An Interview With: Ollin Morales
Posted by childofthehive | Filed under Author Interviews
1. Please start by telling us a little bit about yourself.
Well, I’m a writer. I love telling stories. About two years ago I embarked on a journey to write my first novel.
I started a blog about this novel-writing process and, in less than year, my blog was named one of The Top Ten Blogs for Writers on the web.
Then, a year ago I started a freelance career (something I never imagined doing beforehand.) I now freelance for the popular female-driven comedy site, Comediva.com. I was also recently asked to be a regular contributor to WriteToDone, one of the most popular blogs for writers on the web.
My blog, Courage 2 Create (C2C), currently has over 900 subscribers and is not just a writing blog. It’s also a self-help blog and a memoir all wrapped into one. I think it’s the uniqueness of C2C that draws people to it and has made it so successful.
2. Now please tell us a bit about your writing.
I consider my one true purpose in life to write the fiction novel I am currently working on. (It’s no easy task, but I’m working on it.) The novel is inspired by Mexican-American mythology, history, and culture. (For those who are not sure what “Mexican-American” means, it simply means someone who was born in the U.S. but whose parents were immigrants from Mexico.)
Now, as far as my “day job” I work as a freelancer, blogger and, occasionally, a ghostwriter. Right now I’ve done only online content but I hope to keep increasing my client base.
3. When did you decide to be a writer?
Well, I’ve always written since I was a kid. I used to always write short stories. It was something I did automatically–so much so that I never really noticed it until I looked back on my life. (That’s what happens with our passions, right? It’s so obvious, we can’t even see it right in front of our very noses!)
It was really only two years ago that I realized that I should pursue writing as a serious career.
In the past, I had written plays and one-man shows that went on to be produced, so it wasn’t like writing was totally new to me. But I had never seriously attempted to write a novel.
But, once I began writing the novel, I realized that I was in love with the novel-writing form.
It took me a while I guess, but I tell you, once I made the decision to be a writer and did not look back, so many wonderful things have happened.
That’s the lesson for you: make a decision to follow your passion and fulfill your life’s purpose and the most amazing things will come your way. You can count on it.
4. What’s been the most challenging thing so far about being a writer?
At first, the biggest challenge I faced was thinking that just because I was pursuing my passion, and fulfilling my purpose, everything would come easily to me.
I know my readers struggle with this, too. I recently wrote a post about how, when one gets closer to your writer dreams, the challenges get harder. I was criticized for being too “discouraging” for saying this–but it’s true! How could I lie?
Just because it’s hard, however, doesn’t mean you should give up. We have this false belief that just because were good, or just because we are following our passions, everything should work out perfectly.
That’s a myth, and you need to let that go. Seriously. Life’s hard no matter who you are or what you’re doing. However, when you’re following your passion, you’re able to get up a lot easier when you’re pushed down. Your passion/purpose gives you the hope and strength you need to keep going, you know.
5. What do you imagine will be the most challenging thing in the future?
I try to not think about the future–or the past. I try to live in the present and enjoy the writing process in that way. I’ve discovered that one of the big reasons people have writer’s block is because they are attached to a future outcome–or they fear that a past outcome will come back to bite them in the butt.
It’s better to not think of the past or the future, then. Just focus on the present and that’s how you get the writing done. At least that’s what has worked for me.
6. Are there any authors that particularly inspire you?
Ah, an endless amount: Harper Lee, Oscar Wilde, Lorraine Hansberry, all understated but brilliant. Ralph Ellison, George Orwell, J.K. Rowling, J. R. R. Tolkien, John Milton, Lewis Carroll, C. S. Lewis, Charles Dickens, Khaled Hosseini, William Shakespeare, Luis Valdez, Cherrie Moraga, August Wilson, and Anton Chekov–all must read people. The more I grow up the more I have a deeper appreciation for Arthur Miller–I can’t say that about anyone else I’ve ever read. I’m currently falling in love with Alexander Dumas. (Where has he been all my life?) Oh and Victor Hugo! Absolutely stunning… you know, I can go on and on like this. So I’m just gonna stop here.
