Interview with Frankie

SM Blooding, known as Frankie on WDC, is here today with an awsome interview! Her website is http://www.smblooding.webs.com and her blog is http://smblooding.blogspot.com. She is a mother and currently runs Novel Workshop's Workshop in writing.com. If you want to know more about her and her works visit her website! She is a very fun author to know and I have enjoyed every single answer she has for all the questions. Okay now for the interview:


What inspired your writing?

Real life inspires my writing. It always has even when I was in middle school and writing that horrible, horrible Voltron fan fiction - *bites lips through smile* - I would take what was happening that day and find a way to handle it. In real life, I pretty much screw up my personal life - romance, family, relationships of any kind - so in my writing, it's kind of like a do-over, only this time, I screw it up even worse (I feel a lot better about myself then because Paige screwed up worse than I did) and then succeed even better. Well, I succeed period, so there in lies the better. LOL!

I've lived through some things that most people are just like, "Whoa! That's can't be real," like being turned into a vampire *wince* so I've got some great, great fodder to write about.

*grins* Would your characters (like Roxxie, Luceus, Leah, and Tabby to name a few) like

to say something in this interview?

*snort* You had to ask that, didn't you? Since you sent me the interview questions over a month ago - I am sooooo sorry! - characters from both series have been stepping up to the soap box and...*flat lip head shake*...the things they've been complaining about, like not enough face time, or not enough ME time, or...for crying out loud. I'm just going to let you hear it. If you don't know who these characters (the invisible people inside my head) go to my site and I've got them just frelling everwhere there.

Dexx: I hate this new job. Since she's taken it, there's been NOTHING written. I'm still stuck in the same scene I was in the LAST time--

Paige: Hey, it was good for me, babe. If it wasn't good for you, I'm so sorry.

Dexx: *glares* That's not what I was talking about and you know it.

Paige: Hey, you were the one who said you were tired of being in bed with me, so--

Dexx: *holds up finger of frustration and turns to Frankie*And now you've had time to THINK about things and now you want to CHANGE things and--

Tabby: Shut the **** up. Frankie, sweetie, it would be nice to have a little one on one time with you. We miss you.

Frankie: I miss you too. What about coffee tomorrow morning? I received a request for partial and she had some comments that I'd like to get r

Preview

revised into the ms before sending it out--

Dexx: Do you see what I mean? She's CHANGING the *** books again!

Frankie: Revisions happen. Get over it!

Dexx: I would like to live through my life once. Once. And then I'd like to move on. Would that be okay with you?

Riley: At least you get to live your life. Frankie found out I kissed Rune--

Frankie: There's been more than just kissing, young lady! You forget you're in my head!




Riley: And it's a big open space in here with lots of places to go and more places to hide.

Frankie: You are not allowed to--

Riley: It's my life.

Frankie: You're 16 and you're in my--

Riley: If you'd sit down and write my freakin' story, I'd be driving now and would be grown up and would be able to do more than just kiss Rune.

Dexx: Oh, this is just gross. *walks away* I don't want to hear about babies kissing babies. This is nasty. Nasty.

Riley: I've been 16 for over a year! I want to be 17. I want to learn how to drive.

Leah: She forgot my birthday in the last book.

Riley: Mine too! Otherwise, I'd be--

Frankie: SHUT UUUUPPPPPPPPP!

So...*pant, pant* You now see what's going on inside my head right now. I seriously have to hurry up and finish Death Matters for the Demon Talker series (adult paranormal thriller) so that I can go spend some time with Riley and Kat -- Nooooo. Kat, please! Please, just let me--*biting lip* She just stormed off and I think she's crying. Yeah. I soooooo seriously have to get back to their series, The Kingdom Series (Young Adult), because Kat is--was--super excited that she just landed a hugely bigger role to include her own POV. Yeah. And then...I didn't write anything. She's going to hurt me in my sleep, I think.


What is the craziest scenerio that you (and/or your lovable characters) could come up
with?

Um, I'm pretty sure that our every day scenes are the craziest. I mean, we can come up with some pretty crazy stuff, but right now, they're all mad at me.

Tabby: I'm not. I understand.

Frankie: Thanks, Tabs. I love you.

Paige: I'm liking the reprieve. I get to spend more time with Leah and Bobby while you're not writing murder scenes and killing off entire towns so that I can go solve them.

Frankie: *thinking* I don't know if that was a good thing or not.

Tabby: Pretty sure she's not happy with you.

*wince*


Are any of your books ready to buy/read?

The two series that I'm working on right now are not available for purchase. I'm still trying to land an agent and that's a very time consuming process. However, one day, an agent will spend the time with my books, fall madly in love, and I'll finally make my millions. *cough* Or at least enough to maybe pay the water bill for a month.

I do, however, have free books available for download on my site. All you need is a .pdf reader (Adobe, Bluebeam, etc) and just go to the FREE tab on my website and...there you go! The books I'm offering there were previously published through e-publishers. Some of them won awards - most of them won awards - and I've cleaned them up so that just about anyone can download them. I recommend them for +16. They'd be boring to my potential younger readers. However, I have a book I'd like to write that would be JUST for fun and it would be for my younger readers.

However, before I go there, I need to write a few more books this year. Like, oh, three at least? *shakes head* I need to get busy.

How many books are you working on (yeah, try including all of them)?

Oh, wow. Um. I write a lot! It's normal for me to be in the couple month hiatus, but I'll still get two-four books written in a year. This is....most of them.

Demon Talker Series (adult paranormal thriller)

Demonic Alliance is complete and I'm actively querying. This is the one that's getting attention.

