Write What You Know

I'd like to welcome Terri Molina with us today. She's smart, witty, and one heck of a writer. On top of that, I just adore this cover. One of my top requirements for a hero is he has to be a good kisser. And just look at this guy and tell me if you don't think he couldn't kiss the clothes right off of you.

Take it away Terri!

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First off I’d like to thank Christie for inviting me to guest on her blog…of course she obviously hasn’t read my other attempts at blogging. Haha
To be honest, I’m not really much of a blogger…and I have three of them. Go figure.
The problem isn’t that I don’t want to blog it’s that I can’t ever think of something to blog about that won’t have the reader’s eyes glazing over. Oh, and there’s also the whole…gotta have a title that’s also a song lyric thing before I start writing. (You’d have to read my other blog to get that) ;-)
So, for the past week or so I’ve been sitting at my computer trying to think about something to blog about. Yeah, I know, I’m a writer. I’m supposed to know what to write about, but really, it’s not as easy as you might think. Writing not only takes talent, it takes patience and a very active imagination. Hey, two out of three ain’t bad. And, there’s my song!! Haha
Anyway when I first started training myself to write, one of the first pieces of advice I saw was you should “write what you know”. Now if I’d taken that advice literally I’d have never written anything interesting, much less salable. The first book I wrote was about a serial killer…nope, I’ve never been one of those. The second book was about a woman whose ex is stalking her using black magic….okay, that one is loosely based on an ex whom my friend claimed was into black magic (which is where the very active imagination came in). But, for the most part I had to learn how to research in order to get in the know. Lucky for me, I have an uncle who believes in that witchcraft stuff…he doesn’t practice it of course, just believes its real (no offense to anyone out there who believes as well). His crazy stories helped build several of the scenes.
Now, when I wrote my novella Her Will His Way I actually had to dig into what I knew…which was nothing. By that I mean, my character Anita is Mexican but knows nothing about her heritage or how to speak Spanish….I could definitely relate to that. I was raised to think that since I was born in the US I had to give up that part of who I am. Heck, even half the people who’ve met me don’t believe I’m full blooded Mexican….must be that Texas accent that throws them off.
There are times I regret not being able to speak Spanish (especially when someone assumes I can and starts chattering away thinking I know what the heck they’re saying). But, as Anita in Her Will His Way says to Antonio, “just because I don’t speak Spanish doesn’t mean I’m any less a Mexican.”
I have to say though, writing this book was also quite a step out of my comfort zone. The editor who had originally requested it had three stipulations. (1) The story had to be contemporary. I generally like to kill people in my books. (2) The story had to be erotic. *gulp* I can write a hot love scene…but boy howdy did that active imagination come in handy here! And (3) the story couldn’t be more than 65 pages. Yeah, that may sound like a lot….but when you’re used to writing 350+ pages….boiling it all down into 1/3 of that ain’t easy! I somehow managed to do it all though and I’m pretty proud of the results. Of course, now my husband and I are starting to get those funny looks from readers who think I’ve written what I know. ;-)