About Pandora Pine:
Sick of the slogging rat-race of her 9-5 job, Pandora Pine put pen to paper (literally!) to make her ambition of becoming a romance novelist a reality. She cut her teeth in the dog-eat-dog world of fanfiction, still dreaming of the day when she would be a published author. She lives in Massachusetts with her blabbermouth muse and their fictional black kitten, Jack, whom you’ll meet in Pandora’s novel, Just Say Yes!
She is forever grateful to her writer friends who brainstorm with her and help her corral all her plot tribbles. They can also be relied upon to delete her eclectic internet browsing history in the event of her sudden death. Said browsing history is filled with erotic research (Read: porn!) for her next novel.
In her spare time, Pandora fancies herself an amateur nature photographer. She enjoys mucking around in swamps, hiking through the woods and crawling around on her hands and knees in her backyard seeking out the perfect shot. Pandora is a fan of roadside seafood shacks and always thinks Mexican food is a good idea at the time.
What inspires you to write?
Inspiration comes in so many forms. I was scanning the Alex and Ani website several months ago looking for a birthday present for a friend of mine and a sand dollar charm bracelet caught my attention. Half an hour later, I had sketched out a brief idea about a run-down hotel on Cape Cod being renovated for its grand opening. The contractor doing the renovations and an author who wrote a bestseller and hadn’t been able to write a word since stopped by to tell me their names. Two days later, this idea had expanded to a four book series, one for each season, with eight amazing leading men who dropped in to introduce themselves and tell me a bit of their story.
I did find a birthday present for my writer friend and she bought me the sand dollar bracelet for MY birthday! Look for the Sand Dollar Shoal Series in January 2017!
Tell us about your writing process.
I like to work from an outline when I write, but that doesn’t mean my characters stick to it! Sometimes story ideas strike out of the blue and I try to never be anywhere without a notebook and pen. My outlines can start on a brightly colored sticky note or on a blank page of a notebook. I usually gather all the notes together and type it up Word.
When I’m working on a new idea, I always create character sketches. The first step in that process is to decide height and hair and eye color. Once I know those things, I search Google for an actor who closely matches those characteristics. It makes it easier to fill in tiny details as the story progresses.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
My characters speak and I listen for the most part. I was working on book two of the Student Bodies series when the characters for book four stopped by to introduce themselves over breakfast one morning. Within five minutes, I had a full character sketch for each of my leading men. I thought we were done, but later when I was brushing my teeth, they gave me the title of the book and a brief synopsis. What a great way to start my morning!
I will ask my characters questions when I’m stuck on something. Why are you afraid of thunderstorms? What life experience would make you an excellent father? I’ll usually ask these questions while I’m getting ready for bed. Nine times out of ten, I’ll wake up with the answer!
The scariest thing is when the character voices are silent. For me that usually happens when I’m sick or very busy with other things like a deadline at work or Christmas. The first time this happened, I was sure I’d never be able to write another word! Now I understand when things calm down and the holidays are over, my characters will be back chatting my ears off!
What advice would you give other writers?
The best advice I can give another writer is to go for it! For me, I started reading fanfiction and decided to give writing it a try. It was a HUGE leap of faith to hit the publish button. From there I found enough confidence to reach out to other authors and I was able to surround myself with some really amazing friends! That would be my second piece of advice, reach out to others who share your passion. These women are there for me when my characters stop talking. They are my beta readers and my brainstorming buddies. We all understand each other and what its like to go through the highs and lows of the creative process.
Another piece of advice is to NEVER let anyone tell you that you can’t do it. You can! Don’t let anyone stop you! My favorite book out of everything I’ve ever written would never have come to be if I’d listened to friends of mine who told me it was a stupid idea and no one would ever read it!
How did you decide how to publish your books?
My best friend and fellow romance writer decided to give self-publishing a try in July of 2015. She assured me I could do the same thing. It took some poking and prodding but one month later, my first book was published on Amazon! Now I have five books published and two more available for pre-order! Thanks to my friend, I get to live my dream every single day of my life. There is no way I can ever thank her enough for believing in me!
For me, self-publishing was the quickest way to introduce my characters to the world! Over the last few months, I’ve reached out to a publishing house that specializes in LGBT fiction. It’s a goal of mine to be professionally published, but if that doesn’t happen, it’s okay because all of my work is self-published. I have no regrets about self-publishing and don’t pay any attention to people who think that I’m not really a published author. Like I said in the advice section, go for it!!
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think this is an amazing time to be a writer, but an even better time to be a reader! Most of the traditional publishing houses are not publishing LGBT fiction which is a shame because there are so many readers out there clamoring for books in this genre. Self-publishing is allowing writers like me to get my books to the people who want to read them.
In the future, I would love to see an MM romance novel hit number one the New York Times Bestseller List!
What do you use?: Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: Gay Romance, MM Romance, Historical Romance
What formats are your books in?: eBook
Website(s)
Link To Pandora Pine Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
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.
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