Welcome to Writing Teams Week everyone! We’ve always wanted to delve deeper into the psyche of some of our favorite authors who are actually not just ONE person, and find out the dynamics of how they work together to bring us the books we love. Kicking things off this week we have Kit Rocha. A favorite as you may have noticed of UTC. Kit Rocha is actually not their first collaboration writing together, you may have also seen them around as Moira Rogers. Please give them a warm welcome!
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The writing process of Kit Rocha
Thanks so much for stopping by to talk a little bit about your writing process! First off, how did you decide to work together?
Bree: It’s been so long, I’m starting to forget! It feels like we’ve always been doing it now. We had always plotted together and critiqued each other, but neither of us really seemed to be able to finish a project by ourselves. (I think the plotting together was the fun part!)
Can you share a little bit about your writing process? Who does what and at what point does it happen?
Bree: When it comes to writing, we do everything together. We divide up characters, not chapters, so both of us probably had our hands on every scene in every book. (Sometimes even on the same sentences.)
Donna: When the writing’s done, we divide and conquer. Bree handles all the scary parts of production–making files, uploading, doing posts and ads. I just handle cleaning stuff up so our editor doesn’t flounce and leave us.
Bree: “Just” sure. Just that. LOL
Donna: Hey, it’s easier than trying to sell the book!
When coming up with new ideas or working out a problem in a book, how do you usually tackle a problem together?
Bree: We talk. A lot. Me especially. My biggest struggle is that my subconscious makes a lot of character decisions for me, and so then I have to figure out why so I can communicate intelligently about the plot. So when I hit a problem, sometimes I have to talk myself backwards to the start of the problem and make Donna listen to it. For hours. It’s amazing she puts up with it.
Donna: Sometimes it’s trial and error. Ways we dealt with other stuff may not work, but if we can keep the lines of communication open, then we can eventually figure it out.
What would you say is the greatest strength of the other writer?
Bree: Donna has crazy good editor-brain. She’s able to keep the bigger picture in her head in a way I just can’t while we’re in the middle of a story. She knows when something’s wrong long before I do–and even if I do know something’s wrong, she’s usually the one to figure out WHAT.
Donna: Bree’s a computer whiz. She can do anything with them. Also, she creates the most distinctive characters–the ones where you can show someone three words of dialogue and they’re immediately like, “Ohh, that’s Ace!”
Out of the two of you, who writes the dirtiest sex scenes?
Bree: I don’t know! LOL We write them together. Who writes the dirtiest character?
Donna: I don’t know, but Dallas is pretty dirty.
Bree: Dirtier than Lex? I don’t know about that.
Donna: Maybe they should both concede the title to Bren.
Bree: So Donna wins! But if it’s dirty talk, it’s always Ace. So I win too!
Who is most likely to cry during edits?
Bree: Probably Donna, because she’s the one doing them. Or me, I guess, because she’s going to kill me because I like commas too much or whatever crazy thing I did in this book.
Donna: I agree with that assessment. LOL
Who is most likely to get details wrong in a book?
Bree: Me.
Donna: Me. I can’t remember what color anyone’s eyes are.
Bree: But we have a series bible for that. So we go and look them up! Our wrong stuff is rarely in the details. We’ll be more like…writing a scene where I think the heroine is justifiably furious because X thing happened and Donna thinks the hero is justifiably furious because Y thing happened and then we realize we have completely different ideas about what our scene is about. (Hence all the communication.)
And finally, what is the best thing about getting to work with your best friend?
Donna: The conversations that no one else understands. LOL “Hey, should we–” “Noooo, yeah?” “Uhh, YEAH.”
Bree: Never being alone. It’s rare in this business to have someone else who is always in exactly the same place as you are. We all go up and down and rarely at the same time, but I’ve always got a friend who is thrilled when I’m thrilled and disappointed when I’m disappointed and exactly as invested in my career as I am. It’s the best.
For years, Jared has existed on the fringes of both Eden society and Dallas O’Kane’s Sector Four gang. He travels between these worlds, protected by his money and power–money he earned selling his body, and power that comes from knowing secrets. He’s untouchable—until he starts a new life gathering intelligence for the O’Kanes.
Lili Fleming walked out of Sector Five with a gun, the bloodstained clothes on her back, and an icy determination to survive. She finds herself in a world where people live hard and love harder, and nothing’s more terrifying than how much the O’Kanes wake her up, make her feel—especially Jared.
Emotion is a risk he can’t afford, and a complication she doesn’t need. But neither can resist the lust simmering between them, and the sparks that could either melt the ice around both their hearts…or get them killed. Because the only thing more dangerous than loving an O’Kane is loving a spy.
Kit Rocha is the pseudonym for co-writing team Donna Herren and Bree Bridges. After penning dozens of paranormal novels, novellas and stories as Moira Rogers, they branched out into gritty, sexy post-apocalyptic romance, and steamy dangerous fantasy romance.
They have been nominated and won several awards for their extremely spicy happily ever afters, and can probably be found writing their next book about messy chaotic bisexuals falling in love while saving the world.
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