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,

The Paperback Writer And Settling In

My guest Over Coffee is Paranomal Romance author, Kendra Leigh Castle. She has a dual career as a working mom and Naval Officer's wife--which I can assure, comes with social obligations and work; plus she is the author of The MacInnes Werewolf triology, nominated for RT Reviewer Choice awards. She is also busy writing a new series for Harlequin Nocturne. As you can see, Kendra leads a busy life.

So how does she juggle it all? How is she adjusting to being a busy working mom?





The other day, another mother said something to me, in passing conversation about being impressed that I was a working mom. My first thought was “Huh? Me?” Probably because I’ve been doing my own thing and raising my kids for so long now that it’s just not a term I have ever associated with myself. I mean, yeah, we all work, right? At least, this is what it feels like when I’m slipping in dog puke on the kitchen floor on my way to wipe my preschooler’s nose; all while my two older kids are rapidly progressing towards a fistfight over my daughter’s refusal to share looseleaf paper.

But despite the circa 1980s vision of a “working mother” that pops into my head every time the phrase comes up (big perm, briefcase, power suit with big shoulder pads, and I know, I watched too much TV growing up), I suppose it’s true. Writing is, after all, a hell of a lot of work. But with three young kids, I guess everything sort of flows together…I don’t look at one thing as more work than the other. The moving parts are just different. My day is work, with fleeting moments of relaxation and/or the eating of something from my candy stash that gives me that ahhh feeling. My writing is just a part of the routine now, scrounged out of my three-year-old’s quiet times and pushed into tired nights when I might rather slink off to watch Ghost Hunters (thank God for DVR). But my surprise at the label, I’ve come to realize, is simply emblematic of me finally settling into my life as a published writer. The process is still as frustrating and fascinating as it ever was, but it’s not novel anymore. I go in my office. Small people follow me into my office and demand things like food and dispute mediation (which they often ignore, leading me to chase them away and in the direction of their other, louder parent). The pets snooze in here while I work. My husband gives the computer dirty looks when I’ve spent too much time with it on any given day. It’s all so…normal.

The settling in has been an eye-opening process for me. When my first book came out last year, I was an utter neophyte. As in, when it came to the world of publishing, I was about as dumb as a box of rocks. I’m a pretty smart girl, but I will admit to total failure to comprehend anything much at the beginning except “me write book/me sell book.” I’d written one (bloated, reasonably bad) manuscript, joined RWA, shopped the MS around, cried over a bunch of rejections, and finally, buried the no-go book in my closet and tried again. Wrote the Scottish werewolf book I’d been kicking around in my head, started subbing, and BOOM, suddenly I had an agent. Not long after, I had the sale. Two books, two years, start to…well, publication. Which is both very cool, and, looking back, incredibly overwhelming. My learning curve was huge from the start. A year after the release of Call of the Highland Moon, and having just finished up the trilogy with Wild Highland Magic, I’m still rushing up that curve, but there are a few ways I know I’m settling in:

• I confuse family members when I start to talk about the business aspect of writing, and so wind up fleeing to my writing friends, who actually understand what the hell I’m talking about.
  
  
• I actually have writing friends.
  

• I’ve been through both a publisher change AND an agency change (my agent recently formed her own agency with a partner, so of course I went with her), and I didn’t freak out.
  
  
• I have a blog, website, MySpace and Facebook, and I actually know how to use them. Mostly.
  
  
• Bad reviews no longer make me cry (brood or steam, maybe, but not cry).
  
  
• When I tell my family “I’m working,” they assume I’m doing something other than looking at Perez Hilton and may even let me write. Yes, sometimes I sneak over to Perez Hilton anyway, but my procrastination habits are too scary to really go into here.
  
  
• The word “deadline” now inspires more dread than excitement
  

And most importantly…

• When I talk/think/dream about what I’m doing, it always involves the word “Career.”
  

My life has always been a little crazy. I’m a Navy wife, with an often-absent husband, three young kids, two little dogs with a penchant for regurgitation and an occasionally sympathetic cat. People are constantly telling me (as I’m sure people tell every writer) “I don’t know how you do it.” But see, I’ve managed the whirlwind that is my life by having a head full of stories. Some things are always going to be rough, I think: putting out a new submission, for instance, still makes me a little sick to my stomach. But I don’t turn red when people ask me what my stories are about anymore (yep, I can say “sexy Scottish werewolves” with a totally straight face now, even to strangers), and I can even tell you a little bit about my own personal writing process, when pressed. I’d probably still pass out if Nora Roberts said hello to me, but I’m getting it. Slowly but surely, I’m getting it.

I’ve always written. But I finally feel like a writer. And no matter what comes next, that’s a pretty cool place to be.

Thanks for having me over for coffee, Sia!

***

Kendra Leigh Castle is the author of the MacInnes Werewolves trilogy, as well as the upcoming series The Fallen, coming from Harlequin Nocturne. She lives in Maryland with her husband, three kids, and menagerie of pets, and loves to be visited online at http://www.kendraleighcastle.com/ and at her blog, http://www.kendraleighcastle.blogspot.com/.