Guest Author JC WALLACE - M/M and Paranormal Romance Best Seller! (And Freebie!)

A warm welcome to JC Wallace, bestselling author of M/M contemporary and paranormal romance. Now’s your chance to peek behind the novels to meet the author who pens these marvelous stories!

You’re from NY. Tell us about where you grew up.

I was born and raised in a small town in the beautiful Adirondack Mountains of NY and live on the border of Vermont. I spent my summers swimming in Lake Champlain and playing in the mountains. The street I lived on had tons of kids and we all played and grew up together. I don’t live too far from that small town now.

Tell us about your family.

I have three children, two girls and a boy, ages  21, 18 and 10, a grandson who is a year old and a granddaughter on the way. They are awesome and the best!

What was your major in college? Tell us about your current job.

I had planned to major in writing/English Lit, but ended up in psychology/counseling and now I’m a Behavior Analyst with individuals with autism and behavior challenges. I love my job.

What do you do besides working and writing?

I love to read all types of M/M, especially paranormal romance. I’m pretty much M/Ms bitch, lol, and it’s all that I read.

Yes, and how many M/M books have you read?

Over two thousand, at least. Thank god for e-books or I’d need a larger house! P.S. Not really cause I really only read electronic books. I haven’t bought a paperback fiction book in years. The reason being that I am constantly on my computer and Nook and iPhone writing, reading and doing work and, oddly enough, my eyes now have a hard time reading printed books. 

Wow! That is a LOT of reading! I would say that makes you quite an expert in the genre. What inspired you to start writing?

I always enjoyed writing as a kid. I wrote throughout my teens and early twenties. When college and kids came, I put it away. I came back to it about two years ago. Last year, I finally decided to seek publication and was pleasantly surprised when that happened.

What, in your opinion, are the most important elements of good writing?

·      Good writing requires many elements in my opinion. First, being able to write and get to the point, without overloading with unnecessary words, and metaphors and similes is important. I like writing that is crisp and clean, that avoids passive voice, and avoids overuse of adverbs.

·      Setting and characters are just as important as plot. Characters can't be out there in white space (no mention of setting). Good writing weaves setting into the interactions of the characters and avoids paragraphs of description. One thing to remember with main characters is depth. They need histories, futures, wants and desires, likes and dislikes and faults. Good writing makes characters real, human. Secondary characters are just as important. It isn't all about the MCs. Paying attention to secondary characters creates additional layers in a story, but shouldn’t muddy it up.

·      Plot!!! Plot, plot, plot! Have one! Also, good writing follows the mechanics of story writing. Every story, play, movie, TV show, etc. follow a story arc. Ignore that and the reader will be thrown off and may feel cheated. I don’t plot out my stories on paper, but in my head, I’m always thinking about the plot points and where they fall in the story.

What comes first, the plot or characters?

It's different with every story. The idea for Dare To Love Forever came from wanting to do a unique vampire story and reading about the concept of Tabula Rasa (blank slate) online. What if, as a vampire, you bit someone and wiped his or her mind clean?

Curiosity Killed Shaney came about from the statement, "Someday your curiosity will get the better of you."

My short story Waiting for Snow, came from the idea of a man shunned by his family and church for being gay. On Christmas Eve, he’s standing outside of that church while mass is going on inside. He is alone, having lost everything. I also added another idea to that story about finding love at a stop light.

All a story needs is one seed of an idea and it can roll down that slope and gain speed and before you know it that story is something awesome!

Are you working on anything at the present you would like to tell us about?

I have several WIPs. I am part of a group called Wednesday Briefs, that does weekly flash fiction using a list of prompts provided our leader. Each week, I post an installment. The current story is called The Hollow: Soul Seekers. Levi is nineteen and has suffered from some level of anxiety most of his life. He feels hollow inside, incapable of real feelings and emotions. He fears that the meds he is taking is what is causing his inability to feel. When he stops his meds, he experiences moments when he feels something, but soon realizes these moments correspond to the appearance of a mysterious man in black. When his emotions spiral out of control, Levi needs answers, which come from his old college professor. What she tells him lies in the realm of the unbelievable, however soon Levi’s life is danger and he must turn to an unexpected source for help.  

Check out Levi’s story at Wednesday Briefs.

My past flash fiction, Diventando: The vessel is a story about Owen who has been sick with leukemia over half of his life. When his illness returns, he decides enough is enough, and he wants to spend his remaining time living life to the fullest. He meets Turk, a gorgeous car enthusiast who is also a college professor. Before Owen has a chance to spend any time with Turk, his illness returns. Owen heads to the doctors to find out how much time he has left. Not only is he told that he is not dying, but also that he's never had leukemia. What Owen learns lurks inside of him is worse than death from any cancer and the role Turk place in that truth is even more surprising.

Keep up to date on the publication of Owen’s story at www.jcwallacebooks.com.

JC has generously offered to give a free ebook download of Dare to Love Forever to a lucky reader! Just post a comment here, and we will pick a winner and JC will let you know!

Happy reading, Best, Claire