Every Other Friday - Casey Wyatt

Casey Wyatt says she has no personal knowledge of the paranormal, but she hopes someday that may change. "If there are ancient Gods, elves or satyrs living nearby, they’re more than welcome to visit. Bring pizza and chocolate please!"

Her paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels have won or placed in numerous RWA contests. Casey’s first novel, Mystic Ink was published January 2012 by Soul Mate Publishing. Her latest release, The Undead Space Initiative was published July 2012 by Pink Petal Books. Both books are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other fine booksellers. When not writing, Casey enjoys time with her family, loves to read, and enjoys knitting and crocheting.

She lives in a bustling Connecticut town with her husband, two sons and an assortment of pets (none of which are shape-shifters). Visit Casey on the web: www.caseywyatt.com or at http://secretsof7scribes.wordpress.com/. You can also find Casey on Facebook and Twitter (@CaseyWyatt1).

Tell me about The Undead Space Initiative.

Cherry Cordial, vampire stripper extraordinaire, spectacularly messes up her life with a single act of kindness. How could she have known when she rescued gorgeous rogue Ian McDevitt that she would be implicated in the vampire queen's murder? Soon, she faces the wrath of the entire vampire community. To escape retribution, she joins a settlement program to colonize Mars. Her choices are grim: hurtle through space to the red planet to face the unknown and possible death, or stay on Earth and face certain annihilation. To make things even more complicated, a certain gorgeous rogue seems to be shadowing her every move...

What drove you to write The Undead Space Initiative?

The funny thing is, I almost didn’t write the book. At first the idea seemed so crazy – vampires on Mars. But the more I thought about it, the cooler the idea sounded. If you think about it logically, who better to colonize Mars? Vampires, zombies and revenants are all dead. They don’t need to breathe, eat food or sleep. Gamma radiation and extreme temperatures won’t impact them like it would us frail humans.

Who did you write it for?

When I write, I’m largely doing it for me and because I want to share my stories with others. With this story, I just had to do it. It was really too much fun to pass up.

What were your biggest obstacles?

My biggest obstacle as always is, my buddy, The Doubt Monster (if you’re curious about him, visit me at my website or the 7 Scribes blog). He dogs me with every story I write. This book, because it was mixing paranormal characters in a sci-fi setting was a bit daunting. My big fear was that no publisher would want it. Turns out I was wrong. So take that Doubt Monster!

What are your productivity tips?

Be open to other ways of writing. I’m a reformed pantser, and I’ve learned the hard way that trying to wing it doesn’t really work for me. I spend a month or two planning, plotting and brainstorming before I start writing. Once I sit down to actually write the book, I can usually finish it in 6-8 weeks. The Undead Space Initiative was completed in about 6 weeks. While I’m actively writing, my daily goal is between 2,000-4,000 words.  If I write anything less, I feel like a slacker!

My biggest tip is to keep writing and realize that there will be times that you’ll believe everything you’re putting on the page is junk. Later when you have the first draft done, that may be true (or not!), but you’ll never get to the end if you don’t keep going. It is really okay to write messy. Remember, that’s what editing is for. It can all be fixed. It’s not like we’re chiseling words into a slab of marble, right?

Another tip, don’t spend years working on the same book. Finish it and move on. I really do believe that the only way to become a better and faster writer is to write lots of stories. Whenever I start obsessing about plot or grammar, I think about this quote by John Rodgers - "You can't think yourself out of a writing block, you have to write yourself out of a thinking block."