I can’t begin to describe how great today’s guest is. J. Vaughn is not only a fantastic writer, but also the best editor I’ve met. She put her heart and soul in editing and publishing the Hunting Under Covers anthology, and today she’s here to talk about her own story, Pierced, that is part of this anthology.
Hello, J.. Thank you for accepting my invite.
Please tell us a bit about yourself.
J.: Iāve lived all over the world, but am currently very much enjoying Seattle, in spite of the winter rains. I have a full time job in software development, which keeps me quite busy. Iāve been writing a total of about five years (I actually started writing 16 years ago, but I took a 12-year break when my daughters were born).
I am bisexual and recently ended a twenty-one year relationship. Itās for the best, and Iām enjoying singleness and solitude, at least during the weeks when I donāt have the kids. I am appreciating my lovely, teenaged daughters more too when I have them.
My ideal job would be to spend half my time writing and the other half of my time doing volunteer work in developing countries. Perhaps after the kids finish college I can move to Peru or someplace where it might be possible to eat on a writerās income.
You wrote a wonderful hurt-comfort kind of story for the Hunting Under Covers anthology. Where did you get inspiration for Pierced?
J.: I came late to the writing party and the only major theme left that hadnāt been taken was the non-con/dub-con theme. I was fine with that because my writing tends to be dark (but with an HEA). I like throwing my characters into difficult, impossible, or painful situations and seeing what they do and how they change. And Iād been wanting to write a college guy, classic nerd/jock story for a while, so once Iād decided on that, I was off and running ā¦ er ā¦ writing.
I loved the fact that your main character, Kyle, despite being an abuse victim, came off as an extremely strong guy. When you created him, what did you have in mind? Did you research a lot on sexual abuse?
J.: I knew Kyle was a pretty together guy when I started writing him. Heās very young, but heās out and comfortable with himself, and he has the love and support of his family. Heās not a typical victim but I also wanted to show that bad things can happen to anyone. I didnāt do any research specifically for this novel, but sexual abuse is a theme Iām interested in, so I think Iām generally fairly knowledgeable.
In comparison to Kyle, Paul, the other main character, seems the slightly more vulnerable link. He has his own issues that balance out the plot and don’t make Kyle look like a wimp, so to speak. I found that fascinating and it shows how much you master the art of writing. As a result, it made me wonder what a wonderful message your story conveys. For those who haven’t read your story yet, please tell them why they should do it; what do you hope they learn from it?
J.: Unlike Kyle, Paul is definitely conflicted over his sexual orientation. They both need to come to terms with things. Kyle needs to recover from a horrible incident in his life and move on. Paul needs to admit to himself that he is actually gay and that he doesnāt want to stay in the closet forever. This story is about them helping each other out and falling in love in the process. I write mostly for entertainment (my own and my readerās), but Iām hoping the story will make readers think a bit about what makes people strong and what causes them to change.
Are you usually a plotter or a pantser? Did it take you long to write Pierced?
J.: Iām definitely a pantser. I usually have a plot bunny to get me startedāoften itās a line from a songābut sometimes I donāt know what is going to happen until I actually write it. Things even happen in my novels that catch me by surprise. I donāt think a lot about my characters in advance, they just develop themselves during the course of the story. And even though I do a ton of editing, I rarely drop or rewrite whole scenes. Usually after a stint of getting it onto paper (metaphorically speaking, of course) I go back and read it and decide I like it.
We didnāt have much time to put the anthology together. It took me about three weeks to write Pierced and a few more weeks to edit it.
Not only did you write a great story for this anthology, but you also edited everyone else’s writing, published the book and monitored the downloads, which is a work in progress to this day. What part of these was the most difficult? Do you have any advice for those who plan on self-publishing?
J.: I love editing, so that was fun. I also used to teach desktop publishing and am fairly technical so getting it looking nice and output into all those formats, while time-consuming and a bit frustrating at times, was not hard. For me probably the most difficult part is all the interactions with people that I need to do to get something like this done and to do the associated marketing. (LOL! Like giving interviews.) Iād much rather spend my time writing fiction than chasing down issues and writing blog posts. But like with any job, thereās good and bad.
Advice? Allow yourself plenty of time. If you donāt have skills in an area, hire that out. Make sure your work is well-edited and copy-edited. Donāt price it too high (Smashwords has some great free resources for self-publishers), and plan to spend a lot of time promoting it, especially if youāre an unknown author.
Do you have photos of your main characters’ look-alikes?
J.: I do actually. I typically donāt find photos of my characters before I start writing. Sometimes enthusiastic readers will send some in to me after Iāve published. In this case I had started writing the story, and then happened to be browsing through some photos Iād downloaded from the Internet a while back thinking I might use them for inspiration some day. Two of them were perfect for Paul and Kyleāwell, the Kyle picture is sans piercingsāmaybe it was taken before he got them.
Ā Paul:Ā
Kyle:
Finally, please tell us where can readers find you.
Twitter:@authorjvaughn
Thank you so much for being here, J..Can’t wait to talk to you again!
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Shayla Mist 