GCC Author interview and giveaway: Carolyn Jewel

Hey girlfriends! Today we're fortunate enough to chat with a member of the fabulous Girlfriends Cyber Circuit: Carolyn Jewel. She's here to tell us all about her paranormal romances, inspiration for her writing and also, Jet Li....

And it just gets better from there-- she's also generously offered to give away a copy of her latest paranormal romance, MY WICKED ENEMY. Want to enter? Just leave a comment below. And now, on to the good stuff:

When did you first begin writing?

I suppose the pat answer is, ever since I can remember. I've always been making up stories. But I began writing seriously when I was 27 which was when it occured to me that my dream of writing a novel would never come true if I didn't start doing some actual writing.

Where do you find inspiration for your work?

Wherever I have to. As Jack London so famously said, You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. The inspiration I like best comes when I'm not looking for it. Those moments when my mind is occupied with other things; a great book, a movie, when I'm cooking or exercising. Alas panic seems to be a great inspirer for me. This makes me very sad as I would rather have the muse come down from on high and annoint me with sweet perfume and rose petals along with the answer to all my writing issues. But when I'm getting panicky about finishing and polishing something, I generally end up tuning out my editorial voice and inspiration kicks in. It's painful, but it works.

What are you working on right now?

Right now, I'm working on proposals for my next paranormal romances from Grand Central Publishing. Some people have classed them as Urban Fantasy, but they're marketed as paranormal romance. They're set in the present time and involve magic wielding humans who quite often aren't so nice and demons who are fighting for their survival. The first in the series was My Wicked Enemy, which came out in August of 2008. My Forbidden Desire will be out in June 2009.

How do you usually begin your stories—with a character or with a plot?

I am very much a character-driven writer. My stories develop from the characters and the plot depends on what they turn out to be like. Which means I throw away a lot of plot ideas as I write my characters. I have tried mightily and, I must say, in vain, to do more up front plotting.

It sounds so efficient! But it just doesn't work for me. All that happens when I do that is I waste time writing plots my characters refuse to fit in.

Do a quick character study on yourself: don't forget to add in the fun stuff, like favorite foods and things you love/hate!

I work as a Microsoft SQL Server database administrator, which means I am a geek with pretty much all that implies except for the pocket protector. My writing is the opposite of the kind of logical, technical knowledge required to support enterprise databases. I am detail oriented – to a fault, I'm afraid. I even drive myself crazy with that. I have an MA in English, which took me forever to get because I was working full time while I was in graduate school. The degree was one of the best things I ever did for myself and for my writing. The time management required for the combination of grad school, the day job, writing and parenting resulted in my learning to ignore things like neatness and to develop tunnel vision. I have to look at my monitor. Any glance to the side might result in the burning need to straighten up. Except in dire cases of writer's procrastination, I succeed in this.

I am organized, but you'd never know it from looking at my work space. My favorite food is chocolate (duh!). I used to be a coffee fiend and I often miss it but don't miss the cost. My now 13 year old son is two inches taller than I am and still growing. We love action movies and have been on a mission to see every move ever made by Jet Li and Jackie Chan. We have reached the point where there's not much we haven't seen by them. I know my martial arts movies. I am not-so-secretly in love with Jet Li. Swoon.

Thanks, Carolyn! Want to win a free copy of Carolyn's book? Just leave a comment below and you're entered! Want extra entries? That can be arranged.... Blog about it for another entry. Become of follower of this blog for another entry, too.

I'm so proud to tell you that this contest is part of the Book Giveaway Carnival which is being hosted by the fabulous Bookroom Reviews!

The winner will be announced on March 13th.