I was tagged by Jessica Bloczynski in a blog hop. So, I will be a good person and respond. However, I am where chain mail goes to die. I’m not good at passing on and I don’t mail well (it’s entirely my husband’s job). So, if you’d like to consider yourself tagged, then by all means, steal Jessica’s awesome questions and blame me all you want.

1) What first inspired your current WIP?

I read a certain overwhelmingly bestselling novel about seven times trying to figure out why I couldn’t stop reading it. When my husband finally hid it from me, I decided I could do at least that well if I tried hard enough, so here I am. Trying hard.

2) Are your characters based in any way or did they spring, Athena style, from your cranium fully formed.

Evolved is the better term, they’re extremely loosely based for the most part, except for one, and she knows exactly who she is.

3) What genre are you writing in?

Fantasy is my bailiwick, though I may eventually branch out to alt-hist SF, it’s all speculative, all the time.

4) What’s your favorite part of your current WIP?

Ask me that when I’m not revising? I should say Mel and Wolf’s relationship, but that would be a lie.

No, the real answer is Lila Groves. She’s a tertiary character that is entirely forgettable by every beta reader, but I love her with a fiery passion. Mostly because she’s a tertiary character in other stories in my head as well.

5) Do you cast your characters? Figuring out which actors would play your characters in the movie of your book. Who would play your MC? Your antagonist?

No, I tried a few times and it just didn’t work. They don’t look like that anymore. It’s just sad. But if Tom Hiddleston doesn’t mind being typecast he’d be allowed to play Mr. Elder.

6) Where is your novel set?

The parts that take place on Earth are in a 20 mile radius of  Newcastle, Iowa. Which is based on the small town that I lived in when I was very young and ALL of my family is from. I’ve traced my family tree, and the first of my relatives bought property in the town in 1850. It is not called Newcastle, Iowa anymore, but I like that name a lot better than what it is called now.

7) Are you a plotter or a pantser? What brought you this decision?

I am what Mr. GRR Martin calls a “Gardener”. I pick the seeds, prepare the ground, plant, water, and wait to see how the plants will turn out. But I’m a really crappy gardener in real life, so like in life, every so often there’s a weed that sprouts up that’s prettier than the plants I wanted in the garden and I let that stay (and sometimes take over).

8) How many drafts have you written for this WIP?

Yes? Okay, well, really, this is my third full version. If we’re talking software terms I’m making build 3.0. But there have been a multitude of subversions in between (and before the full release).

9) Do you set up some sort of reward system to keep you motivated through the long, arduous process of writing a novel length work?

I don’t do well with arbitrary. I want it done it needs to be done. Some days I have no motivation to get it there (like today) and some days I can’t think of doing anything else.

10) Do your characters talk to you?

It’s better to say that they talk a lot and I eavesdrop on them. They don’t converse with me, they converse with each other in my head. All the time.