Tag Archives: writing life

 J. M. Gregoire

VAH: So, who is your biggest fan?

JMG: That’s a seriously tough call.  I am lucky to have my own standing army of super-supportive family and friends cheering me on through the journey of being a writer.  The dedication in The Devil You Know took me FOREVER to write.  I was a hot mess, writing through a curtain of streaming tears by the time I was done.  Publishing is a tough industry to be an indie in, and I can say I have never once felt alone.  I am so frikkin lucky to have all the people I do supporting me.  I could never possibly say thank you enough for everything they have given me.  To have the people you care about supporting you in something you devote yourself to is a pretty incredible feeling.  Art, in any form, is about putting yourself out there, as naked as you could possibly get, in front of the whole world.  To know that I have this LEGION of people who have my back, and who will stand there beside me, hand-in-hand, the whole way…..ugh, I just don’t have words.  If you all are reading this (and you know who you are), thank you and I ain’t got nothin’ but love for ya’!  Shout out to my minions!!!!!  REPRESENT!!!!!!

 VAH: What about who is your favorite author?

JMG: If I had to pick just one, it would be Stephen King.  My love of horror and thrillers all started with him.

When I was 11 or 12 years old, my school held what they called a “read-in” – we spent one school week just reading.  You could bring blankets, and pillows, and you could chill in PJ’s for the day, and the whole point was just to read.  Get ubercomfy and read.  My mom was a huge Stephen King nut when I was growing up, and she was in a SK Book of the Month club type thing in which she got a new hardcover of his every month.  She had the hardcover, uncut version of The Stand (if you’ve ever seen this book, you know it’s a BEHEMOTH of a book), and in a flight of optimistic fancy, I decided I wanted to read it.  I started reading very young and had burned through my entire library so my mom said “go for it.”

The first day of the read-in comes around, and I go to school toting my mom’s copy of The Stand.  All was just peachy until my teacher saw what I was reading.  She sent me to the principal’s office and called my mom at work.  When they told her what I was reading, she just said “Yeah, and where do you think she got it?!”  They gave me the book back, and I went back to my blankets and read for a week.  Of course, I didn’t even come CLOSE to finishing it but that day was the start of my love for him.

He’s the one author I probably wouldn’t be able to speak to if I were to meet him.  I have a serious inferiority complex with this man.  I would like to be as good as him one day, but I will be perfectly happy settling for the title of #1 Fangirl for the rest of my life.  He’s just a master in the field of writing, and a teency bit of a god in my eyes.  LOL  A total rock star.  I have this big wooden cabinet at home with glass doors on the front of it.  Inside is my Stephen King/Anne Rice collection of hardcovers.  Those are the prized possessions in my library.  He’s the King of horror and she’s the Queen of vamp fiction.

 VAH: What does your typical writing day include?

JMG: Coffee.  Lots and LOTS of coffee.   LOL!  I don’t really get full writing days.  I am either at work during the day or I have my kids with me on the weekends.  It does happen once in a great while, but it is a rarity.  On the momentous occasions when I do get a writing day to myself, There are two directions my day can go:

Direction #1)  I drag myself out of bed and go get some coffee.  Take a hot shower to wake up a bit.  Throw on some footie pajamas (Yes, I am 34 years old and I still wear footie pajamas – black ones with Jack Skellington all over them.   What of it?  Growing up is for the birds.) and wrap myself in one of the 50 different fleece throw blankets I have kicking around my house.  Then I plant myself in front of the desk, open up the laptop, and start writing.

There is this epic battle that happens approximately every 40 minutes or so between the angel on my left shoulder telling me to keep writing and the devil on my right shoulder saying she bets there are some uberhot pictures of Ian Somerhalder on Pinterest that I NEED to see.  This battle will go on all day and who wins is in direct correlation to how much coffee I have ingested.

For my lunch break (if I remember to take one), I get myself some grub and probably watch an episode of Doctor Who (sooooo addicted).  Each episode is about 45-46 minutes long without commercials.  At the 20 minute mark, I start psyching myself up to get back to writing.  If I don’t do that, I will realize 4 episodes later that I haven’t gotten CRAP for writing done.

Direction #2)  Wake up at 4am with a brilliant story idea, start drinking coffee, and start writing.  After I have lost count of the number of times I have refilled my coffee and screamed at my computer at least twice due to a plot turn I wasn’t expecting or planning on, I look up and realize it is past 10pm and I have NO CLUE where the day went.

When I write, I either have to talk myself into it or hang on for dear life while it happens to me.  It’s two very different extremes.

 VAH: Thoughts on the writing community – what writing or author organizations do you belong to and where online do you frequent for community, online conversing, networking or commiserating? Do you have some favorite online sites?

