Welcome Author KJ Reed! She comes bearing fantastic gifts....

Hello my lovely friends,

Today I have a fab friend and a fantastic author, KJ Reed here with us, sharing her writing journey and more J She’s got 12 books contracted and got an agent too! All within 2 yrs of writing. Wowza, isn’t it? I <3 her ;) 

Her books are published with Ellora’s Cave and wow, that makes her my pub sister too !!! Yay J

Btw..It feels wonderful to say that aloud ;) Without much ado, I present you KJ!!!

What steered you towards romantic fiction? And where do you think your stories fit?  (I know I'm sneaking in a second question here, but you can't blame me for curiosity... hehe).

Romance is what I read! I’m truly not someone who likes surprises. Knowing there’s a built-in happy ending makes life a lot easier to handle. The twists and turns of the relationship and their lives leading up to it is enough for me. I love being able to expect the happy ever after (or at least, for the foreseeable future!) in there.

I think my stories fit in with someone who loves mainstream romance, but wants just a little more steam. Not full-blown kink (though that has its place too) but someone who wants that same relationship development, only a more direct eye on the actual physical intimacy.

I love romance for the HEA (HFN) too! I really can’t bear to read tragic endings or ones that leave me hanging!!!

Major milestones in your writing journey so far? And what next?  

As KJ Reed, having 6 books published and 6 more contracted by my 2 year writing anniversary was a pretty awesome milestone.

I think snagging my agent was the best thing so far overall. She’s representing me under a separate pen name for mainstream romance. That’s always exciting, to be able to say “My agent…” :)

See? Like I said, KjßAwesome! And oochi! Isn't her cover awesome too? 

What are some of your writing tips and tricks? 

I’m a total plotter. I can’t pants. It makes me nervous. Plus, as I start writing more series and connected books, it just makes life easier to have things plotted out.

I usually have a notebook dedicated to each active WIP (work in progress) that I keep notes in. I write down all proper nouns (restaurant names, secondary characters, so on), as well as the characters’ physical descriptions. Also notes for what my characters are wearing in scenes if it’s memorable. It helps me keep track and avoid flipping back through the entire manuscript to see if I ever mentioned what my hero’s mom’s hair looked like or what that one store they shopped at that one time was called…

That’s so awesome, KJ! And absolutely opposite of what I do J I usually fly by the seat of my pants ;) And well, I had have my gray-eyed hero’s eyes flash blue once ;) Has that pulled me to plotting? Heck, no! I guess I need to figure out what happens along with the characters, aka, story is as new to me as I read another author’s..LOL! Tried the opposite, but alas, it didn’t work… So I commend you for being such a good plotter :p

What are some of the most important things you have learnt as an author that you didn't when you were a writer? 

I started writing two years ago. And I quickly learned…

You’ll never get it all right all the time. I thought when I first started out that every story had a “perfect” way that it should go. And that once I found that stream of perfection for the book, that it would be golden.

Not so. I could write a book that two thousand people love. One might still hate it. And that’s just life. So I have to write to the best of my ability, and when I’m satisfied with the book, then I release it into the wild blue yonder, and pray it’s well-received.

This, I guess, is the most important part that I might take away! I too feel sometimes that I have to twist my Hero or heroine’s arm so to speak to get to an ending that I want it… Or to pull the story I want it to go. Slowly realizing that it’s best to go with the flow and hope the story is as good on paper as it is in our minds…

Last, but not the least.. Writing vs social networking. How do you find the perfect balance? 

I just try to do what makes me happy. I don’t force social networking. If I have something to say, I say it. If not, I don’t push it. Then it feels and sounds fake, and that’s just sad. If I catch myself reading twitter too much, I just remove the internet from my computer.

Ah! The switching off internet..If only I could do that ;) I keep it open in the name of research and for days do only that..LOL!

Thank you so much for being here, KJ! And I adore your Romanticon "sticky figure" videos…they were absolutely wonderful ;) And girls!!!! You should check it out J

Before(Expectation) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHQ04Po7-lk

After (For realz) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rKmjopPqTo

Thanks for having me as a guest, Ju! Everyone can find me at my website: www.authorkjreed.com, or on Facebook at facebook.com/kjreedbooks or on twitter: @authorKJReed.

And since I just received my first-ever paperback author copies from my anthology, Come Together, why don’t we give one away? I’ll do a random drawing Friday morning and pick a winner from one of the comments in this blog post. (If the winner happens to be international, I’ll offer up the three novellas in ebook format that make up my paperback.)

Squee!!! This is so fab, KJ! I haz envy on the lucky winner already ;)

Do show some comment love for KJ and don’t forget to leave your email id!

Maybe I can go behind the scene and tempt KJ to allow me to peek into her stories… :whistles innocently: and walks away!