Ask the Author: S.D. Skye
Answered Questions (6)
S.D. Skye
Focus on the writing; take every opportunity to learn and hone your craft. Once you have a manuscript written--finished, THEN let it sit while you focus on learning business of publishing from all angles. You need to learn the business (self publishing and traditional publishing) so that you can make educated decisions about your future. Don't go by what are authors or doing. Learn the business so you can make the right choices for your career.
S.D. Skye
Creating worlds for other people to get lost in and characters that make people feel emotion. I mean, how cool is it that someone blesses you with HOURS of their time to indulge in a world you've created? That's the miracle of writing. And you hope the readers come out with more than they've invested at the end--at least you hope they feel that way.
S.D. Skye
I write through it. I don't think there's any other way to effectively overcome it. Most of the time the problem is that I'm writing myself into a corner or my characters are protesting because I'm writing something that is uncharacteristic of them. Taking a minute to quiet myself and "listen" to what the story/characters are trying to say helps. But, ultimately, writing is the cure.
S.D. Skye
I have to say, one thing I’m absolutely never at a loss for is idea. There is ALWAYS something pending in my head. Something I need to finish or begin. So, getting in the mood to write is rarely ever a problem because I need to empty my brain of all this stuff. The hardest part for me is carving out the right time of the day when I can give my best to the work, when my mind is cleared of all the menial jibber jabber and I can actually focus. With a teen son at home, a fulltime 9-to-5 job, and a home to take care of, it’s easy to allow time to get away from you just doing the basics—getting dressed, eating, and commuting. Anything extra requires a conscious effort and a desire…then the drive to make it happen. So “mood� is kind of a misnomer, at least I think it is for most writers. It’s having the space to let your muse run free, that’s what it’s hard to find.
S.D. Skye
I’m working on finishing up the J.J. McCall series and hope to wrap up the entire series by late 2015. Book 3 in the J.J. McCall series—A No Good Itch—will definitely be released in 2014. I can’t wait for this book because I get to write about one of my favorite topics—organized crime. I got to do a little work in that arena in the early days of my FBI career and I love movies like The Godfather and shows like The Sopranos. Understand my fascination does not come from admiration rather I’m intrigued with, aside from money, what makes people choose this life…especially knowing there’s usually only a few ways out and none of them lead to old age and an active living community.
So, with Book 3, the story is set in New York City and I get to pit Russian Organized Crime against the Italian Mafia and the FBI and see who comes out on top. In real life, it doesn’t always work in favor of law enforcement. Sometimes the Bureau wins, sometimes they lose. I can’t wait for readers to see how it plays out. There are a lot of twists and turns and the ending will surely win me my share of hate mail—in a “When’s the next book coming out!?!� kind of way.
So, with Book 3, the story is set in New York City and I get to pit Russian Organized Crime against the Italian Mafia and the FBI and see who comes out on top. In real life, it doesn’t always work in favor of law enforcement. Sometimes the Bureau wins, sometimes they lose. I can’t wait for readers to see how it plays out. There are a lot of twists and turns and the ending will surely win me my share of hate mail—in a “When’s the next book coming out!?!� kind of way.
S.D. Skye
The seed of the mystery in this story is based on a true crime. In 1999, the FBI’s Special Surveillance Group (also called the “Gs�) happened upon a situation that helped the FBI find one of the most surprising breaches in U.S. intelligence history. The Russian Intelligence Service had installed a listening device in the U.S. State Department in a conference room down the hall from the Secretary’s office. I used that case to develop a “What if…� scenario and it leads J.J. and the Task Force on to a pretty massive case. So, this is one instance in which real events are very much mashed up with fictional events to blur the lines between what really happened and what we’ll never know. For that reason, this was a very fun piece to write.
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