Spotlight Sunday with...

Graylin Fox!

Happy Sunday! I’m Graylin Fox and today we delve into my twisted little writers mind.

Has someone been instrumental in inspiring you as a writer? Yes, my mother was the first person who encouraged me to be published. Although, at the time I was strictly a poet I took that encouragement with me when I began to write longer stories. Then, as my mother has passed now, my father took over. He wants copies, large copies, of every book cover I get! He is a great friend and reliable cheerleader. Here we are just starting out. Knowing my mother, she read to me that night. After all, she bought me Harlequin romance novels in high school. How’s that for setting expectations for love?

Has someone mentored you in your writing career? Yes, I can start by acknowledging Kristine Kathryn Rusch. I may have gotten to this point without her but it would have taken longer. See, around November of 2009, Kris asked someone to create a blog about Science Fiction and Fantasy, akin to Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. I volunteered because at the time I had barely stretched beyond my poetry in public and thought it would be a great experience. It was. Knowing my blog posts would be read by Kris and Chris (Christina F York) made me edit my work carefully and helped hone my presentation. Now our blog didn’t last a year. It turns out we were too busy with our careers to keep up a blog. But the experience is with me forever. I still write to Kris when I have questions about writing and she always responds with encouragement and no BS answers.

Do you have critique partners or beta readers? Yes, I have one of each sometimes two CP’s if the story needs major revisions. After I complete a story and have it perfected, I send it to my critique partner. She irons things out, points out POV problems (I have a lot of those - I tend to wax poetic over scenery), and corrects things I didn’t know where there. Then I go through all of her corrections and we chat about how I can make things better. When that edit/revision is complete, I send it to my beta reader. She checks to make sure the changes didn’t leave holes or gaps in the story, or create new problems. Only after incorporating her edits do I submit the story.

Do you use a pen name? Yep! I made it up! I’m sure other writers may have wonderful stories about how they picked their pen names. I really don’t. I went to a name site on the web. One of the many that give you names to use for characters. I just kept hitting “more” until I had a combination I liked. That is how Graylin Fox came to be. Now all of my social media sites are in that name. It allows me the freedom to interact with other writers, fans, and friends without compromising the confidentiality of my psychology clients.

If I were to write a series of novels? Funny you should ask that! Contagion is going to be a series. It was definitely not the plan when I started the story. But as the story took off, I fell in love with these characters. It’s an ensemble group of Otherworld beings just trying to get by and survive. I put snark and wit into them because I need that for me to stay interested. That way the smartass comments you and I would have in the situation actually do pop out of someone’s mouth!

Describe my writing style. Hm. I have the idea for each story before I ever put a word on paper. Different scenarios play out in my imagination until I feel that “click.” Then I hook up my microphone and start to dictate/describe/narrate the scenes playing out in my head. The story falls out of my mouth at this point. I don’t think about anything other than getting as much detail into words as possible. The editing process will cover the POV, flow of story, and removing the ‘babble.’ This way I can write the first draft to a story in a matter of hours. That is after I thought about it for a couple of weeks!