Angels & Assholes has a complete first draft. I just finished re-reading it for pleasure, absolutely ENJOYED myself and can't wait for this revise. It's going to be sooooooo easy. There's two slight rough patches kinda toward the end where I oh-crapped myself (that happens when you're writing the entire book in a single month. You don't have time go back and revise as you go.) but it's still going to be a simple, easy revise!

Death Matters is book three and is the one that I'm trying to work on now. My daughters (MissThink and Sunshine) helped me out with a small oh-crap moment, and then it's balls to the walls again. It's a fun book. Very dark. I killed an entire town and it's haunted and there's this creepy girl and there's EVP's and....*excited shiver* Yeah. I can't wait to get back to that one.

When Fury Calls is in brainstorming mode and I can't WAIT to write the book. It's dark! It's dangerous! It's a whirlwind emotional ride. I can't wait. I'm having a lot of fun on research (we'll be in areas I've never been before. Thank you, Google.) and the brainstorming. I've got notes and notes and notes! Whew! This is going to be BRUTAL! A lot more character plot than actual plot, but I think that's what's going to make this one so much fun. We're taking the train off the rails. Wow!

As Angels Fall is the next book and right now MissThink, Sunshine and I are tentatively coming up with ideas and zinging one-liners. Honestly, they're having a lot of fun with this one and I think the readers will too. We're grounding the angels and giving them a conscious. LMAO!! O...M...G!

The Kingdom Series (young adult urban fantasy)

Tempest in a Teacup is complete and I'm actively querying. I mentioned up above that Kat is getting a much bigger role and that's true. After I complete draft 1 of Death Matters, I'm going to revisit this and see what I need to do to start sprinkling some stuff in here so that it's not a real huge surprise. Most of my readers kinda thought maybe it might happen anyway as they were reading Tempest anyway, so I think I'm good.

Cold Hands, Stone Heart has a complete first draft, but one of the first things I'm going to do as soon as I get back to this story is to do a major re-write of this book. It's going to be fun and great. When I wrote it the first time, it was my second book in a month and it was RIGHT AFTER Tempest so I was having a lot of fun with my characters and not really concentrating too much on the plot. Angels taught me a lot about how to properly write a book in a month, so we're going to try this again!

A Kettle Called Black is started and I keep kinda going back to it and putzing around with it, but I'm not in full-on write mode with this. Yet. It's very exciting. It's dark. Riley is finally figuring out a lot. Kat is really stepping up and taking on a lot of responsiblities. This is a VERY exciting book. Yayayayayayaay! I can't wait to actually sit down and WRITE it.

Better Late Than Never is in brain storming mode right now. I'm looking at the end plot and seeing what I need to do for the middle. The middle books are very important to laying down the ground work that's going to happen in this book. Riley has learned a lot and she's really stepping up to the plate here. She's really grown. I'm a little afraid to write this one because it really is the end for me and Ri. Where Ri's going, I probably will not be following. However, I will be able to continue on with Kat. I'm...a little sad thinking about the end. I hate ends.


If you were able to meet your favorite authors of all time who would you meet?

Um...Oh, crap. There are so many. I'd start with Jim Butcher and Piers Anthony, I think. LOL! *shrug* Hey, it could happen.


How are the demon hunts going?

Well, um, not so good right now. The idea of the demon hunts is going a lot better than the actual demon hunting. Right now - if I could just WRITE - we'd be getting our ***es handed to us. *shakes head* Man, Sven is just turning out to be a whole lot creepier, nastier, and a much worse (or better, I guess) villain than I thought at first. He's...he's killing her ex-lovers or turning them into demons and then sending her love notes. Who does that?! Very creep! And he's so SMART! Yeah, he's...*nods*...he's kicking our butts right now. We're tail spinning.


What are your writing rituals or writing routines?

WHAT?! Who has time for those? If I have a spare couple of minutes, I re-read through at least part of the last scene so I get a feel of the flow and then I go! Fingers are flying. People need to STOP TALKING TO ME! And it's either write or no write. That's my ritual.


How do your characters shape the books you write?

My characters ARE my books. I think that's honestly one of my strengths is the fact that my characters seem so real.

The down fall is that they're also incredibly loud, throw their underwear and socks all over your brainpan and attempt to live like they're real people. DEXX!

Plots are shaped around my characters. With Death Matters and Demonic Alliance, I've attempted to create a plot and then make the characters support that, but it hasn't worked out so well. I had to re-write Demonic Alliance several DOZEN times and finally just handed it over to Paige and Dexx and they took it to places I didn't even dream possible. I'm trying to reign them in a little in Death simply because there is a finite line I need them to cross so that Fury is that much more powerful. But...my books ARE my characters.


When at the beach what do you and your characters enjoy doing?

Well, we don't have a beach. LOL! We're land locked in the Rocky Mountains, but we do like to go for pleasure walks. Mostly, Riley and Kat make fun of my music, and they and their friends hang out, and we walk and talk and walk and talk and garner a few looks from people who think that a single person walking and having a very visual conversation with herself is weird.

Mostly, when we have a moment of leisure, it's spent just hanging out. I like to go to the coffee shop and chit-chat with Tabs and Paige and Les - Leslie is a spaz! She wants another baby! She's nuts! - and every once in a GREAT while Dexx and Tru (who are both taken, so think nothing bad) will take me to dinner and we have a very nice conversation where I'm usually shooting food through my nose with laughter.


Any advice or comments would you like to share?

Write because you enjoy writing. Don't do this for the career or the money. If you're doing that, you're going to get frustrated and lose the fun. Write because it's good for you.

Thank you for this brilliant interview SM Blooding! I am looking forward to stalking reading at least one of your series!