Interview with Teresa Carlson, author of Creatures of Snow

Recently, a dear friend emailed me with a strong recommendation. “You gotta read the book from this new fantasy writer! She’s a natural and writes in deep POV!” she said. Seeing that my friend is a bit of a bookworm and also a reviewer, I couldn’t possibly ignore her enthusiasm about the book she’d stumbled upon. And just like that, I got introduced to Teresa Carlson, American author of the fantasy treat in question, Creatures of Snow. The book is now on my TBR list and I’ll be reviewing it on this blog when I read it. For now, I thought I’d introduce Teresa to you all, seeing that she’s a sweetie and quite a special lady. I think she has an exceptional way of expressing herself even in her speech, which if anything, brims with energy and creativity – but you be the judge! Without further ado, I give you Teresa Carlson and her awesome book!

Beware the place where soul meets sky, where furies lurk and brave men die… 

There is a space that bridges the gap between this reality and the next, this place is the Snow. Legends of the Snow and the lost, twisted, creatures that dwell within it, are a well-known way to keep children in their beds at night. It’s a place Skyden Reagan never thought he had to worry about – not until he is chosen for a program that plans to send him right into its heart for the sake of scientific exploration.

If that were his only problem, he would be a happy kid, but, between shadow assassins, galactic upheaval, ancient prophecies, mind control, girls, and finding out he’s a son of Chaos…he’s got a little more to worry about then just surviving the torment of the Snow.

 

Hello Teresa and welcome to my blog!

Hi Fros! Thank you for inviting me.

What has inspired you to write this book?

Inspiration is a funny thing. For me, I guess the inspiration for this book came from watching Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. Not that Creatures of Snow has singing or silly shenanigans, or literally anything in common with that movie, but I’ve always had an abnormal amount of empathy for bad guys since, you know, they have a story too. I thought it was a neat idea to take a look behind the scenes at what goes into making a villain, so I took one of my antagonists from an unfinished story and began writing about him. As the story grew and took on a life of its own I can honestly say that it is not even remotely close the original idea. It turned into a book about self-discovery and realizing what you are made for isn’t necessarily what you were meant to do.

What was the first thing you ever wrote and how old were you then?

My mom still has a copy of a “Jack and the Beanstalk” retelling I did in second grade. I think I was more interested in drawing the pictures. The best part was the last line – “They lived happily ever after…as best they could.”

 What other writing have you done? Anything else published?

Writing was always like my dirty little secret. For some reason I always felt embarrassed about it, since, you know, it’s showing people what’s really going on inside your head. So, I’ve always written stories for myself, for creative writing classes, but never sought to get it ‘out there’ until recently when it occurred to me how much I really enjoy it.

I do have another self-published work out there, a comedy novella Zombies – Hard Workers or Hardly Worth It? (Volume 1 of Dr. Doctur’s Scientific Science Logs) that I pretty much just did for fun (it’s free over on Smashwords and Barnes & Noble). Someday I’ll fix it up and give it the attention that it needs, and maybe write the sequels I always planned on writing.

The free book sounds like fun! What are you working on at the moment? Tell us a little about your current project(s).

Currently I’ve got the outline and a few rough scenes penned for the next book in the Snow series – Legends of Snow. I love this part of writing; just spewing out ideas, seeing what works and what doesn’t. At this point it’s so free and invigorating.

I’ve also started a web comic, Pirate Cats!, aimed at a middle grade audience, or maybe just anyone who loves adorable, adventurous cats who are pirates. I’ve got quite a few roughs done, but only one inked and up on the site (Snow’s release has been eating up a lot of time lately), but plan on getting more up very, very soon.

Pirate cats? How delightful! Being a cat lover, this is now a must for me. What genres do you read mostly and what are you reading now?

If I look at my bookshelf it’s a whole slew of Steven King, Anne Rice, J.K Rowling, George R.R. Martin and Neil Gaiman, volumes upon volumes of all sorts of manga and graphic novels, and every Star Wars book in existence. Honestly though, my collection is almost ten years out of date since most of my books purchased as of late have been ebooks.

Recently I’ve been into indie publishing (obviously) and have been devouring as many books as I can. Authors like Patricia Reding, Nicholas C. Rossis, Edward W. Robertson, Kasper Beaumont, and of course, you! There are tons more on my ‘to read’ list, and it just keeps on growing.

Very kind to include me, thank you. Do you listen to music while you write and if so, what kind?

I find music to be very inspiring and influential when writing. I ran across the band Cloud Cult about halfway through writing Creatures of Snow, and let me say, their music started a revolution in my head. I went back and started rewriting everything, and I mean everything, to fit this new frame of mind. I loosened up my writing, gave it a lighter mood, and left the underlying tones of darkness and desperation lurking just below the surface. I think their music, especially their album, Light Chasers, changed the way I wrote and approached this story.

I’ll have to check out Cloud Cult! Tell us about your website/blog. What will readers find there?

Right now my blog is sort of a hot mess. I haven’t really found my ‘voice’ in it yet, but can only imagine it’s a matter of time. I started out focusing out a lot more on my illustration, then created a separate site for that so I could focus it more on writing. I have a lot of information to share; I just need to find a good way to do it. I was thinking of starting my own interviews and reviews, marketing tips and focus less on me and more on this great community I have surrounding me.

I think a problem with it too is I just haven’t committed time to it. Currently it’s just a free WordPress site, which is nice in that I don’t really have to think about it, but as a front end developer and designer by trade, seeing my cookie cutter site makes my heart sad. I just don’t have the time right now to spare, but it’s on the list to create an awesome site/blog.

Well, I wish you good luck with everything Teresa! Thank you for being here with us today.

Thank you so much Fros for this opportunity to share with you!

BIO

Raised on a healthy diet of Star Wars, The Neverending Story, The Goonies with a dash of Blade Runner, the fascination with other worlds, high adventure, magic and friendship was deeply ingrained in her from early on. When reading and watching stories unfold just wasn’t enough, she began to write…and never stopped.

In a town that is more lake than land, she settled down to raise her two amazing children alongside her wonderful and supportive husband. Although the ingredients have changed slightly, she still consumes a massive amount of science fiction, fantasy, and other nerd-based dishes on a regular basis.

 

CONNECT WITH TERESA

FB Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/WITeresa

Blog: https://worldreece.wordpress.com

Blog (webcomic): http://piratecatscomic.wordpress.com/

Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/30547134-teresa-carlson

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00LC5EB4I

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WITeresa

Google+: https://plus.google.com/+TeresaCarlsonHere

Find “Creatures of Snow” on Amazon