Author Interview: Kristi Cramer

Greetings!! Today I interviewed the lovely Kristi Cramer! She is the author of young adult historical fantasy, The Bonnie Isles Trilogy. Thank you so much for being here!

Carrigan: What is it about writing that you love?

Kristi: I love being able to create my own worlds with characters who are challenged to be bolder, stronger, and smarter than I feel like I can ever be – at least in real time. (On paper, I can kick some butt, but in a true crisis, I’m the one who stands back and tries to figure out what to do before jumping in).

Carrigan: Why do you write for young adults?

Kristi: It seems like there is so much heartbreak in this world, and so many challenges kids have to face as if they’re adults. As a kid, I loved reading the books that let me escape from the world I saw as too harsh, just for a while, and when I came back to the real world, I felt better able to handle it. I hope to provide that kind of relief to today’s young adults. My reads are kind of throwbacks to the stuff I loved back then, with clear-cut heroes and a subtle, wholesome message woven into the action and adventure.

Carrigan: My sentiments exactly. What is your favorite quote?

Kristi: I’m something of a Shakespeare nerd, and one of my favorite lines is from A Comedy of Errors. Antipholus of Syracuse is baffled when he is mistaken for someone else—the twin he was separated from at birth. He says: “Am I on Earth? In Heaven or in Hell? Sleeping or waking? Mad or well-advised? Known unto these and to myself disguised? I’ll say as they say, and persever so, and in this mist, at all adventures go!”

Basically he’s saying, “I don’t have a clue what’s going on, but I’m going to ride this out and see what happens.” I love the idea of that kind of surrender to adventure.

Carrigan: Haha, I love Shakespeare, too. How many books have you published?

Kristi: I’ve published four adult novels as Kristi Cramer, and two Middle-Grade to Young Adult Fantasies as Kristi L. Cramer. (The 2nd book is up in pre-orders, but won’t be out until July 10th). I’m currently working on the 3rd book of the Trilogy, which I hope to have ready for a September release.

Carrigan: How do you come up with your characters?

Kristi: I don’t come up with characters, they approach me and demand to be heard. At least that’s how it feels, sometimes. It could be in the form of a dream, or more often a daydream. I’ll see a person, and wonder what their story is. Or I’ll watch a movie or a show and think of a “better” way to respond to a situation. But most often, I’ll have the seed of my plot in my head, and the characters take shape in response to what I put them through. It’s very organic, and can sometimes throw my story outline for a loop when they dig in their heels and say “Nope, I wouldn’t do that!”

Carrigan: That’s what I do! My characters tell me the story and guide me throughout. What do you like to read?

Kristi: I mostly read indie work, and I’m kind of across the spectrum these days. I’m only just discovering Young Adult works by contemporary authors. In adult fiction I’m digging a lot of urban fantasy and paranormal romance, although my fallback is always suspense, the stuff that puts me on the edge of my seat. I like Steampunk, and I think that is generally family friendly—at least everything I’ve read so far is. I also like the older Sci-Fi Fantasy stuff—not the stuff I feel like I have to be a rocket scientist to understand, just the fantasy that happens on other planets.

Carrigan: Tell us about yourself:

Kristi: Lordy, I’m 48 years old, so that’s a long story to tell. Let me try to nutshell it. I was born in Missouri, but have lived over ¾ of my life in Oregon, and I love it here. I’ve held some interesting jobs, from cleaning hotel rooms, to cashier at the carwash, to underwriting houseboat insurance, to shipping blueberry plants around the world, to driving truck over the road with my husband in our own trucking company. I flew a Cessna once, I had a 15’ sailboat, and rode my own motorcycle. I’ve been to 49 of the 50 states (only Alaska to go!) but I’ve never climbed a “proper” mountain. I don’t have kids of my own, and I’m happy with that, but my husband has three grown sons that I didn’t meet until we’d been married for 8 years. Right now I’m working from home at being a full time writer. I hope to be able to continue living this dream. I also love to garden, and have a great vegetable garden growing this year.

Carrigan: Wow! What a life! I love to garden, too! What inspired you to become a writer?

Kristi: I don’t remember NOT being a writer, although I’m sure I haven’t always been. I wrote my first complete story in 6th grade. I think it was after reading Terry Brooks’ Sword of Shannara, as there are some similar elements to my story. It wasn’t very good, but it had a beginning, middle, and end, and more to the point, it got me hooked on sharing my imagination with others in the form of the written word. It was also a place to immerse myself away from what I perceived as my troubles—it was an escape. (Not to say I had a bad childhood. On the contrary I think mine was better than most, except that my family didn’t know how to deal with emotions and when puberty struck me, I had nowhere else to dump my angst).

Carrigan: What is your favorite young adult book and why?

Kristi: I haven’t read much recent YA, but the books that have stuck with me since childhood is Anne McCaffrey’s Harper Hall Trilogy. I thought Menolly was so brave and talented, and I very much wanted my own fire lizards or a dragon. The world building of Pern is brilliant, and I really related to Menolly as a kind of social outcast who comes into her own.

Carrigan: How did you come up with your ideas?

Kristi: I touched on this above, but so far all of my stories have grown from the smallest seed of an idea, usually in the form of a question. I couldn’t tell you where the seeds come from—there is no one source. For my YA Trilogy (mild spoiler alert), I was thinking of twins separated at birth, but what if they actually grew up together and just didn’t know they were twins? I went on to answer the question of how that could have come about. The second book just begged to be written, because…well…spoilers! And for the third book, my mom got done reading the second one and said, “Now, you know he’s going to mess things up, right?” So #3 is courtesy of my mother. LOL

Carrigan: Haha That’s awesome! We should thank your mom for that! Are you self-published? If so, how did you decide to become self-published?

Kristi: I am self-published. I had tried to get an epic time travel adventure romance published when I wrote it waaaaay back in the early 90s, and was rejected just enough that I thought I would never get into one of the big houses. I never really stopped writing, but I’d pretty much given up on the dream. Then along came print on demand and eBooks, and I decided to give it a try. The rest, as they say, is history. Except for today, and the future.