Heather Hayden's Blog, page 9

Author Interview: Lesa McKee

Today I’ll be interviewing Lesa McKee, author of the Operation Space Cats series, for the Blog World Tour: Fantasy Edition. I’m delighted to have her here on my blog–space and cats are two of my favorite things and she combines the two in her writing!

Not to mention how cute and eye-catching her covers are… Just look at the cover for Book One:

Doesn’t it look fun?

Now that I’m done purring over cute kitties, it’s on to the interview!

You’re an author, Lesa, and pretty much all authors start out as bookworms. What books did you love as a child?

I loved the Amelia Bedelia book series, and the Little House on the Prairie series. Also the book Baby Island along with several others.

Ooooh, I loved the Little House series as well! And also Baby Island! You’re the first person I’ve met who has mentioned reading that! My copy is old and falling apart from being read so much. *coughs* Well, I could keep talking about books, but time’s a-ticking, so on to the next question.

Writers often start out entering writing contests, as it’s a way to get their name out there, as well as build a writer’s resume, (not to mention win prizes!) Have you ever entered a writing contest, and if so, did you ever win?

Yes, I’ve won two so far. Both of my short stories in the Operation Space Cats series. Book one, Operation Space Cats: The Rescue Mission is published in the Space Kitties 1 Anthology, and book two, Operation Space Cats: The Missing Spaceship is published in the Space Kitties 2 Anthology. I’m also self-publishing these on my own.

That’s so awesome! Please accept my very belated congratulations. And since you must have written those stories somehow, the next question is: Do you write on a typewrite, computer, dictate, or longhand?

Sadly, my old and decrepit laptop. I just hope it holds out!

Ack! I’ve been there myself. I hope it keeps chugging along for you! Now, I realize that it’s an old, ancient laptop, but I assume it still has speakers–do you listen to music while you write?

Nope. No muse and no music. I work alone. Nice and quiet. Well … except for those yowling, er, lovable space cats.

Ensign’s Log, Entry 57: May Month Map, aka an attempt at reasonable goals

It’s a new month, which means a clean, fresh start! (And cherry blossoms on my month map, since it’s around cherry blooming season in Brooklyn and I LOVE cherry blossoms.)

This May, I’m going for simple, firm goals. No bonuses, no piling on things I might not have time to do. The reason for this is also simple: I spoke with a dear friend of mine recently regarding my goals and we agreed that I should try to focus on one goal at a time for a while. Not easy for someone who prefers bouncing between projects, but it might be a better method for me. We’ll see.

So this month, my only writing goal is to finish revising the current draft of Upgrade. With 14 chapters left, I should be able to manage that easily.

I also may need to revise my short story for an anthology that is coming out in June, but won’t know that until the judging results come back.

And beyond catching up on crits and staying on top of my reading challenge, I will also be organizing everything that still needs to be done for the anthology’s upcoming release. Oh, and traveling to Brooklyn for a week at the end of the month.

So May will still be busy, but hopefully not to the point that I can’t make my goals.

What are your May goals?

Ensign’s Log, Entry 56: April Month Map Final Update

It’s time for a final look at how April went… I warn you now, it didn’t go as well as planned. Mainly because I bit off a bit too much to do on top of everything else that was going on in April…

The breakdown:

Upgrade: 6/20 chapters edited so far. Didn’t complete my goal, but made a little progress.

Don’t Make a Wish: Managed 16,293 words this month. Not the 30k I was hoping for, but that’s still about a third of a book or so, and things are moving along nicely. I’m pleased with my progress here.

Skin As White As Snow: Posted two chapters this month, which is a start. Still need to finish writing the connecting chapters.

Critiques: I completed 36 critiques this month. Still have 14 left to do, which is fewer than I started the month with. I’m happy with that. Might get one or two more done today, but even if I don’t, I’ll be going into May a bit closer to being caught up. Hurray!

Reading: I read 8 books this month and am apparently now four books ahead of my goal, so blew this bonus goal out of the water.

 

I’ll be posting my May Month Map sometime soon, but in the meantime, how did your April goals go?

Announcement: Clean Indie Reads Spring Giveaway

Augment has been included in a Clean Indie Reads Spring Giveaway–it’s free from now until the end of April along with many other awesome reads!

You can find all the books here: Spring Giveaway.

Happy reading!

Author Interview: Ash Litton

Today I’m happy to welcome fellow science fiction writer Ash Litton to a Blog World Tour: Science Fiction Edition interview! Thanks for being here today, Ash!

