Tag, I’m it, on the CanLit Blog Hop

My friend and fellow writer Farzana Doctor ‘tagged’ me for this CanLit blog hop challenge. No ice bucket is required. I’m to answer the four questions below (check), and then ‘tag’ two other writers (still working on it) to take the challenge. So here goes:

1. What am I working on?

I’m about 20,000 words into writing my fifth novel, tentatively called Poles Apart. It’s my pro-feminist comic novel. You can see feminist themes lurking in the background of my first four novels, but they’re front and centre in my fifth. Feminism has been a long-term interest of mine. If all goes well, we expect publication by McClelland & Stewart in the fall of 2015.

2. How does my differ from others of its genre?

Well, I’ve yet to unearth any other feminist comic novels, but I’d love to find one. (Drop me a line if you know of others I should be reading.) Beyond that, I’m at a loss to describe how my novels are different from other funny novels except perhaps that I wrote them and they’re in my voice. Kind of a thin response to this question, I know, but there you have it.

3. Why do I write what I do?

I’m a member in good standing of the ‘write what you know‘ school of writing (except for the S&M scene in my first novel). There are pieces of me and pieces of my life strewn about the pages of my novels. Not so much in an autobiographical sense. But I just find it easier to write with authority, conviction, and authenticity if I’m writing about things I know about, or care about. In short, it’s easier for me to “feel” the story, and then write it.

4. How does my writing process work?

How good of you to suggest that my writing process works! I’m an engineer by academic training. Engineers don’t build bridges without blueprints, and I don’t write novels without blueprints. I’m a big time planner or outliner. Writing the manuscript is the very last stage in my so-called process. By that time, I know nearly all there is to know about the story. It’s captured in a 40-70 page chapter-by-chapter outline that guides the writing of the actual manuscript. A nearly-fulltime day job means that I don’t write everyday. I write when I can. In writing mode, I can usually sustain a pace of one 5,000 word chapter each week until the novel is written.

I’ve reached out to a couple other writers and I hope in a few weeks you’ll see their responses to these questions.

Now, back to my manuscript…

Update: The great writer Patrick Bowman has accepted the challenge. One down, one to go. Stay tuned…