He scoots out and rises to his feet, his frown transforming into a grin when he spots Madge. “Is it straight?”

Gale’s voice is warm and deep, and his Northside Dublin accent wraps around the words softly, like smoke. There’s something in the cadence of it, something in the curve of the vowels and the edge of the consonants, that does this American girl good.

“Um,” she tears her gaze from him and examines the tree. “Perfect.”

“Great. Want to help me decorate it?”

“Yes. Just let me…” She gestures to her bag and coat, then hurries to her desk to get rid of them. She runs her fingers through her hair and fluffs it up before going back to Gale.

It’s late to be putting up Christmas decorations, but the whole office had decided, by a sizeable majority, to that they’d wait until the week before Christmas. Their workplace had become a haven from the relentless barrage of all things Christmas since Halloween had concluded. But as they get closer to the holiday, Madge’s excitement is growing. Her parents are flying over in a few days and she can’t wait to spend her first Christmas in Ireland with them.

They wrap the tree in several strands of lights first, then break out the baubles. Madge hangs them at random, but Gale places them carefully, ensuring an even distribution of type and colour. When Madge catches on, she starts hanging more on his side of the tree, ruining the effect he has achieved. He scowls and complains, but soon he’s grinning.

“It will look schizophrenic,” she teases him when he starts removing the ones she had hung. She slaps his hand away and inserts herself between him and the tree. He uses his height advantage to pluck one from over her head and smiles smugly at her. She pushes him away playfully.

It’s the most physical contact she’s had with him in the eight months she’s been working here and it’s exhilarating. She liked the feel of his body brushing against hers, and she wants him closer. She wants to press her body against him and feel his hard muscles, the softness of his skin, his breath against her neck.

She meets his gaze between the branches of the tree and he smiles. On a high from the physical contact, she gives him her best flirtatious smile and tosses her hair. “I hope you have plenty of mistletoe, you’re going to need it.” She even throws in a wink.

“We’re not allowed hang any mistletoe. There was an incident last year between two of the interns. We had to do a full-day sexual harassment workshop in January because of it. So no mistletoe.”

“Oh.” His complete obliviousness to her attempt at flirting is like a bucket of cold water to the face. “Right.”

Gale places a gold star at the top of the tree and stands back to survey it. “That’s grand. I suppose we should go do some actual work now.”

She watches him walk back to his desk.

How much editing do you do before you publish?  A LOT. I have a terrible habit of editing as I write, and I have zero ability to chill. My record is probably 24 hours, cumulatively, just for one scene (it was a very important scene). 

Do you listen to music when you write?  Yes. Music is a huge part of my workflow. I post some of my mood music; every now and then I’ll compile a playlist or make a short music video. 

In my WIP, I deal with a large cast of primary characters who live in several different countries, so music helps ground me in that character (what genre/s do they like? how is that related to their personality?) and that setting (which artists/bands would they be listening to in that country?).

How do you decide what to write about?  Given a number of competing ideas, I’ll do a rough outline for each and pick the one that feels most complete.

When do you write? It used to be that I wrote at night, but now all times of the day are equally awful for me. 

How often do you write?  I try to write every day—sort of like a lifer’s NaNo. But most of it is crap.

Do you take requests?  I do, but I try not to advertise that fact because I’m so slow at filling them.

Is there any genre or type of story you want to write but are hesitant to? Fantasy and science fiction are some of my favorite things, but writing in those genres require an imagination that I do not possess.

Any inspirational quotes, videos, tricks, articles, etc. that help you stay motivated?  Whenever I have a good writing session, I put on perfume afterwards. Then I put the same perfume on when I’m having a bad writing session, to trick my mind into going back in the zone. But I use this hack sparingly—sometimes a bad writing session will stay bad no matter what, and I don’t want to taint that scent with the memory of failure. ^_^;; (Most of my characters also have signature scents, so it helps to think of those scents when I’m getting ready to write in their POV.)

I enjoy making edits because it’s a straightforward problem-solving process (figure out how to do the thing, then do the thing) compared to writing. If I’m making an edit for my own story, there’s the happy side effect of motivating me to write it.

And caffeine. Always caffeine.