Welcome to our new Saturday blogger~ Charissa Weaks!

 We're incredibly excited to announce

we have a new Saturday blogger:

Charissa Weaks!!!

Charissa is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside—and come on, look at that pic! She's also a fantastic writer and her stories will sweep you away and make you never want to leave them. Not only all that, but she's a genuine soul who supports those around her and lifts them up. And she's also an editor at City Owl, so we'll get to hear about that side of the business as well! 

Her official bio is even more impressive than that attempt:

CHARISSA WEAKS is an award-winning author of historical fantasy and speculative fiction. She crafts stories with fantasy, magic, time travel, romance, and history, and the occasional apocalyptic quest. She is a foodie and book-buying coffee addict who loves to travel and visit antique stores. She believes the souls of memories live in shadowy places and inside the things we cast away.
Over the last decade, Charissa has worked with and edited for published and unpublished authors alike, including several NYT and USA Today Bestselling Authors. Her strengths lie in author branding and the development of high-concept plots alongside strong emotional arcs. She has a love for historical tales, women’s fiction, fantasy, and unique sci-fi, and if those stories include a heart-rending romance, all the better. Charissa also longs to see more diverse authors and characters on the shelves. For query information and to see her current wishlist, click HERE. 
Charissa is active in the Historical Novel Society, was named 2019 President and Pro-Liaison for her local Romance Writers of America chapter, and is a member of the Women’s Fiction Association. She is the founder and editor of Once Upon Anthologies, a series of paranormal and fantasy romance short stories and novelettes.
Charissa resides just south of Nashville with her family, two wrinkly English Bulldogs, and the sweetest German Shepherd in existence. When she’s not writing, you can find Charissa lost in a good book or digging through four-hundred-year-old texts for research. To keep up with her writing endeavors, and to gain access to writing freebies and book giveaways, join her newsletter, The Monthly Courant.

Be on the look out for her upcoming novel: THE WITCH COLLECTOR!

You can find and follow Charissa—seriously, she's all over!

• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CharissaWeaksAuthor
• Twitter:  https://twitter.com/charissaweaks
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/CharissaWeaksAuthor
• Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/CharissaWeaks
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/CharissaWeaks
• Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/CharissaWeaks
• BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/charissa-weak

Being Told What to Write Next

Nothing annoys me more than being deep in the guts of a story and having a shiny new idea pop up. It never fails. Never. Used to be, I'd succumb to the siren song of the bejeweled new thing. As a result, nothing ever got finished. My unfinished projects file isn't just a graveyard. It's an entire damned ecosystem.

That changed several years ago when I made a vow to finish a thing. To handle the allure of ideas popping in to seduce me away from soldiering on to The End, I instituted a policy: It takes a number, and it stands in line. This meant scribbling down the gist of an idea - just enough to be able to recapture the feel of the story, then filing it. I'd go back to hacking my way through my WIP.

Now, whether its luck of the draw, a lack of marketing acumen, or the alignment of the sun, moon, and stars, I have two abandoned series of two books each that had been contracted by a traditional publishing house that wanted nothing to do with any further books in either series. Well okay. My obligation to produce the rest of those books went up in smoke unless my contracts allow me to self-publish the follow up books in each or either series (combing the fine print on that point, with someone who speaks legalese.) Until that legal determination is made, I can't be sitting on my hands. I want to write.

No problem, though, right? I had an idea file to mine. I read through everything in that file. I weeded through my notes and incomprehensible (that sounded like a solid story idea? WTH?) tidbits of narrative with no future. I picked the one that I knew needed to be written. Big project with possible longevity. Utterly outside my skillset. Which clearly meant it was exactly what I ought to pursue. Planning, plotting, and research undertaken. Completed. Undertaken again. Completed again. Opening scene written.

And then, I'm embarrassed to say, lightning struck. I was totally sideswiped by a character who insisted his story would be told and it would be told NOW.

That's how Damned If He Does happened. I had no intention of writing paranormal romance. None. But when a hot dude walks into your head, takes up residence and refuses to leave, you either need hardcore medication or you need to write as fast as possible and get rid of him that way.

So I guess the answer to the 'how do I decide' question is this: Sometimes I choose and sometimes I am chosen. The last book picked me. No clue why. But it did. When I have the luxury of getting to choose, I pick a story out of my league. One that intrigues me and that can occupy my mind for days. Some day, when I am again under contract, I will giggle at the notion of getting to pick what I write next. But for now, I'm in a privileged position to write what sounds like fun at any given moment.

Rest assured. I've gone back to the big, scary, historical fantasy project. It's on track for a POS draft by 10/31. And yes. I do know what comes after that. NANOing book 3 of the SFR series. Cause that heroine has taken up residence in my brain and she's tapping her foot while waving her number beneath my nose. Apparently, it's her turn.

To Label Is Human

So file this photo into a single genre.

Is it a sunset shot? A wildlife shot? A nature picture? Clouds? Or is it all of those things? If you were looking for a shot of a seagull in profile at sunset, how would you begin searching for it? Likely, you'd start with the keyword 'sunset' but you'd end up with millions of results. Some over mountains or cityscapes or forests or fields. Some with people. Some with animals. But you really, really want that bird for the cover of your special interest mag "Sea Bird Quarterly". So you have to add 'bird' to your sunset search to narrow the results. You get eagles, herons, song birds and vultures. This makes you switch 'bird' to 'sea bird' or 'seagull' and presto. You've found your cover.

This is the power of labels. Genres are nothing more than labels. They're labels meant to make it easy for readers to find what they want to read. Whether or not those labels are accurate or not is another rant. But like anything, genre labels can be used for good or for evil. (Good - you find your next favorite read on your lunch hour and still have enough lunch time left over to actually start your book. Bad - you get stuck inside the box you've been reading in and never entertain anything else.)

What's amusing to me is the notion that I get to pick which genre a story will be. Maybe there are people in this world who can do that. I certainly don't get to. The stories dictate what they will be. I go along for the ride or I give up writing altogether. Because they are adamant. So. This story wants to be in the past, a fictional past at that, with gadgets and improbable hideouts, magic and spies? Why the hell not? Sounds like fun. I have no idea what genre to call it. Historical Fantasy? Steam Fantasy? But yeah, write a story that's one thing? Probably not in my nature. It's at the juncture of genres that I find the things that interest me. There's likely some telling psychological issue there. I'll claim it's just fun.

Are you old enough to remember the commercials: "You got chocolate in my peanut butter! You got peanut butter on my chocolate!" Yeah. Genre blending all the way, because two flavors go great together.