Blog Hop - What I'm working on

The lovely Nicole Evelina tagged me in her blog hop so here’s a little bit about what I’ve been up to.

1) What am I working on?

A MG fantasy about dragon changelings and my main character Sasha who wants nothing to do with her dragon form.

I’m also furious editing a YA sci fi thriller that I’m really excited about! Hopefully I’ll be pushing that out into the world soon.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Okay let’s talk about my MG WIP. And without spoiling too much since my WIP is fairly new, Sasha lives in a world where the dragons aligned into clans, but the clans don’t get along. In fact it’s traitorous to associate with dragon changelings outside of the clan they reside in. Sasha grew up outside the clans, which inherently puts her at risk. And she quickly learns there’s a secret all the changelings are hiding and it’s the very reason they don’t get along and have remained separated.

3) Why do I write what I do?
I absolutely love the question ‘What if?’ It’s how most of my ideas start and that lends itself very well to science fiction and fantasy. I also grew up on both genres, and am a huge sci fi/fantasy junkie. I love it and have a hard time saying no to it no matter the medium.

I’m also an aerospace engineer by day, so I love to take existing ideas and technology and stretching them just a little bit further. You might say I’ve been training to write science fiction and fantasy my whole life!

4) How does my writing process work?
After the initial idea, I start with an outline. Always. I need to know where I’m headed, even if I don’t 100% follow it. With the case of my current WIP, I’ve also spent a lot of time world building. Figuring out what each dragon clan was about and what makes them special. How they differ from the other clans. Usually though the world builds as I write so this vast initial world building is new for me. But I think it’s a necessary part of fantasy.

After that I write. I start at the beginning and I go and keep going until I reach the end. As I go my outline shapes and changes and sometimes I get snippets of scenes I’ll plug into my outline, but for the most part my writing process is very linear. Idea, outline, write start to finish. I think it’s my engineer side taking over. ;)

Thanks to Nicole for tagging me in her blog hop. See below for more information about her and for a link to her post about what she’s been up to.

Author bio:

Nicole Evelina is St. Louis-born historical fiction writer represented by Jen Karsbaek of Foreword Literary. She is the author of an Arthurian legend trilogy that tells Guinevere’s life story from her point of view, as well as a work of women’s fiction.  Nicole is a member of and book reviewer for the Historical Novel Society, and Sirens, a group supporting female fantasy authors, as well as a member of the St. Louis Writer’s Guild and Women Fiction Writers Association.

She is one of only six authors who recently completed a week-long writing intensive taught by #1 New York Times bestselling author Deborah Harkness. Nicole has traveled to England twice to research the Guinevere trilogy, where she consulted with internationally acclaimed author and historian Geoffrey Ashe, as well as Arthurian/Glastonbury expert Jaime George, the man who helped Marion Zimmer Bradley research The Mists of Avalon.

Her website/blog is http://nicoleevelina.com and she can be found on Twitter as @nicoleevelina as well as on Pinterest and Facebook.

MG / YA Blog hop

I’ve been tagged in a MG/YA blog hop and was asked to answer the following questions by the amazing Thomas Torre. 

1.      What are you working on right now?

I have a few projects going on right now. 

• I’m querying a MG science fiction about 13y/o Gary Jones that gets abducted by aliens and gets telekinesis. He has to complete missions for the aliens in return for his ability, while trying to figure out what they are really up to. It’s Sky High meets Ender’s Game with young alien trainers reminiscent of Jedi masters.
• I’m furiously editing a YA science fiction called Tracker 220. It’s a futuristic science fiction thriller that blends technology similar to Google Glass and a fast paced thriller world like Minority Report.
• I also have a very baby WIP that’s also a YA science fiction. I can't say too much about it yet but it’s set in space.

2. How does it differ from other works in its genre? 
For the MG, there’s not tons of MG science fiction but there is a lot out there that has kids with superpowers. So I tried to set my story apart by making the origin of the powers from aliens and I made them come with a cost. I mixed in some cool advanced alien technology while putting a unique spin on how superpowers are used.

For the YA science fiction thriller, I combined advanced technology, with a fast paced thriller world. I threw in strong female characters including the protagonist and a cute nerdy boy.

For the baby WIP, well I can’t say much but I’m basically trying to take a popular space scifi tv show and spin it for YA while throwing in some other interesting and tricky elements. Do with that what you will.

3. Why do you write what you do? 
Why do I write science fiction? Two reasons. One, I’m a rocket scientist. I was brought up with scifi and I want to share it with the world. Two, I love the question what if. I love looking at things that could be even, if they are sort of out there. What if can take you anywhere.

Why do I write YA? Because it’s basically all I read. Despite never wanting to write, once I started reading a lot, I started having all these ideas of my own. One day they wouldn’t shut up so I started writing them down.

Why do I write MG? More details on that, on the fantastic MG Minded blog! Check it out.

4. How does your writing process work?

Oh there’s a loaded question. I would say several times a week I hear something or see something that makes me go what if… and I write it down. Usually that doesn’t go anywhere, but every once in a while, from that idea and plot, characters start to emerge. The more the ideas stew the more of the world and characters develop. So then I start an outline. Chapter by Chapter I usually write a handful of sentences about what should happen in that section. Every once in a while I’ll get a few paragraphs of prose and/or dialogue that I’ll include with that chapter.

When I have about a quarter to a third of an outline I usually start writing. I don’t typically know how things will end other than a general idea when I start. As I write, the back of the outline starts filling in. And I write in order until I finish. If a scene snippet comes to me, I fill it into the outline where it belongs.

Every time I sit down to write, I spend the first 10 minutes or so reading the prior section. If I find typos I fix them but mostly I just read to put me in the mindset of the story. Typically that’s enough to launch me into writing the next section. It also helps me maintain flow and pacing.

So that’s my writing process. We won’t talk about how brutal I get with my editing ;)

And that’s a little bit more about my writing. I’m going to tag a few MG/YA writers, Mandy P., Christina, and Michelle, so they can give your their answers to the questions above. :)