The Blog Tour Continues - Author Lori Lyn

Lori Lyn loves to help other writers in any way she can. She gives workshops on the craft of writing, has been a founder and presiding member of several non-profit writing organization chapters, and has organized book festivals and conferences. Her debut novel, The Archery Contest, is getting great reviews, and she's just signed a contract for her next work. Check out Lori Lyn's blog as she tells us about her writing process.

Thank you so much, Clare, for the kind invitation to chat here. I really love talking with other writers and sharing thoughts.

1) What are you working on?
I'm currently working the third book for my historical romances. Book one, THE ARCHERY CONTEST, is out now and I just signed a contract for the second book, THE COUNTRY BUTLER, with my publisher. So I really need to get on revising! I'm also working hard at promotion since my first book just came out a couple weeks ago. It's the un-fun part of being an author.  Another project is learning how to format as I want to indie publish my thriller series.

Writers are always working on another book but once you get close to or are published, you really have to work on the business side of it. These days, promotion and marketing are a significant part of being an author - and if you do it well, a successful author. And thankfully I had several books done when I signed the first one with my publisher. It's given me lots more time to work on the promo side without also frantically trying to write an entire new book.

2) How does your work differ from others of its genre?
While my books are Regency-set historical romances, they hardly follow the rules of the traditional Regency. My heroines, like Willy in THE ARCHERY CONTEST, do not use fans to convey meaning - they tend to just say it directly.  Willy even lures the hero into a challenge of archery skills. I really love humor and smart, strong heroines. My books are definitely character driven stories. I think my work mostly differs in that I have a unique voice, like most writers. I see characters and situations in my own light.


3) Why do you write what you do?
I write romance because I believe in the Happily-Ever-Afters. I come to care for my characters and want to see them happy and I so enjoy telling their stories. Romance is really all about what any book is about - relationships, people triumphing over adversity of some kind. It's an internal and external struggle but with romances, you know the ending will be and H-E-A or at least a happily-for-now end.

I guess I write, over all, because I simply have to. I have written stories, poems, lyrics since I was in elementary school! When the characters start forming in your mind, you kind of have to let them out on the page. It just doesn't feel like a choice. Even if everyone told me I would never be published, I would still have to write, if only just for myself. It's my form of art, my form of expression and, at times, my form of therapy!

4)How does your writing process work?
First off, I'm a pantser, which means I write by the seat of my pants. Plotting is not my forte! First, a situation or incident or occurrence comes to mind. I happen upon a news story or read an article and something mentioned in there intrigues me, starts tickling my imagination. Then I hear some bit of dialogue in my head or an opening scene fills my mind's eye. i just start wondering about it from there. But until I have the protagonists firmly set in mind, I can't write the story. I have to really "know" my two main characters (and my antagonist, if there is one) before I can start. It's their story, after all. I have to have a clear understand of who they are and how they would react to any given situation. I have to know what their childhood was like, what are their fears, their hopes, etc. I also need the appropriate music. I once tried to write a historical while listening to Alt Rock and it was not pretty. Too much headbanging at the ball. Then I just start writing, sometimes with hours of staring at the screen between typing! The midpoint of the book is always a bit of a struggle and sometimes that can stump me for a few days or even a week or more. But I push through (sometimes writing just that) and continue. Once "the end" is written, then comes all the revision work.

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