Romance at Heart Magazine Author Interview: Crystal B. Bright

Interview with Crystal B. Bright:

Hi Crystal. Thank you for doing this interview. I would like to welcome you to the Romance at Heart Interview and Author Grilling session. *bg* We are interested to find out as much about you as we possibly can, so lets get started...

- Please tell us about your latest book.

My latest book is a light paranormal romance called Revamped through New Concepts Publishing. The story is about a vampire who is the Prince of Death. He controls death and the balance between life and death. He owns almost all of the business down the famous Virginia Beach strip so he’s wealthy beyond imagination. He has the looks. He has the great clothes. He has everything…including an obsessive-compulsive disorder that’s keeping him from feeding. When he doesn’t feed, he can’t control death. The only person who can help him is a psychiatrist who, through her family lineage, is marked as an Ayudante, or Saver. Unfortunately, she doesn’t believe in any of this. So her job is to revamp the vampire. But will she change in the process?

- What can we expect from you in the future?

More great writing I hope. I’m working on several projects right now. I have a manuscript with a publisher for consideration and I’m hoping that I get an acceptance from them soon. I’m also in the market for an agent. I would really like to break into the big New York publishing market. Wish me luck!

- How do we find out about you and your books?

The easiest way is to go to my website Crystal Bright Writer.com. There you’ll find excerpts, my favorite links and other great bits of info on me and what’s going on in my career. For more information about my published works, Click Here to go to the New Concepts Publishing website, and my New Concepts books.

- How may readers contact you?

I have a contact form on my website that readers can fill out and send to me. It’s at Contact Me Or if readers would like to leave me a comment on my blog, they can do that. I check my blog often. Crystal's Blogspot.

- Do your fans' comments and letters influence you in any way?

Absolutely! They let me know what worked for them in my books, and what, if anything, didn’t work for them in my stories. I’m also getting a lot of reader mail for my excerpt for the manuscript Crazy in Love. This is the book that is currently being considered by a publisher right now. Just from the first chapter excerpt, readers are really interested in this book. I really hope that I hear from the publisher soon and that this book gets published. I’m excited to see it published as much as the readers are.

- Do you have a favorite comment or question from a reader?

My favorite question is “What publisher published Crazy in Love?” What that says to me is that readers like my work and want to read more and that they like what I’m offering them. I just hope I’m writing fast enough for readers!

- How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?

I would love to say 100% but that’s not true. There’s a writing adage that goes “Write what you know.” But really I think it should read, “Know what you write.” I’m a self-admitted lazy writer. I don’t like to do a lot of research. However, when I need to do it, best believe I research the subject to the hilt. For example, for both Kissing Casanova and Gray’s Anatomy, both through New Concepts Publishing and both stories set in the world of professional wrestling, I did do a lot of research including reading biographies and attending actual matches. With Revamped, I read nonfiction books about vampire lore. I didn’t want to read other writers’ books about their interpretation of vampires because I was writing about a different kind of vampire.

- Generally, how long does it take you to write a book?

It depends. Kissing Casanova took no time to write. I think I had it started and finished, the first crappy first draft, within two months. But it took well over a year to revise it and get it to a quality level. Plus with that book, the characters literally talked to me in my head the entire time so I felt more like a stenographer than a writer. I was just the conduit for their story.

Revamped took a little longer to write, maybe six to eight months because of all of the research.

- Do you have a set schedule for writing or do you just go with the flow?

I really need to have a set schedule but, honestly, I write when I can. I have a full-time job during the day so when I come home from work I’m writing or promoting. I do most of my writing on the weekends.

- What is your writing routine once you start a book?

The first thing I do now before starting a book is doing character profiles on each character in the book, primary and secondary, and then I do a loose chapter-by-chapter outline of the entire book. This keeps me on track and keeps me aware of all of the key players in the book. Then I write the dreaded synopsis and I start writing. I like getting the first three chapters down and tweaking them before going on only because I know that these are the key chapters most publishers look at when deciding to read the rest of the book.

- Where do your ideas come from?

Some of my ideas come from dreams. That’s how I got Kissing Casanova. The Casanova character came to me in a dream and just kept taunting me. With Gray’s Anatomy, I thought of the opening line first, the infamous “Okay, take off your pants.” Then I thought of the title. The inspiration for the book came from my research I was doing for Kissing Casanova. I was watching a documentary about professional wrestling and there’s was a scene where a company doctor was working on an aging wrestler. Well, the company doctor in the scene was also the wrestler’s son-in-law. I liked that dynamic and wanted to explore that. The idea for Revamped came much easier. I was watching a marathon of the hit TV shows “Monk”, the show about a detective with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. I thought it would be interesting to make the vampire be the one with OCD.

- Would you like to write a different genre than you do now, or sub-genre?

I have a time travel-historical novel kicking around in my head. It’s been in there for the last couple of years. I’m going to have to write that just to quiet the voices. Otherwise, I’m basically a contemporary romance author who writes with multicultural characters and interracial romances.

- Fill in the blank favorites -

Dessert – cheesecake
City – New York City
Season – Spring
Type of hero – alpha but with a sense of humor
Type of heroine – strong but with a sense of humor

- Who are some of your other favorite authors to read?

I like Jennifer Crusie. She writes tight, snappy dialogue and always has interesting characters. I also read Jackie Collins, Laura Bacchi and Pat White. Pat White and I ‘met’ (online first) because she also has had great success in writing romances with a professional wrestling backdrop.

- Are you a member of any author groups - RWA, critique groups, etc.?

I’m a member of Romance Writers of America and Chesapeake Romance Writers. I don’t have a critique group. I bounce things off of my writer friends and my family.

- Where do you see yourself in five years?

I would love to be writing for a large publishing house like Harlequin or Parker Publishing with a multiple-book contract deal and supporting myself on my writing.

- Have you experienced writer's block---> If so, how did you work through it?

My college professors used to say that writer’s block means that your conflict isn’t strong enough. That was painful to hear but I found it to be true. If your conflict can’t sustain the entire book, yeah, by midway you’re going to peter out. To work through it, I, first, reread the entire book up to the point where I’m blocked and hope that I can just continue on with the flow. If that doesn’t help then I look over my character profile notes and see what each character’s internal and external conflicts are. When I work through those, the block is usually gone.

- What question would you love to answer that I didn't ask?

“Are any of your characters patterned after you?”
I get that question a lot from readers. They’ll ask, “Which one of the characters is really you?” I’ll give some characters a few of my characteristics but that’s it. For example, Soledad, my heroine in Kissing Casanova, is given a book from her favorite author from the hero. I’ve read and enjoyed this same book she’s given. In Gray’s Anatomy, the heroine’s favorite snack is also my favorite snack, frozen grapes. And I must admit. I am a bit of a compulsive person. I do repetitive things and have to have certain things just so. Sometimes my writing suffers for it because at times I refuse to get “messy” with my writing. But I need to do that to keep it interesting and to keep readers reading.

Thank you so much for interviewing me, Rose! I hope you all enjoy my books, Kissing Casanova, Gray’s Anatomy and Revamped, all through New Concepts Publishing.

Keep reading!
Crystal***

Thank you very much Crystal for taking the time with us and answering our questions. I really appreciate this interruption to your busy schedule. Good Luck, and we will be looking forward to the next delightful creation from your talented imagination!

Yours in good reading,
Rose!

Crystal's Website Interview Review Coming Soon
Buy Crystal's Books At Amazon
Buy Crystal's Books at New Concepts Publishing