Author Interview: Shannon Donelson
Today marks the beginning of the Blog World Tour! I’m super excited to spend the next twelve months introducing twelve amazing writers to you!
As an extra bonus for this tour, I’m using a secret method to determine which day each month to post the interview. The first commenter who guesses this method correctly will receive a digitally signed ebook copy of Augment (or a voucher for a free digitally signed ebook copy of any novel I publish this year.)
Today’s interviewee is Shannon Donelson! She writes fantasy (urban and epic!) as well as horror and crime-mystery.
Thank you for being here today, Shannon! My first question for you is: What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
A better question would be “What forces you out of bed each day at 7am with sticky fingers and cries for breakfast?” And of course, children. I have three lovely girls who inspire me each and every day. Getting out of bed to take care of them, going to work to provide for them – are all things that get me out of my bed each day. They are also what helps inspire my writing career. I want to be able to provide the best I can for them, and doing something I love in order to do that is priceless.
One of my daughters is a writer herself, and she is going to start participating in my blog doing Young Adult book reviews. I’m super excited to collaborate with her on the posts. She is my mini-me and growing into a beautiful teenager. If putting my butt in the chair and focusing on my writing can inspire my daughters to do something they love, that’s inspiration enough for me.
That’s the best inspiration, I think. So, what do you write with that inspiration?
I currently have a blog that is fairly new. I write book reviews that omit the fluff and provide an honest opinion. As a writer, sometimes you read things slightly different than your average reader and are able to pick apart things that some people might not have thought of. I enjoy omitting the fluff that some reviews always seem to have, and being honest – even if that means I point out more flaws than praise.
I am currently rewriting my first novel… Well, the first one I have ever finished, anyway. I’ve made several attempts in the past and gave up. This past November I finished and won NaNoWriMo for the first time. I finished the novel from beginning to end. Now I am dong the hardest part – tearing my baby to shreds and rewriting it. It’s been a slow process and I hope to someday have it published – whether I self publish or not. I have plans on turning it into a trilogy, and 2016 NaNo will become book 2.
In between working on my novel, I write a lot of flash fiction. While I haven’t published any of my flash pieces yet, I have participated in many contests, winning a few awards here and there for local writing contests in my area.
Congratulations on your first NaNo win! I love NaNo–it was my introduction into novel-writing and I’m still doing it every year. I’ll see you around there this November! It’s awesome that you write both novels and flash fiction. While writing or editing, do you aim for a set amount of words/pages per day?
The only time that I have set a specific word count was my participation in the few NaNoWriMos I have participated in. I always aimed for 2,000 words a day to be ahead in case something in real life forces me to take a day off.
However, I think it is extremely important to write every day. Whether it takes an hour to get in 200 words, or you fly through 1,000 in the same amount of time – it still needs to be done. If you want to succeed, you have to push yourself. If that means forcing words on a page that you will probably omit later – do it. Although, even on those hard days, there have been times that I looked back and thought, “Hey, that’s actually not half bad!”
I’m the same way when it comes to writing, in that I don’t have a specific word count each day, and I agree that it’s important to write every day. I might not manage every single day, but pushing towards that goal definitely helps! Now for a question just for fun: No spoilers, but – what’s your protagonist’s favorite drink?
In my novel, Immortal Strife, my protagonist favors coffee. It may have been due to the amount of coffee I had to drink while writing 70,000 words in 30 days! But, I also love coffee, flavors of coffee, and coffee shops, so it was an easy thing to write in to my story that had a little part of me as the influence.
My characters have been influenced in similar ways as well. Though more often with tea and waffles… *shuffles questions* The next one’s a bit more serious in nature. What would you say are the main advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing versus traditional publishing?
Since I haven’t published anything yet, I don’t have experience with either way. I have some some of my own research, and with my novel I plan on giving myself a year of submitting, submitting, submitting before I go down a self-publishing route. The reason for this is due to several reasons, most of them with marketing. I have heard from many people who have self-published, that marketing and advertising their books is a long process that takes a lot of time every day. To someone with four kids and a full-time job, I’m not sure if I will be able to market my book the way it should be. If I can get my trilogy published, I may be privileged enough to make writing my full-time job, and the time to dedicate to advertising – and writing.
That makes sense. Marketing is a lot to juggle with writing, work, and family. *glances at clock* We have time for one more question! Another one for fun: What hobbies do you have other than writing?
I am an avid gamer – I play MMORPGs or Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. One of the most famous is World of Warcraft – and I was hooked on that one for about seven years. Currently, I play a game called Blade and Soul, which is an anime based combat driven game. One of the reasons I love these games, aside from kicking ass and taking names, is the people you meet. There is always someone new to meet, team up with and accomplish a goal. The goal just be killing this huge dragon that keeps spitting fire at us while running through a dungeon trying not to die – but you need 5 other teammates to help. Sometimes it’s hard and takes hours of practice before you can move on. It’s great!
*high fives* Nice! I’m an avid gamer as well, though my MMORPG days are behind me for now. I do miss running raids with my guild. They were a great group. *clock chimes* I guess it’s time to wrap things up. Thank you so much for being here today, Shannon!
Shannon Donelson lives in a small city outside of Buffalo, NY, where they see snow 99% of the year with blistering humidity the other 1%. She lives with her husband, three daughters, two cats, two goldfish, one dog and a partridge in a pear tree.
Shannon writes a lot of flash fiction, short stories and recently finished a novel from beginning to end. She loves reading and writing urban fantasy, epic fantasy, horror, and crime/mystery.
Her blog consists of book reviews, writing advice, and some of her own short stories. She is excited to get the blog ball rolling with a new website and content. Add her on Twitter and say hello!
