'm less obsessive.
Fun Fact #4: Shadow Sisters are my answer to a depressing Supernatural episode.
I was driving to Denny's one dark morning and thinking about an episode of the show Supernatural. I imagined if the show was about two sisters and funnier and less angsty and involved considerably less crying. The Shadow Sisters were born.
Fun Fact #5: Gigi Monroe is my cliché girl.
With Gigi, I threw in every UF stereotype I was reading. The special chick who gains the attention of every hot guy (for no apparent reason) and is the only one who can save the town even with more powerful creatures around. To make her different, I imagined Gigi with Asperger's like awkwardness. I figured readers would love or hate her. I was right.
Fun Fact #6: Destroy my enemies
I often use the names of people I don't like as the bad guys or losers in my books. In Damaged and the Beast, Farah's nasty mother was originally named after someone I ended up liking. I had to change her name to Amy after someone else who pissed me off.
Fun Fact #7: I take on the some of the characteristics of my characters while I write them.
The most obvious of this is cussing. When I am working on my Christian books, my cussing dries up to nothing (unless I'm watching The Walking Dead. Man, I hate Rick.).
When writing the Damaged series, I say fuck like I'm Judd and using the word as salt to give flavor to everything I say. Let's just say after writing four Damaged books in 2013, I cuss like a sailor most days.
Fun Fact #8: Christina Perri is my go-to mood music.
No matter what I'm writing, I can listen to Perri and concentrate when I write at Denny's. At home, I don't listen to mood music since I write downstairs where the TV is playing and kids are talking.
Fun Fact #9: Changing the font in Word can break my writer's block.
I was stuck recently with what to write. I changed to the Papyrus font and wrote 2500 words. Sometimes changing a little detail can make all the difference in my head.
Fun Fact #10: I hate coffee and it shows.
Until Blue Sacrifice, none of my characters drank coffee even though most people love coffee. Since I hate it, I couldn't stand having my characters drink it. After awhile, I realized having them all drink Diet Coke wasn't going to work either.
I don't know how fun those facts were, but they needed to be said, dammit!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment