Welcome Ms. Michelle Houston to Love Romances and More, thank you for joining us.
Did you always want to become a writer?Actually, no. I have always written, but I had never aspired to go beyond scribbling down the things that ran through my mind. I certainly never imagined that I would be paid for my stories.
Like a lot of people, I always looked at authors as these miracle people who are able to take a string of letters and create a world that I could lose myself in. It was my husband who encouraged me to go beyond simply writing my stories and actually try and do something with them. So I have him to thank for this wild ride that I have been on these last 7 or so years.
What is the most, and the least interesting fact about writing?
The least interesting fact about writing has to be the hours we spend on getting the word out there about our work. Promotions aren’t all book signings and radio shows, and it isn’t all done by the publishing company. A lot falls to the author. There is a lot of grunt work, a lot of planning, worrying, and busy work that goes in to it. Not much glamour in it, for the most part.
The most interesting has to be creating a whole new world, developing characters with their own personalities, thoughts, dreams and nightmares. They live and breathe through us, and even though they are not real, they still exist in some way. I think that has to be the most interesting, and thrilling, aspect to writing.
How did you celebrate your first release?? Do you have a special ritual for celebrating a book release?
To be honest, I don’t remember if I even celebrated my first release. I know I was giddy at the first acceptance, but I think by the time the release came around, I was so exhausted from edits and promo, that I just needed a break.
I’ve never been one for having a lot of traditions, so nope, I don’t have any special rituals. I do talk it over with my husband, and he knows that for the next few weeks I will be busy a lot doing promo and getting the word out about my newest release.
How did your family react to fact that you also write M/M romance novels? Have your family read your books?
My daughter is too young to know just what I write; all she knows is that I do write, and it isn’t anything she can read at this time.
My husband has been very supportive of my writing in whatever genre I chose, including M/M. True, he doesn’t read it, because it just isn’t his cup of tea. But he does support me in writing it. Which is a lot better than some of my friend’s have it, so I can handle that he doesn’t read them.
He has read some of my M/F works, including a few that I have written for him. He has even edited a few of them for me.
As for the rest of my family, they don’t even know that I write. Some of my friends do, but not all of them know just what genres. It’s kind of a case-by-case basis with them.
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 I am definitely an avid reader. It’s nothing for me to go through 5-8 books in a week. I read very fast, and I always have a book with me.
Some of my favourite writers would have to be Kay Hooper, Nalini Singh, Angela Knight, Susan Grant, Katie MacAlister, Jude Mason, Jenna Byrnes, D Musgrave, Leigh Ellwood, Alessia Brio and oh so many more that I simply can’t name them all here.
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 writer’s block?I don’t do deadlines if I can avoid them. A lot of my print short story work was done with a deadline, but it was a matter of it being a call for stories. If I got something in by the deadline, it was considered. If I didn’t, then no big deal. There wasn’t any requirement there that I do so.
Part of why I avoid deadlines right now is the fact that I am a non-traditional college student with a family, a job, and many obligations that have to come before my ‘me’ time. So if it comes down to doing homework or meeting a deadline, homework is going to win.
And yes, I have suffered writer’s block before. Many times. It happened a lot the year I had to take composition classes, and still does, especially when I have research assignments due, simply because I there is a whole world of difference in the mindset between creative and academic writing. I really do envy those that do freelance non-fiction work while doing their creative writing. My brain just doesn’t make the switch that well, which can block me.
I also get blocked when there are major issues going on in my life. Conversely, finals week is a great time for me to get fired up about writing, as is anytime I have an exam the next day. Something about the need to study and the urge to procrastinate that just sparks the creative flow.
Do you prefer stand-alone books or series?
I actually prefer stand alone stories. Very few of my stories, even in my series, actually intertwine. They are in the same universe, with the same rules and all, but the characters don’t intermingle.
I am the same way about my reading tastes. I like books set in the same universe, and occasionally will read a series that is highly intertwined. But it has to grab a hold of me so tight that I am not ready to let go of the characters after one book. Or two … or three even.
That very rarely happens.
It also seems, especially here lately, that series peter out before the author wraps them up. Because they are selling, and people are wanting more, they keep writing. Which I have no problem with. But when it starts to get old, when it starts to get flat, end the series. Reach the conclusion to the issue thread. Let it go and move on to something else.
I hate when I get to the point that I am ready to stop reading because the books don’t interest me any more, and I have to borrow them from the library rather than buy them, just so I can skim the book to find out how the encompassing arc is resolved. I hate the feeling when I want to email the author and say, ‘Just end it already. Sheesh.’ Which is why when authors say ‘this is going to be an open-ended series’ I am less likely to give it a try than I am if they say ‘I am doing so many books and that is it for this series’.
I am also starting to get sick of the trend of writing a book that isn’t a full book. One author I used to auto-buy has started doing that. The series is so continued that at the end of the book, I am left feeling that nothing happened. No great resolution was reached. It’s always ended with an unspoken ‘to be continued …’ like the series finale to most TV shows. Not resolving everything is fine. Keeping the main story arc is fine. But there needs to be some semblance of closure at the end of each book.
So yeah, mark me down in the stand-alone column.
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?
As long as someone is reading my stories, I fully believe the characters are still alive, even if I have moved on to writing other stories. When I am writing them, some are more vivid in my mind than others, I admit. Some are more demanding of things, than others. But certainly they are all alive to me.
Other then having an urge to write at 3 am when I need to be up in a few hours, they don’t normally take over my life. I have had to rearrange things to make time to write when the urge hits me, generally because a character is whispering. But it doesn’t happen that often. Which is a good thing.
I don’t really have any examples to name, save Alisa from Diggin’ Up Bones. I was out walking with my husband when she started in on me, teasing me with her story, and I wound up spending the rest of the night hammering out her rough draft. Most of my characters I am able to push off until I have time to get to them, but she just wasn’t going to let up.
As for role models, um, I borrow here and there. Bits and pieces of personality, conversations, likes/dislikes from friends and family have turned up in some of my stories. But I don’t model any characters on actual people.
Where do you get the inspirations for your books?
Anywhere and every where. A line of conversation I overhear. A story someone tells me about a date they had. A dream I had. I have had story ideas sparked from the oddest of locations, and from the most mundane.
I am just an equal opportunity idea moocher. Nothing anyone tells me is sacrosanct, although I will change names, descriptions and details of the event to suit my needs.
So beware telling me about the party you went to, or what you did in the movie theatre when you discovered you and your date where all alone.
Do you find it difficult at times to write love scenes? Sometimes. The hardest scene for me to write was in
Blood Slave. Brandon is a submissive on an interview to becoming a sex slave to a vampire, and during the course of his interview, he is whipped. He loves it, especially when blood is drawn.
After I wrote that scene, I sat back and reread it, and thought ‘what the hell happened here?’ Brandon had blood drawn, then was screwed by the vampire. And it wasn’t all roses and violins either, it was deep and earthy and in your face. That one was hard to write. And every time I see what a review has come in, I cringe until I read it. Cause I just know that one day, I am going to get tagged for it. But that is what the character demanded, and I wasn’t about to sweeten it down, just for my own sensibilities.
I also had a hard time writing the first love scene in
Diggin’ Up Bones. But for an entirely different reason. Alisa was raped, and the first time she makes love to Zach, they are both scared. That was an intense time for me, going back and taking my rough draft and developing the love scene. I had just tossed together the bare bones in my marathon writing session, so I had some idea of what I was wanting but the emotional impact on me as I was writing it made it hard for me.
Cause let me tell you. Making love for the first time after being raped, or even the hundredth time, can be traumatic and emotional, and heart rending, and uplifting. Trying to do justice to that …wow. I still don’t know that I did.
Other scenes fairly fly onto the page. When I wrote the scene for A Bid For Love, I had no problem at all. It just came together. The same for the actual love scenes in Enslaving Heaven. They were so easy to write.
Don’t get me wrong, I like it when they happen that smoothly. But I don’t want them all to flow that easily. I want to struggle over an occasional one, so long as it isn’t because it feels awkward to write it. In that case, the scene isn’t right for where I am trying to put it.
I am talking about the love scenes that make me cry. I want the ones that make me wonder just what it was I had just written, and why one earth my character wanted it done that way. I want the challenge, to do justice to a moment. To bring to life something so breathtaking like the trust a submissive has for a dominant. I want to feel wrung out after writing about some of these scenes, because then I know they will probably matter to someone reading them.
What is your favourite book from the books that you have written so far? Who are your favourite hero and heroine, and why?Ever since I wrote it, I have said
Diggin’ Up Bones is my favourite book and Alisa and Zach my favourite characters. Alisa is a woman who is tired of being afraid. She is tired of letting life pass her by. She decides to take control and reclaim herself. She’s not a victim anymore; she’s a survivor.
Zach is just sweet and tender, and no he’s not an alpha male. But that’s ok. Because he is just what Alisa needs.
Which book was the hardest to write and which the easiest?Taming the Wolf, the first story of my Animal Attraction series, was I think the easiest to write. Although it didn’t just flow like
Diggin’ Up Bones did, it also didn’t give me any fits over select scenes. The characters wanted to keep things simple and hot and just so, and it all came together so easily.
The hardest story for me to write was
Enslaving Heaven. I wrote a short for an call for stories that got rejected. I then beefed it up and submitted it to an e-publisher, where it was rejected. I gutted it, revamped it, and subbed it to Phaze. It was accepted, but on the condition it was made longer.
Since I had already planned another story in the universe, dealing with a secondary character, I just wrote her story, with the plan of doing them as a duet of stories, like I am doing with my mythology series. But it didn’t read right. The second story fell flat in comparison because all of the tension that should have been there was lost by having it after the first story, but I couldn’t change the order, because events that happened in the first story brought about events in the second story.
So I kicked around ideas, and it was actually while in a literature class that it came to me. I needed to combine the stories, but to keep the momentum going, and to add a little more tension, I would do them as alternating chapters. So the odd chapters tell one characters story, the evens tell another. Yet neither can stand independent.
