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For those of you that missed yesterday’s SUPER-CHAT on Twitter with Abbi Glines, Colleen Hoover & Jamie McGuire, I’ve carefully backtracked over the ton of tweets and put together a chat “digest”. The questions (in short form – as some of us asked similar questions) and their respective answers (quoted exactly) to help give you a comprehensive “Behind the Books” look into these awesome authors.
In fact, I’m so happy I did this, because the chat was so intense and going by so fast (it even “trended“!! YAY!!!) that I missed a ton of great intel. But I have it all, now! For us to learn from. For us to get to know these authors better. For us to “speculate” and get excited about potential future books. And for us to backtrack in the future and say “Remember when we had that crazy chat…?”
Fun answers, great advice and tons of stuff I didn’t know! I didn’t think it was possible, but I love these authors even more now! If you want to see the entire chat (it’s a little chaotic but you can see who asked what, comments and reactions by readers etc, retweet them, etc… you can see it on Twitter at #AtriaIndies):
Here’s my “digest” (authors listed in alphabetical order – and the answers are sorted by type of question (writing process, series & characters):
ABBI GLINES:
Writing process when starting a book (start at Chapter one or jot down ideas first?): “I jot down all my ideas first. I’m always afraid I’ll forget. I have ideas for several books just waiting…” and “… and I spend more time on my last sentence than I do any other part of the book.”
How long to write a book: “It takes me a week to two weeks. I write abnormally fast though”
Author Abbi Glines
What’s your writing schedule like? “When I’m writing a book I close myself off when my kids go to school and write for 8 hours straight everyday. … I will not lie… I get hand cramps. I have to get hand massages.”
Advice to aspiring authors: “write daily. Even if it sucks write. And if you get “writer’s block” you’re bored so add a twist”
When did you realize you wanted to write? “I’ve always made money writing. I started in a newspaper then for magazines before I wrote a book”
Have you always know you wanted to write? “Yes. Since I was a little kid I filled notebooks up with stories.”
Did you invest time in building online presence when you started? “No… but I should have. I had no idea how to start or what I was doing.”
How do you balance time between writing and promotion? “When I write I do very little promoting. I only promote during my down time. It’s too much to do all at one time”
Hard balancing family & writing time? “Yes… but my kids are old enough that they understand deadlines. We make it work”
Quick go to meal for family when on deadlines? “Take out Mexican food.”
Was it a big change: “Yes. Being an author changed everything. It takes more time but it’s a wonderful life.”
Any characters inspired by real life? “Never… at least not yet.”
Idea to write Existence: “Growing up my family faced a lot of death. I spent a lot of time thinking about it in order to deal.”
Character inspiration/relationship inspiration: “music inspires me. So do Dawson’s Creek reruns… don’t ask.” and “Beau Vincent was inspired by Tim Riggins off Friday Night Lights. The rest of it just came to me.”
Have you ever thought about writing an adult/erotica romance? “Yes I have… and then I start writing and I can’t make them older than 23. It’s odd”
More Vincent Boys? “I intend to write one more book for that series one day 🙂”
Any more Rush and Blaire books? “As of right now, no. I have a new series I want to start so I have to finish things up in Sea Breeze” and “They show up in other books 🙂 And then Rush Too Far which is Rush’s POV of Fallen will come out one day”
Any nice moms for future Rosemary Beach books? “LOL… actually yes. There will be :)”
Besides Grant’s and Tripp’s books, any others for the Rosemary Beach Series? “Yes. But I won’t say who until you read Grant’s first book. A character you’ve heard about shows up”
Favorite Rosemary Beach guy? “He hasn’t been introduced yet 🙂 He shows up in Grant’s book. But Rush holds a special place in my 3 … his name is mentioned once in Forever Too Far… that’s your hint.” —> a reader guessed “starts with the letter “m” is my guess” —-> and Abbi responds: “vera vera good guess 😉”
“Grant’s books are part of the Rosemary Beach series. The new series hasn’t been announced yet. New characters”
Who is the new series centered around Familiar characters? “Completely new idea 🙂 … I’m really excited about it. I can’t wait to get started.”
