What are you working on now?
I have one picture book manuscript that is going through final edits before submitting it to my publisher. I have one picture book I hope to have ready by fall for submission. There are two tween science fiction chapter books rattling around in my head that I need to start putting down on paper, as well as a comedic fantasy novel and Christian mystery book based on Revelations.
Where are your books available?
Too Many Kitties is available from Guardian Angel Publishing, Borders, or Amazon.
Do you have a website/blog where readers may learn more about you and your works?
My Website is jeffclineff.com. I recently started blogging there, with each new update posted “when the spirit moves.”
Do you like to outline and plot ahead, or are you more of a stream-of-consciousness writer?
Most definitely I write in a stream-of-consciousness. Many times I have no idea what is going to happen next. It is as big a surprise to me as it is to the characters. Often, a scene or line will pop into my head and I will have to write it down. If it works, I send the story in that direction and if not, I put it away to use somewhere else if I can.
Once I was at work and wrote a scene where a party of dwarfs had set up camp in a clearing. Their bellies full, they were settling down in the swirling snow for the night when they were set upon by a pack of wolves. Unfortunately, I wrote it on a terminal and there was no way to save it anywhere. It ended up being accidentally deleted before it could be written down, but those who saw it thought it was great.
The funny thing was I wasn’t trying to write a story about anything at the time. I was bored and the scene just came to me. When that happens I have to write it down or it will bounce around in my head all day.
We hear again and again that picture books are incredibly difficult to write. Why is that?
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