Interview with Elena Dillon

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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Can you
give us a brief overview of your latest book? Is it part of a series?</span></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Crushing</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> is a YA
Romantic Suspense set on an fictional island near Charleston, South
Carolina.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Rory, the main character,
is the daughter of a wealthy Southern family who have planned out her life for
her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>When her troubled, childhood
crush moves back to town she has to decide if it’s worth upsetting her family
and her life to be with him. She’s not sure he’s a good risk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>On top of that a friend goes missing
and she ends up in the middle of a very dangerous situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Have you
ever had a minor character evolve into a major one? Did that change the
direction of the novel at all?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>In this
book Dominic was not supposed to be such a big character and he turned out to
be a nice guy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I was originally
going to have him be a jerk but he wanted nothing to do with that! He was
difficult to get to stay on track. His voice was loud and Rory’s other love
interest, Gage, was difficult to get to know and took a lot of prodding to get
him to be front and center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I had
to be sure I didn’t let Dominic’s bold, loud personality overshadow Gage’s.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Did you
try the traditional route to publishing, i.e. querying agents/publishers?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">No for now I’m happy to continue being a self published
author.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What
factors influenced your decision to self-publish your book(s)?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I like the freedom and I’m a bit of a control freak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I love being able to choose my own
cover, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I don’t have the
patience to wait eighteen months to have my books published either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>This works for me.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What is
your writing process? Do you listen to music or do you like silence?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I definitely need silence. I think I’m too easily
distractible to be able to listen to music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Also I think it might affect the mood of the scene I was
writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I’m easily swayed. Lol. I
get in my office by eight every morning and I’m pretty much there all day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I set word count goals and I have lists
of all that needs to be done.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Did you
hire an editor to review your manuscript before publishing?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Absolutely. She does a critique first, then first round
edits, then clean up and proofing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 
</span>Then I send it to another service for proofing again and then yet
another for formatting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What have
you’ve learned during your self-publishing journey?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">To just keep writing. Not to get distracted by all the other
stuff people say<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>you “should”
be doing. Writing is the most important thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Balance your time. It’s not easy doing it all yourself but
it can be done. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Besides
Amazon, are there any other sites where your books are for sale?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Apple iBookstore, Kobo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>You name it, they’re probably there.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What kinds
of marketing [twitter, facebook, blog, forums] are you involved with for
promoting your book(s)?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I have my blog and I’m on most of the Social Media sites as
Elena Dillon. I’m pretty active on FB, Twitter and Google+.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Pinterest is my addiction though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I can’t go on there if I have stuff to
get done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Two hours will go by
without me even noticing. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s
next for you?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m in the middle of writing my third book which will take
place in the Breathe universe. It should be out before the end of the year.</span><br />
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