Week In A Spotlight...

I had a pretty darn good week. I was spotlighted over on the Word Weavers page on Facebook. Monday was just general links on where to find me.

Twitter: @MLChesley
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mel.chesley
Website: www.mlchesley.webs.com

I'm here, I'm on Goodreads. I'm pretty much everywhere.

Tuesday was Q & A day, which I am going to share instead of my usual Friday post. Then Wednesday and Thursday were blog links and an excerpt I have not shared with anyone yet. I'll post it here next week, because I realize lots of you don't do Facebook.

Before I get to the Q & A, though, I have to link to Misha Gericke's post yesterday about word verification on Blogger. Go ahead, I'll wait. If you are new to blogging or you still use the word verification. There's no need. I took off my word verification some time ago and Blogger still catches all the spam. Sometimes something will slip through the cracks, but it is a lot easier to go delete that one silly post than to irritate hundreds of followers who are trying to leave a comment on your blog. TRUST ME. I get so irked, I just leave and honestly, I don't go back. If I do go back to the blog, I'll read it, but won't comment. If I do comment, it's because I actually WANT to bad enough to sit through the stupid word verification process, but if I don't get through the first time. FORGET IT. Speaking of, is anyone else having issues commenting on my blog? I got a couple emails... Email me if you are, please. I'm trying to fix it.

Okay, so on to the Q & A. I had some really good questions! Jeremiah Saint, Erich Johnson, Stephen Roberts and Zombie Zak were totally cool. So to avoid making this post super long, (it's already long...) here it is. Have a great weekend everyone!

Jeremiah Saint:
Q: What inspires, compels you to write? Is it a passion, a vice, a hobby?

A: Hmm... I'd have to say it's a passion for sure. I've been writing since I was 19. At the time it was fan-fic. I branched out, if you can call it that, to writing stories for characters on a MuD called Cosrin. I've got a pretty good imagination to inspire me, but then I see things like Lord of the Rings on the movie screen and just have to go home and write something!

Q: DO you prefer creating a "new" world or using "the" or "an" existing world for your setting?

A: I actually prefer creating my own. I know I could easily use dozens of worlds out there especially our own, but there's something about making up my own. I suppose I don't feel guilty or feel like I am hacking someone else's stuff.

Q: Character development or character destruction, and why? If both which do you prefer to create or even destruct?

A: Muahaha! Erm... I absolutely love to create characters and destroy them. I like creating because there is so much to the human psyche that I can integrate into my characters, but I certainly am not afraid to kill off those same characters no matter how much I love them.

Q: What is one genere you have thought about delving into but have never set out to start?

A: Paranormal romance and I am not a big fan of romance if it doesn't have a good story. So I don't know how well I will write something I don't exactly like. XD

Q: Which would you rather not tackle; Religion or Politics?

A: Augh... I have to choose? Then I would have to pick religion. Sometimes when people start discussing religion they begin to preach rather than discuss. Politics will always be a fight and I am a scrapper.

Erich Johnson:

Q How many times did the map of Eir Du'Brusai (going by the one in the photos here) change before final publication? Were most of those changes subconscious?

A: I actually changed it once. All the changes I made were conscious decisions and more for geographical enhancement than anything else. I didn't think one huge continent surrounded by a dozen smaller ones seemed feasible, so why would my readers think otherwise?  I spent the better part of 5 years on the map and world itself before I even thought of the first story... I worked on it with my husband and a group of friends to try and establish things first. Plus it helped that we were all D & D players. XD

Q: So I imagine there's a ton of cities, villages, and ports that needed naming. It's always a problem for me. What's your suggestion? What's the secret to names?

A: Hmm... I have a dozen links to name generators I can share with you. My favorite by far is www.seventhsanctum.com . The best way to keep track of it all is to make a list of names, then when you use it, don't scratch it off the list. Write the name of the city/kingdom/port next to it. Give it the geographical location description it needs. I also have a link to a couple language translator sites. One is for real world languages, the others are for Elven and Drow. So if I like a name, I tend to combine Drow and Latin. If you feel like you are stealing from someone using the name generators, mix two or more names together. It is hard for me to give you an exact formula because names just pop into my brain pretty easy.

Stephen Roberts:

Q: When exactly did you decide that you wanted to be a writer professionally and what was it that sold you on storytelling in the first place?

A: What sold me on storytelling was reading the graphic novels, Elf Quest. (I'm showing my geek and my age at the same time!) The exact moment I wanted to be a professional writer.... Well, I had posted some of my work in a portfolio on Writing dot com and someone told me my style was Tolkien-esque. At that moment, I had never read his books and it was about the time the first movie came out. So I went to see it in the theaters and afterwards I sat there, stunned. How could someone say MY writing was like THAT!? Well, that is what gave me the courage to actually continue writing and hone my skill.

Zombie Zak:

Q: Is ye a morning or evening writer?

A: Definitely evening.