My Writing Process: Blog Tour

Hello and happy end of June, my Precious Readers!

For those who are Seattle Sweeties like myself, I hope you’ve been enjoying this June-uary, craptastic weather.  For those in the know of the Pacific Northwest (PNW) weather, our “summer” doesn’t really begin until Independence Day through end of September.

I was recently invited by one of my besties to do a joint effort of blogs.  Although our genres do not necessarily cross over much, there are similarities.  Meagan Davenport writes The Curried Nut, a food blog whose key focus is on recipes, cookbook reviews, and her adventures attending various food/food bloggers conventions.  When she sent out the call for fellow friend bloggers… Well… I just couldn’t help myself.

Although this will be a shorter post than most, I have some bigger fish to fry coming up in future posts.

We’re talking truly researched topics.

Don’t look at me in that tone of voice.

All right, all right.  I know it’s unusual for me to go into research-worthy topics, but I promise the same fun-loving, snarky humor you all have grown to know and love.

Either way, let’s get this party started!

1. What am I working on?

Last year, I actually finished a book.  Really.  It has a beginning, middle and ending.  A full ending.  Not just a 3-page ending to wrap everything in a neat and tidy bow.  Sure the heroine/hero fall back in love and begin their Happily Ever After (HEA for those in the romance writing industry), but I like to think it has a very well-rounded ending to satisfy all readers.

The problem?  It’s been in editorial hell.

Working full-time, taking care of my loved ones, and monitoring the wee doggy named, Nimitz, doesn’t leave me a lot of time-

Translation: Energy

-to finally finish it off.  It’s on the to-do list.

A new WIP I’m developing is in “tween” stage of publishing life.  I have my basic skeleton of how I’d like the story to go, but am still filling in the finer details and points of conflict throughout the story.  This next body of work is the beginning of what I hope to be a successful paranormal series.  As I’m highly paranoid-

In general.  As my place in this world as a human being. I’m paranoid people.

I’m highly fearful of copyright infringement.  My husband, Pilot doesn’t even see my work until it’s close to finished.

Also, he’s not much of a reader.  I love him dearly, and he openly admits to this part of his personality.  So to give him only pieces of work that could be completely rewritten down the road is kind of a waste of both of our times.  Don’t get me wrong, he’s EXTREMELY supportive… Just not that into large novels.

My hope is to finish the rough draft of this work and finish book two of this new series.  The somewhat-near future goal is to begin submitting to literary publishers sometime of fall 2015.

Well… If I’m brave enough.

Also, although it’s not specifically focused on blog or romance novel production, I am excited to announce I’ll be attending this year’s Emerald City Writer’s Conference in October!

If any of you Precious Readers are in attendance, I would love to meet you!

It will be my first convention.  Of anything.  About any form of topic.

I’m so excited I could just jump up and dance!

Seriously, Precious Readers:  If you happen to be in attendance, comment below and I’d love to hear from you.  Or you can email me at katherinebacher@gmail.com.  Would love to meet you!

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

What a seriously fun question! (Oxymoron, right?)  I think that first sentence is probably the best answer I could give you.  Although this blog, and my personality, tend to be a bit more on the fun-loving side, I do take my work very seriously.

I believe whatever genre of writing you happen to fall into, it can be told with a sense of humor.  Life isn’t always 100% serious.  There are lighter moments throughout the day.  Sure, not all of them may be happening to you, but the humor is there.  Sometimes it’s situational.  The character may be struggling with the most difficult moment of their entire life, but their sibling or friend may be laughing at the problem the heroine/hero has found her/himself in.

Life is full of the small moments.  To quote Pilot and my favorite couple movie The Wedding Singer, “I think it’s the little things that count.”

To lay it fully out on the line, I’m not often seen as a serious person.

I think my high pitched voice and frequent giggling have something to do with that.  Yes, I’m an almost-30-year-old and I still giggle.  So sue me.

The irony is:  I take comedy VERY SERIOUSLY.

Hopefully this blog is a testament that although sometimes I touch on issues that are near and dear to my heart, mental state, and home life, I enjoy interjecting those serious topics with a little bit of humor.  Life is too short to take everything seriously.

I’d like to think that my voice comes across serious issues in a non-serious or traditional manner.

Also, I’m just a weird person, so that tends to make my story telling go in through an abnormal pathway from my brain to your eyes.