Fav character from your books? “Beau Vincent, Rush Finlay, and Harlow Manning are my 3 favs right now”
First “new adult” book you’ve read? “Beautiful Disaster by @JamieMcGuire_”
Writing process when starting a book (start at chapter one or jot down ideas first?) “I usually start with an outline, then first chapter, then stray completely from the outline lol!“
How long to write a book? “It depends on the book, but probably 1 to 3 months.”
Advice to aspiring authors? “Same advice I always give, borrowed from The Avett Brothers. “Decide what to be and go be it“”
Author Colleen Hoover
How do you balance time between writing and promotion? “Ha! Me, balancing my time. You’re funny! 😉”
Quick go to meal for family when on deadlines? “Lol, I leave that up to the husband these days.”
What’s your writing schedule like? “My sister is always on me because I sleep at odd hours and don’t really have a schedule at all anymore!”
Thoughts on self-publishing vs traditional: “I think self-publishing is the way to go at first! It is a good place to get started. It can be hard to get a traditional publisher to notice you at first because they get so many submissions but anyone can selfpub! then hopefully you can get picked up by a traditional publisher eventually”
Inspiration behind Hopeless and Losing Hope: “such a hard question to answer in only 140 characters lol! The characters just came to life in my head!”
Next book coming out? “I have a free novella, Finding Cinderella, coming 10/14. Maybe Someday comes March.”
Hopeless based on something that happened to you? “I get that question a lot, but no. It may have been partly inspired by my time working as a Social Worker … It’s really really hard work. I’m not sure I was best-suited for that job. It takes a special kind of person.”
Any characters inspired by real life? “Kel and Caulder from the Slammed series were based off of my own sons, definitely”
Finishing Eddie’s story? “It’s not in the foreseeable future, but that could change. Ask me again next year?”
Fav character from your books? “I hate to play favorites. I love them all but I am REALLY excited for Finding Cinderella. I love Daniel and Six!”
First “new adult” book you’ve read? “I don’t even know lol. I had never paid attention to genres before I wrote my first book”
“Thanks everyone for supporting #AtriaIndies today!!! We would be nothing without our readers! <3″
Writing process when starting a book (start at chapter one or jot down ideas first?) “Chapter One! I spend more time on the first sentence than I do any other part of the book.”
Advice to authors: “Stop being an aspiring author and become an author … finish your book! 🙂 … Write a book people will talk about. Surprise everyone. Make them happy. Make them angry.”
Any characters inspired by real life? “All of them are inspired by real life. Real life is the most inspiring thing I can think of” and “All of my characters are me in some way. But I’m probably closest to America.”
How long to write a book?: “It depends completely on where I’m at in life. I’ve written a book in 7 weeks (Beautiful Disaster) and a year (Requiem)“.
Hard balancing family & writing time? “I write at night, so no. Being away from my family when on tour is tough, but I love meeting my readers.”
Author Jamie McGuire
What’s your writing schedule like? “I write when I can. My schedule is more strict closer to deadline.”
Quick go to meal for family when on deadlines? “My husband is the domestic in this house. He cooks WAY better than me.”
How do you balance time between writing and promotion? “Being in airports, hotels, and 30k in the air is very conducive to writing!”
What genre do you prefer reading? “Paranormal and sci-fi are my faves.”
Writing any more paranormal? “My next novel will be Apolonia, a new adult sci-fi romance. 🙂 REALLY excited about it!”
Next book coming out? “new, SECRET novella out Dec 10! Next novel predicted to be out spring/summer of 2014. 🙂”
All time favorite book? “I am a proud Twihard. Twilight hands down.”
Fav character from your books? “I love Skeeter from Red Hill”
“I am a HUGE @TheWalkingDead fan, but the idea for Red Hill actually came three years before it aired!”
