Welcome Enisa!
What attracted you to both speculative fiction and romantic suspense?
Justice. It’s the ‘good vs evil and good wins’ – I’m very big on that – and romantic suspense is full of it with police officers, security guards, special agents and lawyers, so I’m always looking at that subgenre in bookshops when looking for a book to read.
My love of speculative fiction grew from a huge interest in all things paranormal that came to be via an event in my father’s past when he was in his early teens. His home town (my home town too) back in Bosnia is a historic city with medieval fortified city walls, fortress and castle. Having underground catacombs, too, it’s not unusual to find houses with ancient graves in the basements. The house next door to my father’s home was one such house and everyone around knew about it – and knew about the ghost that roamed the house. Not everyone saw the ghost. My father did. He came to the house one day. Passing the staircase leading upstairs, he heard laughter. A man was sliding down the banister and grinning at him. My father just stared. He didn’t know this man. Then the female neighbour came and seeing my dad looking at the banister, said, “You’ve met the ghost. Don’t worry. He won’t harm you.” When my father turned to leave, he heard the ghost laughing again and told his mother. She wasn’t surprised, she’d seen the ghost too. That story got me hooked on the paranormal, as did The Twilight Zone and X-Files so turning to paranormal and speculative fiction was easy.
 |
| Home town in Bosnia |
Is it difficult separating the two?
No. I can switch from speculative fiction to romantic suspense and to just romance without problems. Reading a wide range of romance subgenres from a young age, I think, helped me see the differences in those subgenres. Being familiar now with those differences helps keep me in the subgenre I’m immersed in at the time of writing a particular story.
Are you a Plotter? Pantser? Or something in between?
In the early days of my writing, I tried being a Plotter and gave that up quickly. Planning a story in full detail and knowing what happened from beginning to end before writing it, I lost all enthusiasm to get the words on the page.
Pantsers discover the characters and plot of a story as they write. That’s not me. Before I write, I need the spark of an idea or an inkling of a character. Having only the basic outline of a story, I’m learning more about it as I write, and that gives me the freedom to go off on tangents if needed. That’s how Plantsers work, but I’m not truly a full fit there, either.
I am very visual. I see random scenes. A character, say a guy all in black riding a motorbike along a winding road, and the questions come. Who is he? Where is he going? Why is he going? Or I see a woman running panicked through a thick forest in the dark of night. Who is she? What’s she running from? Is she guilty or innocent? Scenes such as these and the questions that immediately come give me the bones of a story.
To truly define the writer I am, I’d say I’m a Plantser/Scener, and with scenes coming randomly I write in random order and then arrange them in the linear order that makes sense for the story. Sounds a bit scattered but it works best for me.
What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
To handwrite the draft. When sitting at the computer, the internal critic every writer dreads would appear at times and nag about the writing, push and push me to fix it, until more words stopped coming. Then I found this course at the Writer’s Centre focusing on halting writer’s block. Handwrite the draft. Stopped that inner critic as soon as I wrote with pen on paper, and it’s nowhere around since.
How do you fill your creative well?
I live in a Sydney suburb surrounded by rivers and nestled in bushland. Yes, it’s a fire zone and I’ve lived through four fires in the last 25 years, but here I can go for walks where there’s only nature and fresh air. I also love sitting in silence with a candle flickering, or looking at affirmation cards (I have a number of packs). I love colouring pictures in an adult colouring books. I’m a rock chick from way back. A constant diet of rock concerts from pre-teen years, and the radio permanently set on Triple M. Time out with friends and drinking coffee (I will admit to drinking a lot, an addiction started at the age of two when with my grandfather in the local café). Looking at my list, I’d say I’m very blessed with creativity inspirations.
What is the story you most enjoyed writing?
I can’t say there’s one story that I most enjoyed writing. As I mentioned above, justice is important to me, and writing stories focused on justice is what makes me happiest. Didn’t know it would when I first started writing but justice has appeared as a theme in everything I’ve written. Going on from that, I always write about tortured heroes who can’t escape their troubled pasts until the heroines come into their lives. I love writing intense emotions.
What are you currently working on?
Earlier this year I did the six-week Virtual Breakout Novel Intensive with agent Donald Maass. So glad I did. Showed me how to make my writing ‘breakout novel’ worthy, and using what I learnt, I’m currently reworking, as per suggestions by Donald Maass, the first book in a paranormal trilogy. It’s not a quick job but I’m loving how the story’s improving.
A Very Aussie Christmas anthology
Restore your faith in the power of the human spirit with warm-hearted romances from Breathless in the Bush writing group. Celebrate the joy and occasional heartache of the festive season, where love shines through against the odds.
Enisa Haines
Have always had a great interest in all things paranormal - my favourite shows are The X-Files and Supernatural - but had not thought to write in the genre. Then two years ago my father passed away and the strangest thing happened. A story popped into my head (as they do). Not romantic suspense but otherworldly and suddenly I was consumed by the need to immerse myself in the paranormal genre.
Doing that had a profound effect on me. I realised that, yes, I do love romantic suspense, but my real love is the paranormal genre, with leanings toward the speculative side of it. And that is the line I'm targeting with my own writing today.
I’ve had success in writing competitions, winning and placing with both romantic suspense manuscripts and paranormal romance manuscripts. I am a co-author in self-published anthologies. Aiming also for publication with a traditional publisher, I am currently immersed in a paranormal romance trilogy and, as per suggestions from an agent, enthusiastically editing and rewriting parts of the first book before submitting.
Find Enisa on her website or blogging at Breathless in the Bush.
Loved learning more about you and your writing Enisa!
ReplyDelete