Make-Believe Mondays with Missy Jane

Today on Make-Believe Mondays, my guest is Missy Jane.

Missy, first, tell us a little bit about the manuscript you’re working on now.

Missy: My current Work In Progress is a sequel to They Call Me Death, about Andor’s daughter Emily. In Death, he is searching for her and reveals that she is thought to have been kidnapped. They are Golden Eagle shape shifters, but Emily’s mother is human so she has quite a few issues to work out both internally and with the prejudice against shifters in her world.

Debra: Now I'm curious as to whether she has been kidnapped and by who. ;-)

Ray Bradbury said, “We are cups, constantly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.” How do you keep your creative cup filled?

Missy: By reading a lot. I believe most of the authors I admire inspire me. Also my children are such a wonderful resource, I don’t think I would be doing this if it weren’t for them.

Debra: Yes, children are a wonderful treasure, especially the way their imaginations simply take off and fly.

Is there a point when your characters begin to come alive and you can see and hear them?

Missy: Absolutely. I joke about hearing voices in my head, but that’s not far from the truth. It might not be an actual voice, but my characters definitely invade my thoughts to the point where I HAVE to write to get them to leave me alone.

Debra: You've described it very well. Characters and stories certainly can be persistent, somewhat like children if they think we've ignored them too long.

Some very famous authors have played with language, creating words for people or places that no one has ever heard of. Have you ever played with words in that way and if so how?

Missy: Yes. I have a few fantasy novels I’m working on and one in particular involves many different species that came straight from my imagination. A few of the names just popped into my head out of nowhere, and I even googled them to make sure I wasn’t accidentally plagiarizing. When it comes to language, I’m definitely not in league with Tolkien, so I tend to revert back to Latin.

Debra: I'm not sure anyone will ever match Tolkien. And things that come straight from our imaginations are usually the best things.

If there were no categories for books, no reader expectations to meet, and you could create the wildest work of imagination that you could think of what kind of story would that be?

Missy: Probably something along the lines of what I’ve already written. When I began writing I wasn’t even reading Romance yet. Most of my WIP and They Call Me Death, were written without any consideration for genre, or even audience. I was writing for myself and still do that for the most part. I’m an avid reader and if I wouldn’t want to read it I’m not going to write it.

Debra: Then you'll stay true to yourself and never veer off course. That's a very good rule.

Is there anything else you would like to add about the role of imagination, and dreams in creating fiction? Any other message for our readers?

Missy: The possibilities are endless and a writer is truly only limited by his/her own imagination. There may be a lot of books that are similar because they’ve all been inspired by the same stories, but no two are exactly alike. It’s the subtle differences that make reading such a wonderful experience.

Debra: Missy, thank you for joining us here on this Make-believe Monday to share a little bit of the magic of writing with our readers.

Missy: Thanks for having me!

Ms. Missy Jane is the alter ego of a Texas mother of four who has been married to the same wonderful man for thirteen years. About five years ago Missy finished reading a book by Mercedes Lackey and thought "Now, what if..." and a monster was created. Missy now spends most of her time lost in worlds of her own making alternately loving and hating such creatures as vampires, shape-shifters and gargoyles (to name a few). When not writing, she spends her time reading, taking photos of her beautiful daughters and training her husband to believe she's always right. Excerpts from Missy's work can be found at
www.missyjane.com
Missy’s first book, They Call me Death is available from Samhain Publishing

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Debra's News/Debra is Watching:

It was a busy twelve days in Orlando and RT was wonderful as always. Things just get better and better every year! I am already looking forward to RT 2010 which will be in Columbus, OH, not far from my hometown, Springfield, OH. (So you can pretty much count on me being there next year.) ;-)

It was such a joy to be teaching and such a pleasure to meet so many new friends at RT. Can't wait to see everyone's photos.

Flew home on Monday and planned to do a Make-Believe Mondays interview, but my ankles were so swollen I called my Dr. on the way home from the airport. He called in a prescription and got me in to see him the next day. They ran tests, one a scan of my veins, worried I had deep vein thrombosis. I'm happy to report all is well, the swelling has gone down and I'm fine. I try not to miss a week here with the MBM interviews but sometimes things happen. Anyway, it's good to be back!

Check www.debraparmley.com for future book signings and updates. I'm planning to set up a newsletter soon as well.

Authors who wish to be interviewed can find a form on the website as well. I schedule as far as a year out in advance.

Here is the lineup for the next five weeks:

May 4th - Missy Jane
May 11th - Shiela Stewart
May 18th - Maria Geraci
May 25th - Amy Ruttan
June 1st - Judi Fennel