7. Your stories are mostly set in the very well-written and beautifully believable world of Morstan. Was there a real place that inspired it? Is it hard to keep everything straight when you're writing?
I was raised in Minnesota and I think a lot of the landscapes of Morstan are ones I've seen there - apart from the ocean of course! The hardest things to keep track of are names and compass directions - I have to make sure I don't have somebody traveling west when they were traveling east in the previous chapter. As for the names, I changed them so many times over the course of writing the books that I have to be very careful about keeping things consistent. I actually made a few mistakes with names when I published the last two books of the Zania series - but I fixed them when posting on Wattpad so I'm not telling what they were! Nobody's ever complained anyway.
8. What inspires your characters? Are they based on people you know or are they completely made up?
That's a good question; people more often ask where I get my story ideas and I think the characters are way more important! Mine tend to be amalgamations of real people - both ones I know and ones I wish I knew - and fictional characters I love. Obviously I don't want to make my characters too much like other authors' characters, but I can't deny my influences. For example, there's a lot of Tolkien's Legolas in Kahri, and also Judith Tarr's Alf. Risch grew out of my fascination with a character called Longshot in the X-Men comic books. The central characters of Cherish the Fire came in large part out of a dream I had after seeing ads for the movie Young Guns (and that tells you how long I've been working on that book!).
9. Did you take classes in writing in school? Yes, you are that good.
Aww, I'm blushing! :) Yes, I did have some very good teachers in school, and I give them as much credit as I give to all the great authors I've read over the years. Mike Bjerk and Sharon Knowlton were my English and writing teachers in 9th grade; they encouraged me a lot when I was first thinking about making writing my profession. Ardis Maney was my journalism and English teacher through all of high school. She was so helpful and I think she put up with an awful lot from me! Mark Vinz was my writing teacher during my senior year in college; he was the first professional writer who told me I was talented, so I kind of had to believe him.
10. You post a chapter, or more, every single day. How?
I cheat! Well, sort of. Tellers of Tales, the Zania series and Cherish the Fire were all already published before I joined Wattpad. I started out posting my unfinished stuff, but then thought, why not do the published stuff as well? I figured at the very least I might get a few people interested. Then it got to the point where I almost had to keep posting a chapter every day, because people kept asking for more. I never expected that level of interest, quite frankly.
11. You are equally adept at both novels and short stories, but which is your favorite and why?
I find short stories a lot more difficult, because I have to contain myself more. With a novel I can sprawl out more, metaphorically speaking, and have plenty of space to develop plotlines and characters. That said, when I do manage to write a short story, I always feel a great sense of accomplishment. With a novel, at least when I finish the first draft, it's more a feeling of relief that it's finally done.
12. Which do you enjoy more, reading or writing?
That's a tough one. If the writing is going badly, obviously I'm going to enjoy reading more. But I also get a lot more personal satisfaction out of writing a book than reading one.
13. The last library on earth is on fire and you only have time to save one book. What is it and why?
Somebody in a TV show once advised a young friend that the two books he should always have are a Bible and a copy of the collected works of Shakespeare, because (I'm paraphrasing) "Those two books will teach you everything you need to know about life." I can't imagine the size of a complete collection of Shakespeare in one volume, but I do have a three-volume set and I would save the one with the comedies. In their own way they say as much about life as his tragedies or histories do, and with more style. Apologies to the religious types out there, but the Bible wouldn't be high on my list of priorities in that situation.
14. Who would you consider to be the most influential writer of the past fifty years?
That's a difficult choice even if I'm only thinking about writers who have influenced me personally. Most of the writers I'd consider really influential were around more than 50 years ago. But if I have to pick one for the sake of brevity, I'll go with Neil Gaiman. I discovered him relatively recently myself, less than five years ago, but since then I've found that his work has influenced not only sci-fi and fantasy authors, but also artists in comics, movies and even music. Plus, I think he's a genius. He always seems to know exactly how to put words together to make the greatest impact. Some of his stories are like reading dreams. Even his blog is often a work of art.
15. You have published all of your work online. Do you think that was the best way to go or do you wish you had gone the traditional find an agent and get published route?
I generally tell people that I self-published because I got tired of trying the traditional route and failing. I did actually have an agent once, for about a year. He ended up firing ME after exhausting his contacts and not finding a place for me. I was then told by another agent that since I'd already been submitted to most of the major fantasy publishers, I was pretty much out of luck. I do wish I'd tried harder, or my agents had. But being realistic, I know that unless a new author is extremely lucky and/or knows somebody "on the inside," she's not going to get a lot of support even from a traditional publisher. I would have ended up doing most of the promotion on my own either way.
I only wish we could once and for all put away this stigma that so many critics and general readers seem to attach to self-publishing. The argument usually goes like this: "I read a self-published book once and it was terrible; therefore ALL self-published books are terrible." There are a lot of sloppy, bad self-published books out there. But they aren't all like that by any means, and it's really unfair to lump them all together so that the good self-published books don't get a chance at more widespread attention.
16. What has been the best thing about joining Wattpad?
Expanding my audience, and getting actual feedback from my readers. With most of the books I've sold before, I generally never hear from the readers after the purchase. It's so much nicer to not feel like I'm just shouting into a void.
17. What is one thing that you would like to tell young writers just starting out?
Never start thinking that you know everything you need to know about writing and can't learn anything new. I've seen too many published authors fall into that trap: they get a certain amount of fame and money, and they get sloppy. But because they have that cash power, their agents or publishers apparently don't dare tell them so. Be proud of the skill you have, but never stop trying to improve.
Number One Fan! Interview with Hrtsmom
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