June Featured Author: Payton Blaze

Meet Payton Blaze

Meet Payton Blaze

Who is Payton Blaze? She's the girl that prefers a swimming-hole over a day at the spa. She's the girl in muddy torn-at-the toe boots over sparkly high heels. She's the girl with mud and grease on her face over the 50lbs of makeup.

All in all, Payton Blaze is a down home southern Texas girl that will stand up and fight with you or set your entire world ablaze when you cross her or her family.

Payton took time out of her extremely busy life to answer some questions for us and become my blog's first Author Interview.

I hope that you learn more about Payton and feel the impulse to give her book a read.

Author Interview

1. Tell us a little about your published works.

• *Currently I have one published MM Romance novel out. “The Hunting Grounds” by Payton Blaze.

• Trust fund country boy, Dalton, is living in his father's hotel on the San Antonio Riverwalk. He's perfectly happy, enjoying the freedom of taking a different twink from the club each night.​

• Kaleb is a military brat, and at 18, has decided his single, closed-minded Marine father can't stop him from being gay anymore. Checking himself into the Walton Hotel, he meets Dalton in the lobby one morning.

• Dalton spends the day hunting Kaleb around the Riverwalk, before seeing him in the club that night.

• Intent on a one-night stand back at Dalton's, neither expects the chance of a lifetime

2. Does writing energize or exhaust you?

*Mostly writing energizes my spirit and make my ADHD hyperness go into overdrive. There have been times through a particular scene or topic I am writing about has exhausted my spirit because it hits really close to home.

3. What are common traps for aspiring writers?

*I believe some common traps for aspiring writers are that they either give too much or too little time on the who, what, when, where, and why’s of their story line. I have found there is a small gap between putting too much in your story and not having enough details.

4. Does a big ego help or hurt writers?

*I would have to say it hurts writers. When your ego is too big you become cocky in your writing style and it shows through the characters in your book.

5. What is your writing Kryptonite?

*Don’t think I have one.

6. Have you ever gotten reader’s block?

*I’m a fast paced reader and will knock about about 10-15 full length novels in a week time so I often hit “reader’s block” every few weeks.

7. Have you ever considered writing under a pseudonym?

*Because of my professional jobs I do currently write under a pseudonym.

8. Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?

*I would say a little bit of both. I want to take the popular storylines that are out there but put my own spin on them. Any fan of shifter books enjoy reading about mates meeting, falling in love, some big territory battle, then the happily ever after. These books are always werewolves, werebears, dragons, foxes. I have in the works a turtle and duck shifter book. Same story pattern but new species.

9. Do you think a person who can’t feel strong emotions can be a good writer?

*I believe it would be challenging to write characters your readers can connect with but if you are willing and determined then yes you can.

10. Are you friends with other authors?

*I’m part of a wide facebook community full of authors. I would have to say Conner Chouchet, Joshua Erik Rossi and Shaw Montgomery (aka. M.A Innes) are real friends of mine though.

11. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?

*Currently I have several series that are lined up for writing. There might be a few stand alones along the way though.

12. If you could tell your younger writing-self anything, what would it be?

*I began writing at the age of 12 but took some strong critics words to heart and stopped writing for about 6 years. My advice to that 12 year old me would be. Don’t Stop! Don’t Let The Haters Win!

13. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

*Publishing and watching the sales come in gave me the self-esteem boost that I needed in my writing. Now I know that people want to hear my stories, they need to know what’s next for Dalton and Kaleb.

14. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?

*Hmmm...this is a hard question. I don’t know any of my favorites that fall into this category.

15. Do you utilize real people to base your characters on?

*I’ve been raised by 2 father’s, with 16 siblings (mostly brothers) that are gay/bi, and around the Adult Film Industry so yes my stories and my characters come are inspired fully by my family and life.

16. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

*Currently I have 2 books unpublished and about 8 works-in-progress.

17. What does literary success look like to you?

*For me it’s small and simple. Having that one reader that begs you for the next story.

18. What’s the best way to market your books?

*The best way is the greatest and oldest way of marketing there is. Word of Mouth.

19. What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

*My research period is always limited to 3 weeks before I write my first sentence but I’ll continue researching through the entire writing process as topics arise.

20. Do you write full-time? If not, can you tell us your ‘day job’?

*I’m not a full-time writer right now. My “day jobs” are Adult Film Industry Promoter, Non-Profit Childhood Cancer Marketing, and contracted with Texas Child Protective Services as a LGBT and PTSD counselor. On top of being Mom to four children and about six 18-24 year old guys.

21. How many hours a day do you write?

*My writing is set to Wednesday-Sunday from 4am-11am but I try and get an hour of writing or editing in each night also.

22. Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?

*I was never a fan of Vampire stories until I read “House of Theoden” by Nicholas Bella and became addicted to anything the man writes.

23. What are your ethics of writing about historical figures?

*I haven’t personally explored this yet. I would have to say that you need to keep as close to the facts of the figure as you can though. (ie: Robert E. Lee can’t all the sudden be a black man)

24. How do you select the names of your characters?

*Since most my characters are usually based off Real Life people I make the names a play off them. (ie: Dalton in my book is based off my twin brother Dayton whose first boy crush was named Dalton)

25. Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?

*I do look at my book reviews to see how people reacted and if they have suggestions/questions on where I should take the story line. I haven’t had any bad ones yet, but when they do arrive I’ll take it with a grain of salt because I know I’m not everyone's cup of tea.

26. Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?

*In my upcoming story “My Hunting Grounds” my readers that are close personal friends will catch the hidden meanings and secrets to some of the storyline.

27. What was your hardest scene to write?

*My hardest scene also comes from my WIP “My Hunting Grounds” this story hits close to home between my fiance and myself and the scene I just wrote last week deals with a rescue from severe childhood abuse.

28. Do you Google yourself?

*When I was racing motocross I would google myself often, haven’t done it since I retired thought.

29. What was your favorite childhood book?

*I wasn’t the typical reader as a child. I fell in love with “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” by T.S. Eliot and “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton

30. What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?

*Over-planning my story line. I will plan it out to the finest detail and over analyze the flow of the book.

31. Does your family support your career as a writer?

*My entire family supports me and begs me to write the next book already.

32. How long on average does it take you to write a book?

*My goal is two months tops. So far I’ve done well with meeting my own deadlines.

33. Do you believe in writer’s block is a ‘thing’?

*Yes! “The Hunting Grounds” was begun three years ago but I hit a block in the story line and never got back to it till January of this year.

Be sure to check out Payton Blaze's Author page on Amazon!