About Mira Ahonen:
Mira Ahonen is a University lecturer with PhD in natural sciences, author of several scientific papers and books, autobiographic novel Awakening and multiple fiction novels in Black Souls MC series. She's also a bass player in a hard rock band. She's happily married to the love of her life, Fire, for ten years now. Between him and training Belgian Malinois dogs with behavioral problems that they're adopting, her life is kept always interesting.
What inspires you to write?
I just finished the 20th book in the series, so I guess I'm kinda addicted to writing at this point. Originally, the series happened like this – a friend of mine used to always tell me how I have an interesting life and I should write a book about it. When he died in an accident, I decided to listen to him and write. Originally, it was supposed to be just the one, autobiographical book. But while I was writing it I was limited in my plot, since it had to follow what really happened. And the whole time I was thinking, I would write this and that differently. That's why I wrote the second book where I let my imagination run wild. I thought this is it for sure, since I never saw myself as a writer. But then I woke up the next day and there was that new story in my head, loosely inspired by the life of my other friend. And it just had to come out. It continued in that way for all the others and at this point I don't know when it will end.
Tell us about your writing process.
For me it always begins with an opening scene. A certain situation and a certain character just appears in my mind and I need to start and write. I write each day, sometimes I forget to eat, sometimes I don't go to sleep, because the story just needs to come out. I don't write outlines usually, but sometimes while I'm not writing (yes, sometimes I need to do other things no matter how I don't want it at the moment) a certain plot development comes to mind and then I do write that one up, so I can lead the story to that point. It went that way, with no outlines or character sketches, just all in my head, up to the first ten or so books in the series. Then I ran into problems, since the number of characters and complexity of the world became too great and I started mixing up names. For that reason I was forced to sit down and write all the characters in a table, and it was a long and tedious process. Especially since I needed to put the character age on a timeline, one character that was in his early twenties at the series start should be in his forties now, in the 20th book, calculations sometimes boggled my mind. Now I keep the table on my computer and update it after every new book. And it is not my favorite part of writing. I dislike it even more (if possible) than endless grammar checks (and I always find so many errors, no matter how many times I read through, I honestly don't get that. It's literally neverending, I'll always find something to change.)
How do you develop your characters?
When I start the book I literally have no idea what will happen. They do speak to me and they want out. For me, when I start writing a new book, the process is all consuming, and I can't rest till it's done. Often, I'm annoyed with my characters, things they do or the way they think, and I can't believe the things that end up happening in my books, but the process takes a life of its own and sometimes I can just go with the flow and watch where I'll end up.
What authors inspire you?
I don't think that there are authors that inspire me in a way that I follow their work or try to imitate their style of writing, at least I don't do it consciously (who knows what we pick up without knowing?). I'm mostly inspired by life, whether my own experiences, or things that happened to my family or friends, or I've seen happened. As for authors, there's only one thing that comes to mind and I think that I do use that one from time to time – I think I read somewhere that one of my favorite authors, Lois McMaster Bujold, said that when she's writing she thinks of the worst possible things that could happen to her characters and then she does it to them, or something like that. Well, I do that sometimes as well.
How do you keep going in the midst of distractions?
When I write, I just ignore everything around me. Honestly, I think aliens could've landed in my living room and I'd have no idea, nor would I care greatly, since I need to finish the chapter, so quit bothering me you pesky alien.
What are your hobbies when you need a break from writing?
I work a lot with my dogs, also play music with my band, go out with my husband, a lot of things really. But I don't need a break from writing, never that. It's just not the only thing I do, and I try to squeeze it all in. Somehow.
What romance genres do you write?: MC romance, also known as biker romance
Do you write in genres that are not romance related?
Yes, I write scientific papers and books. I also published several newspaper articles about music and traffic and probably some other stuff I can't remember at the moment.
What formats are your books in?: eBook
Where to find out more about the author
Website(s)
Mira Ahonen Home Page Link
Link To Mira Ahonen Page On Amazon
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.
