My Writing Process blog-hop

There's no Eyecandy Monday today! That's because last week I was tagged by Kristina Lloyd for a literary blog-hop and I have to give my answers. So today - What I'm working on, How and Why:

 1) What am I working on?

I'm writing the first 30K novella of four in a series I'm calling The Wheel of the Year. I've got a hard deadline for submission by the end of March, which is going to be ... testing.
The main plot-arc is about a young woman who reluctantly goes off to live with her Great Aunt Moira in a really weird old house in the middle of the country. It's just like those fantasy adventures I used to read as a kid, isn't it?
Of course, the house is not just a house, Moira is not simply - or really - a batty old relative, and there's going to be a ton-load of sex in my heroine's future as she finds herself plunged into legend that will not die, myth that is live and kicking, and a destiny that will change the world.

This is going to be supernatural erotica with a slow build, but not romance, and the idea is to take my heroine on a sexual journey from vanilla to kink as her sexual horizons expand and her self-knowledge grows. It's very pagan. I've been reading up on astrology and tree-magic and Robert Graves and I've been tearing bloody chunks out of all of them as I mold them to my evil will.

Oh, and The Wheel of the Year has turned out to be linked to Wildwood too. It's almost a prequel. This may be a lifelong plot-arc spread over many publishers!

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

Most hardcore erotica writers don't do fantasy - they leave that to the romanticists.
Most paranormal fantasy writers write urban, American and kickass - I've lost track of the number of gun-toting bounty hunters with vampire buddies there are out there in Seattle/Boston/Baton Rouge/NYC/wherethefeckeverUSA - but my worlds and characters are more rural, British and smartass.

So I'm niche, you might say. I'm the nichiest niche writer ever. Watch me not give a crap. Write what you love! You have a hankering for blisteringly dirty troll-sex? Well, read Named and Shamed. You want a freaky trip into deep woodsy legend, Green Men and Camelot and the rites of nature? Hold on for The Wheel of the Year.

3) Why do I write what I do?

Oops, I've already answered that, I think. I write my folklore-fantasy-porn because practically no one else is doing it, and that's what I want to read. I write about sex because I think it's one of the primary motivators in human existence and the most incredible joys in life. I write to make the world look more magical.

4) How does my writing process work?

My successful routine (on a good day), is to grab a cup of tea when I wake up and go straight back to bed to write, until noon and hungry dogs drive me out. I get showered, which is when creative insight will creep up me - snippets of conversation, small details that need to inserted into what's already written, and of course the vital next scene. That gives me enough material to write for a few hours again in the afternoon or evening.
I use a lot of hot water.
I don't plan ahead: I start with mental pictures (I'm very visual), and let the plot evolve on the subconscious level to weave those critical moments together.
I used to read back every day over what I'd written, but I've found that slows me down too much - so unless I have a particular detail I need to change I'm now leaving the tweaking until the first draft is done.

So that's why my blogging is likely to be pretty terse for the next month!
xxx
Janine