Welcome to Nix Winter's guest blog

Welcome Ms. Nix Winter to Love Romances and More, thank you for joining us.


You're very welcome! I'm excited to be here. :)


Did you always want to become a writer?

I've always loved stories. I can remember being a really little kid and playing with these plastic animals. There was always a story. Later in my life some things happened that weren't very nice. For a very long time I couldn't sleep at night if I hadn't written that day. Writing somehow met some need of mine and I'd be able to skip the nightmares. Therapy and healing may have helped, or I just got old, one way or the other I stopped needing to write to prevent night mares. I still love stories though. So now I work with animation, manga, other still art, some dance, and prose, which is my first love, so to speak.


What is the most, and the least interesting fact about writing


Um. *considers* Most interesting fact about writing for me is how fast I can write, when I'm writing. I can do ten thousand words in a day, a novel in a week. Sometimes a story will just burn to be told. I write much shorter works most of the time though. Most interesting fact about writing in general... I think how intensely style preferences change over time, even relatively short periods of time, is very interesting. How fast an audience wants a story to move, what kinds of information the audience wants included in a story has changed in just the time I've been writing. Styles from the late 1980's to now, they're very different. The vampires of Chelsea Quinn Yarboro compared to Stephanie Meyer's vampires - they seem like a rich rum and cola against a pale pink beer like substance. Granted, Yarboro wrote for adults and Meyer's writes for 'young adults'. That in itself is a change. I've had a lot of people tell me what a 'young adult' book is. Not one of them has really given me an answer that made much sense to me. I suppose because I think an adult should be, well.. an adult. Children's books should be for children. Books that are not for children should be just books. I don't think it's a good idea to infantalize part of the population. If it's a reading level thing - well, back in the old days we had a name for those books too. We called them 'easy readers'.

As for Twilight, I thought the movie was fantastic. Edward seemed so earnest and innocent.

Least interesting facts... Now that just goes against my nature. How about that English is a hierarchical alphabet and when learned at a young age causes brain development which predisposes the learner to right/wrong, black/white style thinking. Pictographic languages on the other hand tend to be a bit more holistic and less rigid with gender roles. For me personally.. how about that I keep trying to write horror and I think punctuation should serve us, not us serve it.


How did you celebrate your first release? What was it like to see your book in a bookstore? Do you have a special ritual for celebrating a book release?


My first release.. short story or book? My first sale was very exciting for me. This was back in the day before the internet to a small little magazine. They paid me thirty dollars. I think I bought a key chain. A lot of life, like two marriages, a tour in the army, residences in five different states, and a few other things, none of which were felonies, passed between the sale of that story and the first release of a nice modern ebook. That was Sarah's Hawk, through Venus Press, and I don't remember celebrating all that much. Maybe it was the weight of years, or a job I didn't like, or my kids growing up and moving on with their lives, but I was ready to call myself a writer and have that be a big part of my personal identity. I wanted to sell a lot of books. I really fancied being able to make a small, but adequate sum every month and doing nothing except crafting stories and talking to the fantastic people who liked to read my stories.

Seeing my books in bookstores felt right, on par with where I thought I should be. I worked really hard to get them there. Now I'm realizing how hard it is to keep them there, how there must always be new books. It's something else to find one's books in the second hand book shop. I imagine if I'd autographed it and put it back on the shelf, no one would believe I was really me.

Special ritual... I tell every one, every group, every forum, sometimes I put up flyers in town.. I try to get the word out about my book, then I watch sales stats. It's a very bad habit. No one's sales stats have been wonderful for a year or so. I didn't really pick a great time to write full time.


How did your family react to fact that you also write M/M romance novels? Have your family read your books?

Yeah, most of my family has read my books, or at least knows about them. My youngest daughter is twenty so they're not really kids. Even still, I've been doing m/m for a long time. I used to be really into Seifer/Squall from Final Fantasy 8 and my youngest daughter made me this fabric painted picture when she was in sixth grade with Seifer laying out in the sun and the words 'Be Happy'.

I really write my understanding of yaoi, not so much m/m. Now granted there's a lot of sex in a lot of my books, but some of them are more emotional, sweeter.

I live in a crazy household too. I'm really pretty tame for my household. We've got furries, explicit role playing that quite a few members of the household participate in, and Seth and I are working on a site together. I call it erotica. She calls it porn. Porn is just more shocking a word, I think.


Most authors are also avid readers. Is this the case with you? If so, who are some of your favorites? Have any influenced your writing?