Let’s dive right into the questions… I know you’re currently working on Tragedy of Ice–are there any specific challenges you’ve come across while writing this particular novel? Anything you’d do differently next time?

A lot of it had to do with strengthening my villain’s cause. My first draft, the villains were just there to be villains; sure, they had a reason for wanting to return to Earth, but they didn’t have a passionate, morally grey one. I find when you put the villains into the morally grey area that you make them simultaneously more sympathetic, but also more of heroes in their own minds. And when that happens, you’ve found a compelling reason to motivate them to do “questionable” things.

Awesome! I love it when villains are more than just “we’re the bad guys come to destroy things”. Are there terms in your book that readers might be unfamiliar with? Can you explain some of these?

Haha. Well, writing in the future for Tragedy of Ice and its upcoming sequels, I knew there had be some new (though infrequently used as to not overwhelm) slang. One example is a “t’amer”, the “two-AM”er version of a “nooner”. Not a booty call, by any means, but a “Hey, I missed you, I can’t stay long, but wow, you look great, can I take you to bed for a few minutes before I have to leave?” Busy schedules of dating scientists trying to save humanity and all that.

I must confess I don’t know the slang “nooner”, either, but it’s neat how you developed a futuristic version for your characters to use. When you write, do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you?

I’ll get an idea, try to outline the general path I want it to follow, then once I start to write, I let the story go where it will. I’ll revamp my outline occasionally, but it’s best to fit the outline to the story rather than the story to the outline.

That’s a neat way to do it! I should try it sometime–I generally pants my stories but I like the idea of fitting the outline to the story. Would you say that being a writer is a gift or a curse?

A little of both. It’s a gift, because it’s something to do that you can get better at over time. It’s also a curse, because it’s something you have to do if you want to get better at it over time.

I agree with that. *checks clock* We have time for one more, so let’s wrap up with a fun question: If you won ten million dollars tonight, what would you do next?

Student loans: gone. Figure up a retirement investment plan, and put that money away to accrue interest. The rest is a matter of just adulting: house, car, utilities—create a budget for those that I don’t have to worry about them for years to come. The leftover is investment into writing time, in which I would hire people to take care of the various parts of the platform that are time-consuming, yet essential. I’d be more free to take care of the actual writing, then.

Sounds like pretty much what I would do!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, Ash! Best of luck with your writing endeavors.

Ash Litton is a writer and lover of sci-fi, fantasy, and all things fictional. She is the author of No Signal, Thoroughbred, Evening Hallow, Comeuppance, and Cabover Cabaret, and works on other Appalachian Dream Tales between her ongoing novel projects.

When she’s not writing, she’s drawing, and when she’s not doing either of those, she’s dreaming up new projects to work on. Born and raised in rural West Virginia, Ash has always wondered what things lay hidden in the hills around her. She attended West Virginia University, where she studied the English language before returning home to her family in rural West Virginia.

You can follow her on her website, as well as Facebook and Twitter.

Ensign’s Log, Entry 55: April Month Map Week Two Update!

Yes, this is a few days late. This month has been so crazy…

The breakdown:

Upgrade: I’ve edited Chapter 5, putting me a quarter of the way through the book. Will be focusing more on this, as I really want to wrap up this revision.

Don’t Make a Wish: Currently at 8,982 words, but I’ve missed a few writing days due to being busy with other things. A couple days of catch up and I should be back on track.

Skin As White As Snow: I’ve posted two chapters so far, so am behind a bit on this goal, but once I complete the next couple of chapters, posting will go much faster until I get through the main part of the book I’ve already written.

Critiques: I’ve completed 25 so far, and have 21 to go, so am right on track to finishing this goal.

Reading: I’ve read four books so far this month and need to read another three to stay ahead by two. Right on track for this goal as well!

 

It’s been a busy month so far, but despite that, I’m still making progress. If all goes well, next update I’ll be caught up!

Magic Monday: Snapdragon by Lea Doué

Today’s Magic Monday post features a short story rather than a full-length novel. Why? Because I enjoyed it so much!

Here’s Snapdragon‘s blurb:

Scarred and isolated, and bound to her beautiful twin sister through a horrible curse, Ryll passes her days in their country manor, resigned to her lonely existence. When she receives an unexpected gift from a village boy, her prospects for the future look bright for the first time in her life. Her happy daydreams soon lead to desperation, however, after she loses the precious item down a well. A tiny dragon offers to fish it up for her, but his help comes with a price.

As the fairy tale lovers among you may have guessed, this story was inspired by The Frog Prince. However, it takes the simple fairy tale and spins a more elaborate and in-depth story, with developed characters and a beautiful country setting.

