Mocha Girls Read is taking time out to chat with published authors. We have asked HonMag PR to help us get in contact with authors and see if they would be willing to sit down and chat with us.
HonMag PR was founded in 2018 by Tia Kelly, HonMag PR specializes in promoting novels that contain at least one main character who is a person of color.
This morning we are pouring a cup of coffee and sitting down to chat with author A. C. Arthur.
Who is A. C. Authur?
AC Arthur was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland where she currently resides with her husband, three children, grandson and an English bulldog named Vader. An active imagination and a love for reading encouraged her to begin writing in high school and she hasn’t stopped since.
Working in the legal field for over twenty-five years, AC has seen lots of horrific things and longs for the safe haven of a romance novel. To date, she has written in several genres: YA paranormal (w/a Artist Arthur), small town romance as Lacey Baker, and sexy contemporary and paranormal romance. With intriguing plots and sexy love scenes, AC brings a new edge to romance!
Welcome, A.C. Thank you so much for joining us today and for being our author today. We have a few questions we would love to ask you. The rules are simple. You MUST answer 10 questions. You can pass at any time and we will pull another question but you must answer 10 of them. OK! Here we go.
MGR: For your first question. Does writing energize or exhaust you?
ACA: It depends on which part of the story I’m writing. The beginning of a book is always the most tedious for me, but once I get past the first 10K I know the characters better and feel more confident about where the story is going.
MGR: That is so true about so many things. The starting is the hard part. Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?
ACA: Yes, and I do. I’ve written young adult books under the name Artist Arthur (which is actually my real name, so I guess A.C. is the pseudonym, lol). I also write heartwarming romance under the name Lacey Baker. I do this so my readers can be sure of what type of story they’re getting when they pick up a book written by me. A.C. readers know they’ll get a steamier love story than Lacey Baker readers. I didn’t use a pseudonym for my paranormal because the promise of a steamy love story is still there, and I felt the covers would distinguish the fact that one book was contemporary, and one was otherworldly.
MGR: How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?
ACA: It was the editorial process that really changed me. My first book was written partly during my lunch hour at work and during the time I was home taking care of my daughter. When I sold that book and received the edits it dawned on me how poorly I’d written the book, from grammar to formatting to plotting. After that, I made a concerted effort to learn more about the craft of writing and to make each book better as I went along. I’m reading a lot of my early books now trying to decide which ones to re-release and I can see the steady growth between each one.
MGR: Amen to growth! How many unpublished or half-finished books do you have?
ACA: Currently, I have 6 unpublished books and about two dozen proposals (synopsis + first 3 chapters) that were pitched but didn’t sell to a publisher.
MGR: Wow! That is impressive. What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
ACA: It depends on what type of book I’m writing. When I write paranormal, at the start of the series I do lots of online research about the world I’m trying to build. In some cases, I’ll also purchase books about a type of magic or mythology that I’ll be relying on. The beginning of the paranormal series I usually research for about 2-3 weeks before I actually start writing. When I’m writing contemporary it depends on what part of the story I need to research—if it’s a character’s job, then I usually do that online during my outlining process which normally takes about 3 days before I start writing. If it’s a bigger part of the plot, I may research online or purchase books about that specific topic and go through them for 3 days. In both genres, there may be times while I’m writing that I need to pause and research something. I either go back to the books I bought or try another online search. The problem with online research at that point is I normally fall down a rabbit hole and spend hours reading things that have nothing to do with what I was researching in the first place. LOL
MGR: Girl. Pinterest takes me down that rabbit hole every single time. How long were you a part-time writer before you became a full-time one?
ACA: I think I was only a part-time writer before I became published. From the time I received my first contract and learned about deadlines, I’ve always committed more than a part-time portion of my life to writing books. So, while I work at the courthouse 5 days a week, I also write during those same 5 days a week (plus weekends). I tell people all the time that I work two full-time jobs. ?
MGR: And how many hours a day do you write?
ACA: Weekdays I can usually get in 2-3 hours before I get to work and combined about another 2 hours throughout the day depending on how much day job work I have to get done. On Saturdays I can get in a solid 8 hours. Sundays are shorter because I write before church and then try to get some words after church, but that doesn’t always happen. I don’t write at night, because I get up so early in the morning to write, my mind is a creative blank after 6.
MGR: I’ve always wondered this but how do you select the names of your characters?
ACA: I have a book of 100,000+ baby names and I also read the credits after movies and TV shows. If a name jumps out at me then, it ends up in a book!
MGR: What is your favorite childhood book?
ACA: Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret. By Judy Blume
MGR: YES! Judy raised so many of us. Do you believe in writer’s block? Have you had it?
ACA: I definitely believe that there are times when you either feel creative or you don’t. So many variables go into a person’s writing process that if something is off at any given time, that can cause a slow down in writing, or the desire to write. At this point in my writing career, I can’t say that I’ve experienced big chunks of time that I didn’t or couldn’t write. I’ve had other things going on in my life that slowed down my writing or forced me to take some days away from a project, but I’ve never just had days where words didn’t come to me.
MGR: Thank you so much A.C. for joining us today. Please let the readers know how to find you on social media.
AUTHOR SITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | PINTEREST | GOODREADS | BOOK + MAIN
Books by A.C. Arthur
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