In this installment of Getting to know an author we spotlight Neil S. Plakcy,
Award-Winning Author of Mystery, Romance, and Adventure. Who has a brand new MM romance book out Driven Together.
Q) Tell us about your latest project. What inspired you to create it?
My new book is Driven Together, a Second Chance Formula 1 MM romance. I saw how many people, particularly women, were developing an interest in Formula 1 and I wanted to see if I could write an MM romance in that fast-paced atmosphere. I have a few past loves in my own background and I was interested in what happens when two former lovers are forced together again. And I was also reading a lot of gay hockey romance, and I loved putting gay men into a hyper-masculine atmosphere.
Q) Do you know what your next project is going to be? Can you give us a preview?
My next book is still untitled, but it’s in first draft. I’ve written 14 books in a bodyguard adventure romance series, Have Body, Will Guard. My heroes have been hired to protect a K-pop singer, and I’ve used the structure of K-drama to write it. I think it will be a lot of fun.
Q) What was the first story you wrote down?
I’m sure I wrote a bunch of stuff as a kid, but the first thing I really remember was a thinly-veiled look at my life as a teenager, called The Vulnerability of Ankles. Sadly, I knew nothing about structure, character development, or tropes back then.
Q) What do you feel are the most important things a person should take from a work of fiction?
I think readers look for three things from us: Escape, Entertainment, and Education. If I can take my readers away to a different world, make them laugh and cry and think about other people, and then perhaps learn something along the way, I’ve done my job.
Q) Do you have a set writing schedule or practice that helps you produce pages consistently.
I’m at the kitchen table every morning by ten o’clock with my laptop and a huge tumbler of café mocha. I work all day, sometimes forgetting to feed and walk the dogs! Though they usually insist and I take a break around one, then return to the computer until four or four-thirty.
Q) What are your biggest dreams and fears around being an author?
My biggest dream is to see a movie made from one of my books. I’m currently obsessed with Heated Rivalry, and I’d love to see Driven Together have the same impact on readers and fans. My biggest fear? Putting my heart and soul into a book and seeing it fail in the market.
Q) What do you do to stay inspired, what other authors do you like to keep up with?
I have what I call popcorn brain. Ideas keep popping there, and I listen to podcasts, walk the dogs, and read to keep the inspiration going.
Q) When you are starting out on a novel which comes first the characters or the plot? Are you a pantser or an outliner?
It’s usually the plot for me. That’s so important in a romance, a mystery, or a novel of adventure. Then I start considering if I have a recurring character who could learn from that plot, or if it requires someone completely new. I have leaned more toward outlining in the recent past, just to avoid having to do extensive revisions at the end.
Q) If people want more information about your or your books, where should they go?
My website is www.mahubooks.com.
Final questions –we ask everybody.
Q) When the zombies take over the world, where will you be?
My husband and I will take our golden retrievers and disappear into the Everglades, which is not far from where we live. Find a hammock above the water line and figure out how to survive.
Q) What is your favorite Fandom? (could be sports, pop culture, favorite director or author)
Right now it’s Heated Rivalry. I belong to a bunch of different groups and am always talking about it with my friends and fellow authors.
Q) Give one fact that most people would not believe about you?
That I used to be a construction manager for shopping malls. Imagine me in a branded hard hat, a big parka, and cowboy boots, trying not to make a fool of myself as I stumble around the site.
Paper Phoenix ink 