Recently, I did my bi-annual newsletter subscriber survey. As usual I asked if there were any questions. My subscribers did not disappoint! Here are my favorite questions:

1) From Debby: She wanted to know what authors I read and what ones are my favorites.

Hoo boy, I don't have a favorite, per se. There are so many great authors out there. Latest reads include Yasmin Angoe's Her Name is Knight series, Shirlene Obuobi's On Rotation medical romance, Milla Vane's Heart of Blood and Ashes, Kimberly Lemming's That Time I Got Drunk fantasy romance series, and an alien/sci-fi romance by Aria Starling. Oh, and I read Elizabeth Everett's Victorian/STEM romances recently and they were also excellent!

So, yes. My reading tastes are eclectic!

Perennial favorites include anything by Robin McKinley, Anne Bishop, J.R. Ward, Holley Trent, and Katee Roberts. And, like everyone else in the world, I'm also reading through Sarah Maas's ACOTAR series right now.

2) From Nancy M: How do I stay motivated to write everyday? Do I keep a journal to jot down random thoughts or ideas to use as inspiration?

First of all, I don't write every day, mostly because of my Day Job. I write as much as I am able, but the work often comes in blocks of several days or a week at a time. After writing in those blocks, sometimes I do feel like I got run over by a dump truck!

I jot down notes regarding the characters or the story that I'm currently working on. But I don't have a specific "idea journal" for future stories. One other thing that's interesting. My brain insists on remaining pretty linear. Meaning, I have to work on one project at a time. If I skip around between two or more incomplete projects, everything gets really muddled. So, even on deadlines, I have to wrap up one project (draft or edit) before moving to the other project.

3) From Kathy: How long do I spend each day writing? Do I schedule it? Do I write a really rough draft first?

Again, I don't write daily for all the reasons above. When I have time off, I do block out chunks of time to write. (Meaning, I make sure hubs is out of the house on what we call "alone day" so he's not driving me nutty!)

Oh yes, that first draft is absolute garbage. Awful spelling, minimal punctuation, no dialogue tags. It's utter crap, and I am happy with that. Because once the draft is on the page, I can fix it! The more important part of prepping that first draft are my 10-page character interviews of each main character (and villain, when applicable). That, and a refined outline are what sets the stage for me to draft quickly.

Thanks to my subscribers for these great questions, and happy reading!

Over on my newsletter, my readers kindly fill out surveys from time to time and provide feedback ... and then I give away prizes. (Hey -- sign up for my newsletter over on the right side of the page if you haven't already!) Recently, one reader asked what made me want to become an author. Interestingly, it's a question I don't often get asked. I am more often asked why I became a doctor.

The answers are in some ways ... similar.

Hi de ho de, friends! I'm at the Moonlight and Magnolias conference in Georgia, having a terrific time and meeting so many nice folks!

I sent out a speaker's poll to the people attending my class, and this one particular question had so many responses that were too involved to answer in a quick way in the class. So I decided to answer them in long-form. Here we go!:

​Update:
 
Finally have my head above water in the writing world, enough to write a quick blog post. Hi >waves at everyone<, hope all is well. I haven’t chatted a ton lately. Actually, if you get my newsletter, you’re getting more frequent updates and news.
 
I just finished a top secret medical romance manuscript. You all will be the first to know if anything comes of it in the publishing world, but it’s what you’ve come to expect in terms of pulse-pounding (yes, with a pulse requiring epi and a defibrillator) as well as hot and steamy scenes. The logline of this book is “Gray’s Anatomy meets Northern Exposure” or “General Hospital meets Life Below Zero.” (take your pick)  I can’t wait to show it to you!

​You all -- I am so excited to have a new book coming out 7/26/22!

FALLEN COMRADE, book #1 in the Project Morpheus romantic suspense series, is being published by Evernight and I cannot squee enough about how much I love this book!

This is the book that has been in the ether for about 6 years. In the book, I took some big-time writing risks and tackle challenging topics and situations. Quite frankly I allow things to get very uncomfortable and scary (spoiler alert, it's a happily-ever-after -- no worries -- I've got you!). It was emotionally difficult for me to write and even harder to execute with appropriate sensitivity and, also ... application of the laws of physics (you'll see what I mean when you read it).

