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.