7. Are there any books you could read over and over again?
I only read fiction books once. The kinds of books I re-read are non-fiction books that are usually on spirituality. Mostly because they are difficult reads that require a lot of re-reading throughout life. I’m currently re-reading The Tao Te Ching. I also find myself re-reading Eckhart Tolle, Thich Nhat Hanh, Julia Cameron and others like them.
8. Do you draw a lot of inspiration for your writing from your own life?
Well, for blogging, of course. That’s the only inspiration I can draw from! For my fiction, I usually take bits and pieces from my real life, and then mix them up in fiction form until they are barely recognizable.
9. Is there any advice you’d like to give others who want to write?
Be absolutely clear that writing is your passion. How do you do that? Ask yourself: “Would I be fine writing for the rest of my life if I knew I would never get recognized for it and would never be paid for it?” If the answer to that question is “yes” then writing is your passion. If not, you better go looking for something else, because you’re probably not gonna last.
10. How can people find out more about you and your writing?
Go here: www.thecourage2create.com
Tags: advice, interview, writing
An Interview With: Cat Patrick
Posted by childofthehive | Filed under Author Interviews
Cat Patrick, author of Forgotten, was kind enough to answer some questions about herself and her writing.
1. Please start by telling us a bit about yourself.
I’m a writer, mother, sister, aunt, daughter and lover of books, movies, ridiculous TV, food, wine and music. I live outside of Seattle with my husband and our twin daughters; I grew up in Wyoming and have also lived in Boston and San Francisco.
2. Now tell us a little bit about your novel.
FORGOTTEN is the story of London Lane, a teen girl who can remember the future instead of the past. Every night when she goes to sleep, she writes herself reminder notes—anything unwritten is forgotten by the next morning. The book is about London’s journey through high school, love and life with her strange condition, and about her plight to figure out the truth about her past so she can move on with her future.
3. Where did the idea for Forgotten come from?
I got the idea when my twins were five months old; I was a little sleep deprived. I was doing something in the kitchen one morning, and I forgot what I was doing in the middle of the activity. I thought of how awful it would be to have amnesia—particularly in high school. Then I thought, “But what if you could remember forward instead?”
4. Do you draw a lot of inspiration from other writers?
Every time I read a great book, I want to jump up and write my own great book. So yes, I think that excellent writing across any genre is inspiring.
5. Are there any novels you could read over and over again?
I’d love to say yes, but I’m not really a repeat offender. I can’t re-watch movies or TV shows, and I tend not to re-read books, either. I think part of it is because my “to be read” pile is so huge: I feel like I need to move on to the next one.
6. Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Yes, I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember.
7. Were there any challenges in getting Forgotten published?
I was very lucky that I queried the right agent at the right time with the right pitch; he took me and FORGOTTEN in and ensured that the publishing process went as smoothly as possible. Plus my editors at Little, Brown are amazing. So, no, there weren’t any hiccups. (Knock on wood for the next one!)
8. What was your most exciting moment about being an author?
As a first-time author, the whole process has been exciting. Key things that stand out are the day FORGOTTEN went to auction and sold to Little, Brown; when I got to see the finished cover for the first time; the day Paramount bought the movie rights with Hailee Steinfeld attached to play London….before the book came out; and my hometown signing in Cheyenne, Wyoming in July, which I like to call my American Idol moment (without the singing).
9. Do you have any hobbies that influence your writing?
There’s not anything specific that I can think of, but I like to tell my friends and family that anything they say to me might come out of a character’s mouth at some point in the future. I don’t try to write about people I know, but I’m as influenced by them as I am by music, scenery, etc.
10. What are you working on at the moment?
I’m writing or revising four projects at once, one of which will be my third book. I have this bad habit of starting something new when a project is frustrating me—or when I’m waiting for edits back from my editor—so I have too many balls in the air at the moment. My second book, REVIVED, is finished and will come out May 2012. It’s about a girl who’s part of a top secret government project to test a drug that brings people back from the dead.