Actually, just reading the above statement makes me realize how odd and creepy that turned out.  I swear it sounded better in my head.

3. Why do I write what I do?

Ok, so we’re busting out the big guns now.

One of my great vices and pleasures in life is to make someone laugh.  I’m not just talking about polite chitchat and the slight chuckling one might experience at an office work party.  No, Precious Readers.  No, not at all.

I’m talking about a soda sinus cleanse.  (Translation = shoot soda out of your nose.)

Did you know that Seattle has some of the worst traffic in America?  I think we’re number 5 or something down the chain of worst traffic.

There’s a point to this random statement.  I promise.  Just bear with me.

Even crazier? In 2013, Seattle was specifically voted the:

“HARDEST WORKING CITY IN THE NATION”

Now, let’s think about this.  We caffeinated Seattleites beat out cities like: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

Seattleites have the highest commuting times (see the traffic report above), take the fewest breaks and use the most overtime.

I’ll give you a moment to let that sink into your caffeinated Seattleite brain.

Did it soak through the espresso?

Ok, then.  I’ll continue.

I love writing.  I love using my imagination.  I love happy endings for characters.

I also have a lot of voices in my head, with which if I don’t put it on paper they just keep swirling in there.

Hmm…

Again, that sounded better and less creepy in my head.

As previously mentioned in earlier posts, I like the endless possibilities of being able to write about love.  Earning it, losing it, fighting to keep it.

I believe love makes the world go round, either through family ties, friendships, or romance.  For a world that is full of such serious people who don’t relax much, especially in my own backyard apparently, that’s waaay too many hours of the day dedicated to our jobs.

Now, if you happen to love what you do, hat’s off to you, Precious Reader.  I’m not quite at the point myself where I’m writing 100% of the working day, but I do what I can and love every minute I share with you, and with my slow-growing body of work.

Short answer?  I like to entertain people and give them something fun to read while escaping the Seattle 6 AM to 9 PM work schedule.

4. How does my writing process work?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahaaaaaaa!!!   Now that’s the funniest thing I’ve read in a while!  People assuming I have a process.  Oh!  You are a hoot!

<wipes tear>

In all seriousness-

Ok, semi-seriousness.  It’s still me, after all.

In my experience, I’ve been told there are two (2) types of writers:

The Planner and The Pantser

I might have touched on this topic before, but for the sake of the blog tour I will continue.

The Planner:  Someone who meticulously plans out their story covering the beginning, middle and end in detail before writing the story itself.  Generally speaking, this writer is typically spotted with extensive notes, a detailed outline, character biographies, perhaps character interviews, typically writes their story from the beginning directly to the end, a Point A to Point B process.

Pretty much someone I’m extremely green-eyed jealous of, and can’t believe this type of person actually exists.

Then…. There’s the Pantser.

The Pantser:  Katherine… I mean “Someone who writes by the seat of their pants.”  who may have a basic idea of how the story should go… and sometimes doesn’t.  It’s quite possible they’re as surprised by the ending of the story as the Reader is.  They may have extensive notes, but it’s a blend of random notes stitched together weaving a pattern visible only during the wee hours of 3 am in a caffeinated haze.

Hey, I’m a Seattleite, remember?  We use espresso instead of saline bags when we put an IV into medical patients. 

Guess which one I am?

5. Blogs I recommend:

Now, I haven’t asked these fellow bloggers, of whom I follow, to participate in this blog tour, but if they happen to read this and want to join in, I’d love to hear from them:

Either way, I love these bloggers and highly, highly recommend you giving them a read:

The Curried Nut:  http://www.thecurriednut.com/

Books, Biscuits and Tea: http://www.booksbiscuitsandtea.co.uk/

Bucket List Productions:  http://bucketlistpublications.org/

Catherine, Caffeinated:  http://catherineryanhoward.com/

Happy June-uary Precious Readers!

Filling you with author-ly love,

Katherine Bacher

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Thank you, again to my friend Meagan Davenport for inviting me on this blog tour!

The Curried Nut (http://www.thecurriednut.com/)
Please check out Meagan’s reviews, recipe ravings and find out the buzz on food blogger conferences.  Her bio: “I am a born-and-bred Washingtonian who likes to wax eloquent on apples, Lord of the Rings, and the finer points of Indian restaurants.”

For more information about the Emerald City Writer’s Conference located at the Bellevue, Washington Westin Hotel, go to:  http://gsrwa.org/ecwc/conference