In this story, the main character (Ryll) isn’t a princess, but she bears a curse worthy of one. Thorns cover her skin, marking her as different and causing the villagers to avoid her. Her lovely sister bears a different sort of curse that also isolates her due to its deadly nature. Neither of them are happy, but both are resigned to their fate.

Until, one day, Ryll receives a gift from a village boy, and she starts to imagine things could be different. Her carelessness leads to the gift’s loss in a well, however. That’s when a little dragon called Jorey comes to the rescue… Jorey isn’t a prince, but he has a kind heart that every prince should strive to possess. I loved watching their friendship develop as the story unfolds.

After this brief taste of Doué‘s work, I’ll definitely be checking out her other stories. And I highly recommend Snapdragon to all readers who love fairy tale retellings (and dragons!)

Intrigued? Snapdragon is available for free as an ebook on Amazon.

If you want to learn more about Lea Doué, you can connect with her through her website, Twitter, and Facebook.

Ensign’s Log, Entry 54: April Month Map and March’s Wrap Up

April dawned bright, rainy, and hectic… But I finally snagged enough time to sort out my April goals and update my March month map. Let’s start with the results from March.

So much color! March was definitely my most successful month yet, in terms of reaching goals. Not perfect, but still good.

A quick rundown of where I was at the end of March:

Skin As White as Snow: I made to partway through Chapter Four. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but once I finish this and maybe one more chapter, I’ll have filled in a hole between the two sections I had written. Then it’ll just be editing time for what’s already written and wrapping up the climax and the ending. Hurray!

Critting: I completed 90 critiques on Scribophile and 34 critiques for an offline trade. In other words, this goal was pretty much blown out of the park. I still have some catching up left to do, but after that gauntlet I think I can handle them!

Reading: I managed complete not only my goal of catching up, but also my getting-ahead goal, for a total of thirteen books in March. Granted, some were short stories or novellas, but I enjoyed all of them and that’s what’s important to me. You can check out my Goodreads Challenge here. My favorite of the month was Where Carpets Fly by Elise Edmonds (you can find my interview with her here).

Other accomplishments: Despite being super-focused on critting, I also edited In A Breath, a short story I’m working on for the next Just-Us League anthology. AND I got started on the final revision of Upgrade (sans proofreading stage, which always takes an extra pass or two to catch all those little errors).

All in all, March was a smashingly good month.

Now for what’s coming up in April!

Details regarding my goals:

Skin as White as Snow: I’ve set myself a goal of posting two chapters on Scribophile a week (two already went live the last week in March.) This will ensure I continue to make steady progress on completing the first draft.

Upgrade: I’m working on the final revisions now. At the end of March I had three of twenty chapters done. I hope to finish the final revisions in the next couple of weeks, and perhaps release it near the end of April if all goes well.

Don’t Make A Wish: Once again, I’m doing Camp NaNoWriMo. My goal is small this month–1,000 words a day–and my WIP is a new one called Don’t Make a Wish. I even made a derpy mock cover for it! Cover design isn’t my thing, but mock covers are quite inspirational for me, so it’s doing its job.

Critiques: I’m not taking on any more novel trades this month so I can finish catching up with all the ones I have going right now. I had a total of 42 crits to go at the beginning of the month and should have no problem completing them well before the end of the month.

Reading: I’d like to stay two books ahead on my reading goal, just to have that buffer, and I’m going to keep reviewing each book I read. Looking forward to more good reads this month!

 

Because it’s already April 6th, I’ll probably do a Week 1.5 update or perhaps even save the update until Week 2. For those of you who are curious, though, I’m currently at 1,767 words for my new WIP, I’ve completed 10 critiques, and read one book so far.

What are your April goals?

Author Interview: Kristen Kooistra

Today I’ll be interviewing Kristen Kooistra, author of Heart of the Winterland, for the Blog World Tour: Fantasy Edition. I’m delighted to have her here on my blog–as a fellow writer, author, and blogger, she and I have shared many stories through our mutual writers’ group.

Welcome to my blog, Kristen! I’ve got some questions for you, the first being one of the most frequently asked questions during author interviews: Why do you write?

Because I have stories to tell and I like the process of perfecting them and getting them all down on paper. I’ve enjoyed reading my whole life and now I hope to pass that on to someone else.

That’s the best reason to write! I’m the same way. And, since you’ve already published your first book and are working on your second, could you explain how you approach publishing, and why?

