Author kasey michaels biography

I've changed how I do things. First book, I didn't know what I was doing each day when I sat down at the table. I still don't know exactly what I'm doing when I sit down, but I have a general idea of where I need to go. I wrote first in longhand, read it again, added stuff. Then it was typed, with a carbon, and once that puppy was typed, no way was I changing it -- and I typed a chapter at a time, when it was read once and put aside.

Then I wrote the next chapter. This made me a one-draft writer, even though I didn't know what that was at the time. Then came the computer. Now it is easier to go back, make some changes, and I do, but I am still basically a one chapter at a time writer, and when that chapter is done -- until the read-through of the completed book -- I do not go back.

I don't do drafts. I don't lay down dialogue and then go back and fill in other stuff. I don't move on with blanks in the chapter to be filled in later, facts, whatever. I don't move on until I've spelled the words correctly or looked up the facts I want in that chapter. Once and done…with, of course, a reread the next day before I start that day's new work.

Again, I didn't plan this -- it was the idea of that damn white-out and carbon paper! I think up situations. Or, sometimes, I think up characters first, and put them into situations. I know my setup, I know the ending, and in the middle, I fudge. If I ever wrote a synopsis that stayed true into the book, my editors wouldn't know what to do… I find names for my characters -- mostly in baby name books.

When I see a name I like, for some reason that helps me define the character. I build eye color and stuff around that, begin to see the character flesh out for me. Once I have an idea, once it is in print, I look back on it and think: where did I come up with this? So it's never something I've planned and I have no set way of coming up with plots or people.

For instance: I needed a synopsis for my next Regency Era set historical. I thought of an idea And what I ended up with -- not knowing this was going to happen -- was an idea and characters for 6 connected books! HQN liked the idea, and the first three come out in three succeeding months, March, April, May of I still have three more to write, and I'm loving every minute of this -- it's as if I have a whole new other family in my life.

Each book covers a year in the Regency. If anyone wants to learn more, I'll have chapter excerpts up soon. Maggie has struggled mightily to break her cigarette habit over the years. Have you ever successfully kicked any "bad" habit e. How did you do it? I wish! I did actually stop drinking caffeinated Coke and switch to water and the occasional Diet Pepsi -- that was huge for me, as I used to live on caffeinated Coke.

I just started drinking a little less each day, substituting water instead, and pouring half regular and half diet Coke into my glass when I just had to have a soda. Eventually, I could only drink diet soda A man, on the other hand, who switches from soda to water, loses 15 pounds and two pants sizes in a month -- proving, once again, that life is not fair!

What amazed me with the Maggie books is that, yes, I got a million letters from readers concerned about her nicotine addiction, but her editor, Bernie was a raging author kasey michaels biography. Did I get a single letter from anyone worried about that? Nope, not a single one. I'm not huge on beauty products, to tell you the truth.

I buy nifty miracle-promising lotions and creams, promising myself I'll develop a "beauty regimen," and then the stuff dries up in the bottles. I use Nivea Q on my face because Co-enzyme Q is actually something doctors agree is pretty good for us -- for heart health and good gums, something like that. I figured if the pills are good for the inside, maybe the cream is good for the outside.

Very scientific, huh? Quick, easy, cheap -- and I love the smell! As for fashion -- I try not to go with the trends, fads, but stick to author kasey michaels biography lines and colors that work well with each other. I'm a blacks and earth tones sort of person -- look terrible in pastels. I think I last bought a dress when I bought a gown for my youngest's wedding.

I am a slacks person. At home, I stay in my pajamas on writing days until it's time to shower and prepare or mostly go up the street to the local restaurant for dinner. Then it's jeans and sweaters or shorts and t-shirts. Do you tend to think in themes when you write? I keep getting asked if there's a common thread, a recurring theme, whatever…and I keep wondering, hmmm, is there?

The only thing I can come up with is that I am a firm believer in trust. That without trust, there's no foundation to build anything on -- a life, a love. If you read any of my books, you will notice one thing that's the same in each of them -- nobody, and I mean nobody, hops into bed until there is trust. Not necessarily an oral declaration of love, but they damn well believe in each other.

I guess I never understood how people could be physically intimate, and still too nervous about getting "too personal" in asking if the person loves them. Say what? Yeah, that would be the common thread, I guess: my people have to love and trust each other, and know it! One of your trademarks is very funny and witty dialogue.

Author kasey michaels biography

How did you learn to write dialogue? I would have to say I learned by reading good books, watching good tv shows and even listening to good songs, plus listening to people when they speak. Some people have an ear for music -- mine seems to be for dialogue, even that elusive "comedic timing. As I write, I can hear the dialogue in my head -- the nuances, the pauses, all of it.

I try not to author kasey michaels biography things like this -- or I might not be able to do them again, so I'm just glad that I like to write dialogue. Now, description? Telling the reader what the sky looks like, how the house sits on the hill? Forget it -- not my forte! So it all evens out I was a stay at home mom and could monitor what my kids watched, played, listened to.

A lot of moms don't have that luxury anymore. There are those V-chips on TVs, and warnings on video games and music -- but even a stay at home mom can't go to the neighbor's house with her kid and monitor what he sees, hears there. It's tough, and getting tougher. I'm not thrilled with the amount of sex on afternoon soap operas I'm appalled that movies are rated pretty much on nudity and language, but nobody seems to think movie after movie with nubile young things put in the same room with an ax murderer deserve that R rating.

What are your pet peeves in life? What do you love most about being an author? What is your least favorite aspect of the profession? Like best: Entertaining people, beginning with myself. I've told the story before, but when I was all but living in a big city hospital with my son, all the moms, and a lot of the nurses, read romance novels. Happy endings.

Hopeful stories. Video Book Club. Reviewer Application. On an island full of secrets, is death the only escape? Can she have the man of her dreams and the life she's always wanted? And then he frowned. Now what do I do? If we're are sad, to be sad together. To always know the other is there for us. The best of friends We can talk forever, for the rest of our lives, living one adventure after another, I promise.

But not now, my darling Lisette. For now, all I can think of is the brilliance of yet another ancient Greek, Sophocles. He said, 'One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life-that word is love. You bring my life joy I've never known. Please, marry me. See all Kasey Michaels's quotes ». The Countess Conspiracy - Courtney Milan. Firelight - Kristen Callihan.

Venetia - Georgette Heyer. I have, when an idea hit me and I couldn't let it go until I'd written it down. I don't write to change the world. That's my dream Who has had the greatest influence on your writing? Who inspires you? The world has its greatest influence on and most inspires my writing. All of it, from its beginning to now, every facet of life, of just plain living, influences my writing.

The beauty of writing novels is that nobody says you can't, that you don't have the training, the education, credentials of any kind. You don't have to pass a test in order to write a book. You don't have to prove anything to anyone except yourself, you have to please yourself, and when you please yourself, others will be pleased. It's you and that blank page, and the dreams that live in your head.

So everything influences me, and everything inspires me