Better time writing about Travis or zombies? “Ooooh! That’s tough. Travis or zombies? It’s a tie.”
Any more Beautiful Disaster/sequel books? Any more books “like” Beautiful Disaster: “I start Trent’s book in January.” and “There are a lot of books out there now like Beautiful Disaster, The Maddox Bros books will be similar, but I like to do what everyone ISN’T doing. 😉”
“The Maddox bros won’t be supernatural.”
Maddox brothers as intense as Travis? “Trent is Travis x’s 10.” (plus here’s a sidenote from Abbi Glines: “…and I must butt in to say HOORAY! That gets me so excited.” and sidenote from me: “okay I gotta *squee* on that!!!)”
Fan of UFC fighting? “Nope! lol”
Did you expect best selling status for Beautiful Disaster? Proud? “No way! I wrote BD for myself. Never planned to publish it and did so on a whim a year after I finished it. … I guess I kind of am! That is definitely something to be proud of, thank you!”
I love Travis. Can I take Travis home? “In novel form, yes! You can take Travis home, to bed, to the bathroom … you know … wherever! 😉”
Abby’s birthday? “I never gave a date. =)”
If you could “crossover” with any series, which would it be? “WOOL by @hughhowey“ (which prompted Hugh Howey to reply: “Let’s do it! :D” and Jamie responded: “Two books left in this contract and I’m all yours!”
How has life changed with success? Stress? Confidence? Does it change how you write? “I’m definitely more confident personally. Professionally, I have a lot to learn and long way to go.”
THIS–> RT“@colleenhoover: Thanks everyone for supporting #AtriaIndies today!!! We would be nothing without our readers! <3
Maryse: Thanks for the chat guys! Great questions & best chat ever. All of you rocked it. And A HUGE thank you to our favorite authors! Thanks again to @colleenhoover, @AbbiGlines & @JamieMcGuire_ & all of you for coming out and chatting today. It was a BLAST!!! If anyone wants to check out my reviews for some of the above mentioned books, here they are:
thanks for posting this! i have such a hard time following conversations on twitter (reminds me of the old AOL chat rooms, which i always felt lost in, too}! 😀
For those of you that missed yesterday’s SUPER-CHAT on Twitter with Abbi Glines, Colleen Hoover & Jamie McGuire, I’ve carefully backtracked over the ton of tweets and put together a chat “digest”. The questions (in short form – as some of us asked similar questions) and their respective answers (quoted exactly) to help give you a comprehensive “Behind the Books” look into these awesome authors.Writing process when starting a book (start at Chapter one or jot down ideas first?): “I jot down all my ideas first. I’m always afraid I’ll forget. I have ideas for several books just waiting…” and “… and I spend more time on my last sentence than I do any other part of the book.”
Idea to write Existence: “Growing up my family faced a lot of death. I spent a lot of time thinking about it in order to deal.”
Any more Rush and Blaire books? “As of right now, no. I have a new series I want to start so I have to finish things up in Sea Breeze” and “They show up in other books 🙂 And then Rush Too Far which is Rush’s POV of Fallen will come out one day”
Writing process when starting a book (start at chapter one or jot down ideas first?) “I usually start with an outline, then first chapter, then stray completely from the outline lol!“
Inspiration behind Hopeless and Losing Hope: “such a hard question to answer in only 140 characters lol! The characters just came to life in my head!”
Finishing Eddie’s story? “It’s not in the foreseeable future, but that could change. Ask me again next year?”
Writing process when starting a book (start at chapter one or jot down ideas first?) “Chapter One! I spend more time on the first sentence than I do any other part of the book.”
“I wrote my daughters into Red Hill.”
Did you expect best selling status for Beautiful Disaster? Proud? “No way! I wrote BD for myself. Never planned to publish it and did so on a whim a year after I finished it. … I guess I kind of am! That is definitely something to be proud of, thank you!”
thanks for posting this! i have such a hard time following conversations on twitter (reminds me of the old AOL chat rooms, which i always felt lost in, too}! 😀