About J.T. Hall:
J.T. Hall has a bachelor degree in Creative Writing and a Master in Education. She has long been active in the LGBT community and does charity work including AIDS education and suicide prevention. She currently works as a technical writer and lives with her partner and teenaged daughter in sunny Arizona.
What inspires you to write?
I’ve always been a writer, since I was old enough to pick up a crayon. I wrote books before I could even write words, drawing pictures. It’s just part of who I am. I devour books as a reader, I love movies, and I’m inspired by pretty much everything. There’s no greater fun than thinking up characters and making stories about them.
Tell us about your writing process.
I always start with a notebook where I describe the characters. All my books start with characters. Heck, I even give them astrological signs! From there I’ll put in notes about the setting, plot ideas, and any initial research the books needs. I outline only about the first third of the book. By then, the characters usually take over. I have a vague idea of the ending, but I don’t really know what happens until I get there.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I don’t exactly talk to them, (other than to ask them what they’d do in a certain situation). But boy do they talk to me! I’ll have characters that insist on flashbacks about them, or certain scenes they want to have happen. Sometimes they keep me up at night.
What advice would you give other writers?
I really recommend for new writers to find a writing critique group, whether it’s online or in person. The feedback you can get from other writers in your genre is invaluable. Also, don’t forget to study sentence structure and grammar. They’re important.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I’d been submitting short stories to magazines and anthologies long before ebooks, and had several things published. But there’s never been much of a traditional market for risqué things like gay romance or BDSM, until very recently. I self-published a few titles, some of which had appeared earlier in other places. I’m a hybrid author; I’m enjoying the combination of self-publishing some books where I can control the cover, promotions, and schedule, but I still send other projects to publishers. In May and June I’ll be releasing three titles. One will be under my own publishing company. One will be by Torquere Press. And the third will be coming out in an anthology produced by the Goodreads MMRomance group.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I love the new world of publishing and all the possibilities. I particularly like how the gay romance publishers have embraced the future and offer much shorter contracts–three to five years, on average. That way I can take advantage of house editors, covers, and marketing, but still get my rights back before I’m old and gray. I think things will settle down in the publishing world, eventually. I hope that eventually the big publishers will come to their senses and offer fair contracts to writers. But I’m not holding my breath.
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: romance, romance-adult, mystery/suspense, paranormal, LGBT
What formats are your books in?: eBook
Website(s)
J.T. Hall Home Page Link
Link To J.T. Hall Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
