Lady Smut: Erica Chilson Q&A
Lady Smut was kind enough to offer me a Q&A. My first (heart flutters).
How about a backstory, since I’m a wordy kind of girly. & a bunch of rambling (you should expect that from me by now)
I have worked nonstop for the past nine months. I don’t mean a job where you can leave your work at the office. I’m talking of every moment of you life is centered on one thing- the story. My imagination was playing out constantly: awake, asleep, during a movie, and while reading a book. My characters just wouldn’t shut the hell up. I could be holding a conversation, but my creations were loudest.
I liken being a writer to being crazy. I have countless characters chatting it up inside my head at any given moment. Sometimes they overlap from one series to the next. The majority are respectful and fade to the shadows, so the spotlight may fall upon the ones being brought to life. There isn’t much a writer can do to shut off the insanity.
Two forms of relief: Writing, spilling the words from my fingertips until my hands cramp and my eyes sting. The ache, the sleeplessness, and the hunger for sustenance & human communication scream from your well-being. Reading, I read as relief. It is a balm to my tattered mind. I immerse myself in the imagination of another. It recharges the creative process and allows new words to flow. I’m able to quiet the voice in my mind while reading a book.
5 book releases in one month’s time- almost 500k words. The writing, editing, publishing, promoting, hops & giveaways smack dab in the middle of Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Years. I’d just pressed publish on Good Girl. I promised myself a few weeks to recharge. I spent a day watching endless amounts of television. I couldn’t concentrate. 3 characters were spinning threads of stories and weaving them into plot outlines. It was insanity. I grabbed my cell and headed for a bubble bath. Hot sudsy water and a Kindle app here I come…. I was immersed, chaotic voices long forgotten- BAM! You’ve got to be freakin’ kidding me!! Seriously? Book 10? 15? in the DNF pile.
By the time I’d dried off and growled my way back to my laptop, a blog post had formed inside my head. I was pissed. The posting was an outlet, a release of all the shit I was filled with. It wasn’t even the book’s fault, but I used it as my target. Saccharine Romances: why I find them annoyingly frustrating was created for comedic relief. I was quoting parts to my mom as I wrote it. She may have rolled her eyes at me and she looked vaguely confused.
I’d unleashed the bitch I keep firmly in check. She has the propensity to be sarcastic- people either love her or hate her, & no one understands her. Her name is Erica-Monster (Good Girl readers will understand) She slipped her leash.
When I was finished, I felt better… a lot better. I knew that I would piss off just as many as I entertained. It wasn’t about the readers, it was about me. A lot of people read it- a surprising number, in fact. Which meant I’d entertained and rubbed a wide variety of people the wrong way. I’ve heard from both. Ugh… that was a stressful day. I received some pats on the back, a few nasty comments, and I’d hurt a person’s feelings (I apologized & I still feel badly about that. The monster didn’t mean to, she is a nice person, just misunderstood like an alpha male). I was a mess- stressed the F*ck out with a capital F!
Highlight of the stress: ladysmut.com offered me a Q&A. Awesome sauce. I was a bit stressed out on that, too. I mean, I couldn’t very well let her slip her leash again. She might offend a large section of the populous. I let her out a tiny bit…
Madeline Iva did a beautiful job creating a flowing conversation with the Q&A. I’d love to personally thank her for the posting. If you’d like to read it, head over to ladysmut.com
Did I get that two week recharge? Nope. Nope, I sure didn’t. In the 8 days since Good Girl’s release, Widow is well on its way to being a book. 48,000 words written (14 chapters) from the dual perspectives of Clover and Malcolm. With my lovely sister’s help, it even has a final cover. & to prove that I am not a cold-hearted Erica-Monster, Widow is a HEA book for the main protagonists. It was planned all along since my characters are nearing mid-life and they’ve lived their trials though their backstory. Hopefully readers will see the softer side of me.
Widow’s first draft is nowhere near completion. I predict a March release. My target length is 120-150k since this is the only book those character will voice.
On a happy note: I’m rereading the BDB- the WARDen (Bathtub time) for a read-along with my buds at Wicked Reads on Goodreads. I’m skimming like a little bitch since it’s my 7th or 8th time thru, but I’m enjoying the comfort of repetition. I’m also watching season 6 of Dexter. That show makes me tuck the laptop away and I get sucked into the television. How that man goes from geek to badass in a heartbeat is beyond me. Amazing actor- amazing. I’m also arranging a huge giveaway on FB for Valentines Day. Vampire Valentines that Bite! Wicked Reads (Amber & I) is pooling all the vampire related swag and a few items I’m picking up for the lovey dovey day and posting a pic. Just click like on the pic and post a comment to be entered. I should have the picture up on February 7th (Waiting on a shipment from FL-PA of the swag) Be on the lookout!