That story was a pain in the butt, and by the time I was completely done and it had officially been accepted, I was ready to toss the whole thing. But rereading it now, I am glad I stuck with it.
If you could change places with one character from your books, who would it be and why?It would be Anna-Marie from
Parallel Attraction. Although she is ripped from her reality, she is getting a second chance at her life. Plus, the differences between our reality and the one she crosses over to are very appealing. Planetary awareness of conservation needs. A world-wide effort to use cleaner energy, to reduce carbon footprints.
There is also the fact that they all have extra-sensory abilities.
It just has a quality to it that I find appealing. Plus, come on, the knowledge of alternate realities. Having it proved by your very existence. That would be something right up my uber geek alley.
If you could travel through time to visit a special time period or famous person, what or who would it be and why?
This may be a bit controversial, and I am not meaning it to be. Please, understand, I am a science major. I am a geek at heart.
So if I could visit anyone, it would be Charles Darwin. I would love to be one of the great minds he corresponded with. I would love to be able to point him in the direction of a monk that was doing incredible work in genetics and say there is your proof. There is the back-up for evolution. (Darwin, in case you don’t know, was the first person who proposed a full theory of evolution, via decent with modification. He made the Galapagos Islands famous, especially the variety of finches that live there and nowhere else).
It’s one of the ironies that Darwin’s theories would have been better worked, been more streamlined, if he had had just an inclining of what Gregor Mendel was up to. (For those that don’t know, Mendel was doing work on cross-breeding pea plants and from that was getting the beginning inklings to how transmission of traits, ie genetics, occurs).
Oh Mendel published. But the world of books and scientific papers isn’t what it is today. Most were buried in obscurity.
I’d have loved to have been there on the eve of Darwin’s great ideas. To help him formula and reason through what he was seeing. To converse with him, to work through ideas, to simply be there as a sounding board as he postulated something that would unleash a story of controversy that still resonates 100 years later.
As I said – geek.
Do you listen to music while you are writing and if so what music is it?Occasionally I do. Mostly, it’s Genesis, simply because Phil Collins has a voice that is soothing and easy to write to. But I have been known to listen to anything from Mozart to Nine Inch Nails to 80’s pop rock to Enigma.
If you could choose of your books for a movie, which one would it be and who would you as the cast?I’ve never really thought about it. Mostly because I write short stories, and really, I enjoy writing them. So while a few could offer a core storyline for a movie, a lot more would have to be generated from it to get a movie out of any of them.
I have had a story in my head for a while now that I am still trying to figure out how to formulate it. It’s actually the start of a four story series, with a definite arc and completion point, but it is just not happening at this point in my writing career. That first one, as well as the following three, I would love to see made into movies, if I can ever get them down on paper. I know that I would want Michael Shanks, Ben Browder, John Cusack and Rob Morrow in it as the four main leads, provided I get it down while they are still young enough to play the parts.
Although, come to think of it, there are a few of my stories that if you removed some of the plot background, you could make pretty good porn out of them. But since I don’t watch porn, I can’t really comment on who I would have play what characters.
Are you working on anything right now, and can you tell us a teaser about these projects?Right now I am ripping apart and rebuilding a story that I had written early in my career. It’s about a female astronaut that is pulled through a wormhole and stranded on an alien planet.
The original story, I admit, sucks. Not one of my finer works. But it was a learning experience, and once that I am using to craft a much better story.
Initially, she had found an indigenous humanoid species, and well, parts were compatible. Enough said.
This time around, she is out gathering data, trying to find out what happened to cause two pilots, her best friends, to go missing two years before. One minute there were there, the next they weren’t. I am having a lot of fun with it, because, well, the guys have been on an alien planet, alone, for two years.
In addition to that, I am working on a few more stories in my Animal Attraction series, along with the dozen other story starts I have doing.
Big congrats to your latest releases, can you please tell us something about them?Unleashing the Jaguar and
Embracing the Leopard are both in my Animal Attraction series. I knew after I wrote
Taming the Wolf that I wasn’t done writing sexy male shifters, dealing with the fact they preferred men.
In
Embracing the Leopard, Erik has set himself apart from his pack because he can’t stand the frustration of being different. It isn’t that he can’t accept himself, it’s that there are so many happy males in his pack, males that are out of his reach that it is torture to watch the couples and know that he might not ever have that for himself.
Luckily, another leopard shifter is going to change all of that for him.
Unleashing the Jaguar, on the other hand, deals with miscommunication and how it can spiral out of control. I also had a lot of fun playing with the idea of a shifter caught in his animal form, and trapped in a zoo. Because, let’s face it, who would risk their entire race by revealing that shifters exist to get themselves out of a zoo. And if a Jaguar went missing, I’m sure that would cause some issues as well.
So he’s stuck, until his ex rides to the rescue.
All of the Animal Attraction stories can be found here
My full catalogue of Phaze works is available here
For those that prefer FictionwiseOr All Romance e-BooksAnyone prefer Amazon? I’ve also got the Barnes and Nobel link …
All of which include my non-Phaze titles as well.
Well, I guess that’s it. Thanks so much for having me.
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