The Author Interviews: #11: V. R. CRAFT

In this series, I'll be interviewing self-published authors about their books and their lives as writers. For my eleventh interview, I had the privilege of interviewing V. R. CRAFT on 19/06/2016. CRAFT  writes science fiction and her latest release is 'Stupid Humans'.Let's Get Started!What made you want to become a writer?I used to work in retail, and you meet so many crazy people there—we called them customers—that I was always thinking, “That person needs to be a character in a book. Who uses a shredder as a cheese grater then tries to return it?”I found that writing fiction was a great way to say all the sarcastic, snarky things I was constantly thinking at work without getting fired. I remember once I had a customer who yelled at me because we were out of stock on an item she wanted.“Why can't you just reorder things when you sell out?” she yelled.That was, in fact, exactly what we did, but there's such a thing as shipping, so we could still be out of something for a few days. I wanted to ask if she thought we had a Star Trek transporter in our back room and could just beam the merchandise in instantly, and if so, where did she get her transporter, because I always really wanted one of those? Of course I couldn't do that because I needed the lousy nine bucks an hour I was making at that job, so I bit my tongue and said something about shipping time, and she continued to act like I intentionally sold out of the item to spite her. Because obviously if a store is sold out of something you want, it's the cashier's fault and you should treat them like something you'd scrape off the bottom of your shoe.However, I later used that line about beaming in the merchandise in a story I wrote about an annoying customer being beamed up into the mother ship.Why did you choose to write in this genre? Have you ever considered trying other genres?I have written a wide variety of things over the years. I've written some short stories that are more mainstream or satire. However, I've always been fascinated with stories that explore how technology can change the future and our society. I'm always thinking, “What if they invented a device that could...?” Not just about the technological changes that would result, but also societal and personal changes for a character. So for that reason I end up writing a lot of science fiction/ speculative type stories, usually with a comical/ satire slant as well.I also have a thing about writing stories where people I don't like get abducted by aliens in really embarrassing ways.What do you love most about writing and why?I think what I love most is being able to control what happens in a story. But I also love being able to present ideas in an entertaining way, and hopefully making people think about real life.What do you dislike about writing and why?Well, it's hard. It's one thing to have an idea, and another thing to know how to write the whole story. You run into a lot of problems—what do I do next? I don't know what happens. I don't know how to get from where I am to where I'm trying to go.Writing can be really frustrating. Most of the time, you don't know if you're going to be able to finish a story, and if you do, will it even be worth reading?If you could trade places with any of your characters, which would you choose and why?That's a hard question. There are so many characters I'd like to trade places with—in Stupid Humans, Samantha discovers all the intelligent humans escaped Earth centuries ago, and we're what's left. She then gets to leave Earth and live in a society full of intelligent people, with no idiot warning labels on products. That idea actually came from my desire to get away from all the idiots—again, we called them customers—I had to work with in retail. I've also always wanted to leave Earth and travel to different planets.I also wrote a short story called Don't Feed the Trolls, in which a character gets even with the boss from hell in a really creative way. I have had a lot of bosses, coworkers, and customers that I'd like to see abducted by aliens.If you could live in any of the worlds you have created, which would you choose and why?I think I'd like to live in the People society from Stupid Humans. They're not perfect—no society is—but living in a world with fewer idiots would be nice—especially for anyone who has to work with the public!What's your writing routine or schedule like? Do you struggle to find time to write? How do you stay organised and keep to your deadlines?I don't really have a routine or schedule. I do try to write somewhat regularly. I'm in a Facebook group that meets online on Tuesday nights. We have sprints, where we write as much as we can in a ten-minute period, then report our word count. It's good because it gets me writing, and allows me to make progress every week.Who or what inspires you? Where do you get your inspiration?I get my inspiration from people I meet, and have met in the past. Every time I think, “That would make an interesting story,” or “She has to be a character in something I write,” I get inspired.Do you have a favourite author and if so, why do you enjoy their work?I have so many favorite authors, it's hard to pick one. I read everything from Stephen King to John Grisham to Ben Bova. I also love to find new authors I've never heard of before.What do you find most challenging about being an indie/ self-published author and why?I think just getting your work in front of readers is the biggest challenge. Social media is a great avenue for that, but sometimes you fall into the trap of just reaching your friends—in other words, people who already know about your book. Blogging is another good thing to do, but again, a lot of your followers are going to be people who already know about your book. I think guest blogging is a good way to get around that—I take every opportunity I can to write guest pieces for other writers' blogs. That allows me to reach a whole new audience of people that my blog and social media accounts don't currently reach.Getting reviews is hard, too. I know a lot of people will read a book, mean to leave a review, then get busy and forget about it. It's not intentional, things happen and you get busy. It's happened to me as a reader. But as a writer, I also know how much reviews can help a writer—especially a new writer who isn't as well known. So I would recommend setting aside ten minutes a week to review books you've read in the past week. It doesn't have to be a really long review—a couple sentences saying why you liked/ didn't like it is fine.Thanks to V. R. CRAFT for this interview and I wish you all the best with your book! If you want to find out more about this author,please click here.