I chose to go the Indie route. I like to have control of my life and my stuff. I didn’t like the idea of giving part of the profits to a company and I didn’t like the idea of giving over something I worked so hard on to let them do with as they pleased. Basically I’m a control freak! I wanted a cover that matched my vision and I didn’t want to rely on a company to do their best by my book.

That makes total sense. It’s the same reason I chose the Indie route myself. More work, but also more control! Speaking of control, when you write, do you prefer to work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you?

I’m a diehard pantser. Any sort of planning frustrates me and leads to quitting. It’s not the planning that’s hard, it’s when things don’t go according to plan that I lose patience. I’ve decided it’s better not to have a plan that I won’t follow.

*high fives* Yay, another pantser! I have one more writing question for you, then a couple of personal ones… Is being a writer a gift or a curse?

A gift. I choose to be a writer. A curse would be something I couldn’t help. I have the gift, if and how I choose to use it are up to me. And if I ever get to a point where I forget that, then I’ll have lost sight of the joy writing brings and will try and step back to gain some perspective.

I love that answer. It’s perfect. *pauses to allow readers to soak it in* All right, time for some personal questions. First up, because all writers are (or should be) readers: For your own reading, do you prefer ebooks or traditional paperback/hardcover books?

Paper/hardback all the way. I love being able to cuddle up anywhere with an actual book. See books on my shelves, browse through covers, turn pages, everything. I’ve never read an ebook in my life (though that’ll be changing shortly as a lot of writers only have ebooks) and I struggle reading anything on my phone or computer (in terms of fiction). I don’t process as well when reading on a device.

I totally get that. If I could carry my library with me in an interdimensional bag, I would. I do have a Kindle Paperwhite, though, and can recommend it as being a useful device (and easier on the eyes than a phone or computer.) Still can’t replace a printed book, though. *checks clock* Time for one more question. What is the most amusing thing that has ever happened to you?

Haha, okay, not sure why I’m sharing this because it’s embarrassing, but sadly embarrassing/amusing often goes hand-in-hand.

When I was a kid (12 yrs old at a guess), my mom and siblings went skiing. It was one of the more boring ski resorts, so one of my sisters (about 8 yrs old) and I were trying to liven things up by going off of the course and through patches of trees.

During one of these adventures I fell. Well, I didn’t just fall, I was laying face down in the snow with my legs spread-eagle uphill. And each ski was hooked on a different tree. So I’m laying there, completely stuck. Gravity’s working against me and I cannot move. It was soooo funny that my sister (who was ahead of me, but had stopped when I fell) and I were dying laughing. She was crying from laughing and holding herself to stop from peeing and through the laughter, I tried to ask her for help. She couldn’t take it anymore and left me stranded to rush downhill and to the bathroom!

The whole thing was so hilarious that yes, I did end up wetting myself from laughing. I finally got myself unhooked from the trees and as I was continuing down the hill, I used my walkie-talkie to (still laughing) tell my mom that I’d peed my pants. I sobered up real quick when she hissed, “Kristen, you just told everyone in the lodge, not to mention anyone else on the same channel.”

I wanted to die. It was so embarrassing. But now it’s mostly just funny.

Haha! I burst out laughing, too. What a hilarious (and, yes, embarrassing) tale. Thank you so much for sharing it! *clock chimes* And now it’s time to wrap this interview up.

Thank you for being here today, Kristen, and best of luck with your current and future writing projects!

Kristen Kooistra fell in love with reading at a young age and never resurfaced. She loved solving mysteries, riding across the prairie, and sailing on the open sea. But her favorite books were those that held the fantastical. So when the time came for her to seriously approach publishing a book, it had to be fantasy!

Living in Michigan (her own winterland) with her husband, three kids, and two cats, she has lots of free time . . . Okay, so more like she squeezes in writing time late at night when only the cats are awake to pester her.

Heart of the Winterland is Kristen’s first novel, and though it started as a whim, it grew into so much more and has inspired a sequel(in progress), Heart of the Sorceress.

Tucked into a quiet countryside, Kristen spends most of her time being Mommy. She loves spending time with her family and hopes that her writing will entertain and inspire them as well.

Besides writing, Kristen enjoys reading (of course!), chatting with her writer’s group, sewing, swimming, gardening, and cooking (please no baking!). She’s also developed a fondness for water gun fights with her three year old. Actually, she’s found that most everything become a lot more fun with little kids.

You can connect with Kristen through her various social media outlets

Her author website

Her blog

Goodreads

Twitter

Facebook: her author account and her author page.

Ensign’s Log, Entry 53: March Month Map, Week Three Update!

Here’s another Month Map update–this one’s actually on time, hurray!