Ask the Author: Stacey T. Hunt

“I'll be answering questions about my books here, so if you have any burning questions about "Cascade Adventures", "World of Many Colors", or "Game of Nightmares", I'll do my best to answer them :)” Stacey T. Hunt

Answered Questions (12)

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Stacey T. Hunt The cheesecake thing... I'm never writing anything like that again, because I just discovered that writing it was painful. Like I was suddenly stricken with carpal tunnel and my joints were frozen and I got this awful taste in my mouth and I grit my teeth but I just couldn't go on.

Looking back, I'm pretty sure that's what blasphemy feels like.
Stacey T. Hunt WELL this pairing is cool, because poor sweet innocent delicate demon child Tam has like infinite patience and could totally handle Milly's endless supply of bad. Plus Tam would be the coolest heartless killer Harrier ever, which is what I envision him ending up as should he ever get serious or whatever. He'd be all like, "I'm sorry, but I have to kill you now," CUE INNOCENT SMILE.
I like Milly and Karsten more, but you know. PFFT.
Stacey T. Hunt Thank you :D
I use this cheap Wacom tablet that I got from Walmart. It’s not that great. Just wait till I get my filthy talons on one of those million-dollar monitor ones

OOOOH BOY
Stacey T. Hunt Dude, it is practically impossible to not write the things that I write.
It's like trying to suppress a future work of awesome wrought from the neon bones of glittery rave angels.
Plus, the positive feedback and my growing fanbase hits close to my heart and brings the sensations to overflowing.
There is really nothing to thank me for, sir.
I just did what anyone would have done, and that's create things that make me happy. And never hold back.
Stacey T. Hunt I draw and write, and that’s pretty much it.
I’m extremely boring.
.......

... Oh yeah!
I like destroying everything with my mind-lasers.
Stacey T. Hunt It’s not hard! You just see people using trite, overused phrases like
“filthy mitts” and “grubby paws” and then you say something else that means the same thing but is more different kinda in a sense.
So yeah, go do that.
Soon we can both engage in sesquipedalian loquaciousness together... ;)
Stacey T. Hunt It's often easy for to make a villain evil-for-the-sake-of-evil, but that's not very interesting, and doesn't win them any sympathy. I think you should know WHY they're evil. Ask yourself what happened in their past to make them the way that they are, and what are their motivations for doing the things that they do? A famous writer (I think it was Shakespeare, but I'm not sure...) once said that the villain believes they are the hero of the story, and I think it's important to keep that in mind.
Stacey T. Hunt I suppose it would be the abstract answer—when they come alive. I feel like I know my characters when I can hear them in my head, speaking in their own voice, their own vocabulary, their own inflections. When they start making choices that I didn't foresee or saying things that I didn't expect. As far as when that happens, it varies by character. Jesse and Ashton both came to me really easily, as early as the first or second drafts of the book. Other characters, like Elain, Maloree, and Zander, I didn't feel like I had a strong grasp on until the fourth or fifth drafts of the book.

I also find that, no matter how well I feel like I know a character, they all still have a tendency to surprise me.
Stacey T. Hunt The very first step, and some would argue the most important one, is to write a book.
Seriously.
Write about something that speaks to your interests. Create characters who work through the kinds of issues you struggle with. Not necessarily someone with sickle cell anemia. That might be too exact. But you know what it’s like to feel pain. You know how it feels to have different challenges than your peers. You know how hard it is to stay strong when all you want to do is kick something and cry. So create a character who feels those things and then add a few things that you can’t relate to so you can have fun living as someone else for a while. That’s one of the best things about writing fiction. Your world, your rules.
Stacey T. Hunt Writing is the one area in my life where I get to have absolute control. I can be or do anything when I write! Nothing is too fantastic: I can create a fancy dinner party and have monsters come waltzing in to ruin everything! Or create a character who discovers another world! Or shrink down to the size of a mouse and live inside a wall! Or tunnel into the center of the Earth and build a city of gold! Whatever I want, I can make it be.
Stacey T. Hunt I actually made a blog post on this recently, Goodreads! Luckily, there are plenty of techniques for figuring out where to go with a misbehaving plot. Just a quick sampling of some techniques I’ve used in the past (with varying degrees of success):

- Writing down the problem before bed and hoping I dream up a solution
- Treadmill time + the novel’s playlist
- Staring out a window
- Acting out a potential scene as the protagonist
- Having a conversation with the protagonist and asking them what they want to do next
- Procrastinating on Pinterest
- Going for a walk
- Giving up and watching Adventure Time for the rest of the day

And on and on. You can read the whole blog post I wrote on writer's block here: http://staceytiannahunt.blogspot.com/...
Stacey T. Hunt I'm currently in the process of editing Torment (the final book in the World of Many Colors trilogy) and customizing Twister (the second book in the World of Many Colors trilogy) for worldwide distribution. Afterwords, I'll be getting started on an entirely new project. I'm very excited to announce it soon!

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