Tonight I've got a special treat for you guys--my first author interview!  This first interview is with best-selling author Rose Pressey, who has recently released the third book in her Rylie Cruz series, "How To Date a Demon"!  Check out her interview below and then scroll down for details on a special Rose Pressey giveaway!

You can find out more about Rose and her books at her website!

You recently released the third book in the Rylie Cruz series, "How To Date a Demon," and have quite a few other series published.  Do you plan each series (i.e. the plots for each book) far in advance, or do you write each new book as the idea comes to you?
Mostly I write the idea as it comes to me. I had the idea for the titles for all the Rylie Cruz books when I started writing the first book in that series. But I never know what happens until I start writing the books.

You use some great imagery of New Orleans in the latest Rylie Cruz book.  If you were to ever have Rylie & Co. pack up and move to a new city, which city would you pick and why?
That’s a good question. Maybe I’d take them somewhere with a beach, like Miami. I’m sure Rylie would appreciate seeing all the guys without shirts.

What is your favorite pre-writing ritual?
I don’t think I have a ritual. I do like to write with a full stomach though. Ha-ha. It makes for better creativity.

Aside from your home or office, where is your favorite place to go and be by yourself to write?
Usually my bedroom. I can sit on the bed and relax. Once the dogs realize I’m on the bed though, the quiet is usually over. I like to go to the park when the weather is nice.

Have you ever considered writing a full series with a male protagonist? 
I’ve never considered a full novel, but I’ve thought of writing a novella with a male protagonist.

Of all of the strong female protagonists you include in your series, do you have a favorite?  Or does one relate more to you personally than the others? (My personal guess would be Larue Donovan since she owns a book shop!)
I do relate more to Larue. I think I have the most in common with her.

Many authors include at least the tiniest bit of personal experience in their stories.  Paranormal activities aside, are there any wacky scenarios in any of your books that have happened to you in real life?
I do include some personal experiences. In my book, Murder at Honeysuckle Hotel, the opening scene involves a missing glass eye. That really happened to my grandmother.

Which author, independently or traditionally published, most inspires and influences you?
My favorite author is Molly Harper. I love her books. I started writing after reading a Mary Kay Andrews book. I loved the book so much that I wanted to write one like it.

This question is for the benefit of all the other aspiring authors out there--What do you find is your most successful marketing strategy for your books?
Honestly, word of mouth is the best marketing. Connecting with readers via social media.

It's no secret that you love to connect with your readers through various forms of social media and with your street team!  Is there anything more you'd like to share with them that no interviewer has ever asked before?
LOL. It’s funny I just mentioned social media in the question above. I can’t think of any particular question. I’m not sure if anyone has ever asked my favorite color. I love lime green. :)

GIVEAWAY ALERT!  Enter the giveaway below for a chance to win one of Rose's e-books of your choice!

I'm sure you're starting to wonder if I gave up on blogging or fell off the face of the planet, or got eaten by zombies--but never fear, readers--I'm still alive and kickin' in the blogverse.  It's just hard been hard to keep up the blog over the past week or so while I've been moving to a new house, and even more so now because NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, for you non-writing nerds) has begun.  I tend to use up all of my writing juice trying to crank out those 1,667 words a day, and with all the moving and unpacking I've managed to fall a few days behind.  Luckily I wrote enough yesterday and today to shorten the gap to only about a day's worth of words behind...not bad for my first year participating. 

The biggest problem I'm finding while writing is the whole "tell your inner editor to take a hike" tip.  It's really difficult not to read, re-read, and re-re-read everything I've written so far to check for typos, grammar and sentence structure errors, consistency and flow, etc.  SO, here's my NaNoWriMo tip for the night: In order to kick my constant editing habit, I've been typing one page (yes--ONE) into a word document at a time. 

Here is how my method is working so far (and for me, it IS actually working):  I have a master word document open that contains the full content that I've written so far for my novel, and then I have a separate, blank word document.  I type one page into the blank document, cut it from that document, paste it into the master, and then I go back to the blank document and rinse and repeat.  I've found that this is working for me because it forces me to focus on the more immediate content that I'm producing rather than pouring over everything I've written ten or twenty times to tweak it and hindering my productivity in the process.  Instead, I have ONE page of content in front of me, and once I've produced that, I allow the ten seconds of interruption that it takes me to cut and paste it into the master copy before clicking immediately back over to the once again blank document and pushing through another page.  I honestly think this method is what has allowed me to make up for lost time over the past few days and has prevented me from editing and re-editing everything I've already written like I normally do.

 My last novel took me ten months to write because of the constant re-editing, re-writing, and tweaking that I did every day for hours before I would produce another page or two of content.  I'm finding the new "to Hell with editing on this first round" method to be much more efficient :)

Are any of you participating in NaNoWriMo?  If so--or even if you aren't but you're writing a novel and trying to avoid editing in the first draft yourself--what tactic for blocking out your inner editor and critic have you found most effective?

I'll try to post more often during the NaNoWriMo process and keep you updated on my progress--and you are more than welcome and most definitely encouraged to keep me posted on your own progress.  Happy writing!