Hey ya'll! It's good to be back! Without further ado, I bring you our author of the week!!
Please welcome our Author of the Week, Korissa!
1 - How did you get into writing? I’ve always enjoyed writing, but I hadn’t written anything for myself in years. My daughter is in middle school and she wanted to read the Twilight books. I didn’t know anything about them, so felt like I needed to read them first. I read all four in a week. Could. Not. Put. Them. Down. The story resonated with something inside me. After re-reading the series, I started to seek out anything twi-related and found a link to Wide Awake by AngstGoddess003 in a news article. I was HOOKED on fan-fiction from there. (I think I like it better than the books.)
I have a very busy life. I have a husband, four children, sit on a couple PTA and foundation boards, I run a business and am working on my MBA. What fan-fiction provided me, for the first time in years, was cutting time out of my day for me. If I took the time to read before, I read business books or self-help books. Reading fan-fiction was just for me, and I loved it.
I had wanted to write a story for a long time, one night I just decided it was time. (Cue the impulse control issues!) I clicked on the TwilightAwards site and closed my eyes as the contests were scrolling through and landed on Twi-Slash Unveiled. It probably made it little easier that it was an anonymous contest.
2 - What turned you on to slash? When I wrote the one shot for the Twi-Slash Contest, I only knew of one gay person I was semi-close to. Some of my Edward’s background are based on him. He’s one of the best people I know and if my story has touched anyone, it’s thanks, in part, to his heart. The first “slash” fics I ever read were the other contest entries. To be honest, I was dumbfounded when I won runner-up, but I was FLOORED when readers asked me to continue it. It took me a long time to decide, but when I chose to continue it, I knew I needed to do it right. This was no longer a spur-of-the-moment-decision story, I felt like I had to honor those reviewers who loved my boys enough to want to see how their story played out.
The first thing I did when I posted the entry to FanFction.Net was ask my readers for slash recommendations. I got lucky because I have the greatest readers who shared with me, the best of the best that slash had to offer. I read TONS of slash and I loved it. There is something about a boy/man making that choice with his heart with another boy/man that is so beautiful.
3 - What updates are you sure not to miss? ::rubs hands together and smiles:: Hmmmmmm My must-read-now list consists of Uncomfortable by Savannah_Vee, It’s Fate by OCDJen, I Wept Not by ArcadianMaggie, and Lessons Learned by MistyHaze420, but I love SO many others. I’m pretty much a slash hoor, so I try to read all the updates as soon as I can.
4 - What is your favorite story, both popular and not popular?
That’s a hard question, all-time favorite? I vacillate between Over the Top by Starfish422, Right There by OCDJen and Rediscovering What Matters by Rmhale, oh, and I adored Just Like Chocolate by FarDareisMai2. All very popular fics, please don’t make me choose! I’ve said this to you, but the same could be said about all these stories. I love my boys more, because I loved their boys first.
I’m not sure about a “non-popular” story, this one still has more reviews than my story, Angel of God J. It hasn’t been updated in a while, but it has a special place in my heart, Southern Comfort by Bookbag. I loved in Mississippi for seven years and have a bit of the south in my soul.
I’m finding that I enjoy lesser known fics a lot though. One of my goals is to read more of them and support new authors the way I have been blessed to be supported. I TRY to read the fics of all my reviewers. They take the time to read what I write and I think it’s important to read what they write. (I’m so behind, though, it’s embarrassing.)
5 - When you write your boys, do you see the actors that play them, or someone different?
You know it’s funny, I don’t. I have a file of pictures (because eventually one day I’ll learn to make a banner or blinkie!) but I don’t necessary see them as anyone other than themselves. I had a “muse” for Edward, but Edward has really grown into his own character and my Jasper, whom I adore, kind of developed on his own. In a movie, I suppose it would be the canon Twi-actors for the main characters. I’m not sure about my Edward’s dad, he’d be a simple handsome man, I guess. Please, don’t ask me to picture Edward’s 13 brothers and sisters though! J
6 - If you could spend the day inside your favorite author's head, who would it be and why?
Oh. My. Goodness. The first author that popped in my head was MrsTheKing. I love Gynazole because of it’s irreverent humor. I mean, how many politically incorrect things can you place in a fic and make it work? I tend to think her brain works like mine. I’m always on, my brain rarely shuts down. I think my “voices” have voices. BUT I tend to have internal boundaries of propriety, probably from my strict catholic upbringing (says the girl who writes slash…) I would love to be able to just let go the way she does
I’m gonna cheat and give you my second name because she’s a slash author. I would also love to live in Rmhale’s head for a day. One, because she once told me that her hubs was her muse for some of the scenes in Rediscovering What Matters and I love to see love in all it’s forms and two because her Twitter boy-porn is my guilty pleasure. Seriously, she has to have a separate hard drive for all that fabulous smut.
7 - Regardless of storyline, who writes the best humps that leave you wet and begging for more?
This is the hardest question, I actually skipped it and came back.
I’m turned on by feelings, the reaction of two characters caught up in the moment. They don’t have to be against the wall or over a counter (however, I’m not opposed to that either).
I like a strong man (for slash or otherwise). I like a man to know what he’s doing and be so in love with his partner that he will worship that partner’s body with his mind, body and soul. THAT makes me wet. I’ve found that consistently, with several authors, Rmhale, OCDJen, MistyHaze, Whitlock-Masen for slash. SnowqueensIcedragon, TaraMeSue, Ms Kathy, and SebastienRobichaud for non-slash. Ms. Kathy for both really. The Trip Home - hotness personified.
8 - Do you post on any other fandoms?
Angel of God is also on Twilighted. Twilighted is the reason I have betas. My story was out right rejected because of tensing issues. I was overwhelmed at the concept of a beta, whether or not to get one that was strong in grammar or one that had a strong background in slash since I lacked so much experience in this genre. I ended up going to Project Team Beta who gratefully took on my story. There were over 500 grammatical errors in the one shot! ::hangs head low and wonders how this story EVER got off the ground:: I now WORSHIP the ground by betas walk on (and write better, hopefully)
9 - Do you listen to music when you write, and if so, does it influence what you write?
I am just discovering I probably have ADD (when I mentioned this to a high school girlfriend of mine over coffee, she said, “Ya think? I’ve known that for 20 years!”) So I don’t listen to music because it takes me out of the writing zone. Honestly, I write because my Edward and Jasper tell me their story (my voices and their voices). Writing clears my head in a way nothing else does, it’s cathartic for me. I’m also not very creative. I write what I know. Bella and Rose’s house, is based on the one my hubs lived in, in college. Over the summer I went to the beach and saw kite-boarding for the first time and “knew” in my head that Jasper would love that sport.
I am inspired by music though.
10 - Would you ever write something out of your comfort zone? Why or why not?
Slash was out of my comfort zone, so I guess, yes. I’m currently enrolled in Project Team Beta’s Smut University and it’s all about getting comfortable with writing lemons. I’m actually working on a threesome one shot as my “graduation” piece. THAT is definitely out of my comfort zone, but intriguing to see if I can make it work.
I’m a person that pictures a scene in their head first, which is why I read a lot of slash in the beginning. I didn’t have the knowledge to “picture” it. I have ALWAYS had propriety-boundaries, sexual lines in the sand. Writing has allowed me to blur a lot of those lines and to just be. I use that part of me as a basis for some of my Edward’s reactions. He has a lot of me in him and just as he’s trying to let go of the things that bind him so tightly, I guess I am too.
Brilliant! Now, go check out Korissa's work! She's so fab!