I recently had the chance to chat with Puerto Rican author Gloria Oliver. Her book, Willing Sacrifice, will be coming out soon by Zumaya Publications. Gloria talks about her new book, writer's block, book promotion, and offers advice on how to find the right publisher.

Why don’t you start by telling us a bit about your latest book, Willing Sacrifice, and what inspired you to write such a story?

Willing Sacrifice subtly covers a number of topics. It’s a book about stubbornness, trust, truth, and learning about oneself. Hah, makes it sound brainy doesn’t it? Not! Lol. Mainly it’s about La’tiera, a young woman who has been sheltered all her life, and who has come of age believing her existence is but for one purpose. Yet everything is not as she’s always believed. But can she come to see the truth before it is too late?

How would you describe your creative process while writing this novel? Was it stream-of-consciousness writing, or did you first write an outline? How long did it take you to write it?

Normally I start out with some idea that I’ve been batting around in my subconscious for a while. Once I’ve latched on to the characters and what the main theme is, normally with some pivotal scenes already laid out in my head, I usually start at the beginning and keep writing till the end. Willing Sacrifice followed this format.

Not all of my works do, however. I’ve come to find that each work tends to dictate how it wants to be followed through on. Sometimes stories just seem to have minds of their own and want to dictate the method they will be written in. I try to be as flexible to their needs as possible.

Willing Sacrifice took about a year to finish the first draft.

Technically speaking, what was the most difficult part of writing this novel?

Finding information on gypsy wagons! No, really! I had no idea how they worked, so had to go out and about and find information. Something easier said than done.

Another area of trouble, caught by my beta reader, was that since La’tiera was so isolated, it was hard to acquaint the reader with the world she was so staunchly trying to protect. This made the chapters from Dal’s point of view a necessity, and really helped give more dimensions to the work.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? What seems to work for unleashing your creativity?

Yes and no. There are times when I can be working on a manuscript and it feels like I am pulling teeth to move on to the next chapter. It’s frustrating because it makes the work take longer than say, when the muse is on fire. Normally I run somewhere in between. My current project, Jewel of the Gods, started out fast and brisk, but then slowed way down on the creativity department. (Basically I know where I want to go, but am having a hard time with how to get there.) It is one of those stories where I’ve had to do pieces of an outline to give myself goals to work toward. On the other hand, the muse showed up out of nowhere and demanded I do some “Supernatural” fanfiction throwing everything else out. The only way to get any peace was to cave in and write the thing for the muse had no intention on helping with anything else.