Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I really wanted to be a superhero, but I’m too clumsy and have no upper body strength to speak of, so somewhere along the way, I decided I’d have to make do with pretending. I thought about being an actor, but I’m quiet and not pretty, so I had to find a different way to be a storyteller. I’d tell stories with my stuffed animals—other people’s at first (my beanie babies did a mean Les Mis), and then I started making my own. I played around with the idea of writing a novel from the time I was a teenager. Within the last few years, I finally sat down and did the work. Evin is my first published novel, though I’ve got another completed (for now) book that’s currently out on submission
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My new book is Evin. I’m not sure I can pinpoint the exact inspiration for it. It’s probably a mix of The Hunger Games and Hocus Pocus and too much coffee. I sort of sat down on a whim and started building the world. I wrote something like 10,000 words (none of which made it into the final version) that set up the pre-story, and I knew that I had the beginnings of something. It took a while to nail down an outline after that and to write the initial draft, but the start of it was mostly whim.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
It’s maybe not so weird, but I make a lot of faces when I write. I’ll make the expression that I’m trying to describe, or I’ll grimace when I’m writing something rough. And I sometimes make weird sounds? Like, squeal-type sounds? Mostly when I’m stuck. I don’t know what that’s about, but my cats hate it.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’m a member of the Harry Potter generation; I’d be lying if I said JK Rowling wasn’t an influence. When I think about my influences, it’s less about what people have written than it is the circumstance under which they wrote. Rowling wrote through super difficult personal and financial circumstances, but she kept going and created something that’s had huge impact. The other influence I usually list is SE Hinton—mostly because I was a teen when I started writing seriously, and I was really impressed with the fact that Hinton wrote The Outsiders when she was a teenager.
What are you working on now?
My current project is a speculative fiction novel that follows two unlikely kindred spirits in their fight against a corrupt galactic corporation that upended their lives. It’s a face-paced adventure with a sci fi bent. It’s currently out on submission, so I don’t want to say too much about it, but it does include some of my favorite characters that I’ve ever created.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
As far as social media goes, I use Facebook to promote my work the most, but I usually crosspost to Twitter. Apart from that, I have a blog that I update with publication information and updates and thoughts about the whole writing process. And, to the degree that I could, I got in touch with folks at local media outlets.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Do the work. Plenty of people want to be a writer, but the only way to become a writer is to put your butt in a chair and write. It’s frustrating. It’s not glamorous. And sometimes you would rather do anything else. But the only way you become a writer is to sit down and write.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
For a long time, I thought that I had to work in a certain way if I wanted to be a “real” writer. The best advice I ever got was to do what works for me. Everyone’s process is different. That you don’t write the same way that someone else does—even if it’s someone whose work you admire—isn’t necessarily bad. If you’re getting the work done, that’s what matters.
What are you reading now?
I’m a college instructor, so this time of year I’m mostly reading student’s papers. I just finished Blood on the Tracks by Barbara Nickless. It was a wonderfully suspenseful thriller. Apart from that, I’ve been keeping up with the Image comic The Wicked + The Divine, which hits so many of my buttons—grand mythology, snappy dialogue, great pop culture sensibility.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Right now, the main goal is to find someone that loves my project that’s on submission as much as I do. The next new project I’m working on is a take on the idea of changelings. It’s still in the early outlining phases, but I think it’s going to be pretty exciting.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
This is so tough! I assume we’re talking single books and not series. I would take Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, SE Hinton’s The Outsiders, and book one of Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, and Matt Wilson’s The Wicked + The Divine
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