FAOM: Author INTERVIEW Part 2 - Writing What's Right

My plan was to have the second part of Kelly Lyman’s interview posted yesterday but, just like our Featured Author of the Month, I have 4 kids (ranging from 8 months old to 13 years) and life at our house is pretty chaotic at the best of times – since Christmas it’s been about 7 steps past that. So, my plans did not go quite according to how I intended them and here we are. It’s all good though, and honestly that is simply life. Or my life anyways, LOL!

In this second part of Kelly’s interview I asked her several more questions about writing – not the process or her routine, but the actual content of what she puts in to words. She dived in to writing in a genre after all that is not just putting words to paper and using your imagination to make those words interesting to other people too. Historical romance, like any historical fiction requires more – it requires a great deal of historical fact, or at least the writer’s understanding of the historical facts to make the story possible and believable. We touch on this a bit here, but Kelly will also share more about it in her guest post later this week.

For now, I’ll share with you the answers to the questions my curiosity dredged up.

FAOM: An Author INTERVIEW Part 1 - Life & Writing

Life as a writer, an author?

I certainly class myself as a writer and though I’m working toward it, I can’t yet call myself an author – at least not a published one. I don’t know about other aspiring authors out there but I constantly find myself wondering whether, or more accurately how my life differs or is the same as the authors whose work I read. So every time I’m in the position of chatting with an author about being an author I inevitably ask the basics, the every day, and how they ended up at the point they’re at.

This month I feel I’m in a particularly intriguing position of being able to talk with an author who is brand new to the title of “published author” and so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to really look at the difference between where she is and where I feel I am. Fortunately for me, January's Featured Author of the Month Kelly Lyman is a great sport and devoted a good bit of time to really thinking about my questions, coming up with insightful answers, and more. (I'll tell you a little about the more at the end of this post!)

Today we talk about the simple but extremely complex part – the writing…

Author Chats & Fun Surprises!

Every once in a while, you stumble upon a book (or series of books) that looks intriguing enough, interesting enough, and just fun enough that you can’t help but dive in head first – even when you’re already waist deep and sinking in everything else you’re already doing, reading and involved in. That’s sort of how this post, and tomorrow’s, came to be. If you’ve played around on this blog by checking out the other pages/tabs across the top, you may have noticed that I have a review request form that authors, their PA’s or even readers can fill out in the hopes of having me read a specific book to review and/or talk about here on Ups, Downs, Ins & Outs. And sometimes a book that is requested captivates me just enough that I can’t wait to do something, anything with it… That’s where today comes in.

Today I’m sharing with you the interview I did with Indie Author Sonia Taylor Brock, writer of The Swamp Witch series. And pssssst… if you stick around to the end, Sonia and I have a BIG SURPRISE for you all too!

THE INTERVIEW

[centered/italicized = LDF; normal = STB]

Why (or how) did you decide to be a writer?

I have always dabbled in writing, but concentrated on my art for many years.  [Then] I was given really good advice from another writer that helped me take the plunge.  He told me to write what I know and write what I like to read.  I knew exactly what that should be.  Once the inspiration started, I haven’t been able to shut it off.

FAOM: A Chat With Linda Oaks

One of the things I am looking forward to most as I do the Featured Author of the Month posts is having a chance to talk to the authors – to ask them questions about their writing, their books, their goals, and so much more. When I read a book, well okay – after I finish a book I often think to myself “I wonder what the author was thinking when they wrote this?” I cannot tell you how excited I am to be in the position of being able to actually ask that question now when it crosses my mind – or you know any of the other dozens of random questions that may come to me.

Author interviews are always interesting to me – sometimes the responses I get to questions I’ve asked are surprising. I mean that seriously, sometimes I’ll see the response and say “No way!” or “Really???? Wow.” Other times I read the authors responses and I end up thinking to myself that this person (regardless of their being an author I’m interested in) could be my new best friend! LOL. But really, to me, interviews offer an intriguing glimpse into the minds and lives of the authors featured in them. Linda’s interview was no different and you know, that’s a good thing.

I had to start, as I very frequently do, by asking Linda why or how she decided to become an author. It’s an important question – the answer could be deep, could be silly, or somewhere in between, but all things considered can offer significant insight. From there, well let’s just say my questions, like the possible answers to that first very important question, ran from deep to silly, and back again. Now without further ado, I think this is a great time to share with you the interview that I had with this month’s FAOM Linda Oaks.

