Blog Hop, Baby!

Hey, everybody!

(A little Mr. Knightley to brighten your day.)

 I'm on a blog hop with Regina Scott and we're introducing ourselves to readers hither and yon.
"How?" you ask.

 By spilling the beans on WHAT we're writing, HOW we're different, and WHY we write what we do. :)

(This has nothing to do with anything but *sigh*)

WHAT I'm writing right now:

   I'm in the middle of polishing a YA manuscript that I've been working on with Franny Billingsley through a course she offers. (I can hear you all frowning from here! Or, wait... you can't hear a frown.) I know it seems as if everyone in the whole wide world is writing YA but can you blame us?? Isn't it the best genre ever?? I consider it all a bit of wish fulfillment. I get to go back and rewrite myself as a teen.  I get to be STRONG and FEARLESS and INTERESTING. 

 I know it's not really me, but it feels good anyway. It's a special kind of exciting when I can take a teen character and throw them into crazy situations and they fight their way to a glorious, triumphant end. So, that's what I'm writing right now. It's set on the coast of mainland Japan, hundreds of years in the future and is about as far as you can get from Austen fan fic, And that's okay. We all need a hobby. Some people knit. I put a year into writing a a book that may never see the light of day. :D

HOW I'm different:

 Oooo, boy. Am I different. 

I'm the sort of writer that wants to throw everything in the book and make it fit. Sometimes I can pull it off, and sometimes I have to go back and throw it all out. 

But a friend described my writing like this, "I like salad and I eat a lot of it, especially the kind with tiny cherry tomatoes and maybe a few leaves of baby spinach. If your writing was a salad, it would be ambrosia."

  Ha! I'll just take that as a compliment, whether she meant it that way or not. So, in the romance world of fiction, my writing is the kind with the little colored marshmallows. And the coconut and pineapple and maraschino cherries and pecans and mandarin oranges... 

  Maybe my books are an acquired taste, but I like to think there's a little bit of something for everyone. Poetry, classic literature, humor, romance, faith, progressive social values, family conflicts, race issues, poverty and class issues, and hopefully a fire/plague/online character assassination to make it interesting. 

WHY do I write what I do?

  Basically, I'm easily bored. That's why I have six kids. (Kidding!) 

But truthfully, I need a project. I'm not happy unless I'm trying to learn something new. And writing is always new.  I will never, ever be an expert. There's always so much more to learn, more stories to tell, more characters to dream up, and more plot twists to invent. It;s an awesome hobby and I've loved every second of it. (Hmmm, that's a bit of a lie. I've never loved the rejections or the negative reviews. Ouch. Owie. Wah.)

Thanks for coming along on my blog hop! I'm linking back to Regina Scott's post here, at NineteenTeen. That's a fun blog. Wander around a bit after you've read Regina's post. If you're interested in history, you'll be enjoy the posts. If you love history AND romance, prepare for a treat.

The next stop on the hop will be by the lovely Amy Spitzley over on  her blog and Kristen Ethridge on her blog and Karen Kirchel over on her blog! I'm excited to see where this hop goes next because I sense a turn toward the artistic!
    Their posts will be up in a week. :) As always- take care, my friends! 

  Remember, the post previous to this is the Regency Bonnet Giveaway! So be sure to enter for a chance to win your very own Jane Austen-style bonnet! 

(You know you want one....)