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Lex Chase Answers The Often Asked “WTF Do You Get Your Ideas?”

Hello everyone! I’m Lex Chase and I’d like to thank the ladies of Gaylist for having me for the Americana Fairy Tale Blog Tour!

Americana Fairy Tale is the story of a modern day fairy-tale princess guy named Taylor. He’s a fuckup in every possible way but his perfect brother is Snow White. When Taylor’s brother gets captured by the witch, it’s up to a loser like Taylor to save the day. With a redneck huntsman at his side who Taylor is pretty sure he’s a homicidal maniac, they’re pretty much screwed.

If you don’t know me, I’ve written a gay superhero dripping with pop-culture references, a vampire/shifter series with a highly effeminate cross-dressing hero, and now a fairytale princess dude on the craziest road trip through roadside Americana.

One of the questions I get asked very, very frequently is where the sweet baby Jesus do I get these ideas? I was asked over on Sinfully Sexy Book Reviews in a Vlog interview. I rambled for about four minutes trying to find a magic answer.

But that was just it. There wasn’t an answer.

My super secret to producing ideas is there is no secret. There is no magic voodoo. I do not cast bones, lucid dream, partake of recreational drugs, or sacrifice small animals. There is no One Shot, One Kill Ultimate Method that will somehow open your mind to them as well.

My ideas just are. And that sounds shitty. Because it does sound like I’m keeping a secret. But I’m not.

I thought long and hard about it. Trying to explain how I do it, and I think until today I might have some clue. I’ve been making up characters and stories before I was ten. I also did a lot of pen and paper RPGs. Because I have a severe learning disability with math, Dungeons & Dragons was way to complicated for me. Cyberpunk 2020 is my all time favorite and inspired my hardcore love of sci-fi.

But I fell in love with the elaborate worlds that go into creating a role-playing game that players across the globe could play in the same sandbox with their own flavors to make it their own.

I also read textbooks. For fun. I flipped to random pages in the dictionary and read the full page. I would pick a random encyclopedia off the shelf and picked a page and read on the first topic that caught my eye.

What’s the one thing I didn’t read? Fiction.

My first reason for not reading fiction is because I want my ideas to be my own. I didn’t want to be unconsciously cross-pollinated with other stories. This is actually an event that can happen very easily.

Unless it’s for a class or I really, really want to, I actually hardly sit and read a fiction book to this day. And if there’s an option, I always go for the audiobook so I can listen in my car. Many have looked at me like I’ve sprouted three heads that I’m not a wide reader. It’s a concentration thing for me. I have a terrible time sitting still and passively reading. I have to always be doing something. The only time I actually read for pleasure is when I’m dead in bed with the flu and don’t have the brainpower for anything else.

Even Stephen King states you must to be able to be a great writer.

I don’t even know if I’m a great writer. People seem to really dig my ideas. I have a hard time actually talking about my ideas without prefacing it “I know this idea sounds super dumb….” or “I have this really weird idea that’s kind of silly….” And people look at me with slack jaws and staring and I wince thinking I’m an idiot for saying something. But their reaction just floors me every time of how apparently I’m some kind of genius.

That actually sounds pretty negative doesn’t it? But I stay incredibly humble that way. Because I know it can be all taken away in a blink of an eye so enjoy it while I can. Americana Fairy Tale has hit the bestseller lists in Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, ARe, and DSP themselves. It’s the first bestseller I’ve ever had. To say I’m beyond thrilled is an understatement. It’s a very unexpected and very happy surprise from a book I expected to float like a lead balloon. I’m serious! I love the story, but it’s really weird.

But people seem to really love how weird it is. Even my mother who’s reading it asked me tonight, “How the hell did you get this crazy idea?”

My answer?

I just did.

How?

I couldn’t tell you because I have no idea.

Genre: Urban Fantasy Fairy Tale

Series: Fairy Tales of the Open Road

Length: Novel

Published: September 12, 2014

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

ISBN:978-1-63216-207-6

Buy: Paperback or eBook

Blurb: Modern fairy-tale princess Taylor Hatfield has problems. One: he?s a guy. Two: his perfect brother Atticus is the reincarnation of Snow White. Three: Taylor has no idea which princess he is supposed to be. Four: Taylor just left his prince (a girl) at the altar. Despite his enchanted lineage, Taylor is desperate to find his Happily Ever After away from magic, witches, and stuffy traditions. Regrettably, destiny has other plans for him. Dammit. When word reaches Taylor that Idi the Witchking has captured Atticus, Taylor is determined to save his brother. He enlists the help of rakish and insufferable Corentin Devereaux, likewise of enchanted lineage. A malicious spell sends Taylor and Corentin on a road trip through the kitschy nostalgia of roadside Americana. To save Atticus, they must solve the puzzles put forth by Idi the Witchking. As they struggle, Taylor and Corentin’s volatile partnership sparks a flash of something more. But princesses have many enemies, and Taylor must keep his wits about him because there’s nothing worse than losing your heart? or your head.

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About the Author: Lex Chase once heard Stephen King say in a commercial, “We’re all going to die, I’m just trying to make it a little more interesting.” She knew then she wanted to make the world a little more interesting.

Weaving tales of cinematic, sweeping adventure, epic love – and depending on how she feels that day – Lex sprinkles in high-speed chases, shower scenes, and more explosions than a Hollywood blockbuster. She loves tales of men who kiss as much as they kick ass. She believes if you?re going to going to march into the depths of hell, it better be beside the one you love.

Lex is a pop culture diva and her DVR is constantly backlogged. She wouldn’t last five minutes without technology in the event of the apocalypse and has nightmares about refusing to leave her cats behind. She is incredibly sentimental, to the point that she gets choked up at holiday commercials. But like the lovers driven to extreme measures to get home for the holidays, Lex believes everyone deserves a happy ending.

Lex also has a knack for sarcasm, never takes herself seriously, and has been nicknamed “The Next Alan Moore” by her friends for all the pain and suffering she inflicts on her characters. She is a Damned Yankee hailing from the frozen backwoods of Maine residing in the ‘burbs of Northwest Florida where it could be 80F and she’d be a popsicle.

She is grateful and humbled for all the readers. She knows very well she wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them and welcomes feedback.

You can find her on those social media things at: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LXChase Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lex_Chase Tumblr: http://lexiconofkittens.tumblr.com Find her blog at http://lexchase.com or drop her an e-mail at lex.a.chase@gmail.com.