Ten Things About... RM Neill, An Author Interview

It's time for another author to take the hot seat!  We welcome my fellow Canuck, R.M. Neill today!

 

I'm hoping that we'll get to meet up one day for an in person interview over coffee... but until then, we probed for answers to ten fun questions and then of course I ended up with follow up questions and kept them past the 10 question limit, as I'm wont to do...  As always, if you too have more questions, you can leave them in the comments or check out the links at the bottom of the interview!

On with the questions:

Plot or Pants?  Do you pre-plot your books, use an outline, fly by the seat of your pants or some combination of things?  How do you keep track of characters in a series?  Do you keep a journal of your characters statistics, such as hair and eye color, relatives, hometown, etc.

I’m a bit of both. I have a rough outline ahead of time, I know the beginning and the end and parts of the middle. I tend to let the characters lead me on how they want to get to the end. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. If I plot a story in too much detail before I start, I find it distracting and can’t get back to it. 

I have a recipe card system for characters. I jot down all the details for each character on a card as they develop (hair colour, home town, how he takes his coffee, etc

). When I’m finished writing a book, I transfer those cards to a bible I keep just for that. I don’t do it online because I like to flip the pages to where they are if I need to. I’m very old school that way.

Tell us about your first… published gay fiction/romance 

My first MM was published in June 2021, it’s titled The Perfect Pass and is a best friends to lovers, bi awakening story. It’s light and fluffy because I didn’t want them to be sad, I just couldn’t do it. I adore these characters and the best description I’ve received so far is calling it gay disney meets hallmark LOL

and then your most recent one..

My last release was in August 2021 and is titled Wounded Winger. Its an interconnected standalone, characters from The Perfect Pass show up (because I love them so much)

Do you write full time or part-time?  

I would say full time since I found myself jobless due to the pandemic. I do get to sit everyday and write, I don’t have to carve out time for it everyday unless school is not in session, but that’s a whole other pain in itself.

If you could invite 4 people (real or fictional, living or dead) to a dinner party, who would you invite and what would you serve?

Great question!

My grandfather 

Han Solo 

My best friend Kelly

Zdeno Chara

I have no clue what food to serve since my husband does the cooking, so whatever he decides I’d just go along with. I do know there would be lots of gin, copious amounts. And  laughing so much I’d be in pain. I’d probably make it pot luck because I hate doing dishes LOL.

Which character still pops into your mind to visit from time to time?

Logan Larkman, from my first book. He’s a joker and wears his heart on his sleeve. I can hear him often. Probably why my next series is in his hometown!

What are your writing goals for the next year?  The future?

My immediate future is to launch the first book in a new series before the year ends. Next year, I have three other books planned in the same new series as well as a connected short story. I originally wanted the short story to be released before this year ends but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

I have a large list of story ideas for the future, but they are in the background for now. As I move along with the next ones, I can hopefully move some of those ideas from idea to planning stage.

Along with the actual writing, I have dozens of courses lined up to improve my writing as well. It’s a steep learning curve, the learning never stops.

Where do you find inspiration?

Literally everywhere.

 

A lot of my ideas sprout from real life experience. Be it a character’s attitude or a location or what not. I also LOVE to scroll instagram and pinterest. I can get a whole story idea by reading a quote or seeing a cute picture of a couple. Or a guy on a beach. I never know what will spark an idea in my head.

Once I get the inspiration, I have to write it down (cuz you know, I’m going to forget if I don’t) and I will think about it further to see if I can develop it or not.

What do you do if you hit a wall while writing?  How do you combat writer’s block?

It’s hard for me to get over it when it happens. I talk to other authors or just remove myself entirely from writing for a while. I read more and go back to other activities I enjoy and try to find a reset doing something else.

What do your friends and family think of what you write; do they know?

Most of my friends and family know what I write. While I use a pen name, I don’t hide it. All of my friends have been supportive and my mom has read everything to date. Most of them think it’s cool that I wrote a book and nothing more. Having said that, I do know there are a few that don’t approve. But I really don’t care because I don’t write for them.

I went off script and asked some follow up questions that RM was happy (or at least willing to answer) 

You're fairly new to the M/M genre, are you planning to write mostly M/M in the future or are M/F character pairings still calling your name too?

Currently only MM, I'm working on a bit of a rebrand to head that way. MF no longer speaks to me I'm afraid, but I never want to say never

LOL - I totally understand - I read M/F for years... then a variety of combinations of all the options and about 18 months ago I went pretty much all MM and now, I have a few 1 clicks from authors that I'd pre-ordered long ago that may be left unread because I just can't get into the MF vibe.

Same, totally the same. The first book in this series was an MF because I didn't think I could write MM honestly. It was all I was reading but I didn't think I could write it... I was wrong lol

and it was also based on several personal experiences and I just didn't want to turn myself into a male for the story. And that's all it was. I was half through and I knew the next would be MM and so on.

How can we connect with you?

I’m on Facebook and I do have a readers group, Neill’s Naughty List.

You can email me at rmneillauthor@gmail.com

You can even message through my fb author page R M Neill

I love hearing from readers, it really makes my day.

Thank you again for stopping by, RM and for indulging my additional questions.   If you've read this far and are intrigued, please visit the author's links above.  If you're an author who'd like to be interviewed in the future, please check out our Stay In Touch page!