The HEA Cafe

Author Archive

(This blog originally appeared in The Samhellion. Thank you to all the authors who contributed!)

My name is Misty, and I’m a writing addict. 

Today I wrote The End on my third super agent book. As I gave my hero, Michael, his long-deserved HEA, I actually teared up. He’s such a good guy, and I put him through all kinds of hell in the first book of the series, Operation Sheba. His girlfriend betrayed him with his old rival, his boss set him up as the CIA’s mole, and terrorists held him hostage in his own home. He was turned him into a human bomb and shot in the chest.

I left him alone for the second book, giving him a chance to recover. He needed to grieve over losing Julia, and he also needed time to let his physical wounds heal. Then there was the post traumatic stress he was trying to suppress and the deep rage over the hostage situation building inside him. All difficult internal challenges he had to overcome in the third book.

Bringing characters to life, and putting them through hell in order to find a happy ending, gives me a high that no drug can. The thrill of writing sends me on a rollercoaster ride. Every scene, every chapter, is a slow, deliberate climb to the top and an exhilarating zoom down to the bottom again. I’m a prolific writer and when people ask me how I turn out stories so fast, I always tell them it’s not the how that’s important, it’s the why. I’m an addict. I need the rush.

I’m not alone with my God/Dr. Frankenstein complex. Several of the authors I interviewed for this article, including Marie-Nicole Ryan (One Too Many), stated similar reasons for their choice to be a writer. As she puts it, “Writing fills the undeniable urge to create, which is always present in my life. There’s much magic involved in creating and completing a new story.”

Vivi Andrews (The Ghost Shrink, the Accidental Gigolo & the Poltergeist Accountant) loves the control writing gives her. “There is something extremely cathartic, emotionally speaking, about having the power to make that happily ever after happen.  Good, bad, or ugly, everyone gets what they deserve and I get the intense satisfaction of seeing that justice in words when it can be so elusive in ‘real’ life.  If I can control that one area, I can let go of all the things I can’t control.  It’s my own private therapy session for the control-freak within.”

Writing as therapy was a common denominator among the authors I spoke with. “Writing can be boiled down into two major parts for me,” Michelle Miles (Nice Girls Do) says. “One part is Quell The Voices In My Head, and one part is Escapism From The Real World.”

Shiela Stewart (Tempting the Darkness) agrees. “For me, writing has always been both a necessity and a means of escape. I need to get the stories out of my head or it will explode, and escaping into the fantasy world makes me a much saner person.”

In the current economy, escapism is the new black. We’re all in need of a good fantasy. “Writing gives me an escape from the chaos that is my life,” states Kaye Chambers (Tiger by the Tail). “When I’m writing, I can be whoever – or whatever – I want to be and not give a hoot about the consequences!”

According to scientific studies, writing has positive health benefits. Because you use your left brain, which is analytical and rational, to put sentences together, your right brain is free to create, intuit and feel. Mental blocks crumble and give you brainpower to better understand yourself, others and the world around you.

Keith Melton (Blood Vice) has found this is true. “Getting out of my head and into another person’s head, and living their dreams, fears, needs and sorrows, increases my empathy and ability to relate to the rest of humanity. I believe the experience of fiction enhances the connections between us all.”

Whether writing satisfies our need to create, keeps us sane, or helps us relate to others, we are all addicted to telling stories. No drugs or professional therapy necessary. Just another story…

I was going to take a break from writing this week. Do some spring cleaning. Catch up with a few friends over lunch. Paint my bathroom. But all I can think about is the next world, the next character, the next rush. Yep, I need another hit, another story.

Writing is my addiction, and I don’t plan to break the habit any time soon.
Misty Evans is an award-winning, multi-published author of CIA thrillers and paranormal comedy. Visit her at www.readMistyEvans.com .
 

This past week, I blogged about my religious upbringing and how that gave me ideas for WITCHES ANONYMOUS at the Samhellion blog. The post generated some great comments, so I thought I’d share it here. 

