Author spotlight with Viola Grace

Dear Viola,

Thanks for agreeing to this interview. Let’s start by asking how you categorize yourself: pantser or plotter?
Pantser all the way. Every time I plot, it goes off in a different direction.

What makes a book great in your eyes?
Emotional development of a character. If the characters don’t evolve, then what is the point? I want the females and the males to come to realizations and discover a part of their personality that they had forgotten about.

What is the biggest piece of your advice you can give a beginning writer?
Write, finish, submit. Write again.

If you don’t’ finish something, then you will never know if your writing can stand on its own. Choose your genre by writing a book you enjoy, not by what you think someone else may like. If you are lucky, your passion for your topic will come through and then your audience will come.

Are love scenes easy/difficult to write?
A love scene is easy. A sex scene is difficult. With a love scene, I am concentrating on the feelings of the couple. The sensations, the seduction of the senses. With sex scenes, you have to break it down to the physical, steps in a dance. If someone steps on the other’s toes, the music stops.

Do you write in one genre or several different ones? And why?
I write in both Urban romantic fantasy and in erotic romantic fantasy. I started in erotic writing because I knew I could do it well, but as I have evolved, the urge to tell the story has become all-consuming. It is easier to write an action/romance without having to work in a detailed sex scene.

How do you deal with the dreaded writer’s block?
I call my friends and bitch about it. I craft, craft, do housework, craft, chat online and when my brain feels it is time, I go back to writing.

What’s your biggest reward in being a writer?
Fan mail. I LOVE fan mail. I have suspected that someone is reading my work, but getting emails from readers makes my day. Better than a good review any day.

To date, which is your favorite story? Which one did you have the most fun writing?
Freak Factor is my current favourite story. The most fun one as well. Creating superheroes in space makes the Sector Guard my favourite set of books in general. They were all fun to write.

How do you go about developing your characters and setting?
For setting, I create a place where the characters can get together with a slight amount of privacy. The logic behind their seclusion has to make sense. As for characters, I pick a personality trait that I want the character to embody and I build the character around it.

If you had the opportunity to say one thing to your readers, what would that be?
Thank you so much for letting me do what I love for a living!

 http://www.violagrace.com/
viola@violagrace.com