Tagged: author interviews
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 Zeinab Alayan
The following is my interview with Zeinab Alayan, author of Puppet Parade. Read on to see us discuss talking puppets, self-publishing and Andrew the Annoying Ass.
1. Walking, talking puppets aren’t something you would normally see in fantasy. Where did the idea for Puppet Parade come from?
I always feel a little awkward answering that question, because I actually have no idea where it came from. I just wanted to write something for NaNoWriMo, and I started out with the idea of a girl who’d never seen her face, and then suddenly Oliver and his puppets appeared and I liked the direction in which the story was going, so I continued with it. I never plan my story ahead of time, so almost all the events in the story were just a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing.
2. Why did you decide to self-publish? Would you recommend self-publishing to any other aspiring writers?
I queried some agents before I went with self-publishing, but I kept receiving the “This is not what we’re looking for” response. I guess Puppet Parade is pretty unconventional and nobody wanted to place their bets on it. However, it still remains the first book I completed and I wanted others to read it, so I figured self-publishing would be my best bet. I do recommend it though to those who are willing to put every bit of effort into it; self-publishing offers you a lot of freedom, and the community is great! Continue reading