Author Interview: Shoshanna Evers!

I’m quite excited to introduce our second guest to the blog by way of this interview: author and my friend, Shoshanna Evers. Multi-published erotic romance author Shoshanna Evers is published with Ellora's Cave, The Wild Rose Press, Cleis Press (Best Bondage Erotica 2012) and Berkley Heat (Agony/Ecstasy). She’s the editor of the upcoming How to Write Hot Sex: Tips from Multi-Published Erotic Romance Authors. She’s truly an inspiration to me and our mutual friends. Somehow she manages to successfully juggle family life, caring for an active toddler, writing her syndicated advice column, working as a registered nurse and polishing multiple writing projects simultaneously. I always wonder how she does it all, and does it so well. Read on, and let’s find out!

What do you write?

I write romance that tends to lean toward graphic and erotic. The focus is always on the love story, and sex is part of it.

Is it easy? Do you like writing? Do the words fly from your pen?

I love writing, I’ve been doing it since I was a child. And yes, sometimes it feels easy and I’m thinking so fast my fingers can’t keep up—and I’m a pretty fast typist J But sometimes it’s work, when I have a deadline or edits to do and I’m exhausted from chasing my toddler all day. I still sit down and put my hands on the keyboard, which is how I’ve been able to write so many books. You can fix a crappy rough draft, but you can’t revise a blank page.

And what’s the deal with your writing blogs? You also have blogs about writing as a craft, right?

I have a blog for writers called www.TheWritersChallenge.com. It started in 2009 when I decided to get serious about becoming an author and chronicle my journey. I was so very honest and open back then, posting every rejection letter and every story idea. I’m more reserved now that I’m published, because I know people are actually reading the things I blog about. Now I do a lot more in the way of author interviews.

I also do occasional writing challenges (such as #May50K and #Aug40K) and create blogs just for those events so my regular blog doesn’t get overwhelmed. The writing challenges are my way of having accountability when I need to get a certain amount of writing done. Other authors and aspiring writers join in and post their daily word counts so we can cheer each other on. Oh, and I do a group blog called Flirty Author Bitches.

How do you find time?

I make time. The main way is I don’t watch TV, and I stay up late. That’s the main way I find time. One of my friends gets up early before anyone else in her house does so she can sit and work for a bit. I’m a night owl, so I wait for my son to go to sleep and then I hit the computer.

How do you find balance in your life between writing, working, family, chores, son, etc?

There’s no perfect balance, honestly. I wish I could say I’ve found the secret to balancing it all. Everything gets done imperfectly, as far as I’m concerned. When I’m working as an RN, I’m not playing with my son or writing. When I’m writing, I’m not cleaning the house or hanging out with my husband. When I’m with my family and I have a deadline or a story idea I’m excited about, sometimes it’s hard for me to be completely in the moment because a part of me wishes I could be writing. It’s hard. So I just have to accept that nothing is going to be perfect, and that’s okay. That’s the balance, I guess.

Do you feel more fulfilled now than before your wrote professionally – ie, now that you have better balance in your life?

I feel more fulfilled now that I’m getting paid to write professionally because it validates all the time I spend writing. A huge amount of my life is spent in a chair, staring at a computer screen, imagining things, LOL.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed? If so, how do you work through it? Ie, how to you stay balanced in a sometimes unbalanced world?

I’m often overwhelmed because I give myself a lot of projects, but I think I like it that way because I do it to myself all the time. Writing books isn’t just about finding the time to write them, it’s about submitting the manuscripts to my editors or my agent, writing synopses and queries, revising manuscripts, going over contracts, editing a book for content and then doing copy-edits, etcetera. Oh, and promotion. Blog posts, interviews, Twitter, Facebook, conferences, that sort of thing.

I was feeling a bit underworked in July so I created the #Aug40k challenge, to write 40,000 words in August. Then all at once I had major revisions on a book to do, minor revisions on another, copy-edits on another, and submissions from an anthology I’m editing all coming in at once. And I still want to write 40K. There’s no balance there, just a lot of late hours, LOL. You have to love what you do, and then it’s all fun.

Other thoughts?

Thanks for having me on your blog, Jenn! I love to hear from readers and writers. My email is shoshanna.evers @ yahoo. com (no spaces).

Sexily *Evers* After... ShoshannaEvers.com
Titles at Ellora's Cave
Titles at The Wild Rose Press
Agony/Ecstasy, Dec 2011, Berkley Heat
Best Bondage Erotica 2012 , Dec 2011 Cleis Press
Titles on Amazon

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