First of all, the winner of a paperback copy of PARTNERS IN CRIME by Kim Harrington is:

Susan

Congratulations, Susan!

Now on to today’s post. Last week my lovely CP Kip Wilson Rechea tagged me in the My Writing Process blog hop to celebrate the release of Sucker Literary Volume 3. Because you don’t already hear enough about my writing process, right? Anyway, here are my answers to the questions.

What am I working on?

Oh, I’m so glad you asked. Although I’ve blogged throughout the process of researching, drafting, and revising my current work-in-progress, I don’t think I’ve actually said what it’s about. I don’t have a query yet to put up under the writing tab (working on that now!), but I do have a one-sentence description:

“Revenge” meets TWELFTH NIGHT when sixteen-year-old Hannah Davies goes undercover as a middle school boy at summer camp to catch the boy who put her brother in a coma.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Isn’t that always the million-dollar question–although I have to say that I had a hard time finding comp titles as I was researching. There are a ton of books with girls/women dressing as boys in historical/genre fiction but not so many in contemporary young adult. The one I found was BABE IN BOYLAND by Jody Gehrman, which I loved. I also found several movies, the most recent being “She’s the Man.”

The other comp titles I searched out were for books set at camps, and I didn’t find many of those for YA, either. I did read THINGS I CAN’T FORGET by Miranda Kenneally, which actually has some similarities with my main character’s faith struggle, as well as a few MG books and one memoir. So, my book combines cross-dressing with summer camp, with the funny trying-to-be-a-boy plus camp hijinks, as well as the darker issue of what happened to her brother.

Why do I write what I do?

I always thought I would write romance novels because that’s what I read from the time I was eleven. But a few years ago I had this idea that was clearly a middle grade book, and I discovered the world of middle grade and young adult. If there had been this many choices when I was younger, I probably wouldn’t have latched onto romance novels. It’s a perfect age for me, too, because honestly I wouldn’t feel comfortable writing the racier parts of romance. I’ve gotten so into MG and YA that when I read an adult book, I wonder why it’s so long and–sometimes–slow-paced. So I guess at this point I write what I do because it’s what I love to read.

How does my writing process work?

I think anyone who follows my blog knows the answer to this question, but here are some links that both describe the process and give more in-depth answers:

Before the Draft: Research, Procrastination, Character Development, Outlining in Scrivener

Drafting: It’s Just a First Draft Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

How I Tackle Revisions: Letting it sit & the read-through, Taking it slow & being flexible, Letting it go, Eliminating crutch words, Reading in a different format

So, those are all the questions. I was supposed to tag three more writers, but most of my writer friends have already participated, and the others I asked don’t have time. I guess that means this branch of the hop ends with me. UNLESS one of you wants to participate. If you do, let me know and I can edit this post to tag you!