Romance Weekly

‘Do you like to read romance novels? Wouldn’t you like to know more about your favorite authors? Well you came to the right place! Join the writers of Romance Weekly as we go behind the scenes of our books and tell all….. About our writing of course! Every week we’ll answer questions and after you’ve enjoyed the blog on this site we’ll direct you to another. So come back often for a thrilling ride! Tell your friends and feel free to ask us questions in the comment box.

Have you come from www.kimhandysides.com ? Welcome. If you missed her blog post, GO BACK!!!! Her answers are great.

This week’s questions from the lovely Tessa Gray.

 

1.   Do any characters you’ve written into your books remind you of yourself? Explain which ones and why.

Most of my female heroines have personalities and traits I’d love to possess, but don’t. One is a computer expert, one speaks over twenty foreign languages, and another has an expert understanding of firearms. I’m horrible with computers, as many who tried to post on my site last week learned. My foreign language expertise consists of broken French, broken Spanish, and the ability to order a beer in German. As a romantic suspense writer, I should know all about firearms, but I have trouble remembering the difference between a 9mm weapon and .38 caliber one. I’m getting better with all three things, but my characters are masters in their fields.

My heroines embark on adventures to foreign countries and strange situations and meet people who challenge them in everyway. I’ve lived in some of those foreign countries, but most of the danger they’ve experienced are beyond any danger I’ve come across in my life. I strive to make their adventures interesting to me and, hopefully, by extension to other readers.

 

2.   Was there a teacher or mentor in your life who helped nurture your writing? 

My mother has been a huge influence on my writing. She’s never doubted my abilities or questioned whether I could succeed. She’s also a wonderful role model. She takes on mountainous tasks and succeeds beyond expectations, whether it’s building a school from the ground up, taking a hobby in photography and making it into a successful business, or tutoring kids who have nothing and making them believe they can succeed against overwhelming odds. She has a never give up attitude and that makes all the difference when trying to become published. With her on my side, nothing is impossible.

 

3. Every author has that moment when they doubt their ability to write. When that happens to you, how do you pull yourself up by the bootstraps and continue? What do you do to inspire YOURSELF?    

When I decided to write full-time, I had to let go of certain fantasies about writing. Writing is not an activity I do while sitting calmly with a cup of coffee and creating wonderful stories inspired by the Monarch butterfly that landed on my finger in the middle of a garden on a sunny day. Although there are times when my stories form in my mind with the precision of a 3D action sequence, more times than not, I must kick and prod and yank the stories from my subconscious.

I also find that given the choice, I’d rather go for a walk or play with my kids than write five sentences when I have no inspiration. Why? Because writing is difficult and making something interesting and fun to read takes major brain power. Instead of procrastinating, however, I sit at my desk and write, not everyday, but very close to everyday. Some days are wonderful and others are wretched journeys into depression, but I write anyway. Soon, I have a decent story that requires even more work to make better and then more work to become worthy of posting to the world.

The secret to getting over a bad day of writing is to continue writing until I have a good day. The more I write, the more good days I have.

Thanks for stopping by. Head over to http://definingjjdevine.weebly.com/ramblings-of-a-writer and

J.J. Devine.