Manic Monday with Mila Ramos & Giveaway!

Welcome to the first day of my Manic Monday Guest Blog series.  Today you have the pleasure of spending a slice of the day with Mila Ramos, Author of Strange Desires, Dark Pleasures, Smouldering Ember: Touch of Fire, and her newest release Echoes and Illusions. Mila has offered to give a print copy of Echoes & Illusions away to a lucky US resident who comments on this blog.  Because I was a little behind the eight ball this morning - I'll give a couple extra days and pick a winner on Wednesday night! 

At an early age, Mila learned the valuable secrets books contained -mysterious worlds and far away places helped nourish different ideas and concepts of the real world. The day she picked up her first true romance novel , her life changed.  It was through this that she discovered a whole new realm of depth and her writing took a new turn, into the paranormal scene.

Without further adieu, here's Mila.....

Hello all and a Happy Monday to you!

Don’t worry about the happiness on a Monday; the excitement wears off after the 4th cup of coffee. Hehehe. How is everyone doing today? Well I’m having a great time riding the waves of cyber goodness and I hope you have enjoyed your time as well on my virtual tour. There have been some lucky winners along the way, great questions and fantastic comments!

Thank you to J.E Taylor for graciously hosting me today! I’m so happy to always get the chance to explore new places and sites!

So since today is Maniac Monday, and everyone is normally running around, I wanted to slow things down just a little bit. Of course the urge to belt out The Bangles version of the song (which is fantastic by the way) is still on the to-do list.

With the tour a little more than half way through, I was asked a great question by a reader who was wondering about writing.

“How do you do it? How do you do the promotional and writing?”

Truthfully some days I really don’t know how to keep it all straight with everything else that’s done during the day. But I will say to all writers out there, especially the new writers, keep writing. Some of you have seen on my blog that I normally end a post with my phrase “Keep writing!” This is something that I would recommend and give if you are wondering just what to do, or how to get that contract to the big leagues.

Keep writing.

In looking at my first story and seeing some of my writing now, time has absolutely changed my mentality as a writer. And it happens to everyone. What you couldn’t write back when you first started is easier to write with a couple years under your belt. The fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants attitude of writing may have changed or you may have refined it to work for you. Most importantly though, don’t give up that style of writing. Refine it, work it, expand on it, but don’t give it up.

In all the work that I have been doing, from poetry writing to now this, I have learned I have a particular voice. In that voice, I’ve had to expand on it and heavily perfect it. By all means it is not yet at the level I wish it to be but I know I’m getting there. But writing will get me there. The more I write the better I’ll be. The better I am, the more I will live up to the dream of the writer and author I can become.

As far as promotion, I’ll do as much as I can but it’s the writing that will get me there. I can’t really be a world bestselling author if I don’t work on the writing. So that is my advice to those starting out, keep writing. Even as I still go out and work on my type of writing, I know the brand that is meant for me. Do that for yourself. Attend the seminars or webinar; get the books that teach you how to perfect YOUR style of writing. Work on perfection to YOUR writing voice. Try different things out that may work for the writing you want to do. Some things will work, some will not at all. At least you know though, what does work.

I’m still in that phase, refining my voice, finding ideas that work best with my voice, my style of writing. I know paranormal and science fiction are it (I’m a SyFy fan, can’t deny it), I know I love erotic romance, and mainstream romance I can do, but I’m exploring the darker sides of the paranormal and testing my boundaries with erotic romance. Do that with your own stories, do that with your own style. You may be surprised what you find. I know my own shot of something new would be a historical. How in the world it’s going to be done, no clue but its jumping around the brain and I’ll figure it out soon.

Think of it this way, all the big writers had to start somewhere. They had to learn different tricks of the trade to be where they are at now. They had to learn their own tricks to make that space in the writing world. If they had to do it, trust me, you do too.

So keep writing!

Thanks to J.E. Taylor for hosting me today and thank you readers for dropping by! The tour continues with Smoke and Mirror characters Ana and Cody taking the reins and letting us know their thoughts on their story.

She currently working on her doctorate in Organic Chemistry and resides in Texas, with her husband, family, friends. Her favorite genres are: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Erotica and anything her mind concocts. Crazy and silly as the ideas she sometimes has, her heart is as true as gold and hopes her readers enjoy the stories she writes as much as she loves to write them.