I was raised in a Southern Baptist household and cut my teeth on Old Testament stories full of the Devil and damnation. Having an active imagination and a strong desire to find good in everyone, I was particularly taken by the story about Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. To me, it was a love story, maybe the greatest ever told. Adam gave up having heaven on Earth to be with Eve after she ate from the apple. He could have resisted her and temptation and hung out with God, but he was so enamored by Eve, his good sense went out the proverbial window and he damned himself right along with her. 

Destined to be a writer, I transformed many Biblical stories in my head, and questioned what might have happened if things had been different. What if the original garden had been the Garden of Evil and it was God who had to tempt Eve to eat from the apple in order to create heaven on Earth? What if God sent Adam and Eve back to Earth for a redo and once they got here and hung out with all of us, they had to decide if wiping out sin—which would include all of us born in sin—was a good deal? 

  In WITCHES ANONYMOUS, I played with a couple of those ideas, letting Adam come back to Earth and find the perfect Eve (who happens to be named Amy). I took the Devil and gave him the ability to love, which in some religions, he was capable of as an archangel. And I flipped the ideas of good and evil on their heads, just to see what would happen. 

The story reminded me that good and evil exist in each of us, and it is our choice to resist or give in to temptation, whatever form it appears in. WITCHES ANONYMOUS is a comedy, because having been raised on Old Testament beliefs; I can tell you laughter is the best way to deal with the Devil.

If you’d like to read my take on Adam, Amy and Lucifer, you can find my story at http://www.mybookstoreandmore.com/shop/product.da/witches-anonymous 

Do you ever sabotage your dreams because you refuse to change? Or take a chance? Or admit you’re on the wrong path?

As January’s fresh start fades, we’re at a crossroads. The past stretches out behind us and the future before us. There are as many roads, physical, mental and spiritual, leading away from this moment as there are stars in the heavens. We can hang onto the past and the mistakes we’ve made, rehashing old wounds and reliving bad habits. We can freeze in the moment and refuse to look back or scan the roads ahead, in essence stalling our lives and our careers for a comfortable status quo.

Or we can risk everything and step forward into the unknown.

If saying the word unknown makes you break out in a sweat, I’m right there with you. So much pressure. So much risk.

I was at a crossroads last month with my career. For over a year, I’d been on a different page than my agent.  I assumed the fault was mine; I hadn’t made my expectations clear. Writing everything down, I filled a page with what I wanted and then had a heart to heart talk with her. She reassured me and we moved forward. Unfortunately, within a few months, I again felt we were on two very different pages. I tried addressing my expectations again but now felt like a pesky child instead of a career-focused author. Were my expectations too great? Probably, but my solution was to avoid the issue all together.

According to quantum physics, the hovering of an electron in all dimensions of possibility is what propels the leap to a new nuclear orbit. For me, life is a compass. If I start off in one direction and something doesn’t feel right, I turn my inner compass in a new direction and start off again. However there are times when nothing feels right or what feels right defies logic, and, oh my, I am nothing but logical! So, what do I do? I insist on maintaining status quo. That’s exactly what I did with my agent dilemma. I hovered. I maintained. In fact, I spent a whole year hoping I was finally going to get on the same page with her.

Our styles were too different, and come this January, I knew I had to make a decision. I had to stop hovering in the same orbit and hoping for something better. Having spent years trying to attain a great agent, my logical brain scoffed at my intuition’s insistence that it was time to move forward. To take the step into the unknown.

But during that year, I sold a novel and a short story with no agent involvement. The death grip I had on being an “agented author” had become less strenuous. I had seen possibilities that excited me to my core. Even my logical brain couldn’t stop thinking about them.

So if you’re hovering, do it with an open mind. Your electrons will be moving and your orbit’s going to change, guaranteed. The trick is to see the opportunities that exist on any path or orbit that comes your way.