​Oh my gosh, it's been so long since I did a blog post. You all know about my work in rural medicine. To say that it's been a wild and exhausting few years is a massive understatement. The things I've seen ... yikes. Fair to say, I can't wait for everyone to be vaccinated and for COVID to be in the rearview mirror.


So I was reminiscing on Twitter about my one brush with brief, viral fame. I unwittingly did THE POST. You know. The one that captures the imagination of the Twitter masses! And funny enough, all I had done was repost a picture I'd seen over on Facebook to Twitter, because my brain immediately went OMG IS THAT WHAT I THINK IT IS?

I flippantly posted in the morning at breakfast and then went to do rounds at the hospital. That was back in the day when Twitter would notify you via email if there was a comment or a retweet. Welp. Apparently after like a few tens of thousand of these, Twitter basically gets pissed and stops sending email notifications. News to me. But before that occurred, my phone blew up in between patients with c-diff colitis, community-acquired pneumonia, and urosepsis.

It wasn't until over lunch hour that I could get away and look at my computer (because I don't have Twitter on my phone -- I really don't like mixing Doctor Job and Writing Job). By then, I had something like 500K impressions. It was happening so quickly in real time that you could see the numbers increasing every few seconds. Likes, retweets, impressions, profile views.

​In another of my first forays into interviewing, I chatted with the fabulous LaQuette about her upcoming release.

Hi, LaQuette! Thanks for taking time to give an interview for your upcoming steamy contemporary book, Jackson, about a Texas Ranger and the amazing and smart woman with a heart of gold who teaches him to trust again.
 
Hey Jillian! It’s so good to connect with you again.  As soon as outside opens back up, I’ve got a monster-sized hug waiting for you.
 
Right back at you! I can’t wait for the world to recover. Okay. So, I remember reading your fabulous St. Jared's Memorial series, based around a hospital in New York City. This new book’s Texas setting is quite a departure from the big city. Tell me how you picked Texas and developed your background for this setting.
 
Goodness, no! I’m a concrete princess to my heart. Lol  I have family and friends all over the south who’ve given me a few occasions to visit the Lone Star State. Although I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, I grew up with my Southern Baptist grandmother in the house with us.  Many of the traditions she taught me have helped shape who I am.  So I wanted to write a story that kind of hearkened back to those days spent at my grandmothers knee soaking up everything she taught me.

​Hi Adele, thanks for taking time to chat about your debut novel, Acting Up. It's a really fun read! Have to say that community theater has never been my personal bailiwick, but it's a fascinating world I never knew much about before picking up this book!

My pleasure! Also, LOL. Community theater is actually a different thing - that's amateur theater (which can be VERY good, I'm far from knocking it! But it's not a career.). Acting Up is set in the professional regional theater system that I really hope still exists when we're beyond this pandemic.

Yikes, my bad -- regional theater. Thank you for clarifying! What prompted you to write about a theater-based novel?

Well, my first career was in theater. I started acting at 10 and have a BFA in theatre from Syracuse University. In addition to being an actress, I also worked as a stage manager (fun fact: one of my college roommates is a professional stage manager for Broadway and Broadway tours). Just about every romance I've ever read that was set in the theater featured actors as protagonists. I wanted to show readers what happened beyond the performance - to feature the rest of the crew who works so hard to make the magic. ​

​As some of you know, I have been knee-deep in COVID doctor-y stuff since the beginning of March. I'm one of the physician leaders at my hospital, and the non-hospital clinic has been crazy pants. And over the past several weeks we've had a lot more sick patients -- things are starting to heat up. And the meetings just keep coming. My brain has had one setting and it's: COVID COVID COVID 24/7.

So for months, the only writing work I've been able to successfully accomplish involved not CREATION but only REVISION. These are not equal activities. I can tell a big difference between CREATION which takes a clear, uncluttered mind and longer periods of blank, free time -- versus REVISION, with I can do in short snippets and in between non-writing activities. (And while on call, true.)