JMG: It’s all about Facebook and Twitter for me.  I have tried connecting with other authors on different sites and it just hasn’t worked for me.  Reddit looked promising but their site design SUCKS.  They need something that refreshes instead of a static forum platform.  It’s great if you sit there pressing F5 every 3 minutes.  LOL!  I also tried connecting with writers on Goodreads, but there’s just too much salesmanship on there.

On Facebook and Twitter, I have connected with so many great authors.  It works out really well for me.  I have a very active Facebook fan page where I like to spend a lot of my time talking with readers, picking their brains on everything from books to music to movies to hot boys.  LOL  We have fun chatting it up on my fan page.

There are also a TON of indie author “support” groups on Facebook.  Forewarning:  A lot of the have 1000 – 2000 members and it’s just book link spam all day long.  No one says anything except “buy my book”.  However, there are a lot of good groups on there.  You just have to ask around to find the right ones.

Twitter is where I do my nerd stalking and also where I connect with a lot of bloggers and authors.  My Twitter account is run by me personally, and I use it for both my book blog and me as an author.  My tweets are just me and whatever posts automatically from all my blogs (I have several).  I have made lots of great blogger connections on there and TONS of great author connections!

The nerd stalking is all about my own nerdy obsessions.  There are some people on this planet that I find brilliant and I love to admire them from afar.  “Afar” being on Twitter, 140 characters at a time.

Some of my favorite peeps to follow are:

@Nerdist – Chris Hardwick from Nerdist Industries, The Talking Dead, The Nerdist Podcast

@ThatKevinSmith – Kevin Smith – I IDOLIZE THIS MAN AS AN ARTIST.  Writer, Director, Actor, Podcaster (Hollywood Babble-On, Plus One, and Fatman on Batman are my favorites!)

@WorldCon, @BookExpoAmerica, @NY_Comic_Con, @AADConvention, @Comic_Con, @DragonCon, and @WonderCon – All the big cons around the US

@Jesus_M_Christ, @TheTweetOfGod, @Lord_Voldemort7, @DepressedDarth, and @DeathStarPR – Some of the funniest satire on Twitter

@wnbamerica – World Book Night (everyone should totally get involved!!!)

@NathanFillion – Nathan Fillion BECAUSE HE’S AMAZING!!!

@TorBooks – Tor Books is one of my favorite publishers of good dark urban fantasy

I am not a part of any author organizations.  Not that I have anything against them, I think I am just not ready to add another something to my plate at the moment.  LOL!

 VAH: Traditional or independent publishing? Or a little of both? What choices have you made and why did you go the way you have?

JMG: That’s a tough question.  It totally depends on who you are as a person.  I would LOVE to have the man power of a marketing team behind me, but that’s the only reason I would want to get in bed with a publisher.  I love being indie.  It’s freedom and I genuinely love that.

That being said, if a publisher came to me tomorrow and said “sell me your series for $1,000,000,” I can’t say I wouldn’t take it, but it would be some long hard thinking before I made that decision.

I think both are equals in the world of publishing as far as validity goes.  I think things are much easier as a traditionally published author, but the sacrifice most trads have to make is in artistic control and that means a LOT to me.

VAH: What is your best bit of advice to save another writer some anxiety or heartache?

JMG: Anxiety – Don’t self-impose deadlines.  There’s no reason for it.  Take your time and do it right.

Heartache – If you are unable to develop a thick skin, and some people aren’t able to do that, it’s probably a good idea to just not read reviews of your book, good or bad.  Just forget about them and focus on writing.  You may read a hundred stellar reviews, and all it takes is one real craptastic review to put you in a month-long bad mood.  It’s not worth it.  It’s discouraging and makes focusing on moving forward that much more difficult.

Author Information

J.M. Gregoire was born and raised in New Hampshire, USA, and despite her abhorrence for any season that dares to drop to a temperature below seventy degrees, she still currently resides there with her two children and her two cats. Always a passionate reader, her love of urban fantasy books eventually morphed into a love of writing them. She is currently working on the Demon Legacy series, and has a spin off series, the Killer Instinct series, coming soon.

Visit J.M. Gregoire’s social media or online: Website / Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, Instagram.

Check out The Demon Legacy Series and The Killer Instinct Series.

J. M. Gregoire Part 2

Continuing the conversation with independent author J. M. Gregoire:

VAH: When did you decide you were a writer?

JMG: I have always written, as far back as I can remember, but the day I considered myself a writer for the first time was after I read the first review of Burning, the short story prequel to my Demon Legacy series.  That was the day I realized that I may actually have something.  Up until that point, although I enjoyed doing it, writing was just a form of art to me.  The problem with art is it’s very personal.  You create something out of nothing, and you love it to the core with every fiber of your being, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the world is going to think anything of it.  I have a poem I wrote years ago, and I still it love to this day.  When I read it, it transports me back to a certain point in time and I adore that feeling.  However, I would never consider calling myself a poet.  That just happened to be the art which came out on that particular day.  Poetry is all about intense emotion and very often, it’s born of a sadness of some sort.  I don’t have that in me.  I am too much of an optimist.  However, I have always been a storyteller.  When I started to create the Demon Legacy world, I still wasn’t convinced I was a writer. It took someone else calling me a writer for me to realize it.  Now I feel it in everything I do.

