The creative process blog hop

Well, it looks like I've been tagged again. I've not been tagged this often since on the grade school playground! Last time, it by the lovely Catherine Johnson (here's the post). This time, it's my dear friend and critique group buddy, Sylvia Liu.

1. What am I working on?

Right now, I'm 
a) putting finishing touches on two stories for upcoming anthologies for my sci-fi critique group, The Minnows Literary Group. We publish science fiction anthologies of different themes and donate 100% of profits to Doctors Without Borders. So far, with our first two anthologies, Out of Time and In a Land Far Away, we have donated close to $5,000.

 
In "That Way Madness Lies," to appear in Centauri Station, a space-travel themed collection, I quote Shakespeare and put my poor main character, Nathan, in peril. 

For our second time-travel themed anthology, I'm writing a story called "Occupational Hazard" wherein Bertrand and Alexa face a time travel disease that may end up being a cure for loneliness.

b) finalizing three picture book manuscripts for my agent. 

c) revising a sci-fi short story that I want to submit to Writers of the Future. 

d) working on illustrations to prepare a portfolio and samples for art directors.

e) editing a middle-grade humorous sci-fi novel

f) doing research for, and writing, a young adult steampunk novel

2. How does my work differ from others in my genre? 

Science and science fiction guide pretty much all my writing (and some of my art).

I had a much better answer last time:
Aside from having a voice that is uniquely my own, as every writer does, I tend to weave science facts into my work. In the adult pieces that I write, I sometimes make people work a little bit to "get" the story. For example, in In a Land Far Away, some of the things I mention in "Three Long Pigs" will make the story much richer if you looked them up.

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

Because it gives me joy and I hope it gives others joy too to read my stories or to see my artwork.

4. How does my writing/creative process work?

In fits and spurts, between harvesting and processing veggies in the summer, and homeschooling my kids year-round...tucked between my various other creative endeavors, and spurred on by the fires of Hades deadlines.

For writing, when I get an idea, I just open up a new document and do a brain dump. I need to work on being a plotter, though, if I hope to write novels that make sense.

For art,  I think about what it is that I'm trying to draw or convey, and then like with writing, I dive right in, sketching either with graphite, charcoal or digitally (I just started using the ArtStudio app that Sylvia had told me about; it's marvelous for beginning digital artists). After I'm happy with an initial sketch, depending on what kind of art I'm trying to produce, I will either work tight or loose with colors. My favorite are chalk pastels, water-media (either watercolor or tempera), and colored pencils.

Some of my current digital art can be found at http://trobesonart.wordpress.com/portfolio/illustrations-digital/

I normally don't tag people, but there are some folks whose creative processes I'd love to know more about. So, Steve Long, if you are up to the challenge, I'd like to see a blog post from you. No pressure! ;)

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

A rare blog hop post

I almost never play along for blog tags and blog hops. Really. I even shunned my poor sister's award tag. But this one seemed easy enough to do, so I'll give it a go.

I was tagged by a sweet, online writing friend, Catherine Johnson, who has published two poetry books, Weirdo Zoo and The Everglades.

The theme is "my writing process," which I've never really thought too much about. I suppose I worry that it'd be like the joke with the centipede. The centipede was ambling along, minding its own business. A butterfly asked him, "how on earth do you manage to walk properly with all those feet?" The centipede thought about this question...and was never able to walk again. 

I'm afraid that if I over-analyzed my writing process, I'll never be able to write again. Joking! Well, only sort of.

But anyway, here we go.

1. What am I working on?

Right now, I'm working on about 10 different picture book drafts in varying stages of revision and completion, going through some final edits on a middle-grade SF novel, and starting a YA steampunk novel that I'm rather excited about.

I'm also working on a number of adult science fiction stories to be included in The Minnows Literary Group's next few anthologies. 100% of the proceeds from these anthologies are donated to Doctors Without Borders. The first volume was Out of Time, and the second volume was In a Land Far Away.

Upcoming volumes will be Centauri Station (stories about space travel), and another one on time travel again, due to popular request.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Aside from having a voice that is uniquely my own, as every writer does, I tend to weave science facts into my work. In the adult pieces that I write, I sometimes make people work a little bit to "get" the story. For example, in In a Land Far Away, some of the things I mention in "Three Long Pigs" will make the story much richer if you looked them up.

I try not to write stories that are considered beach books. I may never attain Danielle Steele status with this philosophy, but I'm proud of my writing that involve a lot of research.

3. Why do I write what I do?

I write children's literature because I never stopped reading children's books even after growing out of childhood. A lot of what I read, whether children or adult books, tend to be science fiction or fantasy (I include fairy tales and folklore in this category) and science/nonfiction. So it's only natural that I should gravitate to those categories and genres when I write stories.

4. How does my writing process work?

Um, does it seem like it's working? If it were working, I'd have the fame and productivity of Stephen King. ;)

I try to write, on and off, a couple of hours a day, and revise for a couple more. I get interrupted a lot by household chores and homeschooling stuff. Inspired by my amazing science fiction critique group buddy, Russell James, I was getting up an hour or two earlier than my family last year so I could have quiet time to write, but when it got really cold in the winter, I stopped doing that because I can't type when my fingers are freezing (we keep the house pretty cold at night). Now that it's warming up again, I will have to get back on that schedule.

Thanks again, Catherine, and I hope I haven't bored you all to tears too much.

Per usual, I don't tag people, but if you feel like playing along, please let me know and I'll come read your post!

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams