Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Michelle Houston. Thanks for being here today Michelle, welcome to FAR!

Of all things you have accomplished, is there one accomplishment you are most proud of?

Wow. I’d have to say Diggin’ Up Bones, my first story to really hit 5K, and then it was expanded and was the first to top over 12K is something I am really proud of. It took months, and a lot of effort to keep the story going without loosing the emotional impact I was striving for. But I have to say, rereading it that I simply love it.

From what do you derive the most inspiration for your writing?

Life. It’s as simple or as complex as that. Something one of my professors says, an offhand glance at someone out of the corner of my eye, trying to help a critique partner come up with a title. Anything and everything is fair game.

What was the first story you ever wrote?

Um, trying to think back here. The first story I wrote was in elementary school, about a girl who finds a blue egg with speckles and tries to figure out which bird’s nest is would have come from. LOL That should have clued me in then that science would be one of my passions.

In my more serious (and grown up) writings, the first story I wrote was part of a series called Stolen Moments, about bisexual woman and the men in their lives, as they explore both sides of their sexuality. They all, in hindsight, sucked. But there were some kernels worth saving, that I hacked to bits, rewrote, and used as some of the short stories in my e-book collections from Renaissance E Books.

You have the Summer Solstice Scorchers anthology coming out in June from Whiskey Creek Press. Can you tell us about your story Unnatural Bonds?

Kali is a woman who is willing to do whatever it takes, suffer whatever she has to, to free a vampire who was kidnapped and is being experimented on. In the process of freeing Riordan however, she becomes bonded to him.

He needs blood, but for him to drink from her would further the bond. She has to decide just how close she wants to get, and just how much she is willing to sacrifice for him. He in turn has to decide how much he is willing to let her give.

There’s a naughty little excerpt on my website, if you want to get a teasing sample. The story is actually hotter than it sounds. I am just awful at writing blurbs and paraphrasing.

If you could go anywhere, be anyone, do anything for 24 hours, what would it be?

Good lord. LOL Um, sheesh. Um … I can’t pick just one, so I will answer all three.

Go anywhere – Scotland. Specifically, I would visit Culzean castle. I fell in love with the photos of it when I was working on my stories for the Celtic Love Knots line for Whiskey Creek Press/Torrid. I had to take a lot of artistic liberty, because the pictures just didn’t do the details of the breathtaking castle justice. I would love to see if, to explore the grounds and look down the cliff in the sea. To witness first hand to effects of time on the stone walls.

Be anyone – Living on a tight budget, I think anyone rich from old money would do. Just for 24 hours, I would love to have all the money to spend on whatever I wanted, without feeling guilty. I could pamper myself with a spa visit, or get into a fancy restaurant. Whatever I fancied, I’d do. I think that would be nice, to be able to not feel guilty over buying something. As it is, a new book sometimes causes that “can I afford this” impulse to rear its head.

Do anything – I think if I were doing it for only 24 hours that I would like to live in a nudist colony. Silly I know, but it’s one of those things I would like to actually experience, but I know I am not cut out for the long haul.

How do you keep your ideas fresh and imaginative?

By adding a new twist to them.

For example, I have two stories that detail a couple making out, and getting off, on a dance floor. One is a threesome couple, the other a lesbian couple. Both stories involve them dancing, and groping each other. But the set up for each is different, the outcome is different, and the details are all unique to the stories.

Someone once mentioned a quote on a list that I am on that all ideas in stories have basically been done. It’s just the way a writer added up the details that makes each one fresh and new.

Romances have a formula, as does erotica. But the spice, the added zing comes from the devil being in the details added.

Is it hard for you to balance your life as a writer? How do you manage it?

Sometimes I think I don’t very well at all, and other times I am proud of myself.

I work, I am in college, I have a family and I do web-pages and graphics. I am also an avid reader, and I love to write. But I am not a full time author, nor do I write full length novels.

I balance it all by taking it one day at a time, and making the hard choices sometimes. If I want to write, but I have a test the next morning, I will study. Sometimes I reward myself after a bit by letting myself write for 20-30 minutes before I go back to studying. Other times, the family clears out so that I can have some quiet time just to write, or relax.

To be honest, without my husband being as understanding as he is, I wouldn’t write. Not seriously anyways. He helps me to balance things, even when I disagree about his idea of what’s the priority. Sometimes, it’s my writing time he places first.

