Angela Addams' New Book is Being Released Today!

1) First, could you start by telling us what you are currently working on for publication and/or about your current release?

My current release is entitled The Temptress and it is due to release on October 23 at Cobblestone Press.

The Temptress is a short story about a young college student named Kyle Roberts who finds himself deeply in lust with his English Literature professor. He can’t control his raging fantasies and obsesses over her to the extreme. She is constantly in his head, tormenting him with her seductive body. But is he really the one in control? Strange things start to happen, fantasies seeming to turn into reality and Kyle begins to wonder if his prof has a few secrets of her own.

She seems to know what he is thinking, desiring, and after a night of intense erotic fulfillment, leaves him more confused than before. Are his fantasies coming true or does his professor have the ability to control his mind? Kyle suddenly finds himself on a journey into a realm that he thought was only make-believe, the realm of a vampire temptress.  

2) Tell us about your writing process.  Do you outline or just start writing?

My writing process is not as well organized as I think it should be. I have great intentions to plot things out in detail but I get bored of that pretty quickly and just move on to the writing part. Usually, I get an idea and play it out in my head for a few days. Once I have a basic plot figured out I whip out my laptop and write it all down. For the most part it starts with a scene and goes from there. Sometimes this scene is the beginning and sometimes it’s something that happens somewhere else in the piece. I don’t usually write in sequence. I like the freedom to write the scenes that are urgently demanding escape from my brain. It keeps my fingers typing anyway. I’ve never suffered from writer’s block. (Is there a piece of wood around? I feel like I should knock on wood right about now.)

For a short story like The Temptress, I write the first draft over a few nights, two or three hours a night and then set it aside for a few days before starting my second draft. With my novels (I’ve written three) I write a basic outline of plot, where I want to start, climax, some key plot points, and where I want to finish and then I start writing. As I’m writing, I add to my plot notes along the way. Things usually change as I’m going through. I figure out that something isn’t going to work, or I have a brilliant idea that I want to add, so my outline is never set in stone.

3) What genre is your favorite to write?  Read? 

I like to write and read Paranormal anything…but I prefer if there are some hot erotic scenes worked in. Actually, it’s kind of embarrassing, but I find novels a little boring these days if they don’t have some passionate erotic scenes worked in.

4) Favorite authors?

My favorite authors are Kelley Armstrong, D.B. Reynolds, Kresley Cole, and Gena Showalter. Their heroines are super strong and can always take care of themselves, which I think is a great thing in paranormal literature. I also love the hot and steamy sex scenes that these women are so skilled at writing. They are all very talented at what they do.

5) Is there a genre you haven't written, but would love to tackle in the future?

6) What's planned next for your writing career?

I have just recently signed with an agent and am currently working on edits for my first paranormal, urban fantasy. So we should be submitting to publishers soon. I have four or five ideas rolling around in my head at the moment for novels, some work directly off of the novels my agent has and some are totally new series ideas that I have planned.

7) Do you work well with deadlines?  Or do they stall your writing process?

I work extremely well with deadlines. I am very type A ; ) Actually, I prefer it because I’m not a procrastinator and work well if I know that there is a deadline at a certain time that I have to work towards. That way there is no excuse for slacking off, which at times I am tempted to do. I set weekly quotas for myself, that way I have a goal to reach every week. When I am off on holiday, I write 10K a week and when I’m working full time, (yes, I do have a day job) I scale that back to 5k a week.

8) When did you first start writing?

I first starting writing as a child…no seriously, I wrote my first collection of short stories, with pictures, at the age of six. I still have it actually. I don’t know where my need to write came from really. I always liked reading but I can’t explain how that turned into a passion for writing. My teachers picked up on it right away and always encouraged me. I had a great high school teacher who inspired me to pursue writing seriously…and then I went to university and, well, my writing took a backseat to everything else. I got some really nasty feedback that crushed my confidence and I put down my pen for almost five years. But that nagging urge to write, thankfully, never really left me and I picked up the pen again after I graduated and started thinking about bigger projects. It took me four years to write my first novel. It’s not the greatest but I did get some recognition for it in a contest and received some very positive and encouraging reviews. So, I tried again and again and again and here I am.

9) What influenced you to submit your work for publication?

I have a deep desire to become an author and write for a living. That desire motivates me more than anything else ever could. I want it, so I work for it. It hasn’t been easy and I know that I have a battle ahead of me, but I’m making progress and I will not give up.

10) Do you belong to a critique group?  If so, how has this helped your writing, would you recommend it to others?  If not, would you consider joining, if not, why do you like to work alone?

11) What is the best way for readers to contact you?

Readers can visit my website at angelaaddams.com

I tweet as angelaaddams and I also have a blog at http://www.blog.angelaaddams.com/

They can also contact me at angelaaddams@live.ca with any questions or comments. I’d be extremely happy to hear from any reader.

12) Any advice you want to give aspiring writers?

Yes, I do have advice…do not give up. Things seemed to happen for me all at once. I got a contract with Cobblestone Press and an offer from an agent after a little over a year of trying. I could have given up many, many times what with the amount of rejections I received, but I didn’t; I kept submitting. If you give up, you make room for someone else to take your place; do you really want that other person getting your shot at doing what you love and getting paid for it? Probably not. So shove the rejections aside and keep submitting, keep writing, because you’re the only one who this matters the most to.

Thanks, Angela, that's very encouraging to all of us who are hoping to be writers one day!