T n'T's Confidential:MC Houle

Happy Thursday folks! We're one step closer to the weekend and to celebrate we've got novel author MC Houle answering a few questions for today's T n'T's Confidential post. Let's give her a warm welcome *applause* 
 

MC Houle is a Canadian writer who fell in love with M/M fiction at fourteen and never looked back. Fluent in both English and French, her interest outside of writing includes, but are not limited by, foreign culture and cooking, traveling, science, swimming, and digital art.

 Hi MC and welcome to "In a Dream Beyond", what are you currently working on?

Thanks for having me on your blog, Elyzabeth. At the moment, I’m working on a couple of projects.  You can read the two first scenes of “The Road Trip” on my blog.  The scenes are going to be extended in the final project, but it gives a feel of the planned story.  I’m also working on a Christmas story which isn’t that easy when it’s sweaty hot outside.  The story is tentatively titled “Jingle Giggle” or maybe “Jingle Tickle”.  I’m still debating on the working title on this one. 

Where do you draw your inspiration for your stories?

It’s hard to pin point exactly what inspires my stories, but if I look into my notes, I can find three main sources of inspiration; music, writing prompts (images don’t work, it has to be worded prompts) and everyday life.  Sometimes it’s a mix of those three.  For example, I have a weird zombie story idea that was inspired by “I Can’t Love you Back” by Easton Corbin, and a family romance inspired by Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Bucket”.  The songs don’t have a lot to do with the actual story, but something the singer sang triggered a story.  “The Road Trip” was inspired by a mix of writing prompts and everyday life.  I had the word inferno, but I was also inspired by my parents’ situation at work. 

I also like to follow the themed submission call of my favourite publisher.  I don’t always have time to make the deadline, but that doesn’t mean the ideas I get are unusable. 

If you could pick one of your characters to stay stranded with on a desert island whom would it be and why. 

I would say Josh, an ex-cop turned bodyguard from an untitled and unfinished project of mine.  He’s pretty resourceful, and he would know what to do.  Plus, he’s used to work in a team so I wouldn’t be just a damsel in distress to him.  He’s also bi leaning straight so he’ll be able to warm me in the cold night. *wink*

You normally write m/m romance, why did you decide to focus on this niche? Are you open to trying new genres?

Most of what I read is either m/m romance or gay fiction so those are the two genres I’m open to write at the moment.  I can’t say that I’m totally close to any other genre; at 23, I’m only starting my career and can’t predict the future, but I’m pretty sure that whatever I write next, it’ll have LGBT characters in it.

Favorite place to write?

I love to write in public places, like cafes and such.  At home, I always walk around instead of writing, but in a cafe, I need to stay on my seat or I’ll look silly.  It can be risky thought when you write a sex scene and some people aren’t going to shy away from reading on your screen. 

There aren’t many places that fit the bill in my little town.  Tim Horton has good hot chocolate and donuts, but they don’t have plugs for my computer. There’s not enough time with just the battery, so I usually go to McDo. They have free Wi-Fi if I need it, and they don’t mind if I don’t buy anything.  The local library’s nice too. I use it mostly for revising. 

Favorite time of day to write?

The morning is a great moment for me. I often wake up early, around four thirty usually.  My consciousness is in a daze, and my muse comes out to play without being censured by my consciousness. After that, my mind is just fresh and ready to write.

 I’ve also had awesome strikes of lightning when I’m about to fall asleep, especially if it’s too late and I seriously need the sleep to work the next day. 

Your Wednesday Brief characters are going on a road trip. Have you ever been on one? If yes, let us know what you liked best about it. If not, would you like to go?

I love to drive, but I have yet to do a real road trip, at least not by myself.  As a kid, we would travel a lot, but occasions had been rare since I started working as a teenager.  One day, I’d like to take my car and just drive without any planned destination.  Not this year because I have an organized trip in the UK, but maybe next year. 

Name three things that you absolutely cannot live without.

Three things?  Hm.  Good question.  I’m fairly easy; I don’t need a lot to live.  My computer is a must to write I guess.  And there’s no way I can survive without my MP3 player.  I’m always listening to some music.  When I walk, when I write, when I work.  Silence pushes my muse to run away from me and music stimulates her.  Music is an integral part of my life.  For the third item, I wanted to say books, but I thought it was cliche and not entirely true.  I love books, I’m making a career out of them, but ultimately, without books I still can function and create my own stories in my head.  So for the third item, I’ll go with a dictionary.  It’s really important to me, as a writer in a second language, to keep learning new words and what they mean. 

Any words for your readers?

I only have that one story in the Reluctant Romance Anthology so far, but I’d still like to hear from you.  I have twitter (https://twitter.com/MC_Houle) and facebook (http://www.facebook.com/mc.houle.5) even though I don’t use much of the latter (but I’ll answer to anything you want to say!) and there’s my blog (http://www.mchoule.com) too.  I can’t do what I do without you guys, so keep buying books and keep being formidable. 

Thank you for visiting MC!

Next week we have Freddy McKay and MA Church stopping by, so stay tuned!