Firstly, thank you Sooo much for all the comments on my Blurb post yesterday. I really do appreciate your thoughts and will be working on it again this coming week. Thank you all 🙂

Right, on with the business!

I have a fascination lol…..I love seeing where other writers work. I know, I know, a bit creepy? Lol….noooo, I’m just nosey, aren’t all writers? Lol 😉

When I decided to open up my blog to guests I decided that I needed something to link all these lovely people together, soooo, I thought, hey, I’d love to see where my followers (and people I follow) do their writing. It’s proving to be such an interesting exercise 🙂

My first guest is Josh Mosey a writer who runs his own marketing business and works in a bookstore (I am sooooo jealous of that last bit!!!!! Lol)

I’ve only recently been introduced to Josh, but I’m looking forward to getting to know him better 🙂

How did you know you wanted to be a writer?
Writing snuck up on me. It started with a story I wrote at work while I was bored and blossomed into a goal with encouragement from some of my writer friends. Although, in retrospect, I was setting myself up to be a writer by working in a bookstore. There is nothing like being surrounded by books.

What genre do you write in?
I started by writing humorous flash fiction at Thom & Tom, but when my writers group Weaklings decided to participate in the 3-Day Novel Contest, I decided to try my hand at a novel-length dystopian story. The result was the first draft of my novel, Silent, which is set in a future where sound is illegal. Since then, I’ve dabbled in Historical Fantasy and YA Fantasy.

Do you have a writing schedule, your normal writing day?
I try to write on my blog every morning after my wife leaves for work and before I do. Then, once or twice a week I’ll slip off to a coffee shop near my house and do some writing on my WIP. I try to get at least 700 words down on my novel when I work on it, and my blog posts are anywhere between 400 and 1,000 words. I try not to let my writing life take precedence over my wife though. I’d rather be known as a good husband than a good writer. (Vikki nods in approval)

What’s the best writing environment for you – where you write?
It depends on what I’m writing. For my blog, I sit in my living room and work from my couch. For my novel, I need longer chunks of uninterrupted time than I can comfortably take at my house (where I’d rather be spending time with my wife and daughter or trying to take care of things like dishes or laundry). So, I go down the road to Biggby Coffee where I can be surrounded by life and little noises without any of those noises trying to distract me. While I write, I typically listen to music (Frightened Rabbit is a favorite of mine).

Who inspires you?
I love the writings of Kurt Vonnegut for his wry, black humor. I love J.R.R. Tolkien for his depth and thoroughness. I love Edward Gorey for his strangeness. And I love Terry Pratchett for his satire. I am also inspired by history. When I was doing research for one of my stories, I fell in love with Quentin Roosevelt, the son of US President Theodore Roosevelt. Also, the Vikings.

If you were to be compared to another author, who’s work would yours most resemble?
I like to think that my voice is similar to Terry Pratchett’s, though my subject matter isn’t satiric in nature.

Tell us about your current WIP/recently published book?
I’m working on the second draft of my YA Fantasy novel. The working title is Daniel O’Ryan and the Tree of Life.

My main character is Daniel O’Ryan. At fourteen years old, he’s one of the oldest boys at Stockton’s Home for Disadvantaged Boys.

He was dropped off as a baby at the orphanage by his father, a fallen angel. His mother was killed in an attack by the angel Gabriel, who sought to fulfill his ancient charge to kill the Nephilim. After dropping him off at Stockton’s, Daniel’s father disappears.

Now, fourteen years later, strange things are happening to Daniel. First, there’s his new school, the prestigious Blackwood Academy. Mysterious forces are at work in bringing Daniel and his best friend, roommate and fellow orphan, Ian Langston, to Blackwood.

Freshman year is hard enough, but at the new school, Daniel and Ian make few friends.

When Daniel accidentally throws the star of the rugby team, Hunter Garrison, across the locker room just days before the homecoming match, things look very dim. And when Daniel is completely unharmed after Hunter drops him from the roof of the school, he starts to question his own sanity.

Fortunately, Daniel receives guidance from teacher and angel, Abdiel, who explains the truth about who Daniel is and what he can do. And what’s more, Daniel has a chance to rescue his father from a fate worse than death and restore the family that he’s wanted for so long.

But before he can save anyone, Daniel has a lot to learn about himself and his abilities (360 degree visibility, lightening speed, sonic attacks, heightened strength, and built-in shadow armor). With the help of his friends, the Undesirables, and his teacher, Abdiel, Daniel begins the quest to find and recover the fruit of the tree of life from the long-lost Garden of Eden, the only thing that may help his father.

That’s the plot of book one. Daniel’s story will span three books, and I sincerely hope that you’ll see the whole series on bookstore shelves soon.

So it seems that Josh is a huge fan of the coffee shop. Do you ever write in a coffee shop? Do you find it inspiring? I love to free write in coffee shops, but I find I get easily distracted lol.

if you’d like to see my post for today nip on over to Josh’s Blog where I’ll be talking about The Insecure Writers Support Group 🙂