What’s your favorite genre to write? To read?

Bwah ha ha! This one’s easy!

My favorite genre to write is romance. Not paranormal–I’ve never been able to really pull any of that off. But I love a good old fashioned romance. I also enjoy love stories. They’re not necessarily romance (which have to follow a certain formula), but there is a love story and it is central to the plot.

I love to read romance, love stories, chick-lit (although I know it’s not called that anymore… and basically the only authors I still read who do that are Sophie Kinsella and Marian Keyes), and contemporary. I read a bit of paranormal, but I think I’ve been overexposed to it and I’m desperate for something set in THIS world. I also really like reading dystopia, but I don’t think I’ll ever try to write one.

My favorite category to read is YA, hands down. I’m not sure why I gravitate toward YA books. I don’t read them exclusively, but YA books do take up the majority of my shelves. It’s a shame that many so-called more serious readers refuse to see the value in YA books and insist on looking down on those of us who read and enjoy them. I’m glad, however, that there are people who are finally recognizing the impact YA books have on the reading world.

Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten the writing meme. OK, I really had forgotten about it.

Here is question seven:

Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?

I almost always listen to music while I write, and I have a few different playlists. I have a generic writing playlist which mostly consists of certain songs from movie scores and other instrumental songs that I really like or that I feel inspired by. There are a few songs with lyrics as well, but they have the be the sort of lyrics that blend into the background. Time by Sarah McLachlan fits into that category well. Then, I have playlists for each WIP. Any song that makes me think of the character, that inspires a plot point or idea, or that sets the mood for a scene I am writing gets added to the playlist.

The playlists are organic. I am always adding or deleting songs, but there are a few that make it on every list. Here are just a few of them:

– Alice’s Theme – Danny Elfman (Alice in Wonderland score)
– A Dazzling End – Murray Gold (Doctor Who: Series 4 soundtrack)
– Like A Dog Chasing Cars – Hanz Zimmer (The Dark Knight score)
– I Know What You Are – Carter Burell (Twilight score)
– God Particle – Hans Zimmer (Angels & Demons score)

On an unrelated note, I just went back and re-read some of the reviews I did for my now defunct review site. I guess I wasn’t as bad at reviewing as I thought. Maybe one day I’ll pick it back up again.

Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol’ pen and paper?

I am most comfortable writing at home, I think. Late at night for sure, and I am flexible with computers or pen and paper. I like to have pen and paper on hand all the time to jot down ideas, quotes, or dialogue or whatever comes to me, but I like my computer for the hardcore writing. It’s easier to edit, cut or copy and paste, and find/replace on a computer. I have a laptop, but back in the day, I just used a desktop. And before then, it was pen and paper!

In fact, I still have somewhere what I call Ronni’s Big Ass Notebook, which has is a loose-leaf binder with a very long unfinished novel that I wrote during college. During high school and junior high, I wrote in notebooks, or stapled loose-leaf papers together.

In high school, the school bookstore had these notebooks that were perfect. I can’t remember the cost; they were cheap, though. They were 100 pages exactly. Not too thin, not too thick. I bought them like crazy, and filled them up with stories and stories. I had comments sections at the back, and people would write what they thought of my work.

Funnily, I am finding it easier to get raw ideas and things down in notebooks again. Give me a Sharpie pen, and I’m good to go. So I’ll stick with that method for now.