Monday Writing Meme

Hey everybody!  I hope you had a good weekend.  Mine was spent with words, so obviously it was fantastic.  I swear, what drives me to work so hard throughout the week is to simply make time to read or write.  And I'm totally fine with that.

Anyway, here are some random questions for the Monday Meme.  You know the rules: there are none.  Just let me know if you post it so I can stalk you check it out.

1.  When did you decide to take a real swing at writing?  Or have you yet?  I have.  I remember writing my first book, finishing it and being all, "Well, no one's allowed to read that mess!"  But then I wrote my second book and thought I should let someone read it.  The safest person was my best friend and she demanded to read more and I thought maybe I was on to something.  I've been dedicated to writing ever since.

2.  Who is your writing role model? Any one who writes everyday while living and working like a "normal" person is my hero.  It's so hard and so admirable.  Also, J.K. Rowling.  She wrote these little books that I'm sure you've never heard of and I remember reading the first chapter and hoping someday I could take someone to another world like she took me.

3.  If you've been published, what is your favorite part of your job?  If not, what do you look forward to?  Not published YET. :)  I would love, love, love to sit and talk to people about books, mine or others.  Since I write mostly YA, the idea of sitting down with teens who love reading makes my heart grow like the Grinch's. Also, just holding my own book would blow my  mind.

5. What inspires you? I love finding out how people deal with weird things.  I'm a people watcher and, even when I was little, I would watch people and wonder what their lives were like.  Then I would think that maybe they looked normal but really they were a secret superhero or a government agent and wondered how they dealt with that.  This explains all of my books so far.

6. What traits shows up in all of your characters, if any?  Hmm, they all have secrets and I put them in odd situations.  And most of the guys are tall.  That's a personal preference from the writer. ;)

7. Biggest pet peeve in books? Probably cliffhangers that don't answer the questions that are posed in the beginning of that book.  Some loose ends are fine but... we'll just say that there have been times I've read the first book, didn't have any answers and refused to finish the series because of it.

8. Have you ever based a character on a real person?  Not totally.  I take little traits from people I know and use them sometimes.  The mom is KILLER CUPCAKES reminds me a lot of my mom.  All of my guy friends had a crush on my mom and she thought that was awesome. ha!


9.  Do you tell people that you're writing a book?  Sometimes.  I still feel a little silly telling some people what my books are about or that they are YA.  I hate that, "Oh, so you're writing another Twilight?" question because A) I wish, and B) People that ask those questions are helplessly ignorant.

10. Pantser or Plotter?  And why?  Pantser and mainly because writing an outline makes me feel itchy and committed, and I hate that feeling.