Ask the Author: Armen Pogharian
Answered Questions (8)
Armen Pogharian
Hi Michelle,
First thanks for reading Penny Preston & the Raven's Talisman. You're right on both counts. The prologue is about Master Poe's exile from the 7th dimension and his betrayal by the apprentice. Thanks for asking.
Armen
First thanks for reading Penny Preston & the Raven's Talisman. You're right on both counts. The prologue is about Master Poe's exile from the 7th dimension and his betrayal by the apprentice. Thanks for asking.
Armen
Armen Pogharian
Other than what if types of things; what if I finished flight school or what if I made a different choice somewhere own life is devoid of real mystery. The same cannot be said for my family. My ancestors came to the US from the ruins of the Russian and Ottoman empires. My maternal family was part of the aristocracy in Russia and socially interacted with the Czar. As the empire disintegrated into revolution and their homes in the western part of the empire were overridden by the Germans, they fled to the US. They arrived with more money than most, but didn’t keep it for very long. One of my great-great Aunts became the girlfriend of a powerful gangster. Shortly after the law caught up with him she died under mysterious circumstances. Was her death an unfortunate accident? Was it tied to her gangster boyfriend’s activities? Could the family’s lost wealth and her death be tangled up in the Russian revolution and their connections to the aristocracy? To be fair little suggests more than an accident and many immigrants were swindled out of their possessions, but no one knows for sure. Tying gangsters, Russian royalty, and lost wealth together might not be overly original, but it could make an interesting story.
Armen Pogharian
First of all, let me apologize for waiting two years (!) to answer this question. I guess I need to work on my observational skills. As for the answer, there really isn't one best thing. While I occasionally find it frustrating, I enjoy the creative process. I'm not a seat of the pants writer, but I am a minimalist when it comes to mapping out a story. I write a one page outline as a guide, but it's more a starting point than a precise roadmap. Filling in the gaps or branching out to unforeseen places is exciting. Some of my favorite characters have grown out of that process. One of my favorite things is reading a completed work and finding positive surprises (as opposed to holes or discontinuities) in the plot or dialog. Another favorite is receiving feedback from readers. Good reviews are wonderful, but so are simple comments or even a thank you for signing a book.
Armen Pogharian
A lot depends on your goals and expectations for writing. If you want to make a living as an author, you'll need to write stories that appeal to a broad audience. That doesn't mean you have to follow trends - my experience with followers is that unless you're really fast or extremely good (and lucky) you usually are too late. Alternatively, you could try and anticipate or even set the next trend. To me that seems to be an exercise in hubris or self-delusion. If you have the power to set trends, you're probably not an aspiring author. My advice would be to write what you like to read. Chances are you're not alone - after all you read it, which means it's available so someone else (or several others) probably like it too. Also since you read it you're familiar with the elements that make a good story in that genre, be it plot types, settings, character development or whatever. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you're more likely to enjoy your writing if you do it in a genre you like to read. If you're not having fun, then you're doing it wrong. The cold hard truth is that most people who write, including those of us who are published, don't make our living writing. Nearly half a million books are published every year in the US and the average book sells less than 500 copies, which means that for every book that sells a million, there are more than 2000 books that sell nearly zero, i.e., most books don't make much money so make sure you're enjoying it.
Armen Pogharian
I have a lot of things going on (small business owner, swim coach, parent, writing, etc.) in my life and create routines to help me keep things straight. I get up before 5:00 am three days a week to swim. I go to bed at the same time every night. I have set business meetings and swim practice schedules. Unfortunately, creativity and writing don't always want to follow a routine. As much as I try to outline and plan my stories, once I start writing I always discover new character traits, story lines, and ideas that are too intriguing to leave out. Several of my favorite characters began as color and texture type characters, only to become important aspects of the story. This leads to a lot of editing and re-writing as I go and inevitably writer's block. Some authors just plow through writer's block editing and re-writing until they break through. I occasionally try that, but for me taking a break to work on something else is generally more effective. If it revolves around a single scene, I'll often bypass it and work on another or go back and read through the events leading to the scene. If it's more involved, I'll back away from it. I find naps often help. Even as little as 15 minutes of sleep can work wonders. If that doesn't work, I'll step away for a few days or even longer. Quite a few breakthroughs occur during non-writing time (swimming sets or mowing the lawn).
Armen Pogharian
I just finished the second Warders book and have now turned back to the Misaligned series. This will be the third book in the Misaligned series and is tentatively titles Misaligned: The Darkest Day. Like the other stories in the series it's multi-threaded, but it has more emphasis on the connection to Arthurian myth than in the second book (Misaligned: The Silver Scepter).
Armen Pogharian
I was looking for a creative outlet. I tried painting. I enjoy it, but there are only so many walls where you can unobtrusively display mediocre (that's being kind) work. One night during a bout of insomnia, I went into the basement and wrote 10,000 words. My kids liked it, so over the course of the next six months I continued to work at it and eventually finished Misaligned: The Celtic Connection. FWIW, I think something like 500 of those original 10,000 words made it into the published version.
Armen Pogharian
My most recent book, The Counterfeit Count, is the second book in The Warders series. The series is based on a request from my daughter, specifically, that I write a high fantasy adventure series. In an attempt to differentiate my work from the crowd, I decided to write a James Bond-like adventure in a high fantasy setting. Each story revolves around a group of Warder agents trying to uncover and foil the plans of various bad guys who are usually connected to the recently revived Chaotic Order. Magic and fantastic creatures/characters replace the technical gadgets and super villains from Bond.
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