Oh yeah :) My biggest influences would be CJ Cheryh and Robert Heinlein. I don't read so much prose these days. Not because I don't want to, but I just find myself not syncing well with a lot of what I pick up and try to get into. I read a lot more manga. I love Clamp (Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles), KishimotoKishimoto Masashi (Naruto), Kazuya Minekura (Wild Adapter)... I like Japanese stories more than Western stories right now. I also adore Gundam Wing, Weiss Kruez, Hellsing, Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop, and Code Geass (also Clamp).

I think all these stories have really influenced me. For a while I was really crazed about wanting to go to a Japanese art school, but then I read this Miyazaki (Howl's Moving Castle) quote that said, and I paraphrase here, “Go find a school in your home country. The basics are the same. If your art looks Japanese – it's because that's what you've been looking at.”

My art and stories look very Japanese.


Your release date is really full, which I love as a fan of your books, do you have a problem with deadlines and have you ever suffered a writers block?

At the moment I've been really blocked. It's a new thing for me. :(

I need to finish this story called 'Night Bond' for the Immortal Fire Anthology. I'm also writing shorts every other day for Se.meXse.me and some of those are going to be m/f, which is really hard for me.

I need to write more. I'm very encouraged and motivated by fan mail. *angelic grin*

Do you prefer stand-alone books or series?


Series! I don't believe in Happily Ever After and any character that's worth writing about has more than one story in them! The only way the story really ends is if the character goes up in a ball of fire at the end... and I've been known to find story on the other side of fireballs too. *evil grin*


Your characters come to life in your books. Do you feel each of your characters live with you as you write? Do their lives sometimes take over a part of your life? Can you name an example? Do you have living role models for your characters?

Oh yeah, my characters come to life for me, make snarky comments about my diet, try to pick out my clothes. *snickers* A lot of times it's my life, my experience that embodies the character. I'm meeting my needs in the story. A character's mood will affect mine too. It's a fast way to be happy, write London or Jewls. Youji is a character who started out in fan fiction. He's had his paperwork in to be a self for so long that they're probably going to get approved.

Youji was the root of another character that I really have enjoyed working with recently.. Faith. Faith Denen is a very heroic figure, blond, cocky, ambitious, kind, generous, brilliant, and more than a little vulnerable to the men he loves.

Then there's Tosh. :) Have you read Knowing Curves?


Where do you get the inspirations for your books?

Everything, anything. Usually it's what I'm feeling or trying to resolve personally that sets up the problem for main character. Sometimes the problem will come from a show or story I've read and I'll want the story to go differently than the one I saw. In my storyboarding class that I did when I was in Michigan, the professor used a quote that I found kind of shocking, but it's stayed with me. I think he was quoting John Lennon, but I'm not sure. Anyway, it goes like this, “Writing a song is easy. You find some song you really love, then you change the beginning, the end, and the middle, and there you go.”

There are only like eight plots in human thought anyway. So you pick one one, say Man Against Man, and you add in your cute blond ship captain with good fashion sense and utter devotion to his lovers. Then you add a greedy uncle that wants to see the blond's lover turned to mince, and you've got a Man Against Man plot

Do you find it difficult at times to write love scenes?

Not if the characters are at that place in the story. If Faith really wants to bang Nathaniel, and he very often does, then there's no issue. I fear I kind of resent writing love scenes because some readers aren't interested in my story, but only in the 'good parts'. Now for someone who wants to make a living writing, one can never be picking and if someone wants to read something, that's the something one should ought to be writing.

I guess some of that is separating a little between my regular writing and se.meXse.me.

When I'm writing for just story, sometimes I get pressure to not have sex in it. Some publishers want things one way or the other. More sex, less sex, and that's part of what's hard about working with publishers. Though, if I wanted I could go back and get a customer service job, write what I want, when I want to, and people can come read me or not.

What is your favorite book from the books that you have written so far? Who is your favorite hero and why?

Favorite book so far... Probably Shadow of Wishes. I also really like The Theater of Emerald Tears. And Tosh, an Alin! Alin's Jody. I also really like The Pet. Alix is a very powerful character that just over shot what he was originally designed for. He was created to be a pretty, sexy story that people would give me money for. That worked really good, until he started... having his own story.

Alix and Valentine show up in my King's Wizards stories too. I need to write Valentine's backstory again too. I have so many stories to do! I think as long as I'm alive there will always be sooo many stories to do! :)

Which book was the hardest to write and which the easiest?

I don't think any of the stories I've done so far have been particularly hard. The Pet isn't finished yet though. Night Bond is being very hard. Probably because I still want to be writing Faith. I don't really own Nathaniel. He belongs to my writing partner and it turns out we've got a little bit different writing styles.


