Guest Post: Last Kiss Blog Tour - Laurelin Paige on her Writing Process

Today I am part of the blog tour for Laurelin Paige's Last Kiss where Laurelin tells us about her writing and plotting process for this series. Make sure to check the poster at the end and follow along with the other stops on the tour.

A GAME OF CAT AND MOUSE FILLED WITH DARK DESIRES AND DANGEROUS SECRETS

Emily Wayborn has made a decision.

She might not fully trust handsome and deadly Reeve Sallis, but he is the one person that gives her what she needs. With Reeve she can finally be herself. Submitting to him is the only thing keeping her grounded as the rest of her life falls apart. But the hotelier is a master at keeping secrets and as she continues her quest for answers someone is making sure she doesn t find them.

Time is running out and she is questioning everything she thought she knew about friendship and love. She must now make an impossible choice that will determine if she will survive with her heart...or her life."

How I researched the story/plotted it/the writing process

by Laurelin Paige

As with most of my stories, I began writing First Touch and Last Kiss by fitting key plot points into an outline. This is where I usually dive into the prose, but since I was selling this series before it had been written, I had to write a detailed synopsis for both books. Though I’m a plotter by nature, I find writing detailed synopses very difficult. I don’t always know the details until I get writing so I have to guess. Not surprisingly, my synopses look different than the finished product, but the main points stayed the same.

Once I had the go ahead to write the series, I read several “dark” books and watched old Hitchcock films to get in the head space of the world I wanted to create. I leaned very much on the old black and white thriller movies. I wanted scenes heavy with environment and mood and I specifically structured my chapters to be long so they’d have that weight. I also wanted to describe settings more than in most of my books so that this series would feel like a very different read. With those elements in mind, I began at page one and just went where the characters took me.

The best part about writing this duet, I must say, was the input I had from my agent, Rebecca Friedman, and my editor, Eileen Rothschild and from my critique partner, Sierra Simone. I wouldn’t have been able to conceptualize the series without these three women giving me valuable feedback.

Last Kiss by Laurelin Paige is out now on ebook, and is released in paperback on 5th July