When did you first realize you wanted to become a Writer/author?
Cynthia Sax: I’ve always written. When I was a little girl, I’d write fantastical stories in my daily diary. It wasn’t until I was in high school, that I found out people could be PAID for writing. A newspaper asked me to cover a school event for them and they sent me a check for this! That blew my mind!
Where do you get your ideas for your book?
Cynthia Sax: I get my ideas from everywhere—from article headlines, from overheard conversations, from movies and even from soup cans. I keep a list of my top 100 story ideas and ideas are added/erased from that list every day.
What kind of things do you enjoy when not writing?
Cynthia Sax: The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I love to travel. That’s our drug of choice. (grins) And, of course, I read. I first sent one of my romances to a publisher to help pay for my reading habit.
How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?
Cynthia Sax: I started writing short stories and had published well over 100 of those before expanding into longer stories. Right now, I have 64 stories available at booksellers.
My favorite story is always my most recent. That would be Dark Thoughts, a sexy dark SciFi Romance with an enemy-eating, mind-reading, beastly hero.
Do you have any suggestions to help others who have a passion for writing?
Cynthia Sax: Write as often as possible. This is the type of career that requires doing to improve. Does that mean writing every day? It can but that’s not a requirement. When I started, I was working 14 hour days at the business gigs. I sneaked in some writing time during the day (I had a notepad and pen with me always and would write while standing in line at the grocery store) but most of my writing happened on the weekends.
What do you think makes a great story?
Cynthia Sax: If a writer makes me care about the characters, she/he has me as a reader. That sounds simple but making readers care is quite difficult.
Which Writer/Authors inspire you?
Cynthia Sax: There are so many writers who have inspired me. One of my favorite stories as a child was Felix Salten’s Bambi and I think that really shaped my view of what a great story was. It has a happy ending yet is a very dark and truthful story. Bad things happen. Secondary characters die. There’s still hope, however. There’s still joy.
What are you working on at the moment?(optional)
Cynthia Sax: I’m currently writing the second standalone story in the Dark Thoughts series. I’m also waiting for revisions on my next cyborg story (Ghost Of A Machine – releasing in May).
What genre are your books?
Cynthia Sax: I’ve written SciFi, contemporary and paranormal erotic romances. Right now, I’m focusing on the SciFi (including Cyborg) erotic romances. I love being able to leave the planet for a while. (grins)
What drew you to the genre you write?
Cynthia Sax: I love reading SciFi erotic romance. I love the stars (all of that potential), anything about space, and I’ve always been someone who asks ‘What if?’ questions. What if, instead of sending humans into war, we designed half man, half machine beings (cyborgs) to fight our wars for us? What if our world leaders were secretly aliens? What if the Earth had two moons? What would humans look like then?
Which Actor/Actress would you like to see portraying the lead character from your most recent book?(any book you like)
Cynthia Sax: I described Kralj, the hero of Dark Thoughts, to my awesome cover artist Amanda Kelsey. She crafted the cover based on that description and the male, I think, looks very much like Tom Hiddleston. Yum! I also think he’s a very skilled actor and could pull off Kralj’s complex personality.
Do you write full-time or part-time?
Cynthia Sax: I waited until I was 40 years old to ‘retire’ from the business gigs and now, thanks to the Dear Wonderful Hubby paying our bills, I can write full-time.
What is the hardest thing about writing?
Cynthia Sax: The most challenging part about writing is accepting that there’s a luck element to success. We might have written the best book of our lives, poured a gazillion hours and dollars into marketing, and then something will happen on release day to scuttle any hope of success. Or maybe we do exactly the same thing as our writing buddy and she finds amazing success while we can’t sell a single copy. Luck plays a part. Thankfully, this luck gets passed around. Eventually it will be our turn!
Any tips on how to get through the dreaded Writer’s block?
Cynthia Sax: If words dry up for me, it is usually because I’ve made a wrong decision for my characters. I’ve forced them to do something they wouldn’t do. I’ll go back in the story to the place where the words were flowing and evaluate each decision. Changing a decision often removes my writing block.
Do you read much, and if so who are your favorite Authors or genres?
Cynthia Sax: I speed read and average a romance novel read a day. (grins) That’s why I need to publish stories to pay for my reading habit. In the cyborg romance niche, I LOVE Laurann Dohner’s Cyborg Seduction series and Eve Langlais’ Cyborgs: More Than Machines series. They ROCK!
Is there anything else you would like to add that I haven’t included?
Cynthia Sax: I’m always available for answering any questions readers or writers might have. One of the wonderful things about Romanceland is we all help each other.
How can Readers discovery more about you and your work?(please provide proper links)
Bio
About Cynthia Sax
USA Today bestselling author Cynthia Sax writes SciFi, contemporary and paranormal erotic romances. Her stories have been featured in Star Magazine, Real Time With Bill Maher, and numerous best of erotic romance top ten lists.
Sign up for her dirty-joke-filled release day newsletter and visit her on the web at www.CynthiaSax.com
Website: http://cynthiasax.com/
Newsletter: http://tasteofcyn.com/2014/05/28/newsletter/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cynthia.sax
Twitter: @CynthiaSax
Blog: http://tasteofcyn.com/
Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to take part in this interview
Great interview! Thank you.
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