INTERVIEW With Debut Author Ginger Sutter

I've been chatting back and forth with the author Ginger Sutter for several months now. We often talk writing and everything it entails - the good, the bad, and the sometimes ugly moments of writing, publishing and promotion. With the release of her debut novella Where There's Smoke There's Desire I insisted that she let me ask her a few questions so I could share with you her responses. 

First, some things I've learned about (or from) Ginger over the past 6 months.

• Ginger Sutter is a pen name. Like many authors and artists, Ginger hopes and strives to maintain some semblance of privacy in her personal life. (Or maybe authors are simply endeared to the idea of living double lives? LOL!) 
• This writing gig? Not for the faint of heart. There's a lot that goes in to writing a story. Then you've got editing, re-writing, formatting, networking, promotion, and a dozen other things that go into getting a published copy of your story into someone else's hands. We touch briefly on this in the interview below. 
• You HAVE to stay positive. It's not easy to become a published author but the moment you let yourself get down, that's when it gets even harder!
• It's good to have friends. Someone who will tell you if what you've written is crap or precious gold. Someone who will listen to you bitch when you're having a bad day and then give you the kick you need to get back to work. Someone to cheer you on and celebrate your success with you...

Now, everyone, I'd like you to meet Ginger Sutter.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW - Meet Rebekah Raymond

Earlier this month on Ups, Downs, Ins and Outs I posted a long feature that spotlighted a number of authors – who had even earlier been featured on my Facebook page as “Author’s of the Day”. Rebekah Raymond was one of them.

She is a new author that comes from my area of this wide world. I was very excited to connect with her online and I’m really looking forward to meeting her in person next week at the book launch party for her very first published novel Life’s Defeat (all details for the launch party will be posted at the end of the interview). Having Rebekah so close to home presented a unique opportunity for me to get to know her just a little bit better and to help her promote and celebrate her first book release in person.

So here we are and I hope you’re ready to get to know the author Rebekah Raymond.

[LDF] Did you always want to be an author?

[RR] No, for as long as I remember, I have been a writer though. I was always writing—in diaries, in journals, poems, stories. I am an avid Trekkie and have played for years on email Star Trek role playing games. Of course there was always that pull when I held a really great great book, that maybe, one day...but no, I expected it.

I suppose as I started to pursue more serious projects I had the thought that it would be nice to become officially an author, which is what I had felt like for a long time.

[LDF] What was your main inspiration or reason for becoming an author?

[RR] My first inspiration came when a friend of ours passed away, actually. Our girls had been in the same class the year before and she had been incredibly helpful during my pregnancy near the end. Her death came as a shock to us and it was so hard making that connection of similarities and thinking of the possibility that my children could grow up without me at any time. It made me wonder if I was gone, what I would have to leave behind for my kids to look up to? So, I revisited my bucket list I had made years before and publishing a book was on it.

[LDF] When writing, where does the inspiration for your stories come from?

[RR] I have a scary vivid imagination. When I am alone, I often find myself, thinking up stories, or scenarios, replaying how things could have gone differently or how a storyline should go. It doesn't hurt that I am a fan of generally all music and art and writing. So I have a lot of experience in a lot of different areas: I have worked security at concerts, read about murder and thrills, been an artist and musician, experienced my own high-school sweetheart romance and wedding, had children, known loss of friends and family. For my genre it helps too that I have branched out over the years, occasionally delving into the worlds of vampires and murder. I even took a course while I was in college that allowed me to go to the gross anatomy lab, seeing bodies in all sorts of different states up close. Ultimately though, I do automatic writing, so what comes out is often unknown to me until it is down on the paper and I go back to read it. Anything can trigger it though – a song, a great piece of art, an antique or piece of furniture I see while out.

Busy, Busy, Busy

There are lots of things happening behind the scenes right now as I get back to work on everything from new feature development, to reviews and interviews, to layout and design. It's great and I think the end result (especially of the page changes) is going to be fabulous but right now it makes me busy, busy, busy. 

The first big thing coming up is the "Get Back to Reading" feature that is basically a follow up to the 2+ week long featured authors (of the day) event that just wrapped up on my Facebook page.  There's is such a wide assortment of authors that were featured and all of them are so incredibly awesome - I don't think I could have chosen a better group than what I ended up with. So keep your eyes open for this months "Get Back to Reading" feature it's gonna be a good one! 

