Not all who wander are lost..

Which is bullshit because some of us totally are.

But we’re having fun doing it.

I have these blog posts and I often end up contemplating my belly button because I have no idea what I’m doing. Writing for me is kind of like that. It takes me a bit to find the puzzle pieces and fuck if I know what picture it’s supposed to make because I’ve lost the box.

I’ve got two examples of that happening right now. One is Down and Dirty, which is a contemporary coming out in January and the other is Murder and Mayhem, the first book in a new series of the same name. It’s like I have to constantly make shit up and then I think.. Oh wait, I do.

Because there’s no road map in writing. Not really.

People talk about plotting or pantsing and how they knit together things. Hell, I don’t even think that far ahead. I’m just hoping for interesting characters I can maim. Which leads me to the whole… contemporary factor from Down and Dirty.

You see, it’s a romance. Straight up, kissing against the wall, fuck my brother can’t find out about this romance. Let me tell you… killing people? A hell of a lot easier than relationships.

Not something I’ve written because well, murdering’s my business. I enjoy it. I like writing it. I like finding new and inventive ways to do it but when it’s all said and done, I kind of also write about the people finding the bodies and how they deal with their lives, the dead bodies and sometimes even the craziness of the world around them.

The baseline in all of our books past and present are relationships, either the forming, breaking down or even the dearth of them, that’s the key thread weaving through the tapestry. Sometimes it’s about a character’s relationship with himself as well. But mostly for me, it’s about the journey a character is taking to get to a point where they can say; I’m good here.

In the video up above, there’s a statement that some of us are genetically driven to wander. I’d have to say that extends to writers. There’s some part of our brain that wander into the maybe. We explore psyches, both our own and imaginary, and I think the most successful writers are those that can document and tell that journey in a way that fascinates us.

Because, dudes, I love to read a hell of a lot more than I like to write. And I LOVE being taken to new places, new characters and new possibilities. So with that, I ask you all to stretch into a part of the genre that perhaps you’ve not explored. Read an author you haven’t ever touched. Find a voice that speaks to you out of the darkness of the unknown and see what they have to say.

Find someone new. And share your discoveries.

So go out and wander. Have fun. Explore. I’ll be out there eventually…just as soon as I finish killing this one last character.

About Rhys Ford

Rhys admits to sharing the house with three cats of varying degrees of black fur and a ginger cairn terrorist. Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep a 1979 Pontiac Firebird, a Toshiba laptop, and an overworked red coffee maker.

Blog: www.rhysford.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rhys.ford.author
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rhys_Ford

And at the Starbucks down the street. No really, they’re 24/7. And a drive-thru. It’s like heaven.

Rhys’ books can be purchased, folded and first chapters read at Dreamspinner Press. http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com