Blog Hop and Serials

Kim Cresswell asked me if I'd participate in a blog tour with only 4 questions to answer, so of course I said, sure thing! Thanks, Kim!!

Please be sure to go HERE to read her answers (and check out her amazing thrillers!) Thanks to Laurel O’Donnell who started this weeks ago.

1) What am I working on?
Believe it or not, all the projects I thought I would be working on are on hold as I play with something brand new- a serial. At the end of X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, a few names in the credits jumped out at me, so I jotted them on a note in my phone. Then came the little teaser at the very end with Apocalypse and the Four Horsemen, and my mind was off and running with characters and ideas. First, I thought I might try a four book series, but the more I thought about it and played with it, the more I realized this would be the perfect idea to try a serial with.

While there are several storylines I want to explore, the basic idea is this:

Every century, the apocalypse looms. Keeping the humans safe is the job of four siblings- the four horsemen. To prevent the apocalypse, these four must accomplish special tasks. Given that they are Nephilim it should be easy. But, they have an enemy, the Rephaim, who want the apocalypse to come. Will the brothers and sister be successful this time?

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Being new to the world of serials, I'm not entirely sure yet how this will be different, other than the obvious "because I wrote it and someone else didn't".

Serials are daily/weekly/bi-monthly/monthly installments of a story. How frequently they are released depends on the author. In a way, they are kind of like comics, manga, anime, or weekly television shows.The length of each episode as well as how many episodes are in a season varies from author to author.

Right now, I'm not far enough into my idea to know how often I'll be releasing episodes, but I'd like to aim for at least bi-monthly.

3) Why do I write what I do?
I am really led by the character that jumps out at me and demand I tell their story. And, as you can see from above, sometimes they come from odd places: a name, a picture, an event. Any one of these things can set my muse off, and I'm along for the ride as my mind plots and plans and tosses ideas around.

4) How does your writing process work?
I'm normally a pantster, which from what I've read is a great way to approach writing a serial. Ironically, this is the time my mind wants to plan a bit more- to see how to lay things out, where to set the clues, how to structure each episode to entice the reader back for more. So, I've been researching story and plot arcs, screen writing structure, and a whole bunch of other things I need to know about to be realistic with the story I want to tell.

Now that I'm more familiar with the style, I am ready to sit and write and see where the story takes me.

Here's the part where I'm supposed to tell you who to go visit next week, except, I forgot to set that up. So, if you want to be tagged, let me know in the comments (with a link to your blog) and I'll update this post to reflect that. (And, unlike The Highlander, there can be more than one!)