If you could change places with one character from your books, who would it be and why?

Right now, I'd want to be Faith. He's brave. His parents loved him. He's strong and powerful, creative, successful, and he's got really good luck. He's found a ring, like the one that Valentine has, that will make him immortal. The ring bearers are bound either to healing or to protecting, light and dark, angel or vampire, and they shift back and forth between them. Still, he gets to live a very long time and he's comfortable being who he is. I'd want to be Faith.


If you could travel through time to visit a special time period or famous person, what or who would it be and why?

Um... special time period or a famous person...There are so many! The Emperor Hadrian, Pliny the Elder, Charlemagne, or David Hume! If it's just a famous person, I'd love to meet Kishimoto Masashi. I'd love to meet Barack Obama.

I went to a Hyde concert a few weeks ago and I got to shake Hyde's hand. Like OMG... So very wonderful. He was so human and real, fragile in some completely mortal kind of way, and then.. on stage, he was lights and movement, power and sexuality incarnate.


Do you listen to music while you are writing and if so what music is it?

I love Japanaradio. The Pillows, Gackt, Hyde, Angela, those are all great for Japanese music. For music in English I like Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Keith Urban, Groove Coverage, Green Day, and lots of others, I'm sure. I usually only pick up English music because Seth is playing AMVs and I'll be like.. That song! I want that Song! Itunes owns my soul. >.<

If you could choose of your books for a movie, which one would it be and who would you as the cast?

I think The Pet would make a fantastic anime. The sex would have to be more subtle, but the struggle of one man to gain an identity and prove his identity to a world that has universally minimized him, that has reduced him to property, that is a very personal and powerful struggle. Exploring his own sexuality, the meaning of love, forgiving a lover who has done mortal damage to a one's soul, and fighting an interstellar battle between a powerful Earth Corporation force and a chaotic and unpredictable alien lifefrom on the other, with Alix in the middle without a great deal of safety from either side - that's a big story.

I'd want it to be animated. While we're dreaming up big things here, Miyazaki will do the animation. Hyde will voice Alix. The English voice actor for Kakashi from Naruto can do Arin. Jira should be the woman who plays Mary from In Plain Sight. Now there is a voice that could keep Arin and Tanin in line! Signorney Weaver could do Clover's voice, and maybe Ba'hati's as well. Vigo Mortensen should do Valentine! Orlando Bloom should do Poison/Micha. Scott McNeil, the American voice actor for Duo Maxwell from Gundam Wing, he could do both Tanin and Squirrel

I might get around to doing animation myself for it sometime. I'd really like that. Not a movie though, more like a series, though not nearly as long as Naruto.


Are you working on anything right now, and can you tell us a teaser about these projects?

Oh good lord. I have a Tosh story, with a woman, in progress for se.meXse.me. A new episode for The Pet and Night Bond for loveyoudivine. Verdun, a historical about WWI. It's not romantic, and it has a female main character who is living as a man, a man who is a front line doctor in one of the worst and most drawn out battles in WWI. Cain and Shelly which is a paranormal romance. Faith stories. London Heat which is set in the 1920's. London is a minor Chinese god of winter, who fell in love with a shy British English teacher. Due to some memorable interaction with a Chinese gang, London, Jonathan, Dice, and Dr. Black (from Verdun), are leaving China to do a little archeology in Egypt. Unfortunately, Jonathan's ex boyfriend, and a jealous Oberon are also on their way to Egypt.

I'm also working on a Jewls the Lucky story called 'Learning to Lie'. It's a very personal story, about coming to terms with who one is, fighting against convention and the bargains one has made previously in one's life.



Big congrats to your latest releases, can you please tell us something about them

I've been really slow lately about getting things out! Knowing Curves was the last book that came out. I really like it though. Tosh is a very sexy character. He's a very high paid companion who caters to the world's elite, most of the time. In Knowing Curves, Tosh entertains a guest who would never have been able to afford the price. It's a naughty little story with spanking and cross dressing.

Before that there was Blue Promises. The main characters are Alin and Jody. The twist with Alin and Jody is that they get many stories, some set in the same reality, some not. Sometimes their stories take them to very different places. Night Bond is an Alin and Jody story. In Blue Promises, Alin and Jody are war buddies who fall together like they were meant to be, but they get separated by misunderstandings and circumstances. Jody ends up moving in very high class circles. Alin is closer to being homeless, but he discovers a love of singing that saves him. He thinks if he can sing loud enough, bright enough, get his song on the radio, that Jody will him... that they'll find each other again.


You ask awesome questions :) Thank you very much :)