Monday, August 17, 2009

When Lightning Strikes, Working With Your Muse

My guest today is award winning author, Delilah Devlin. She is the author of several series and has won Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for several of her books. Her current books are Darkness Burning Avon RED Tempted by a Cowboy Kensington Sexy Little Numbers 9/29 Black Lace.

Today she discusses how she works with her muse. Hang on because it's a wild ride.


I like the concept of chatting with you “over coffee”. Since I’m never without a pot brewing beside me while I work, it’s a comforting thought.

I’ve been on a tear lately, writing like a madwoman. Not much time to spend with friends or family. Not because I’m on an external deadline of some kind, but because I’m going through one of THOSE cycles. No, not menopause or PMS! I’m going through a creative cycle. Too many ideas bombarding me when I’m awake, although my dreams have been rich too. Just the other night, Temperance Brennan (from BONES) and I led a coup to take over the world. Can’t tell you how it ended though because when I drew the balaclava over my head, I woke up. Always happens before the big climax. Dammit.

Sia did say I could be myself.

In the past couple of months, I’ve written two shorts stories, two novellas, and I’ll wrap up a third novella this week. I’ve also been working on a proposal for a futuristic. I love it when the muse humors me with these creative spurts, and I take advantage of it, because when the current run peters out, the writing will become “work” again.

I like writing on several projects at once—planning one, plotting one, writing one, and editing one. It sounds insane, but it works for me. Every author has her own process; mine’s just manic at the moment. For a month there, April I think it was, I could hardly make myself sit at the computer to answer the email much less create, but I got a minimal amount of work done, enough I couldn’t claim writer’s block. When that happened, I hit the books—research books, that is—trying to refill the well with new ideas. I read Wicca books, Norse and British isle folklore, anything I could find on angels and demons, and lots of fetishist books. Plenty of inspiration there.

When the muse stirred, it exploded with several ideas all at once, some more formed than others, so I only made notes for the ones that were more mist than substance but tore into the full-bodied concepts. There’s enough material there to keep me going for the next year, which is to say there are many stories inside me now, because I believe in quantity—it works for me. The more I write, the better the writing is. When I slow down, I struggle for a word.

As I already said, every author has their own process, and I’d love to hear from you how you get past the doldrums, how you refill your well, and whether you work several projects in tandem or one at a time. For you readers, I’d love to hear whether you forgive authors for straying outside the lines of what you expect them to write.
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Until recently, award-winning romance author Delilah Devlin lived in South Texas at the intersection of two dry creeks, surrounded by sexy cowboys in Wranglers. These days, she’s missing the wide-open skies and starry nights but loving her dark forest in Central Arkansas, with its eccentric characters and isolation—the better to feed her hungry muse!

For Delilah, the greatest sin is driving between the lines, because it’s comfortable and safe. Her personal journey has taken her through one war and many countries, cultures, jobs, and relationships to bring her to the place where she is now—writing sexy adventures that hold more than a kernel of autobiography and often share a common thread of self-discovery and transformation.

Delilah holds a MS in Systems Management and a BA in History & Spanish, minor in Military Science.

She says she’s a true geek at heart and loves travel and pouring over history and mythology books from around the world.

You can visit Delilah at her website: http://www.delilahdevlin.com/ to see what’s soon to be released, excerpts, and contests.


Also available in September:


The Hired Hand, featured in Lesbian Cowboys by Cleis Press (9/1/09)
http://www.delilahdevlin.com/books/the-hired-hand/