{"id":1543,"date":"2014-02-15T06:00:13","date_gmt":"2014-02-15T14:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestfantasynovel.com\/?p=1543"},"modified":"2014-02-15T06:00:13","modified_gmt":"2014-02-15T14:00:13","slug":"interview-with-fantasy-romance-author-louise-blankenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/2014\/02\/15\/interview-with-fantasy-romance-author-louise-blankenship\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Fantasy Romance Author L. Blankenship"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of L. Blankeship’s blog tour for\u00a0the\u00a0Disciple Half-Omnibus<\/em><\/a> I’m delighted to feature an interview with her!<\/p>\n

1. What is your favorite place to write?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I write best at home, at my desk, surrounded by my sound system, with an adult beverage at hand. Oh, and my shoes off. Not sure why, but my shoes need to be off.<\/p>\n

Music is a must when I’m writing. I organize my iTunes library into playlists with particular flavors — rough, fast stuff for action scenes, quiet background music for when I need to hear my characters’ voices clearly. Every writing project gets its own customized playlist too.<\/p>\n

2. Tell us a little about your writing process.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m a plotter, not a pantser, so I plan out my nightly writing shift extensively. Every story has its master outline, and each scene within the story has its own sketch before I sit down to write. Since I have a daily Butt-In-Chair habit, I also have a daily habit of preparing to write before that. Going into my writing shift cold is difficult for me.<\/p>\n

I love world-building and developing characters, so I generate copious notes on background details. I love research too, needless to say, and I consume a lot of non-fiction.<\/p>\n

But I try to leave room for spontaneity in all of this. When the characters disagree with me or make suggestions, I listen. They’re usually right, I’ve found!<\/p>\n

3. If you could be any fictional character, who would you be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because of my voyeuristic side, I think I’d be Mr. Universe from Serenity. Seeing all, knowing all, having all the stories at my fingertips\u2026<\/p>\n

Yes, I\u2019m a Joss Whedon fan. But it\u2019s dangerous to be a character in one of his stories!<\/span><\/p>\n

4. What is the best writing advice you’ve been given?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The best advice I’ve gotten wasn’t exactly writing advice. It was said to me by a painter, actually.<\/p>\n

“The universe will give you what you need for your art.”<\/span><\/p>\n

This is true, IMO. Ideas cross my path all the time. I just need to be open-minded and look at them in the context of how they can help me with a WIP or a story that I’m developing. Not every idea will work, of course, but the mental goose it gives me can get me looking at a story problem from a different perspective and from there I can take the plot in an interesting direction.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s good practice at thinking outside the box, in other words — and no artist should be thinking inside the box.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks for hosting my blog tour, Tara!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Disciple Half-Omnibus<\/em><\/a>\u00a0collects the first three parts of Disciple<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>a gritty fantasy romance series.<\/p>\n

War is coming. Kate Carpenter is only a peasant girl, but she\u2019s determined to help defend the kingdom and its bound saints against the invading empire. Her healing magic earned her a coveted apprenticeship with the master healer; now she must prove herself ready to stand in the front lines and save lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

She\u2019s not ready for the attentions of a ne\u2019er-do-well knight and the kingdom\u2019s only prince, though. This is no time to be distracted by romance \u2014 the empire\u2019s monstrous army will tear through anyone standing between them and the kingdom\u2019s magical founts. All disciples must put aside their tangled feelings and stand in the homeland\u2019s defense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Available at all major retailers<\/a><\/p>\n

Samples at my book blog: Part I<\/a> \u2022 Part II<\/a> \u2022 Part III<\/a><\/p>\n

Disciple, Part IV<\/em> arrives in March!<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n

Get a reminder by joining L’s mailing list<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Or try out PART I for free!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

FREE at\u00a0Smashwords<\/a> \u2022 AllRomance
\n<\/a>and sometimes at Amazon<\/a> — working on that\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of L. Blankeship’s blog tour for\u00a0the\u00a0Disciple Half-Omnibus I’m delighted to feature an interview with her! 1. What is your favorite place to write? I write best at home, at my desk, surrounded by my sound system, with an adult beverage at hand. Oh, and my shoes off. Not sure why, but my shoes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,261,263],"tags":[635,642,698],"class_list":["post-1543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fantasy","category-inspiration-for-writers","category-interview","tag-epic-fantasy","tag-fantasy","tag-romance-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}