Tags: interview, novels, teens, young adult
An Interview With: Chris Davidson
Posted by childofthehive | Filed under Author Interviews, Fantasy
Chris Davidson, author of Goodnight Sweet Prince and The Crystal Mage, was kind enough to answer some questions about herself and her writing.
My next favourite is “Much Ado About Nothing” with its wonderful combination of comedy and tragedy, with a happy ending, of course. I love the Kenneth Branagh version, with Emma Thompson playing opposite him. The David Tennent / Catherine Tate London production will be one to see.
Of course. Who doesn’t? But trying to say who… That’s a different question, and one difficult to answer, because there are so many writers whose work is so inspiring. Some excel in drawing characters that draw you into the story – creating characters that you care about. Others excel in fast, exciting tight plot-lines. Others yet excel in description and scene-setting or through their elegant writing styles.
Sure it did. Then I started thinking about going down the self-publishing road and started investigating that. I had offers from several self-publishing houses including Athena Press, Strategic Book Group, and The Book Guild, but felt for one reason or another that these were not right for me. Then I found Best Global and went with them, a Print-on-Demand company based in Brentwood.
Do you still write by hand sometimes or do you work exclusively on computer?I’ll always have a particular fondness for Milo in GNSP. He’s a bit of a pain in the neck sometimes, but he probably doesn’t really deserve what happens to him. No I’m not telling what happened – you’ll have to read the book to find out! Each of the books in the Elsynvaal Tales series features a different set of characters, though some appear in more than one book. The first draft of Goodnight Sweet Prince was completed in 2003, so some of these characters have been with me for a long time – upwards of twenty years in some cases. The ideas for Elsynvaal and its peoples were birthed in the crazy years in the ’80s when I played AD&D. (For the uninitiated, this was the role-playing game Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, the forerunner to Warhammer and online fantasy war gaming)
At the moment, I am working on the third book in the series, The Lady Myrrhelyn. It opens four years after the catastrophic events of The Crystal Mage and follows the efforts of Brother Ambrose and his merry band of entertainers as he tries to discover the whereabouts of the elusive Renegade Mage, talEbol. So far I have a draft written some eight years ago which I am now completely re-writing, not least because some of the characters in the original 2003 draft have since been killed off…. Oh it’s such fun, writing!
Tags: books, Chris Davidson, fantasy, interview, novels, writing
An interview with: Joanne Hall
Posted by childofthehive | Filed under Author Interviews, Fantasy
Joanne Hall, author of the fantasy series The New Kingdom, was kind enough to answer some questions about her books and writing.
1) Please start by telling us a little about your books.
So far I’ve written three fantasy novels and a collection of short stories, which has just been published. The first three books, “Hierath”, “In Exile” and “Eagle of the Kingdom” make up the New Kingdom Trilogy, which was published by Epress Online. The books tell the story of Alex, a deposed King determined to win back his throne, and his wife Lydia, who seeks revenge against the man who kidnapped her son.
2) How did you develop the setting for your series?
The characters came first, but because they were the first books I’[d written, it was easy to arrange the world to fit the plot. I grew up in a small village hemmed in by big towns, which became, by extension, a small scrappy country surrounded by larger ones that wanted to swallow it up. I’[ve always had a deep interest in history, and when I was a child my mother took us to visit a lot of medieval sites, especially castles, and I became fascinated with them. I could only have set my first book in a castle, and the castle ended up becoming almost one of the characters.
Of course, now I’ve just finished a new book set in the same world, I’m stuck with leaving the mountains, rivers and forests where I put them, which can sometimes be inconvenient – I don’t think flexible geography is allowed!
3) Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Ever since I realised, probably around the age of six, that a person could make up stories and get paid for it! My first “book” was a story about a lion, with hand-drawn cardboard covers – I think my grandmother might still have it somewhere. I have tinkered with “real jobs”, I worked in a record shop for around eight years, did a brief stint in an insurance office, which I hated, dabbled in freelance music journalism. But I was writing all the time.