No matter what crossroad you find yourself at this year, cut yourself some slack about picking the right path. Remember, we’re all in this together and the possibilities are as abundant as stars in the sky.

P.S. My first paranormal comedy novella, Witches Anonymous, comes out February 24^th. I took a risk and entered a contest – and I NEVER win contests – and found myself on a new career path with this story

   Everyone loves to dream. We love to wish on stars and birthday candles. We aren’t opposed to working hard to make the dream come true, but often we find our hard work doesn’t manifest into the dream we so clearly see in our minds. Missteps and wrong turns may dim the brightness of our dream. Fate, the Universe, and Mother Nature blindsides us. We get tired. We lose hope. We question our mission, our passion, our purpose.
   The New Year gives us renewed hope and restores our optimism. We can finish that manuscript. We can land that agent. We can sign our name to a three-book contract.

   Yes, we can. This is our year. This is our life. This is our dream.
   While having a positive attitude and believing in ourselves is extremely important, we know that just wishing on a star won’t finish that manuscript or write that query or land that contract. Every dream, every wish, comes with a gift and a challenge (see Monica’s post below…Congrats, Monica!). We have to take the necessary steps, embrace the hard work, to put our wish in motion. If you don’t do the work, what will your life look like a year from now? Every step we take, we move closer to our dream. Every step we take gives us confidence. Every step we take tells the Universe we’re serious about making this year The Year.
   So what do we need to do to make our dreams come true? That’s what I want to explore with each of my monthly blogs here at the HEA Cafe. Happily Ever After is a concept that can exist outside fairy tales and romance novels. We know we can’t be happy forever…or can we? Can we, as witers, have an inner happiness that isn’t diminished by the outside world?

   Can we be happy just to write a story, no matter if it ever gets published? These are questions I’d like to explore with you on the first of every month during 2009.
   This month, we have to look inside ourselves and get clear about our goals, because how can we define what makes us happy otherwise? Ask yourself, what do I want? What are my expectations? What path is really my calling? Don’t censor yourself. Some of you may get an instant message from your soul when you ask these questions, others of you may stew for several days before you have a clear picture in your mind. But a clear picture is essential. I want you to free the limits of your current life for a few minutes every day and see yourself as the person, the writer, you want to be. You know yourself better than anyone else. Live your truth for just five minutes a day.
   When you are able to imagine yourself in the beautiful dream of your soul, say this to yourself, “As I dream, so I am. Infinite possibilities are coming my way.”
   Next month, Exploring Crossroads.

EBOOK!

What does Santa want for Christmas this year? The same thing you and I want…perfect gifts for all the people on our lists. One easy, inexpensive and earth-friendly gift appropriate for both men and women, young and old is a gift card for ebooks. Think of the convenience – for you and the giftee. You can send a GC from your computer to theirs without getting out of your pjs, and they can shop without changing out of theirs.
Then there’s the immediacy. Running late on Christmas Eve and still don’t have something for your sister who’s in Canada? Five minutes on the internet and her gift’s on its way, postage free. 
Struggling to find a green gift for your college-aged dog-sitter who’s iPhone is glued to his hand? According to an article this year in Publisher’s Weekly, a study coordinated by the Book Industry Study Group and the Green Press Initiative showed the U.S. publishing industry emits over 12.4 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, or about 8.85 pounds per book. Ebooks eliminate many of the costs associated with paper publishing and several sites can now send the book to an iPhone or digital readers like the Kindle or Sony.
Where can you get gift cards for ebooks? Check out Fictionwise (www.fictionwise.com ), Diesel eBooks (www.diesel-ebooks.com ), All Romance eBooks (www.allromanceebooks.com ), and Books On Board (www.ebooks.com ). Many ebook publishers also offer gift cards through their online stores.
So give yourself a break and give the folks on your gift list something they’ll love…ebooks.