Who do I write for, and who do I read?
Today is the last chunk of the extended interview I worked up for Harper Teen a few months ago. I hope you've enjoyed the little piece of "behind the scenes." I also hope something interesting happens between now and tomorrow, because if not, you might get a picture of my dogs. -grin- Not much going on right now apart from me working on Grace.
Chapter two is in the cabinet of awesomeness, fermenting. I'm already seeing things I need to change to make the entire story work better, but instead of opening the file back up and tweaking it now, I'm pushing into chapter three as if I already made my changes. A lot of people find it hard to move forward until the previous chapter, paragraph, sentence is perfect, but writing in a bulldozer fashion of never-look-back has saved me several times when a change I thought needed to be implemented turned out to be a bad decision. (Once ti saved an entire week's work) Everyone writes differently, though, and there is no wrong way to write except not to. :-)
Who is your target audience for your books?
If I look at my Facebook Fan Page breakdown, 63 percent of my readers are between the ages of 18 and 44, most of them female though the percentage is shifting as the covers begin to take a more mainstream look. I think that that's a fairly accurate description of what I've noticed at signings.
Lately, though, I've been seeing families coming up to the signing table together, either mother/daughter teams, adult sisters, or even Mom, Dad, and daughter, all of them excited over the next release or chatting about the Hollows over dinner. That is one of the best feelings ever—being able to give a family something other than grades, job, or chores to talk about, exchanging ideas and thoughts where there's no right or wrong answer, just conversation together.
But if you want to know who I target the books for? Readers who are looking to read about down-to-earth people who make mistakes, try to make better choices, fight against injustice, and who are afraid–but do what they see is necessary, finding they are stronger than they think. I like my happy endings.
When not writing, what are your favorite books/authors to read?
Unfortunately I don't get a lot of time to read, especially in my genre. I've always enjoyed reading Jocelynn Drake for her dark, non-sparkly vampires, Vicky Petterson for her complex female characters with more baggage than an intercontinental plane, Rachel Vincent for her characters who make worse decisions than mine and survive. Richard Kadrey for his gritty storytelling, and Bram for his lyrical writing.
What can we expect from you in the future??
Right now, I'm developing a handful of story ideas that I've been kicking around in the back of my head for a while, but it remains to be seen how fast I get to act on them. I still have several Hollows books that are scheduled to be published, so we will see a Hollows graphic novel (Blood Work) in July 2011, and a Hollows world book (Hollows Insider) in late October 2011. The next regular Hollows book (A Perfect Blood) will be released spring 2012, followed by one or two final Hollows books over the next couple of years to round out the series. Intermixed in there somewhere, I'm hoping to get one of my "heart" books on the shelf, something that might be harder to drop into a marketing hole but is rich in character development and is something I'm yearning to get on paper. I'm comfortable right now in simply concentrating on the next story, whatever it might be.