 VAH: As an independently published author what is your best advice for emerging writers?

JMG: First, read a lot and write every day even if you only write a few sentences.  Not to compare your work to others, but to learn from other styles.  Reading lots of different styles will help you develop your own unique style.

Second, be humble and accept constructive criticism when you ask for it.  If you ask for someone’s opinion, and you’re only asking so someone will pat you on the back and tell you how good and smart you are, you’re going to be very angry and highly disappointed when they actually come back with suggestions.  This is something which some authors never learn, and it’s the worst mistake of their career.

Third, NEVER STOP BEING A FAN.  The second you stop getting stupid excited about writing, not just your own, is the day it starts to become a chore.  Get out and meet the authors you have fangirled or fanboyed over for years.  Get so excited and nervous that your stomach turns.  When you stop getting that feeling, I guarantee you will miss it like you’ve never missed anything in your life.  Admiring another author feels just as good as being admired.  I think a lot of writers forget to keep being a nerd for writing and I find that very sad.

Fourth, learn the ropes of publishing a book BEFORE you hit publish.  Use betas.  Use editors.  Use proofreaders.  Have a cover professionally made by someone who knows what they’re doing.  Polish your book until you think it can’t possibly shine any brighter.  THEN PUBLISH.  There’s absolutely no reason to rush the process.

VAH: What are your thoughts on studying writing?

JMG: I don’t have a MFA in writing.  I don’t think you need one to be a writer.  However, it certainly couldn’t hurt.  I can honestly say I don’t know a single reader who goes out and checks the collegiate history of an author before or after they’ve read one of their books.  I think if you’re a writer, you’re a writer.  It’s not something which can be taught, simply because creativity is either in you or it’s not.  That being said, I feel studying writing is good for a writer in the technical sense.  Higher learning is always a good thing.  I think it is just a matter of how you apply it.  Now, in my genre (urban fantasy and paranormal romance), it’s not “necessary” to have a masters in writing as the genre itself tends to be written in a way which sounds more like one person telling another person a story in every day conversation.  Twist that same line of thinking into something like literary fiction and you’ll probably find the majority of LitFic authors are in possession of some sort of writing degree.  Not to point fingers or anything, but there’s a reason a lot of LitFic authors look down on genre fiction authors.  I look at it this way – everyone from all different walks of life love to read and the reader themselves shouldn’t need a degree to be able to enjoy reading a book.  I think that is the mindset which most genre fiction is written from.  So, is it worthwhile? Of course!!  Is it necessary to be a successful writer?   I think that depends on the tone and genre of your writing.

VAH: Do you have a favorite conference or writing retreat/seminar?

JMG:  I have only done a few cons so far, but the one I am really excited about is The Novel Experience Event in Las Vegas in April 2015.  That one is going to have 500 authors and 5 days of fun!  I can’t wait!

 VAH: Are you a full-time writer and if not, what is the job that sustains you so you may write?

JMG: Unfortunately, I am not a full-time writer yet.  For now, my day job is working at a major financial services company.  I answer internal employee Help Desk calls all day.  It may sound tedious, but I love it.  I am able to drink all the coffee my body can handle, and most of the time, I am strapped into my iPod with either a podcast playing or an audiobook playing.  For someone who loves audiobooks, and I totally do (narrators are rock stars in my world), it’s a dream job.  It’s low stress and I am able to write all day long between calls.  Plus, I have a group of “fans” at work that follow my writing which is kind of fun.

Author Information

J.M. Gregoire was born and raised in New Hampshire, USA, and despite her abhorrence for any season that dares to drop to a temperature below seventy degrees, she still currently resides there with her two children and her two cats. Always a passionate reader, her love of urban fantasy books eventually morphed into a love of writing them. She is currently working on the Demon Legacy series, and has a spin off series, the Killer Instinct series, coming soon.

Visit J.M. Gregoire’s social media or online: Website / Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, Instagram.

Check out The Demon Legacy Series and The Killer Instinct Series.

Introducing author  J.M. Gregoire featured in December on Three by Five.

J.M. Gregoire was born and raised in New Hampshire, USA, and despite her abhorrence for any season that dares to drop to a temperature below seventy degrees, she still currently resides there with her two children and her two cats. Always a passionate reader, her love of urban fantasy books eventually morphed into a love of writing them. She is currently working on the Demon Legacy series, and has a spin off series, the Killer Instinct series, coming soon.

Visit J.M. Gregoire’s social media or online: Website / Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, Instagram.

Check out The Demon Legacy Series and The Killer Instinct Series.