4) Is there anything, other than the placement of mountains, that you wish you could change about your first couple of books to make the later ones easier?
Nothing I can think of. Hoping I don’t sound pretentious here (!) but I see myself as building the history of a nation, and once that history has been written, it’s set in stone. No Doctor Who style resets allowed. I guess it comes back to my interest in history – the made-up history I’ve already written has establised a framework for future books, and I have to work within that. Sometimes I do find myself wishing I could change a name, or move a city a few miles north or south, but for the most part I’m happy with it. I feel like it’s a big sandpit I have to play in, and I’ve only played in a small corner of it so far. The restrictions I’ve already set in place just create an interesting challenge.
5) Was it difficult finding time to write while holding down those other jobs?
It was difficult fitting those other jobs around the writing! I would write in my lunch break, at my desk when there wasn’t much to do, on the bus, at home after I finished work. Every chance I could grab to scribble something down. The only time it backfired really badly was in the insurance office, when I was writing a particularly intense scene involving my hero, Alex, and the internal phone rang. I picked it up and this little voice said, “Hi Jo, it’s Alex!” At which point I shrieked “Oh my god, you’re not real!” and slammed the phone down… only to look up and see my collegue, Alex, standing on the other side of the room with a dead phone in his hand looking most bemused…
6) What was your most exciting moment about being an author?
When the finished paperback copy of “Hierath,” my first book, arrived from my publishers and I actually got to hold it in my hands for the first time. It was something I’d dreamed about for so long, that there were so many times when I thought it would never happen, that I got quite tearful!
7) Are there any other writers you’re particularly fond of reading?
Loads. I got into fantasy through reading Anne McCaffrey and David Eddings, and I still go back to them, but I also like George RR Martin, Raymond Feist, David Gemmell, Joe Abercrombie, Diana Wynne Jones, Neil Gaiman, Jacqueline Carey… Though I will read anything. I read a lot of history and pop science, and music biographies.
8 ) You say you have an interest in history. Are there any other interests that you find influence your storytelling?
I think most authors are polymaths, or at least interested in becoming that way! I’ve ceratinly got at least a passing interest in most things; I spent a lot of time researching geology and plate tectonics for a potential future novel. I think it’s more that you want to write a story about something, and that awakens your interest in it. My biggest interest outside writing is music, and I’ve actually written very little about music. But, as anyone who spends any time hanging out with writers learns quickly, absolutely anything is fodder for the creative brain!
9) Do you ever find yourself treating your characters like real people? Other than when they call you on the phone, of course!
All the time. I chat to them, especially when they’re not behaving and following the plot as they should. I consider them to be as real as the people I meet in everyday life (realer, in some cases, as I spend so much time with them!) You have to believe in, care about and be invested in your characters, because I think if the author isn’t bothered about their own characters, who will be? Writing a book is a long slog, and it’s vital to have characters who keep you engaged with their story. My mum couldn’t understand why I cried when one of the characters in my latest book died, because, after all, that was what I’d written. But it was very hard to let that person go…
10) So what can we expect next? Are you going to continue writing this fantasy series or try something new?
At the moment, I’m brewing up a new novel, which will have the same setting but focus more heavily on magic than my previous books have done. I intend that to be a stand-alone. I think I’ve shot my trilogy bolt for a while! I also have a stand-alone prequel to the New Kingdom Trilogy languishing half-finished on my hard drive, which needs extensive revision to make it fit for human consumption. At the beginning of March I finished a heroic fantasy novel, “The Art of Forgetting”, which is out collecting rejection slips and looking for a loving home. And I just had a collection of short stories, “The Feline Queen”, released by Wolfsinger Publications, so I’m busy promoting that, writing a short story for an anthology, prepping the novel, organising a convention… This writing lark isn’t all sitting on your backside drinking tea and breaking off to pen some eloquent prose! 
Tags: author, interview, Joanne Hall
