MUSE, MUCH?

My guest today is paranormal romance author, Linda Thomas-Sundstrom. She is the author of Vampire Moons series, and her latest is Golden Vampire.

Linda's a southern California native who teaches at the University of California. Napkins everywhere are now happy Linda writes her stories on the computer. I'm not so sure about her poor car. It's had a lot to worry about with a crazy author manning the wheel. 

While she loves dark historicals and gothics she has been known to write lighthearted stories as well. I'm thinking her muse may be schizophrenic. Or just likes variety. But, her topic today is about her muse and inspiration. Like she says, "What are we without our inspirations?"


Muse. You have got to love when one comes a calling. You know - that ethereal, nebulous, misty presence that’s defined as “an instigator of inspiration,” but is actually, as we all realize, a real species of otherworldy personage. Maybe even with wings...

Yep, I have a Muse (thank heavens! ) Maybe two. I’ve never actually seen her or their faces, in person, but figure that because they work pretty much non-stop at singing to me, one would get tired. So maybe mine has a twin.

My Muse sings at the top of her lungs. I either have to listen, or fear she might be disgusted I’m ignoring her help, and leave. (!!) She rarely takes a vacation, but every now and then has been known to disappear for short stretches at a time. I think she’s resting her voice, and prefer to call her time off as “tune-ups.”

She has a tendency to sing at times when I’m trying to do something else, like driving. Or when I’m working out on my elliptical machine, or out for a walk.. I’m probably really dangerous to drive behind, because I write down ideas that come... by having a notebook handy on the passenger seat. You just never know when that inspiration will show up. My motto is to be prepared!

I am lucky to have such inspiration. I know it, and thank my lucky stars every single day.

Without a Muse, and inspiration, how would we get any writing done? Books done and published? I just find inspiration everywhere. In a particularly interesting word, a stunning visual, or a haunting melody. I have at least a hundred yellow sticky notes on the walls above and beside my desk, with titles, words I like, and beginning sentences of stories I’d eventually like to get to write. So far, in my career as a writer and published author, the well has not run dry, and my Muse keeps hanging in. This makes writing very exciting for me. A thing I love.

Talk about Muse fodder, and paying attention... GOLDEN VAMPIRE has it’s own unique story about getting published that I’ll spill sometime. In the meantime - here, I’ve tweaked the Arthurian tales for this book and its full sequel, due out early in 2012, and brought some of the Round Table’s Knights into the current century.

“GOLDEN VAMPIRE.” is a re-writing of a legend about sone of those Round Table Knights, who were perhaps unearthly beautiful and undefeated I battle because they were unearthly!

For history fans like myself, you might recognize my immortal Knight in Golden Vampire. His name is Lance. And thought this is a contemporary story about the woman who finds him, Lance’s backgound as an immortal plays a major part in who he now is.

So.... let’s chat. I’m here today.

You can probably tell by this post how excited I am to be writing, and publishing the kind of stuff that inspires me. Paranormal all the way! Yay!

My Muse stays because she likes the energy surrounding me, and vice versa. I am truly blessed, and do not take this for granted. After paying my dues in the writing business, I’m finally starting on my second career, and hope that my destiny is to write many many more books!

Chatter points:

• Do you have a MUSE?
• Do you have to share her with someone else? Blackmail her to stay?
• Do you like the Arthurian tales?

GOLDEN VAMPIRE

For former cop Jesse Stewart, giving herself—mind and body—to sexy vampire Lance Van Baaren meant losing her soul. Hired by the government to find a senator's missing daughter, she instead found a haunting link to her past. And now something is drawing her to the one man she should despise….

Once a knight, Lance had sworn to protect the innocent. And one of those young innocents had been Jesse. Now face-to-face with the alluring woman she has become, he's determined to help Jessie solve her case and make her his own. But would finding the truth of her past—beneath a Blood Moon—push her further away? You can read an excerpt here.

Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, Books a Million Books are available in e-book or paperback format.

