I found this writing meme via 
Miyabiarashi @ Livejournal. I thought it would be fitting to lay it out here.
Which words do you use too much in your writing?
Neatly, tiny, young, just, very, cooed, purred, rumbled, beautiful, like, as. ‘As’ is my utter nemesis. I’ve mentioned this. There’s a slew of others I’m forgetting.
Which words do you consider overused in stuff you read?
Graceful, hazy, timid, rough and rugged. Quivering doe to describe a human being really, really bugs me.
What’s your favourite piece of writing by you?
10-9′s an easy winner since so much of my life was wrapped up in it. It was a strange sort of kismet that I started the groundwork for the story when the television show Lost had began and I finished it two weeks before the series finale. Let me tell you that was a fabulous couple weeks. Sobbing because I finished the book and then bawling my eyes out with the Lost finale.
There’s so much I’ve babbled about 10-9 already but to kind of sum it up, I learned I was really fixated on people so painfully in love that they screw up their relationship as easy as breathing. It’s like John and Ahimsa are such damaged people on their own that they want nothing more than to be damaged and volatile with each other. And they work.
On a total silly-silly note, I rather like the little mindless sandbox I set up of the characters of all my stories as preschoolers. It’s called Happy Acres Preschool and nothing makes you smile more than the crap that kids say and how honest or inappropriate they can be.
What blog post do you wish you’d written?
Pioneer Woman’s Fancy Mac ‘n’ Cheese?
Regrets, do you have a few? Is there anything you wish you hadn’t written?
The original draft of Darkmore, called The Promise. It was the first book I ever wrote when I didn’t know any better and was just being purely indulgent. The Promise was sleazy and the bad kind of trashy, not to be confused with the rewrite which I refer to as the good kind of trashy. I learned Jack and Sevon were great characters suffering in a terrible plot. Hell, Sevon was a hardcore internet panderer. Yeeeeah. And the character was initially created to be male only to be totally revisioned as a female in the rewrite. She’s a lot better like that.
I refer to the Promise as a book not even good enough to line my cats’ litter box with. But it does count as the first book I wrote. Just not the first publishable one.
How has your writing made a difference? What do you consider your most important piece of writing?
I’m not sure if it’s outwardly made a difference, but inwardly it’s done a number on me. Considering a couple years ago I was certain I wanted to be a comic book artist, but life has a way of making you consider other perspectives. I actually don’t miss drawing anymore. I love that I can tell stories and still have time for all the things I want to do away from the keys. With doing comics, I was chained to my drawing table. With writing, I can go anywhere and be working on something.
Name three favourite words.
Shimmering, feral, resplendent.
…And three words you’re not so keen on.
Orbs, globes, clinical body part terms used in erotic scenes. Hint! We know what it is people, just put a prettier word on it.
Do you have a writing mentor, role model or inspiration?
Oddly, for writing fiction, memoir is kind of my reading genre of choice. I like how real people write their stories like they’re holding a conversation with the reader. I love how they form words and sentence combinations or how the sentences have a certain cadence.
Anderson Cooper’s Dispatches from the Edge is a book I always return to. I have the audio book version with him reading it and I love that it’s still Cooper Doing What Cooper Does Best with his literary way of speaking peppered in with stories of real people talking like human beings. I’m still striving for his sense of rhythm and word choice. How can you not love a phrase like ‘shaped by time, scraped by space’? Pardon me while I swoon.
Failing memoir a lot of what inspires me is the sound of people talking and the way they communicate. I watch movies and a fair bit of television. I hone my ear for dialogue better by hearing it and seeing the body language. I like studying facial expressions. It was from a clip of Desperate Housewives back when I honestly watched it I decided 10-9′s Ahimsa is just as ugly of a crier as Teri Hatcher. I’ve never actually watched Gilmore Girls but the clips I find on YouTube of their dialogue is just so snappy and undeniably amazing.
What’s your writing ambition?
To be a successful novelist. Easy. And maybe 10-9 or Americana Fairytale made into movies. Because it would be awesome.
Plug alert! List any work you would like to tell your readers about:
Cormac McCarthy. Dense as hell, but give it a shot. Your doors might be blown off.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell. One Half of the Fabulous Beekman Boys. I read both his memoirs in about 18 hours. It was amazing.
Reckless by Cornelia Funke. I’m still reading it when I can but her take on fairytales just tickles my Into The Woods soft spot.
James Scott Bell. Writer of several books on writing craft by Writer’s Digest. My superhero.
