Oh my goodness, we have a great author interview lined up for today. S. L. Lewis, or Sunny, is a new author planning her career a bit differently. She’s writing, re-writing and editing a number of books all to be released very close together. Nothing is available yet but when it is, you won’t have to wait long for her next one.

With that said, let me introduce, Sunny!

1. Let’s start with something fun. What’s your favorite hobby?

My favorite hobby. Well then, I have a lot. I love to write (obviously), and I love to play my Pokemon games, which are Pearl and FireRed. I kind of inherited them from a man I called brother, actually. And they’re the only ones that I currently have.

Let’s see, I also love to read. I read constantly. Embroidery, sewing, painting, sculpting, and going for walks while listening to music are more hobbies that I love to do.

As long as I can actually afford to buy supplies for my artsy crafts.

 

2. If you had the opportunity—who would you like to spend an afternoon with and why?

If I had the opportunity I would actually love to meet the Lady of Manners herself, Jillian Venters. She’s what’s known as an ElderGoth and is the author of Gothic Charm School: An Essential Guide for Goths and Those Who Love them.

I once showed my more Gothic nature (having grown up with the literature instead of the music) and I would love to speak with her face to face about so many things. Luckily her site works just as well for me for the time being. But I hope to at least buy her book one day and get her to sign it.

Call it a fangirl moment if you will.

(Her site: http://www.gothic-charm-school.com/

And her book: http://www.amazon.com/Gothic-Charm-School-Essential-Guide/dp/0061669164/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247078045&sr=8-1 )

 

3. Coffee, tea, soda or something else?

Ah, such a choice. Tea most often than not, either iced or cold, and usually a flavor of some kind. I’m a lover of a good chai or vanilla tea. I do like a good chocolate tea too, most particularly Stashes White Chocolate Mocha Tea. I do drink coffee too, either Folgers or Maxwell house, but rarely.

More so during National Novel Writing Month than other times.

Same with soda. Sometimes but not quite so often. And of course I drink a lot of water. Must stay hydrated after all.

 

4. What are you working on right now?

Warning: this is kind of long. So I’ll just condense it down into a small list.

A: Book Zero (yes, you read that right, zero as in the number) of the “Don’t Look” series called Thread the Needle, and book 1 called “A Delicate Thread”. The second book is mostly rewriting and fiddling since I need to write Thread first.

B: “Black Veiled Saviour”. And yes…I spelled that last word wrong and because it connects to the book itself, so no grief over that. It is a murder mystery that will be filled with drugs, sex, murder, action, and intrigue. All the good things a noir needs yes?

C: Book 1 of my “Crimson Series” called “Crimson Shadows” and plotting book 2 called something along the lines of “Drips of *something*”. Haven’t decided on that last word.

Yes, I’m TRYING to keep this short.

D: A couple of stand-alones. One is called “Follow Me Down”, which I’m thinking is called a horror noir fantasy, and a paranormal horror that I haven’t figured out what to call yet.

E: I have a couple of duologys actually in the works, too, but I’m not working on them very hard since I barely know where I’m going with them. One is a Zombie fic that I’ve quite literally labeled “Zombie with a Brain”. You can blame one J.A. Marlow for that one. The other is a kind of post-apocalyptic that spawned from my entry into the latest Forward Motion anthology.

F: I’m doing a complete rewrite and overhaul of two shorter stories that will be more filler between actual novels than anything. One is a basic “Suburban happenings” kind of book and isn’t titled currently. The other is called “All You Need” and is set in the future, a romance.

G: And finally an 8 book superhero story that revolves more around the characters instead of the action. You’ll get to see them grow up, find out what shapes their lives and get more in-depth with who they are. Book 1 is actually 17 chapters into a 36-chapter outline. Not too far from the end of the first draft.

All of my books have a mix of pan/bi/gay/straight characters with a variety of genders mind you. I write M/M best apparently.

 

5. How would you describe your writing style?

My writing style? Hmm, goodness, what to say about that. I’ve been told a few times my first drafts tend to sound like an overly detailed outline but my final drafts tend to take a more poetic bent depending on the genre I’m writing.

I have a rather good vocabulary, so if I can use one word instead of another in its proper context, I shall. Especially if the word is saving me from the ever dreaded “repeating” word. I am well known for being rather…graphic when it comes to certain scenes.

 

6. Do you have any advice for a person just beginning their writing career?

Advice. What to say that I would have loved to hear when I was first learning?

Research is your best friend. I’m not joking you! You know the old saying “Write What You Know”? Well, how do you know anything if you don’t sit there and learn about it first? That’s where the research comes in.

Go to a library and look up things. You want to write paranormal novels? Find all the books that you can that deal with ghosts, spirits, various cultural stories about the spiritual and supernatural worlds. Pull out movies on the paranormal and watch them. Study how they build the story up.

You want to write a romance? Get online, Google “Best Selling Romances” and if you can, read them. Ebooks are cheap now days. It won’t hurt to buy a new book if you can get away with it.

You want to write a horror story? Figure out what kind of horror you want to write. Do you want to write one where a ghost torments the inhabitants of a house? Research ghosts and hauntings.

Do you want to write about vampires? Research the types of vampires. And yes, there are many types of vampires out there. It’s not hard to Google “Types of Vampires”, dearies. Same with were’s and creatures of the night.

And of course there is also just going and watching a movie or show that has what you want to write about. You can glen a wealth of knowledge just from watching a show and studying how they build the action up, how they hint at this and that, before coming to the climax. It’s amazing what you can learn by watching.

Like I said, research is your best friend and having several methods of research is a good idea. My research bookmarks have their own folder with folders within folders. It takes time and a lot of trial and error to figure out the best way to research for yourself, but once you get it down, it’ll be just as easy as sitting down and surfing the net for hours on end.

Oh, and invest in a good chair or a really good butt cushion. They’ll be your best friends in the long run.

 

7. Do you immerse yourself in new situations for writing ideas or do your ideas come to you through your normal, day-to-day life?

Luckily, to a point, they come to me in my day-to-day life. I have a mildish case of hypergraphia, which is the need to write. It’s not just an urge, it’s an itch that needed to be fulfilled. It can be tied to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and even Bi-Polar Disorder.

For me, it’s connected to my OCD. But I do get ideas by watching movies, reading books, and talking with friends. See the zombie fic ala Marlow. I just look around and take everything in.

Even some interesting posts on Tumblr and Twitter sometimes. Depends on what I’m looking at.

 

8. Where can we find you on the interwebs?

Where can you find me? So many places.

On Twitter as @SLStrailo. https://twitter.com/SLStrailo

On my writer’s Facebook Page called S.L. Lewis Writing https://www.facebook.com/sllewiswriting/

I even have a writer’s Tumblr called A Peek Into a Creative Mind. http://apeekintoacreativemind.tumblr.com/

And I even have a blog called A Peek Into a Creative Mind on Blogger. Though I am thinking of moving to WordPress so we’ll see what happens in a year’s time. http://apeekintoacreativemine.blogspot.com/

 

Thank you to Connie for having me here. I hope you all find my answers interesting and that you guys have a good day.

Thank you so much for coming onto my blog and visiting with us. So, dear readers, you don’t have to wait to hear about what Sunny is doing. Check out her social media sites and enjoy!