 
 

I write both dark and light paranormals. Vampire and Werewolf tales with titles like Midnight Court, Barbie and the Beast, Red Wolf, Blackout, Wolf Trap, Vampire Lover, etc. And now, my latest book from Nocturne, just released this month is a vampire series called Vampire Moons... and the first full book is “GOLDEN VAMPIRE.”

You can find Linda: Website, Nocturne Authors,

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.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*

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/

Psychotherapy With My Muse

My guest today is a delightfully quirky Scot, Malcolm Campbell. He's worked in and around the writing field for some years and has taught college level journalism and does book reviews for several sites. He has also written a wonderful story, The Sun Singer. Today he talks a bit about the writing process and his muse, who seems to a be a rather multi-talented being.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: I was reared by dysfunctional alligators in the Everglades where I cut my teeth on panic grass, ate anhinga for dinner, and played cops and robbers with a Florida panther.

Potentially, I’m making that up. But if you’re a writer, you know this is what people think. Other than fate or flat out insanity, nothing else but this kind of upbringing can explain what environmental conditions cause writers to materialize.

Last October, my friend Chelle Cordero wrote an article in which she said, “Every now and then I feel like an alien living in my home. Often misunderstood, mostly tolerated and usually hidden away. When family members are asked what I do, their voices tend to lower, they avert their eyes and finally, after shuffling their feet, whisper in a clandestine tone – ‘She’s a writer.’”

I can identify.

While hearing voices inside my head and seeing things that haven’t happened seems completely normal to me, non-writers tend to think there’s something “a little off” about it. But then what would you expect from a guy who grew up in a real or imagined swamp?

Generally speaking, people understand quantum mechanics, psychology and aquatic macrophytes and rocket science. But they don’t understand writing. They actually come up to me during funerals and/or on busy street corners and ask why I write and where my ideas come from.

My short answer is “psychotherapy.”

Since people think I’m making that up or being purposefully obtuse, they go away and don’t ask me again. Sometimes I hear them talking amongst themselves, “Hey, you see that guy over there; his best friend was a Florida Panther. Now we know why they’re on the endangered list.”

Unfortunately, the truth of the matter about why I write and where my ideas come from sounds a lot more dramatic than it is. While it really is psychotherapy, you know, due to my childhood, etc., the whole writing session shebang is just me sitting at my desk wondering what the hell I think I’m doing. I know one thing from experience: my feelings about myself and the subject matter of the story won’t become clear until all has been said and done.

My writing sessions are psychotherapy sessions with my muse. She's the analyst; I'm the analysand. There's libido there before my appointment begins, energy of some kind, and when I tell my muse what it is, she knows--because we're sitting face to face--that I will stall before I come to the real point.

I've had dreams, whispers of intuition, and sensed the influence of archetypes, but I'm not yet sure whether I want to confront them directly. They are as yet unconscious, behind doors where shadows lurk. How will I be changed, by permitting full knowledge of them? I am seldom in a hurry to know.

As the heroes of myth traveled out into the unknown forests in search of treasure, the writer travels away from his ego into the vast and often forbidding landscape of himself to find the story he must tell. He tells the story to become whole. He tells it out of necessity rather than choice.

When I confront my stories face to face, I may see joy or beauty or frightening secrets. Then and only then do I know how I feel about them. While the reader may define the image as a novel, a short story, an essay, or as nonsense, I know it's a shard from the infinite mirror of my mind's eye.

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THE SUN SINGER, published in 2004, is a magical fantasy adventure about a young man who learns how to bend time, change the past and become the Sun Singer.

"The Sun Singer is gloriously convoluted, with threads that turn on themselves and lyrical prose on which you can float down the mysterious, sun-shaded channels of this charmingly liquid story." Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

In addition to his novel, Campbell’s writing has appeared in Nonprofit World, Living Jackson Magazine, Nostalgia Magazine, POD Book Reviews More http://podbram.blogspot.com/ and More, The Smoking Poet, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Rosicrucian Digest. He has worked as a college journalism instructor, technical writer; grant writer and corporate communications director. You can visit Malcolm at his website http://www.malcolmrcampbell.com/.