Stemming from the Facebook event as well, I ended up with a bunch of books by the featured authors to read and review. It's a pretty big stack so it's going to take me a few weeks to get through them all and review but yeah, we've got new reviews coming to the blog over the next month or so. 

And while I was meeting and chatting with all these new (and I do mean NEW) authors during the event, I stumbled across a couple that I knew I had to interview. It's going to be fun working with these ladies, scratch that - it's already fun working with these ladies as I get ready for their interviews. The first interview will be coming around the first of October and I can't wait to introduce you to this author. It's a particularly interesting one for me.  After that, as of right now, there will be 2 other interviews through the fall but I'm hoping to get a couple more than that as well... *fingers crossed* 

And that's just the work for here on this blog. And that doesn't include the layout and design work, the other/regular book promotions that will be occurring, my own writing (which I blogged about this week - here), or all the other stuff going on in my normal, regular day-to-day chaotic life.

Like I said, busy, busy, busy! 

Now, I'm off to harvest some cucumbers and zucchinis from the garden, deliver some pre-made meals to my dad (because my moms out of town and he's busy with harvest) and then I've got my son's very first football game tonight too. 

Catch you later!!



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The Mini-Interview Continues in Part 3 with AJ Krafton - THE HEARTBEAT THIEF BLITZ

Inspiration is always a topic that interests me and one that I always try to touch on when talking with other writers. See what more AJ Krafton has to say about her personal inspirations in this third instalment of our blitz interview!.. 

How did the work of Edgar Allan Poe inspire this story?

I’ve been a Poe fanatic from an early age. There is something about that tragic man that keeps me captivated: his unwavering stare into the depths of the shadows that filled his life, his penchant for beautiful, melodramatic language, his undying devotion to the people he’d loved and lost.

My favorite Poe spots are in Baltimore (where he’d once lived and is interred) and in Philadelphia (where one of his homes has now become part of the National Park Service [http://www.nps.gov/edal/index.htm]). It’s believed that his story “The Black Cat” was inspired by the basement of that house. (I have a black cat Webkinz that I would love to stick into a hole in the wall there but the husband says NO THAT’S VANDALISM AND JAIL and other husband-type warnings. Such a party pooper.)

A few years ago, I had the chance to visit the Rare Books department at the Philadelphia Free Library, where they had Poe’s work on display. I could have spent a week in there, with only a thin pane of glass between my hand and the pages touched by Poe’s very pen. The original manuscript of Rue Morgue was inches away from my face. I was in complete thrall. (The husband rolled his eyes and moved me along.)

While my short stories and poetry often pay a small tribute to him, this is the first full-length work that I’ve devoted to his style. I let all the wonderful macabre shadows creep in and take over while I was writing. The Heartbeat Thief also includes specific references to “The Masque of the Red Death”.

In “The Masque of the Red Death” a wealthy lord turns his home into a sealed fortress in an effort to protect himself and his close friends from the Red Death, a plague that was spreading through the country. One night he threw a party for his guests…but someone unexpected showed up. The unexpected guest was dressed as a ghoul bathed in blood and everyone fell dead at its feet. (The End.)

Elements of “Masque” are present throughout The Heartbeat Thief. Excerpts from Poe’s story are used in the section introductions, setting the tone of the chapters to follow. The novel’s structure was also loosely based upon the flow of Poe’s story—Prince Prospero's seven apartments now become the seven major settings of the story. I used color references and allegorical context to connect Senza's journey through time to the passage of Poe's ill-fated party goers, right the very last black room, where Death awaited them all.

Overall, I hope that the theme, the atmosphere, and the character’s obsession with life and death would do my idol proud. I hope to visit Baltimore again soon, just to stop into Westminster Burying Ground [http://www.eapoe.org/balt/poegrave.htm] for a moment to say hello, to offer another bit of thanks for his unending inspiration, and to leave a few pennies on his gravestone. 

Check in with us a bit later when AJ shares some insight into historical slang use in writing. 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25153751-the-heartbeat-thief?ac=1

Purchase:

(the first two days of release will be selling at 99cents)

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Heartbeat-Thief-AJ-Krafton-ebook/dp/B00UZC9W7U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433904408&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Heartbeat+Thief+Krafton