This week I posted a Tweet asking followers what “get to know me questions” they had about me.  Here are the responses!  Enjoy! 

If you could tell your younger writings self anything, what would it be? I would say write.  Write now. Write often. Don’t wait thirty years to do what you love.  Don’t let anyone tell you, you can’t.  And, oh yeah, when you meet someone named Nathan, don’t wait to tell him how you feel! 

How does your day job apply to/affect your writing? My day job keeps me from writing full time, but everyone needs to eat, right?  It’s difficult because I come home exhausted and will just then start to write, or read, or edit (whichever I need to do that day).  Balance is hard, but I refuse to give up just because I’m tired or it’s a lot of work. On the other hand, the creative drive I have, serves me well in my day job, as a lawyer. I approach the way I think about cases with an ‘out of box’ perspective.  My creative side also helps me connect with jurors- I find ways to connect with my audience, others might not consider.  In one trial, where I had a successful outcome, I started my opening statement with a first person, word for word, exclamation from the victim’s statement.  I looked at the jury, pointed at my client, and shouted, “Jesus Christ! What is wrong with this guy?”  Needless to say, I got the jury’s attention.  

What inspired you to start a blog? At first, it started as a way to reach out to people going through the same writing journey.  It evolved very quickly from that, as a way to network, as well as, connect with future fans.  A lot of people write, ‘this is how I got published,’ blogs or articles AFTER they get published.  I thought, what if I talked about my journey as it happens?  It’ll be good for me to be able to look back and see what I felt as I experience it, and I hope it’s interesting for readers to see the experience as it occurs.  Raw and unedited honesty.  As for how and why I started reading and reviewing, more on that in a moment.

What do you wish you knew about blogging when you started? I think my blog went live on January 19th, 2019.  So, it’s only been a couple of months.  Still, there are things I wish I had done different.  I don’t have to blog everyday.  Once I realized this, is made my life a lot less stressful.  I wish I’d thought about maybe being more organized about my posts, I feel like I’ve published things out of order of what I c would’ve chosen to, but I like the organic feel of it!  I wish I’d thought to interview authors sooner!  It’s turning out to be so much fun!

How do you choose what to read next? It depends.  I like some author’s first work so much, I will read the sequels if they send them my way.  Generally though, it depends on what I feel like reading.  What am I in the mood to read at the moment? That’s the genre and book I chose next.  I don’t know any of the authors I review personally, and I don’t post one and two star reviews on my blog.  When I come across a one or two star book, I only post the review if I agreed to an honest review in exchange for the book.  In that case, I only post the review on amazon or Goodreads, and I try to be as constructive as possible.  Reviews on my blog are usually the amazon review with a more editorial flare, and I don’t think it’s constructive to the author for me to blast a low scoring book on my blog.  The publishing industry is brutal enough without us as authors tearing each other apart.

Do you approach authors, or do they approach you? Reviewing and posting on my blog happened almost by accident.  This company followed me on Twitter and asked if I would be interested in receiving free books in exchange for providing an honest review.  I thought it would be a good way to distract me from waiting for responses from publishers and agents for my own work.  I love to read, and I read EXTREMELY fast, so why not?  I pick books that sound interesting from my favorite genres: science fiction, fantasy, and romance. 

When I finished the review on the first book, I thought, “I could post this on my blog?”  So, I did! 

Now, authors have started approaching me!  Which is incredibly humbling and exciting!  I will occasionally still review books through the company, because it’s where I’ve been introduced to some truly great authors!

I also randomly chose to buy some books from followers and review them! 

Favorite/least trope? I am a sucker for a damsel in distress!  I know I’m not supposed to say that, instead I’m suppose to say, “I love when the woman saves herself!”  But, I don’t want to lie!  I think it goes back to the young girl who loved Cinderella growing up.  I know, part of it is that I have my own Knight in Shining Armor now, and I spent a decade dreaming of what it would be like to be rescued.  Plus, I do like it when the girl says the guy too (or girl saves girl or guy saves guy)! Also, I also love cheering for a villain who redeems themselves!  I believe in second chances, that’s probably once of the reasons I became a public defense lawyer.  Finally, I love most anything with dragons and magic!

My least favorite tropes are amnesia, clones, and time travel for time travel’s sake.  This has been true my whole life.  I hate them in comics, movies, novels, and TV series (with the notable exception of Dr. Who).  Oh, I also dislike books that end without a happily ever after or at least some positive note. Everyone doesn’t have to love HEA but at least someone should!

[Note: My thoughts and comments are my own and don’t reflect the opinions of any organization or of anyone else.]