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What is your perfect writing atmosphere?
Quiet
house. Nobody home. An icy cold glass of water by the
computer and something to snack on - preferably something
healthy, but more often than not, some kind of sweet that's
no good for me.
Would you call yourself a "pantser" or a "plotter"?
I'm a little of both. I
plot out just enough so I know where I'm going and roughly
how I'm going to get there, but I allow for surprises along
the way. Some of the best characters and situations come
from surprises that crop up during the writing process.
What leads you to the characters you write about and all the
different sub-genres?
A
short attention span. No, seriously. I love all kinds
of sci fi, fantasy, military characters, and more. I like to
have multiple projects going at once so I can switch off
when the mood strikes. Just this past week I've been
finishing up my next futuristic and took a day or two to
work on my next dragon book
in the middle there. It helps me keep everything fresh and
clears my mind while also making the story new and exciting
when I return to it.
Where were you when you got your first contract? Who did you
tell first?
My first contract ever was
for a very short story titled One & Only, which
coincidentally has recently been expanded to a novella and
will be re-releasing in early November from
Samhain Publishing. The
contract was from a now-defunct ebook publisher, so I got
the offer by email. My family was the first to hear the news
and they were as happy for me as I was. The story had been
an entry in a contest and while it hadn't won the contest,
it had been deemed good enough to be published on its own. I
owe a lot to that little story.
What character or couple would you love to bring to life, if
you could & why?
Tor, my baby Ice Dragon.
Why? Well, he's sort of my imaginary friend. I like to
imagine he's towering over my back while I'm hunched in
front of the computer screen. He's watching everything I
write and making comments like "Oh, good one!" or "Hmm,
maybe not that word." LOL. He's a cutie and one of my
all-time favorite characters.
What are some of your favorite things in life?
Art in all its forms. I
play a few instruments and considered making a living as
a professional musician for a long time. I also sculpt, draw
and design jewelry. You may have seen some of my
digital art creations (I'm
still very much a novice at that, but enjoying the learning
process) on my blog. I do a thing called "Wallpaper
Wednesday" almost every week where I offer one of my
digital art creations as a
free desktop wallpaper. Some relate directly to my books,
some are just cool knights or fairies or space dudes or
whatever.
If I followed
you for a day, what would I see or experience?
Not much. My life used to
be much more exciting when I was a commuter who worked in
Manhattan, but now I mostly
putter around the house, writing and doing chores as the
mood strikes me. I planned my escape from the corporate
world very carefully and I relish my freedom to do what I
want to do when I want to do it, but pesky housework is
always there. It's a bummer. So on a typical day at home
(when I'm not traveling, which I do frequently), I get up
whenever (No more alarm clocks! Yay!), mosey down to the
computer room and turn everything on. I check email, see if
I need to blog anywhere, and generally figure out what I
need to do that day. I write when it's quiet and if I'm on a
creative streak, sometimes I write late into the night. I
take a break at some point to watch the news or listen to
talk radio, do some sculpting, or putter in the garden, then
shift upstairs sometime after midnight where I have my
laptop set up to capture any last minute thoughts. That's
about 3-4 days out of each week. The other days I'm usually
traveling to see my folks who live on a small farm in
another state. We're very close, so I go to their place
about half-time during the summer and a little less than
that during the winter.
Does music influence your writing? If so, do you do sound
tracks for your books?
I don't do soundtracks for
my books like some writers. I was a professional musician
for a lot of years and music influences my writing in
unexpected ways. I also have ecclectic tastes in music. In
my car I have everything from my favorite Canadian folk
singer, to movie soundtracks, to classic rock bands, to the
waltz king of Europe's orchestra. Sometimes a piece of music
will inspire a scene. There's one scene in a WIP that's an
actual ball - like the old fashioned Regency balls with
ladies in long gowns waltzing with dashing rogues. I bet you
can figure where that came from. I do some of my best
plotting in the car while I'm driving, so various pieces of
music will sometimes influence certain scenes but I don't
write with music on in my office unless I'm trying to drown
out family noise somewhere else in the house. ;-)
Some authors say they are open to bribes to drop hints. If
you would be, what type of bribe would it be? (not saying
that you are or anything)
Chocolate. Mmmm... Lindt
milk chocoloate truffles. Hell, even Hershey's Cookies n'
Cream bars. I'm disgustingly easy! LOL. I shouldn't eat it,
but I do love it. But you don't really have to bribe me for
hints. I love to talk about my work and there's no incentive
like someone who actually wants to hear about my books!
Is there anything you want to write but haven't?
I write pretty much
whatever pops into my head. Finding a publisher for it, on
the other hand, is the real trick. I'd love to find a home
for some of my contemporary stories and some of my more
ambitious WIP's. I've got a lot of military heroes both in a
contemporary setting and in some "space opera" type settings
that I want to finish up and send on their way one of these
days, but the contracted works take precedence, of course.
What do you currently have in the wings and what is just
around the corner?
I have two print releases
in the next few months. My newest paranormal menage, called
Sweeter Than Wine, releases at the end of October, then the
second book in my futuristic Resonance Mates series, Davin's
Quest, comes out in print at the end of December. As for
ebooks, my next release is on November 7th. It's the greatly
expanded and revamped vamp novella titled, One & Only, from
Samhain Publishing. The followup tale, titled Rare Vintage,
will probably be out in February. Then I have another print
release - a dragon book this time, called FireDrake, at the
end of March.
How can a reader contact you and/or find out what you are
doing?
My website is large and
ever-expanding. There's lots of information there to surf
through. It's located at
www.biancadarc.com.
I also have a blog where I post almost daily with different
tidbits. It's at:
http://biancadarc.com/blog/.
If you want to chat, I have a chat group on
Yahoo at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BiancaDArc/,
and if you just want the facts, delivered once a month,
check out my newsletter group at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BiancaDArcNews/
Anything else you would like to tell the readers?
I just want to thank you
for inviting me to do this! I had a ball and I hope, if
you've managed to read this far, you enjoyed it too. All my
best to my bunny-ear-wearing friends at Joyfully Reviewed!
Thanks so much for spending some time with us Bianca.
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