Guest Blogger: Anya Winter

Thanks Monica for letting me guest post on your blog. There’s one thing about Twitter that I love - it’s meeting and developing friendships with people just like you :) You are an absolute doll. Chocolate worthy for sure ;)

There’s something exciting about a blank page. It’s filled with endless possibilities. Those first few words that you type - they ground you in the direction you want your book to go.

For me, I love the adventure. The journey is more important to me than the map. I like to know important parts of the map - the starting destination and the ending. But how I get there - I’m okay with detours. Growing up we used to go on weekend trips as a family. From the moment we left our driveway we never knew where we would end up. We would take turns deciding on the direction. At every stop sign someone would get to decide if we go straight, left or right. Sometimes we would have designated stops in mind, but whether it was at the beginning, middle or end didn’t matter. As long as we got there. That’s what counted.

Every trip was an adventure.

That’s my strategy with my stories. I know where I’m starting, and I know how I want it to end, but how I get there - that’s the fun part.

Especially when it comes to those steamy scenes. Guaranteed, I will have every single steamy, erotic or sensual scene written by the time my second chapter is completed. We all know that what happens between the heroine and hero sexually is what drives the rest of the story. I find that by writing these scenes before I actually get to them in the story, it shows me my heroines vulnerability and my hero’s weak points. I get a taste of what they’ve had to overcome to get to this point. I begin to see the steps I need to take to get them there.

Someone once told me I write my scenes backwards. Usually people will save these scenes to the ends and just place markers in their story labelled *steamy scene here*. Not me. I’m all about the passion. They are my favorite scenes to write. That and my beginnings :)

Anya Winter is the pen name for Steena Holmes. You can find The Master at Liquid Silver Books. A week long celebration for the release is going on over atwww.steenaholmes.com - prizes to be won every day and many of them have to do with chocolate!

Love what you read? Read more from Anya Winter:

The Master available from Liquid Silver Books

The Blindfold available from Smashwords and Amazon