About Marie Lavender:
Multi-genre author of Victorian maritime romance/family saga, Heiresses in Love, and 18 other books. Marie Lavender lives in the Midwest with her family and two cats. She has been writing for a little over twenty-five years. She has more works in progress than she can count on two hands. Since 2010, Marie has published 21 books. An avid blogger on the side, she writes adult fiction, as well as occasional stories for children, and has recently started some young adult fiction. She also contributed to several anthologies. Though she has some standalone titles on the market, her current published series are The Heiresses in Love Series, The Eternal Hearts Series, The Magick Series, The Code of Endhivar Series, The Misfits Series and The Blood at First Sight Series, but she has many others planned.

What inspires you to write?
Life inspires me. Usually, my environment can inspire me, or current events. At other times, it's something as simple as a conversation I had that sparks an idea. I am also an observer (not a stalker…LOL). So, people-watching now and then can feed my creativity.

Tell us about your writing process.
A little of both, actually. I write everything I can in random spurts, then I look at them as a whole to guess the overall picture. From there, I start outlining, and writing more scenes. But I also leave myself open to making changes, or letting a character take over and go in a new direction. For outlining, I just write it all down with bullet points. Yes, I definitely do character worksheets during the writing process, to help fill in the gaps and make the people in my stories more three-dimensional.

I've been really busy with handling my blogs, so no, I don't practice every day or even weekly. When I am not distracted with a thousand other things in life, though, I do freewriting exercises to keep my skills going. For the most part, I guess I just wait for the muse to visit. Now, once I'm heavily focused on a certain project, I do my best to work on the book a little every day. I usually write anywhere at home – in my bedroom before I go to sleep, at the kitchen table, on the sofa, sometimes even outside on the patio. If I am on vacation, I'm even willing to write while lying on the beach. With regards to moods, as aforementioned, when I'm determined to finish a project, I write even when I don't feel like it. I can always polish that draft later on.

How do you develop your characters?
I know the basics about a character in the beginning, but I often don't know all the nuances of their personality until I'm writing the story. Yes, they have surprised me sometimes. I can almost hear the dialogue playing out. It is like hearing a character's voice, but not quite. Still, it's my impression that the characters are calling me to tell their stories. I really have very little say in where the story goes, it just happens. I've learned that once I try to control too much, it either feels forced or it backfires with plot issues that need to be resolved. So I loosely outline, then let the muse do the rest.

Who are your favorite authors?
J.R. Ward, Chloe Neill, Nora Roberts, Catherine Coulter, Emma Wildes, Barbara Delinsky, P.C. Cast, Tessa Dare, and the list just goes on.

What genres do you write?: historical romance, contemporary romance, romantic suspense, paranormal romance, romantic comedy, dramatic fiction, fantasy, science fiction, mystery/thriller, literary fiction and poetry

What formats are your books in?: eBook, Print

Where to find out more about the author

Website(s)
Marie Lavender Home Page Link
Link To Marie Lavender Page On Amazon
Link to Author Page on other site

Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
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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.