But my writing has to be a fluid thing, working around everything else, and I have to be willing to make the hard choices of what comes first, second, and third in a day.

Many writers I know have to do the same thing. Some write only during lunch breaks, others get up an hour early or set aside an hour at night when their familiars are in bed. If you want it bad enough those, I think you find a way to make it happen, even if it’s in 15 minute spurts.

And yeah, it’s hard. When an idea hits at 4 am, and I want to write, but I know I need to sleep, it’s hard to push myself to sleep, knowing the idea will be gone when I wake up in the morning. It’s hard to sit in class, get a great idea, and keep taking notes and stay focused.

Would I want it any other way though? Would I ever choose to give up the ideas and live without them? Not a chance.

What are some of the challenges with writing for an anthology compared to a full length novel?

A novella is the longest I have managed (just over 12K), so I can’t speak to a full novel. But I do know that short stories and longer stories each have their own appeal to me.

I started with short stories, mostly 1.5K to 3K. It was actually a challenge to work to longer writing. Short is my comfort zone, after years of keeping to 2-4K word requirements for calls for submissions for anthologies.

But writing for an anthology requires keeping to a set topic, whereas the stand alone titles allow almost complete freedom, so long as you stay true to the characters. I like that. But I have also found that reading about requests for stories, and trying to write stories for an anthology, tends to spark more ideas than just sitting down and letting my characters talk to me.

I guess though, that’s a matter of conditioning, where again I got my start writing for specific calls.

So they each have their challenges, and their good points, and I plan to keep doing both for as long as they stories pore forth.

You also have Nice Kitty Kat coming out in May as part of the Erotic Tales anthology Volume 2. What can you tell us about your story and the Erotic Tales anthologies?

Nice Kitty Kat was written basically as a smart-ass piece. A what if kind of thing. People always talk about being talked into doing dumb and often dangerous things by their friends. But what if a friend talked you into doing something fun and kinky, like going to a D/s club with her? What if you wound up submitting to a complete stranger – and liking it?

What if people were watching it happen?

That’s the basis of Nice Kitty Kat. Katrina starts out doing a favor for a friend, and winds up finding something that was missing from her life.

And I am thrilled that it is going to be in Erotic Tales 2. I have had a story in all of the anthologies Justus Roux has edited excerpt for one, and in that one I had a poem included in it. Ms Roux does a good job putting together some truly wonderful, and hot, works.

Could you tell us what your currently working on?

I actually try to keep about a dozen stories or so going at once. That way I have something to fit different moods.

Right now I am focusing on a short lesbian piece, set in a library. It’s pure erotica.

I also have a longer D/s paranormal story I am working on, that should come in around 12-13K.

Those are the two that I am really focusing on, but I am always starting a new little paragraph of two beginning to stories, and waiting for the characters to step forward with more.

What is your favorite genre to read and to write?

Paranormal romance is my favorite to read. Vampires, futuristic, werewolves, anything like that. I also like to red murder mysteries, with a strong romance element, but it doesn’t have to be a romance.

I like to write contemporary and/or paranormal romance and erotica. It’s just where I feel comfortable.

Do you have an agent? If so, did your agent sell your first book to a publisher, or did you do that on your own?

Nope, I don’t have an agent, and I doubt I will ever write anything long enough to need one. If I ever make it to a full length novel, I would definitely look in to getting one though. I know several writers who have gotten shafted by agents, but a lot more who have gotten shafted on contracts without one.

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

Well, since you asked. LOL

Diggin’ Up Bones, the story I am most proud of, is coming out in September from Phaze. So be on the lookout for a contest around then.

Before that though, in August is the 413 Remembrance Lane anthology, also from Phaze. I am very happy with how the whole thing turned out. The other authors and I all worked together to craft the premise, to create the stories, and then we submitted it. We had no idea when we started where it would find a home, or if it even would, it was such a different theme to it. The sexualities of the stories are varied, from lesbian to gay to heterosexual and threesomes. The common thread is a diary in the house at 413 Remembrance Lane, which tells of the wonderful and strange occurrences in the owners lives. All of the stories are paranormal and all feature the diary.

I have excerpts and more information for both works on my website as well.

Thank you, for taking time to answer my questions today Michelle. Readers be sure to check out Michelle’s website.


Interviewed by: Tammy