Brad Riccia, author of the excellent and exhaustive Super Boys: The Amazing Adventures of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, The Creators of Superman, invited me to participate in the ongoing Writing Process Blog Tour. In addition to Brad’s own contribution to the tour, some of the other authors who have taken part are Susan Grimm, Kristen, Ohlson, Lynn Kantor, Rosalie Morales Kearns, and Heather Fowler. I’ve invited my Crazy 8 Press cronies to join the fun, and I’m sure if you keep an eye on Twitter and Facebook, you’ll learn of other bloggers taking part.
1. What am I working on?
As usual, I’m working on about six things at once. I just finished a short story for a new anthology coming this summer from Crazy 8 Press, Tales of the Crimson Keep, which will also feature contributions from Bob Greenberger, Aaron Rosenberg, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Russ Colchamiro, and Glenn Hauman. I’m also pulling together an anthology of my own short stories for Crazy 8, trying to get a handle on a mystery novel, trying even harder to get the cooperation of a celebrity for a non-fiction book project, and writing comic book stories for Archie Comics, Moonstone Comics, a new publication called the Charlton Arrow, and a comic project that I’m not allowed to talk about yet.
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I write in a lot of different genres, from superheroes to humor in comic books and from mystery to fantasy in prose, but I guess what makes my work differ in general is what I bring to a story, the “voice,” for lack of a better term, that I’ve gained from whatever it is I’ve experienced in life. Even though there are plenty of writers I read for inspiration, I’ve never been interested in sounding like any of them. I’d much rather fail as myself than succeed as someone else.
3. Why do I write what I do?
I used to write what I wrote because that was what was available to write to pay the bills. I still do plenty of that, but the older I get the more interested I am in writing what I want to write. I used to come up with ideas but, because I didn’t have an immediate market for them, would stick them away in a folder. Now if an idea grabs me, I’ll write it whether or not I know I can sell it…working around the stuff I know I can sell, of course. Lately, I’ve been writing short stories, usually around 1,500 words, based on various things, including sculptures made years ago by my maternal grandmother.
4. How does your writing process work?
My writing process involves a lot of staring at the screen, getting up and pacing around, looking for anything else to do other than what I’m supposed to be doing (I keep a Swiffer close at hand for emergency distractive dusting), and just enough short bursts of actual writing to keep me from getting completely discouraged and finding an honest job. My writing schedule is usually in the mornings, starting around 8 or 9 a.m. and continuing through to early, mid-afternoon, depending on how much I get done, with a short break for lunch. And coffee. Lots of coffee, or what I call “writer’s crack.” Sometimes, just to break up the routine and because you really can’t pace around without annoying everybody else, I’ll take the laptop to a coffee shop and work there.
Tags: Brad Riccia, Charlton Arrow, Crazy 8 Press, Heather Fowler, Kristen Ohlson, Lynn Kantor, Rosalie Morales Kearns, Susan Grimm, Tales of the Crimson Keep, writing, writing process, Writing Process Blog Tour