In the meantime, here are the questions, so let's get right to it!
What am I working on?
I'm currently working on a memoir called Everybody Dies at the End, which not so much a "me" memoir as it is a cultural one. Like the man said, we live in interesting times, and the current era, as fraught with difficulty as it is, has a lot in common with the early days of the cultural revolution of the 1960s. If society is held together by a system of shared values, it's important for any society to go through periods of upheaval and conflict in order to re-examine those values and figure out how to face the future. That's happening all over the world. Yet despite all the dire predictions, somehow our personal experience prepares us perfectly for what is to come. That's why I chose memoir--not because I think history repeats itself, but because there's material in the past that can teach us a lot about where we're going. Also toying with some novels and working a few short stories.
How does my work differ from other of its genre?
Because I'm Teresa Kennedy and other authors aren't? Seriously though, I learned and earned my way by working a LOT in genre--romance, horror, YA. I did a lot of contract writing under pen names, and basically used those jobs to refine my craft. But genre is really something applied by the industry. Readers tend to buy books by genre, but most writers don't set out to write genre; we can see that much from the way that category keeps morphing into new categories all the time. If it didn't, how did we get Western Paranormal Romances? To my mind, that's a good thing.
Why do I write what I do?
Because I need to keep myself sane. Because I have stories to tell or because I'm in danger of becoming cynical and disgusted with reality and need to adjust my attitude and connect with a better energy. Also because I get bored with ordinary life and want to create something more interesting. Actually, boredom is big....Not a pantser myself. I HATE too many hours in front of a computer screen and actually find I work a lot more efficiently when I get to move around...
How does your writing process work?
I wait until the voices in my head get too loud to be ignored. Well, there's at least some truth to that. Because I feel I have a pretty good command of my craft at this point, I'm not a big drafter. I do much more writing in my head than I do on the page. I'm a very auditory type and I really do wait until I "hear" the narrative voice of a particular piece coming through before I start writing. Sometimes that tends to tick authors off, because it can seem as though I just made something out of whole cloth, but that really isn't the case. I work with a lot of other authors as an editor and coach; I've got my own indie publishing concern and a lot of other projects going on, so I have to take my writing time and use it judiciously. That takes patience maybe, but it tends to save a lot of time and energy in the end.
Next, let's ask
Joni Parker https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJoniParker
J.T. Cope IV https://www.facebook.com/JTCopeIV
