Writing In My Car... With SL Danielson

Today, romance novelist SL Danielson is Writing In My Car. SL (government name: Stephanie) is the author of five novels, including Lust in London. What's this novel about, you ask? Young Alex had never left Kansas, much less flown across the pond to London. He arrives to study, but ends up getting involved in far more than he bargained for. He meets a charming salesman named Mason who beguiles him from the moment they lay eyes on each other. They start a romance, only for it to be put on hold while Mason travels and Alex attends school. Soon enough, they two are together again, but things are straining due to the distance between them. There are other obstacles as well including a secret admirer, and a jealous ex-lover. Will their relationship survive or fall prey to the London fog as only lust?

In her essay, Stephanie talks about her past dreams of becoming a writer and the challenges she faces now that she's published. Here's Stephanie!

My writing life has been something I’ve always wanted to do since I was a young girl in the mountains of the northeast. I’d written all these years and was finally inspired to attempt to publish something in 2007. I still remember the absolute euphoria at being accepted by someone! My little book would go out into the world and I’d be rich and famous, right? Well, not exactly. Things didn’t go as planned with that particular item; but it was a huge learning experience. Since then, I’ve penned 4 other books, some of which have sold into the hundreds (a huge amount to me)! For the first time in years, I am able to buy Christmas presents for my family thanks to my loyal fans, and them buying my books.

So where do all of these volumes come from? Are they welled up inside of me like a font? Kind of. I have stories that go back 20-23 years (which I plan on publishing in the coming years), but as for my overall inspiration? I’d say watching life and playing games and being a soap opera addict was a massive help! I would take what they were slowly drawing out and shorten it with my own dramatic twists. My first ‘real’ writings were when I was 12 and stuck on an incredibly long family vacation, where we had 5,000 miles to cover. It was just me, a pad of paper, and markers. The rest is history on that.

So now that I’m in this marvelous world of writing as an officially published author, what’s next? Well, let’s step back and see how I got here. There are fears and triumphs along the way. The first major fear I had? Acceptance! The genre I write (gay fiction) is not exactly a conversation starter; more a conversation ender! I rarely mention it and only last year did I ‘come out’ to my father with the truth about what I write. He read one of my books and called the characters ‘sick’, BUT, he did read it and was impressed with my storytelling style and ability. Have to get the ‘ol man credit there.

My triumphs? Being accepted in 2007 (though it turned out to be short-lived and rather empty in the end). I regret it now, and would never use the same format, company, or manner that I did. That said, my next triumph, REAL this time…was finding my friend Leiland Dale. He welcomed me onto his site in its early days and in that time I sold more books than ever in my life! My 2 best-sellers (Ranch Hands and Lust in London) finally started S. L. Danielson on the map and out of obscurity.

What’s next? Blogging, promotion, and all in-between graduate classes, working, and life. I have many more books to write, and only recently began signing with publishers again (did the self-pub thing for 3 of them). So therefore, let the games being, this author is ready!

Please take a moment and visit Stephanie's blog. You'll get an honest glimpse of the writing life. And there are also lots of guest posts by other authors.

Thanks for sharing, Stephanie!