We recently connected with Patricia Carrigan and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Patricia, thanks for joining us today. Can you walk us through some of the key steps that allowed you move beyond an idea and actually launch?

My first trilogy of novellas, The Antiserum Novels (Antiserum, The Rising, Venom), came to life from my high school journal. I for a good part of my freshmen summer into sophomore year, I was fairly depressed and took to keeping a daily journal. It kept my brain functioning in a way that made it easier to deal with the things that I felt were hard and was a place where I could figure out the bigger picture–not get stuck on the small things. Once I was getting in the swing of better thinking, my teenage brain became bored and instead of writing my daily doings, I ended up embellishing and creating a new life (or story) that I felt was more exciting. It started with super heroes and then, thanks to the global boom that was Twilight, I was reintroduced to my love for vampires which had blossomed from an early age due to my father putting on all movies of the supernatural sorts (primarily werewolves and vampire related). So, my story changed from my own life, to super heroes, to my lovely vampires that I kept writing about for so many years.
Now-a-days, I don’t start my novel ideas with my journal writing. I’ve come to find what works best for me (and for some others!). I am not a panster when it comes to writing the entirety of my novels. I am a planner.
I will start out with a feeling of my book, for example, my last novel Ruby Nights, started from: strong female main character, mobster/night club vibes. Then came a conflict idea (human to vampire transition, then integration to new life, new attitude, new romantic interests, and the need to lead). From there, it’s peppering in bigger plot points–how, why, and when–which creates a large-form informational summary.
Next, is the harder work. I separate my summary into it’s individual “how, why’s, and when’s” and then start a more detailed timeline. This timeline primarily includes character intros, scene detailing (the literal bane of my existence! So I’m sure to get it down first), dialogue, and where sub-plot will intertwine with the main plot. During this phase, I don’t limit myself to writing out certain scenes in their entirety if my muse is speaking to me! But, the majority of it is in bullet-point structure with little-to-none punctuation!
Once I have my detailed timeline mapped out; then I print it out, pop it into a binder, and follow the bullet-points for my first draft!
**During this time, it is important to note that I was making it a point to post teasers and themes on social medias to start gaining public interest. Marketing your story starts LONG before publication.**
Honestly, what I think is the hardest part of writing novels/novellas/stories is getting the structure and details down without giving yourself some major plot-holes. And I find not having a roadmap on what I’m going to write is more daunting to me ESPECIALLY since my muse doesn’t seem to like to speak until some ungodly hour of the night.
Let’s be honest, I can’t always sit down and write at those times. A girl’s got work too!
Having the set up that I do, also makes it to where I’m still able to get a significant amount of words written when my muse is quieter.
After the creativity is done, a novel is in your hands, you’ve either paid for a cover design (that should catch your audience’s gaze – ex: not a huge amount of people will carry a book with an explicit cover, hence the more discreet romance cover art that’s in popularity), and there’s no where else to go, then comes the nitty=gritty of picking it apart in your alpha and beta reader feedback passes, and your MANY editing passes. I’ve done everything from self-edits to professional editing and can recommend both as long as you get your desired result.
As for publishing, I’ve stuck with self/indie publishing with a Trafford and KDP (kindle direct publishing), but have gotten the most success with my latest release on KDP.
Keeping up with marketing once your book is out in the world for everyone to enjoy, is almost a part-time job in itself. I keep it to a post schedule consisting of scene teasers or tropes to gain new reader interest, and plan future sales to keep my book higher up in ranks.
Staying with a schedule frees up my time for my next projects and new creative ideas!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a self-published/indie author and I primarily write in the NA (new adult) Paranormal Romance category. My first three books (The Antiserum Novels: Antiserum, The Rising, Venom) follow Jocelyn Bairen through her late-teen years into her early twenties as she transitions into a vampire and her adaptation to the addiction that follows. This series includes tropes like: first love, coming of age, enemies to lovers, one bed, emotional scars, and Good vs. Evil.
My latest release, Ruby Nights, is the first book I’ve written in the Dark Paranormal Romance category. It’s story follows Ruby, a successful life-style columnist, whose life is flipped upside-down when her fiance turns her into a vampire. Then, after being accepted into a high-ranked clan, tempted by violence and her leader’s Irishman bodyguard, does she realize there is much more to this new life than she once thought. And Ruby, is not one to follow the leader. This stand-alone novel includes tropes like: sunshine to morally grey, obsessive boss, hot bodyguard, revenge, and a strong female main character. It is explicit in its romantic descriptions, and trigger warnings should be checked before reading.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

The INCREDIBLE thesauruses by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi! They have created a collection of thesauruses just for emotions, conflicts, urban and rural settings, emotional wounds, and so many more!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

In a way, it allows me to live another life AND help resolve inner turmoil I may have or have had! It feels healing when I’m able to successfully create and build a character arch that can speak to so many others, or even build a conflict that I find difficult but come up with a solution for! The solution may not be very ethical in real-life situations (tends to happen with morally grey characters), but it does have a lifting feeling once everything is said and done.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.patriciacarrigan.com
• Instagram: @pcarrigan.author
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/patriciacarrigan
• Other: TikTok: @pcarrigan.author

Image Credits
Jacob Rivers Art and Maryanne Carrigan