Jade is an author of paranormal, reverse harem, shifter stories. New to self-publishing, she enjoys sharing her journey with her readers.
What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?
I have the same goal for every book I write and that is to tell an entertaining story that readers find impossible to put down. As a lover and reader of books, I know how thrilling it is to find an author who can spin those type of tales.
Writing reverse harems like Mated to Team Shadow challenges all my writing skills. You have five people interacting with each other in a short space and you need to find each person’s distinct personality and voice. And you have to develop the relationship between the woman and each man as well as take into account the paranormal nature of the men. It’s a balancing act and sometimes I feel like I walk the high wire bringing the elements together so that a reader says, “Well, yes, given this set of circumstances I would so want these four totally hot men for myself.”
As to how well I achieve my goals I’ll tell you a secret. I never know. I have to wait until the reviews come out. I fall in love my characters so at a certain point I lose objectivity. So I wait for the readers to tell me. Please leave a review.
What inspires you?
I’ve had one great love in my life. Whenever I need to dig into the emotions of a love scene I go to that place in my heart where he still lives.
Do you write more by logic or intuition, or some combination of the two? Summarize your writing process?
Oh geez. The writing process. Both logic and intuition play a part in crafting a story. I have three parts. The first is the pre-writing, where I write the outline, the character profiles and backstory, decide and research settings, and write info sheets on different aspects of the story. For instance, I’ll research the mating habits of the different animals my shifters become.
The second is writing the actual story which is a combination of logic and intuition.
Story Structure is my loom in the weaving of words. I use the five-part story structure, which anyone can look up on the web. I set the warp and woof of my story with five-part chunks and each chunk into five chapters. Yes, I know this sounds like a dry formula but it isn’t. Each chapter is a challenge because each one has a specific role to play in developing the story. How do I fit my story within this chapter’s role? What events will get me to where I need to be in the story? How do I make this puzzle fit so one event flows into another believably?
When I decide the events of a chapter then I break it up into three parts. The first part is usually, but not always, a type of summary of the character’s reactions to the events of the previous chapter. What does he or she feel and think about what happened? Then the chapter turns to the next set of rapidly developing events and the character or characters only have time to manage what’s happening without thinking about it too much. The last part is that the story turns again to where the situation ratchets up, the characters have to deal with the consequences of what just happened. But my secret weapon to make any chapter a page-turner is the last paragraph. Here I set up the conditions for the next chapter and leave a question dangling that the character has to answer in succeeding chapters.
That’s the logic part. The next part is more intuitive. Knowing what is supposed to happen, I walk the chapter with my characters. I get into the head of the POV character and I feel what they are feeling and write that.
The third is editing, where I evaluate the words I wrote and made adjustments to give more punch to each line. That’s all logic though there is a ton of magic in that process to make a lackluster line sparkle and shine.
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
Why do you save the toughest question for last? My knee-jerk reaction? Finishing it. That sounds horribly flip but it isn’t. Each finished book is an accomplishment and I do enjoy the feeling of satisfaction that comes with penning “The End.”
But aside from that, I love all the characters. From the first description of yummy Damon, “his high cheeks, his classic straight nose, square jaw, wide shoulders and ripped abs that did not hide behind his black sweater whispered to me, “come here little darling,” to Jeanine rolling with the punches in each life-threatening situation, these people were just plain fun to hang out with.
Click on the link re-order Mated To Team Shadow on Amazon until January 29, 2019. It goes live on January 30.
And here is Mated’s promo video which is another bit of fun.
Image Credit: Cover used by permission of the author.
