I want to thank HiDee (http://thewritewaycafe.blogspot.com/) for inviting me to join the blog tour.
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What am I working on?

I suffer from TMIS (Too Many Ideas Syndrome), so there are about four books bumping around in my skull, but I am actively polishing Pigsty Princess, an epic fantasy about a princess who has no magic in a country where how much magic you have determines your place in society who marries a pig farmer to get out of an arranged marriage with an old man and discovers that nothing in her life is what she thought it was.

The sequel, Barefoot King, is the story of her sister, a bitter, angry princess agrees to marry the nephew of a Queen for political reasons, only to discover that he is mad. Or is there something else going on?

Besides epic fantasy, I’m finishing a sweet contemporary (possibly to be written under a different name), tentatively titled, A Dog called Hamster, about a high powered corporate attorney who comes back to the small Louisiana town she grew up in to be in the wedding of a high school friend and finds herself stuck babysitting a Saint Bernard while a co-worker tries to steal her cases and the owner of a local doggy day spa is convinced that she should never be around animals.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Interesting question. Well, I think my fantasies are different because they all deal with issues of family – Who is your family? How strong are those bonds of blood?

I also tend to gravitate toward marriages of convenience and arranged marriages, and a lot of courtly intrigue. I love writing palace scenes with lush costumes, strict protocol, and finding ways to say exactly the opposite of what you mean.

Why do I write what I do?

I write sweet romances because of my religious convictions against pre-marital sex, but also because I am uncomfortable writing graphic sex. I have found, however, that a lot of tension can be achieved by the touch of a fingertip on wrist that is normally covered by societal convention.

I center my stories around families – those we’re born into and those we choose for ourselves – because that’s what makes human beings what they are. Who we can depend on when things fall apart around us, and who we can’t, is a question that provides a well of stories that will never run dry.

How does your writing process work?

My writing process is constantly in flux. I am a pantser, but I like to think of myself in recovery! I would love to be able to plot a story, write it from start to finish, and polish and be done, but I tend to find out that the story I think I’m writing might not be the one I started out with. When that happens, I have to sit down and figure out where my characters want to go.

I am a stay-at-home mom, so I have the luxury of writing for several hours a day. Unfortunately, my family likes to eat and have clean underwear, so I can’t set a definite schedule for every day. I am learning to write faster and rely on timers to keep me on track.

Next Monday stop by these blogs to meet these great ladies:

Bonnie Lynne is the author of My Runaway Bride and Tides of Love–both in the romance genre. She is currently working on a paranormal suspense set in Louisiana. Being a native of South Carolina, Bonnie Lynne’s southern heritage is reflected in her voice (physical and literary), and frequently flows into her characters and settings. She lives in Louisiana with her husband of 30+ years and her two feline keyboard warmers.

Wendy S. Russo got her start writing in the sixth grade. That story involved a talisman with crystals that had to be found and assembled before bad things happened, and dialog that read like classroom roll call. Since then, she’s majored in journalism (for one semester), published poetry, taken a course on short novels, and watched most everything ever filmed by Quentin Tarantino. A Wyoming native transplanted in Baton Rouge, Wendy works for Louisiana State University as an IT analyst. She’s a wife, a mom, a Tiger, a Who Dat, and she falls asleep on her couch at 8:30 on weeknights.