Authors live Many Lives, their own and their characters

Authors are more than just what they write. I, personally, have a day job and that day job doesn't resemble anything to do with erotica or erotic romance. Still, I have specialized skills and knowledge that I employ for my day job.

There are those who have active family lives which consists of children, school, homework, love, and routines. There is writing but it's often in those times when the kids are asleep at night and the housework is finished. If a parent is lucky enough to be a stay at home mom/day then they get some writing in while the kids are at school.

What other lives do author's live?

CHARACTER LIVES

In some ways, authors much immerse ourselves in those lives so that each characters is unique. We must know the backstory of every character, their childhood experiences, moods, likes, dislikes, etc. Whether this information ever makes it into the book or not, authors know that such details make for a better writer.

How can you write a convincing character if you don't know their struggles, fears, frustrations, or even daily routine? Are they are sit on the couch, eat potato chips person when they're bored or do they get out and do something? Sometimes to know how a characters acts or feels, writers must put ourselves in that situation to understand the mindset.

For myself, a demon-bargainer like Sindriel is nothing like Brad Templeton from Bet Your Sweet Aces. Both men have different values, minds, affectations, appearances etc.

No two characters really react the same to the same situation. Consider your own emotions, and what affects them.

Personally, I love pushing my characters buttons, see how much they take before they start getting pissed with me. Haha. Okay, yes, I know they aren't real. Put away the cozy white jacket with straps.

Anyway, when you think of writers it's often as singular persons, but really we are many people living many lives. It's a fun existence if you ask me. I can be a vampire or demon one day/one story and a covert agent the next story.

Do I write from personal experience?

Short answer, no. I'm not a vampire, demon, covert agent, etc. I'm just someone who likes to get into the mindset of a character. I know secrets about them that many never make it into a book, but that just makes me a better writer.

So next time you pick up a book, think about the author and how many lives they might lead. If you're an author, how many lives do you lead?

Sexify your life,

Mary Corrales

Website: www.authormaryc.com

Ms. Corrales is a multi-published author who loves writing erotica and erotic romance. She has stories published in several genres including fantasy, paranormal, contemporary suspense, and dystopian. She's currently working on a new scifi/space opera book that she hopes to turn into a series. She always has some character or another in her head, waiting for their story to be shared with her readers.

She's an avid reader of romance in whatever catches her eye, which is why she loves vibrant book covers so much. She judges books by their cover, but will always give a new writer a chance if the blurb is enticing enough. She also reads nonfiction military biographies and is a proud military supporter.

When Ms. Corrales isn't writing, she can be found tending to her garden, growing herbs and vegetables. Autumn is her favorite time of year where she gets to cook soups and stews for the family.

She loves to chat with readers and writers alike. Tweet her up and follower her at MaryCorrales_A1 or follow her blog at Romance Author Lifestyle.

25 authors who influence my writing

 A couple of years ago, I was asked in an interview to talk about a few authors that I look up to. It wasn't too hard to name a handful, but since then I've spent some time thinking about all the wonderful authors I've read, and why I'm drawn to certain ones over others. I finally narrowed my list to the top 25 who influence my writing every time I put fingers to keyboard along with the reasons why.

My list:

• William Shakespeare because the play’s the thing
• Marion Zimmer Bradley for her version of the 'once and future king'
• Clive Cussler for creating Dirk Pitt, the Alpha hero of my dreams
• Louis L’Amour for the love of a good old fashioned western, and defining, for me, what it means to be a 'real' man and woman
• Homer for the epic stories of Greek heroes and the ultimate journey back home
• Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, and Thomas Paine for their dedication to the fight for independence
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for the brilliant mind of Sherlock Holmes
• Charles Dickens for the best of times and the worst of times
• Don Coldsmith for showing me the ways of the Elk Dog People
• James Michener for an epic story of my home state and for the love between McKeag and Clay Basket
• E.A. Poe because I understand what he meant: "I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity."
• Jane Austen for the dark and brooding Mr. Darcy
• Robert Heinlein for sending my imagination soaring into the future
• Oscar Wilde for being earnest
• Mario Puzo for an offer I can’t refuse
• J.R.R. Tolkien for Samwise Gamgee
• Thomas Keneally, lest I forget that one person can, indeed, make a difference
• Alexandre Dumas for the vengeance of Edmund Dantes
• Victor Hugo because I railed against injustice and wept at the sacrifice of redemption
• Gaston Leroux for showing me what it means to be lonely
• Boris Pasternak for the pain and angst of hopeless, impossible love
• Bram Stoker for the iconic vampire
• Thomas Harris for making me root for Hannibal Lecter
• John Steinbeck for ultimate sacrifice of friendship
• But most of all, William Goldman, for the perfect story of fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, and miracles
Who's on your list?

Until next time,

Kaye

fall in love...faster, harder, deeper with Kaye Spencer romances
http://www.kayespencer.com

Lend Me Your Ear

Bad pun, sorry. There's been a lot of news lately about pirate sites. A lot of issues over all sort of piracy issues, actually.

I was poking around on a Facebook group the other day and and found a link to a site called LendInk. I was under the impression it was a pirate site because someone said so. Imagine my ire when I discovered one of my short stories on there! The nerve! Granted, it's a free story anyway, but still!

Ahem. And then I learned it was legit. Amazon is cool with letting some sites share and lend books (at the publisher's discretion). Which means if your book is free on Amazon, it could very well wind up on one of these sites. And if a customer buys it, it could too. These sites are designed to hook up owners and potential readers. You're also able to lend through Nook on the Lendit site.

Update: LendInk has shut down because of angry authors. You can read the full story here.

Apparently there's been a bit of uproar over lending sites, mostly because Amazon is the biggest retail company in . . . I dunno, the world? I think it's safe to say they own the corner on ebook readers and reading.

Recently in the news Amazon pulled the plug on Lendle.me because they didn't agree with what Lendle was doing. They reinstated Lendle's API the very next day because there was massive outrage on Twitter by readers who said they made a lot of their purchases based on books they borrowed through Lendle.

LendInk.com is the site where Clear As Mud, my short story, is posted. I don't know why you'd bother borrowing it, since it is free, unless you don't want the hassle of deleting it yourself.

I found a lot of close author friends on that site. Curious, I turned to Lendle to see if my books were there. Lendle wants you to 'fess up right away and tell you which books you own. I deliberately avoided telling it I own THL through Kindle, but searched for it anyway. I didn't want it getting any ideas from me that I would be willing to lend it.

Sure enough, Clear As Mud and The Treasure Hunter's Lady are on there when I search my own name.
The whole point of this site is to help "promote" my book. Supposedly when someone borrows it, I get a cut because I'm signed up with KDP Select.

There's no sure-fire way to tell if the borrows on my Amazon KDP dashboard in July were from a friend actually loaning it to another friend or if these loans came from a site like this. It seems to me that as an author, there should be some way I can contact Lendle or LendInk to find out. And that I should completely be able to opt out of their site if I want to.


And here are some other sites in case you want to check them out to find out if your books are there:
http://www.ebookexchange.com/
http://ebookfling.com/
http://www.booksfornooks.com/


Weigh in (especially authors who find themselves on one or both of these sites). Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing?

When I'm not blogging at Nocturnal Nights, I'm at Have Novel, Will Edit, on Facebook, Twitter and occassionally G+