16 November 2016

A Chat with Olivia R. Burton



Hello Olivia!  Thank you so much for visiting Written Butterfly with me today!  It’s such a pleasure to chat with you.  So tell me…

Q) How did you dream up the dynamics of your characters?

It’s probably all just a fluke, honestly. I knew I wanted to tackle the PPNW from a romance angle, but I didn’t want to do something that didn’t work for me. Instead of a strapping alpha male, I wanted a relatable, silly leading man who could make you laugh and tingle and who would, should you ever meet him in real life, take you on a fun date and make you feel like the prettiest, most fun partner he’s ever had. Because I tend toward farce in my writing, that character ended up as Finn, a goofy, sexy, loving and just a little bit cowardly Irishman who can’t quite get anything right.

Finn couldn’t be matched with someone equally as faulty, though, or nothing would ever get done. Plus, opposites attract and, since I had the idea of someone in a position of power working closely with the Prince of Hell himself, I paired Finn with Veruca. She’s generous, smart, competent, and takes no guff. They’re the perfect couple!

Q) Do you have any habits that get you in the writing frame of mind?

I think listening to music is the closest thing to a habit I have when it comes to writing. Sometimes it’s certain albums, but sometimes it’s just any music, since it seems to get my brain chugging along and thinking up scenarios and plots or working through tangles in the stories I’m working on. Florence + The Machine is a huge help when I’m writing; her music really (har har) sings to me.

Q) Do you plan all your characters out before you start a story or do they develop as you write?

I am not a planner! I usually have an idea of a character but past that nothing is really formed until I’m actually writing. Same goes with plots and storylines. I’ll know as much as, “I want Finn and Veruca to have to put up with a greedy lady mobster!” and that’s about it. Sometimes I don’t even really have a picture in my head of the character until I’m reading over what I wrote and checking for typos. Then it’s like, “oh, I made her a redhead, interesting.”

Q) How much real life do you put into or influences your books?

Inspiration is about as far as it goes. If I like the look of an actor or the idea of a story I heard it definitely creeps into my writing, but this series is all fiction. Even if it wasn’t about raising the dead and taking souls, I don’t think I’d put much of my life into it. I’m just not as interesting as anything I could come up with in my writing.

Q) What are your upcoming projects?

I’m working on the third novel in this series, as well as an unrelated Urban Fantasy fluff novel about a girl who can control fire and who’s going after the person who murdered her best friend. I’ve also always got a dozen other projects that I dart into here and there, slap out a few hundred words, and then forget about for a few months. I’m rather ADD when it comes to writing unless I’m in the final stretch of a book.

Thanks so much for having me on the blog!


Preternatural Pacific Northwest
Finn's a failure, at necromancy and life in general. "It's not my fault," he'd insist, looking deep into your eyes as he lifts your wallet. You'd catch him, of course. Because he's a failure.

Veruca, on the other hand, is competence personified. She has to be, working as a Reaper directly for the Prince of Hell. When Finn shows up in a stolen sport coat and uses Veruca as cover from his murderous mistress' glowering goons, she finds the one thing she may not be so good at: resisting Finn's handsome face. 

Welcome to the Preternatural PNW, a world populated by demons, magic, and fairies. Meet Finn and Veruca, an atypical couple getting to know each other amongst rogue necromancers, criminal kingpins, and dishonest mercenaries.

Finn’s sexy as hell, eager to please—both in and out of the bedroom—and charmingly daft. Veruca’s alluring, intelligent, and always knows just what she wants. Once she sets her sights on Finn, she knows he’s it, and nothing’s gonna stand in her way.

Follow their adventures, feel their passion, and laugh at Finn’s antics in Rattle, the free read Throb, and the suspenseful sequel Metal, all out from Evernight Publishing!


Available at Evernight, Amazon, All Romance EBooks, and anywhere ebooks are sold!



About Olivia
Olivia lives just outside of Seattle with a clowder of cats and a stink of litter boxes. She enjoys vexing kitties, exploring new cities, eating vegan food, and watching cheesy, big budget movies where people answer questions like, "Who should we call?" with a gruff and overly serious, "Everyone." She also digs making up collective nouns for things that don't already have them, like a spootle of Ruperts and a stink of litter boxes.

You can find her at her blog, on Facebook, but more often she’s tweeting @OliviaRBurton



No comments:

Post a Comment