Category: Interviews
My Interview with Janeal Falor
Janeal Falor is the author of You Are Mine, a novel about a society where magic is real and where all women are owned by warlocks. Below is our discussion about the inspiration for her fantasy/dystopian novel, the sequel Mine to Spell and why self-publishing was the best option for her.
1. Where did the inspiration for You Are Mine come from?
I’d been in a mood to read a lot of marriage of convenience/arranged marriage-type books and then I thought: What if these girls weren’t being sold off for money? What if they were being sold for something they had that was of great value, but something they couldn’t control. Something like… Magic! And You Are Mine was born.
2. What was your world-building process like? Did you start out with a basic idea and then build around it before you started writing or did it all come to you as you wrote?
Most of it started with a basic idea and came as I wrote. There were a few spots where I knew I needed to show more of what the world was like and I thought, how can I add something that supports their world and the story at the same time? But mostly whatever flowed out was what happened.
3. Who is your favourite character in your first novel? Why?
Katherine. Though I’m probably biased towards because I just finished writing her novella. She is sweet, but strong. She’s been through a lot and is able to use the strength she’s gained to help Serena.
4. What made you decide to self-publish? Would you recommend it to anyone else?
Short answer: I had been trying to get an agent for this book, but stopped because it just didn’t feel right. After a break from trying, I realized I still loved You Are Mine and wanted to do something with it. I thought a lot about the pros and cons to all my options, made a giant list of them, and in the end, self-publishing just felt right. Really right.
Short answer to the second questions as well: Yes, BUT it’s tons of work. That means it’s not for everyone. It’s an intense process when done right, but is an amazing feeling when you see your hard work pay off. There are a lot of great choices in publishing right now, so you can pick what works for you and your books. Thankfully if you do go with self-publishing, there’s a lot of great information out there.
5. Do you have any advice for any aspiring writers reading this?
Read. A lot. Write even more. Believe you can follow your dreams.
I still have a lot to learn, but these are the things that have helped me the most.
6. Can you give us any hints as to the next novel, Mine to Spell? Do you have a tentative release date yet?
Yay for hints! Let’s see what I can say without spoiling anything…
As much as I love Zade and Serena, the hero Cynthia falls for in Mine to Spell makes me all melty and swoony. Seriously, sometimes I “edit” gushy parts just because I want to read more about him. This means there’s more romance than the first book, though it’s still not the main focus of the book.
The first chapter starts a few months after You Are Mine ends on Cynthia’s 17th birthday. Also, I think the end of the first chapter is going to make a lot of people happy/excited and help with understanding Cynthia so much better. Nice, vague response 😉
And very tentatively, I’m shooting for releasing in Spring of next year. Probably March or April.
My Interview with Jill Braden
Jill Braden is the author of The Devil’s Concubine and its sequel, The Devil Incarnate. The Devil of Ponong is her first published series and takes place in Ponong, a tropical island under colonial rule in a fantasy world. Join us for our interview as we talk about her amazing fantasy world, NaNoWriMo and how writing can be compared to watching paint dry.
1. QuiTai is a truly incredible woman in many ways. Was there a woman either in your life or in history that inspired her character? Or was there something else?
I’m glad you like her. My main literary inspiration is Irene Adler from Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Scandal in Bohemia. I don’t like modern versions of her much (and could go on forever about why) but the original is still wonderful. She was a former actress like QuiTai, and rather notorious, and she outsmarted Sherlock Holmes. I also love Amelia Peabody from Elizabeth Peter’s Amelia Peabody mysteries, Miss Celeste Temple from Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, Lisbeth Salandar from the Millennium trilogy, Mattie Ross from True Grit, Joan Wilder from Romancing the Stone, and Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. Each of them are wonderfully sensible in their own way, and they have the added attraction of being so well written that they just about leap off the page. Continue reading
My Interview with John Heldt (2)
John Heldt is the self-published author of The Mine, The Journey, The Show and now The Fire, all books in his Northwest Passage series about time travel. Every single one of his books has a fascinating combination of history, romance and humour. Read on to see John and I discuss writing emotional scenes, researching and a possible continuation of his originally planned five book series.
1. There are some very emotional scenes in The Fire. How do you as a writer strike a balance between touching and melodramatic?
I enlist the help of others, that’s how. What is just right for one person may be too sappy or too dry for others. By getting the perspectives of beta readers representing both genders and a variety of ages, I’m usually able to determine whether an emotional scene needs to be rewritten or left as is. Continue reading
My Interview with Katie Hamstead
Katie Hamstead Teller is the author of Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh as well as an upcoming book called Branded. After seeing her tweet about my 5 star review of her book, we struck up a conversation and I asked to interview her via email. Below is the interview in which we discuss research, depictions of Akhenaten and how she fell in love with ancient Egypt.
1. What was your research process like for Kiya? Were you always interested in ancient Egypt or did you stumble across her story and then do the research?
As a young girl I loved reading about Egypt, Rome and Greece, (the big three!) and in high school I elected to study Ancient History to further this interest. It was during this time I developed my curiosity for the Amarna period. So, in a sense, I’ve been reading and learning about it for years.
Time passed and I decided to write the story. This meant a lot of research, even as I wrote. I pulled books from the library, and journals from universities and wove together the theories which best suited the story I wanted to create, and I filled in the gaps with my own personal interpretations. I’d also studied Hebrew culture a few years ago, so my understanding of the twelve tribes was much strong than it was as a teen, and again I pulled books and university journals about early Israel and somehow, using the later period theory of Israel in Egypt where the exodus was during the reign of Ramses II, I meshed the two clashing cultures together. Continue reading
My Interview with Carla J. Hanna
Carla J. Hanna is the self-published author of Starlet’s Web (and the rest of the Starlet series), a novel about a child actress who wants to get away from the Hollywood lifestyle of booze, drugs and sex. Read on to see our discussion about media messages, Hollywood and the dark side of publishing.
1. I’ve heard some interesting stories about the publishing industry from your comments here on the blog, but what would you say was your worst experience in the industry?
I was wiped out when I first learned that my coming-of-age fiction with romantic and spiritual elements had no commercial chance at being represented by a traditional publisher or widely read if I self-published. Every publishing expert told me that the teen coming-of-age market is too small to be profitable.
“Surely readers aren’t so shallow?” I protested. It wasn’t about what readers choose to read… Continue reading