Off to write Widow… & rub the crap outta my aching hands!
~Happy Wicked Reading~
-Erica
Going off the grid
Today is the one year anniversary of Wicked Reads creation. I’m kind of proud of that. This past year has brought on a profound change in my life, and not only that, but a different way of thinking. The small step of creating a book review site showed me that I could accomplish a lot in small time frame… and I went with it. In one year’s time I created and sustained 2 blogs, twitter, 2 Facebook groups, 2 Facebook pages, a Facebook personal page, a Goodreads author page, a Goodreads group- hell, I even became a Goodreads librarian! In that time frame I wrote and published 8 books with several others near completion and ready for publishing. By all accounts I should be exhausted, but I’m invigorated and ready to make 2013 an even more prosperous year!
I couldn’t have done a fraction of any of that without the support and understanding of my parents. A writer can be testy when drawn away from its muse. The muse claws your mind to shreds when it’s ignored, so I’m thankful that my parents leave me alone in my imagination. The only way to pacify the muse is to tap on my keyboard and create its story. Another thanks goes out to all these amazing ladies who grace my life through the internet. I can’t thank my Betas and fellow authors enough for a shoulder to cry on and a ear to vent into. & my Wicked Readers who read my books and take the time out of their day to let me know what they think of my stories- it motivates me to continue.
This posting isn’t a suck my ass fest… I want to say Happy Birthday to my baby, Wicked Reads, & let you all know I’m going off the grid. This evening I’m starting on Good Girl Rewrites and Edits. I will be ghosting about, but for the most part I’m avoiding the addictive nature of the internet. It is amazing how a simple check of my email can evolve into 3 hours of surfing, chatting, and posting. As entertaining as that may be, it’s a HUGE progress killer. So I’m avoiding it at all costs- or trying at least. I’ll be back when Good Girl is completed.
After Good Girl I have no idea where I will go from there. I’m hoping my muse will let me know like she does everything else. I apologize for the Good Girl delay, but Willow wasn’t ready for her story to be told. The muse demanded that I change the majority of the manuscript and nearly double it in length. The only thing I know is that the muse will have a pick between 3 books as my next work-in-progress. KING- Daniel Whittenhower II, aka Whitt, Mistress & Master of Restraint #8. Widow- Clover’s story, Playroom #2. Chrysalis, Lilies #1 (over 100k that needs completely revamped). Each of those projects sounds daunting to me at the moment. Widow being the least difficult. Chrysalis is an Urban Fantasy novel that has sat for almost a year. KING will be the most difficult for me. It is the turning-point in the M&M of Restraint series and its foundation will hold the rest of the series. Restraint wasn’t strong enough to sustain the weight of 20 or so books, but KING will have to be. As much as I’d love to give fans our Gentleman’s book, I don’t want to rush it and ruin my series. I have a feeling I will be working on KING in between other works and I’m scared to say… it may take a long time.
What I’ve been doing to de-stress- Reading, reading, and more reading. I’ve read a hellacious amount of books lately- 50 or so in the past 5 weeks. The majority I named ‘slit your wrists reads’. Finally I went back to the comfort of a good reread. If you’d like to know what I’ve been reading visit my Goodreads page and check out my shelves. If you’d like to add me as a bud or follow me, I’d be happy for that as well. I may be a writer, but I’m a book junkie first and foremost. My love of reading makes me a better writer. Visit the Contact Erica Chilson tab for information on all my wicked reading sites!
Before I get to rewriting Good Girl I have a hobby to feed first. I visited my sister over the weekend (you can thank Annette for all the covers that grace my books) She showed my mom and me lampwork glass beads and how to create bracelets with them. I have 3 craft stores to hit this afternoon for some more goodies. I’ll post some pics later on of our creations. So far the pink/black/sliver combo and the teal/turquoise combo are my favorites!
What I didn’t get to do on my hiatus is watching up my tv shows. After Good Girl I will have an abundance of shows to watch- I already have 8 episodes of the Vampire Diaries. But a few shows will not wait for my muse. I’ll tell her to shut up while I watch Revenge- and I’m squee-ing like a fangirl- The Lying Game and Pretty Little Liars returns tonight *YAAAAAYYYYYY* Since Revolution is on Hiatus I’ll have time to get some work done. I watch that show live vs dvr-ing it for later.
I have an epic playlist to create to drown out the world around me as I write. Willow (Good Girl) is a awkward kind of girl. I’ll experiment to find out what she likes the best.
~Happy Wicked Reading~
Erica
Erica Chilson: The Wicked Writer 