This interview is with Abi_Kirk86; writer of Tatoo of the Black Angel, the sequel Mark of the Water Nymph, the Watty Award-winning Realm, Being, Soul Bearers, www.Is-It-Love.com, and her Avatar fan fics, Avatar, Daily Life of the Avatar, and Pippa's First Day of School. She also has some short stories written, just in case you get through all of her novels too fast and need a fix.
Abi is currently running a Mythology Competition so be sure to check out www.abi-kirk.webs.com for more information on that.
This is a really interesting interview to read and I hope you like it as much as I did.
Enjoy!
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1. How old were you when you knew you wanted to be an archaeologist and what made you choose that? How hard was it to actually make that your career?
I wanted to be an archaeologist when I was 10. I had the chance to go on this "dig" when my small school of 20 (and that's excluding kids from 5 under) went to Wembworthy in North Devon on this residential trip in 1996. Unfortunately on the last day where everyone had the chance to dig up an old Mott and Bailey and an old Roman Fort, (though it was just clearing the top soil) I was whisked away to start rehearsals for Babbacombe Theatre for the summer.
I heard how everyone found all these interesting artefacts and I kept thinking, "What would I have found if I had the chance?"
Of course during those days, my teachers never helped me to aspire to be anything useful as I was never attending out of school activities that they approved of.
I was at ballet school up until I was 16. Tap, modern, ballet, character, mime- I hardly had a chance to breathe and chill out- not to mention I had singing lessons, piano lessons, Aikido and keyboard on top of that.
After getting into college/6th form from the age of 17-18, I took classes which could help me be an archaeologist- so geology, classical civilisation, history and philosophy. Needless to say philosophy sucked and I took drama instead. After getting my grades, I ended up at Lampeter University in Wales.
I felt like such an odd ball when I talked to the other people who were in the same class, they only wanted to be archaeologists because of Time Team!
After a year, I found out that Time Team isn't archaeology and with that knowledge a few people dropped out, but I stuck to it. I always found myself taking modules that were based within my interests, Egypt, Crete, Cyprus Bronze Age and also Archaeology in Oceania.
During the 3 year course, we went out excavating at Strata Florida in Wales and though I found it interesting, I kept asking my trench supervisors what I had found and it was like "I want to theorise. I want to create ideas about the past." I mean after all, no one is certain about pre-history; everything that everyone knows about old civilizations where their native scripture has no Rosetta Stone, or was written on perishable substances, can be contested. There has even been recent evidence that Ape's walked upright! Something that people found impossible 30 years ago. So I found it much more interesting coming up with ideas and formulating reasons that wouldn't contradict the evidence but enhance it to a degree where there would be another way of understanding the past from a different point of view.
At the moment, it's very hard for people to go out on excavations; there are few at the moment because of the economic slump. You need to have at least a Master's degree or PhD to get paid a sufficient amount to survive. It's not a well-paid job; everyone knows that. You don't earn millions, but you do earn respect by contributing ideas and assumptions about the earth's history. For those who want to be an archaeologist, by all means go for it. It's an interesting job, but it's very hard work; more so than you would imagine. It's not all about excavating; usually a degree constitutes as 70% theory and 30% excavation!
2. What is the most exciting thing you've discovered on the job?
Oh there has been so much that I've found! Though personally, I'm going to have to say a child's femur! My friends Joel, Katie and I were in this trench in Cyprus in 2008 which we nick-named J.A.K. It was essentially our trench. We marked it and plotted it out, got its grid reference and excavated. Now, just to embellish from my previous answer to question 1, it's hard work, you don't start off with a trowel, it's a mattock, shovel and a wheelbarrow for 3 weeks straight. Manual labour in 104 degree weather, no shade working from 4am to noon, then 3pm-6pm. It is hard work! J.A.K proved promising. Joel found a quern stone, Katie and I found loads of Red Lustrous Ware pottery and even parts of a Mycenaean pictorial krater, pithos jars and some shards of Egyptian faience. But what we were aware of, by the locals, is that in the field that the three of us were excavating was another tomb. One has been found in 2006 and proved interesting, so Joel and I kept going after Katie got bit by a "radioactive" beetle. So on the very last few days of excavating, Joel said he found some "wood". Here's the gross part, during the entire time we were excavating we were told to spit and/or lick pottery to see what it is (they got washed afterwards by the way). The reason for this is to see what pottery it is as there are hundreds of different kinds of pottery with decorations and indentations etc... So not really thinking, I licked this bit of "wood" and found that it wasn't wood.
It was bone. Upon further examination, we discovered it was from part of a broken child's femur. Not one of my proudest moments being called a Bone Licker as the programme Bone Kickers were playing, so yes, that was the most exciting thing I've discovered under the disgusting circumstances it was found in!
3. What influence has your hometown had on the person you are today?
My hometown is Torquay in Devon. Two decades ago it was lovely. People walking by Rock Walk, eating ice-cream but now it's terrible. A stupid massive eyesore of a balloon screwing up the English Riviera and Rock Walk being almost demolished and chav's making a mess of things. But I hardly ever went into town.
I lived on the periphery in the countryside where I had a view of Torbay out of one window and a view of the luscious valley of Roacombe on the other side.
I'm fortunate that I have a three acre field to escape down and grab inspiration that hits me. Eat some blackberries or plums and chill out and watch nature come alive right before you. It's hard to describe the vista of beauty when the world is covered in flowers or snow. The sunsets I saw from my bedroom window were out of this world. I was very lucky growing up. It's influenced me in a way, where I need to live or work near the countryside and become an utter country bumpkin.
4. What words would your family and closest friends most often use to describe you and why?
Insane, weird, freak, scary. Those are what my friends would say. Though I am quite shy at times, when I'm around my friends I go a bit mental and do and say very stupid things- mostly it involves screaming "Timmy" round Exeter Cathedral at the top of my lungs, just because I can; it's fun and the sound carries!
Also I have a very twisted sense of humour and my laugher has been classed as loud and infectious. Scary, because I can scream and cackle quite well and have scared many people in my day and I got paid for it too!
Caring, passionate, hard-working, immature, sensible. That's what my family would say.
Yes I know that the last two words contradict each other, but it's on vary rare occasions when I'm sensible ;)
5. What do you do in your spare time that doesn't involve writing?
I work for the National Trust! I ensure that everyone is having a nice time and to get them more interested in the trust's properties around my area.
Then when I'm not working or writing, I'm playing on the keyboard or piano creating music that goes with my stories.
6. What is your favourite song?
I have so many. I'm eclectic when it comes to music, so many variances. Innocent Child by Arcana is a great favourite of mine- just because I cried like an idiot when I wrote Being when a character died.
7. How did you get started writing (not just on Wattpad) and how do your family and closest friends feel about your work?
I started writing yonks ago (interviewers note: yonks is a British term for years), but properly when I was about sixteen, I think. I had all these random ideas in my head and after a massive computer virus that wiped out my entire hard drive, I got a new computer and took it to university with me. When I was bored and had nothing to do, apart from studying, I wrote.
I still have a story I started in 2003, that somehow was saved onto a floppy disc. The story is unfinished and it's one of the reasons why I'll only read finished stories now. I hate reading uncompleted works and I hate my fifteen year old self for not finishing it. If you've finished it, then I'll read it!
My family had read my short stories when I was at my creative writing class but haven't read my long stories and not that they don't support me, but they would rather see my stories in book form to read them. My friends... I have asked them but I don't think they care. It probably sounds mean, but they have better and more important things to do than read my stories.
8. What do you feel has been the greatest lesson you've learned about writing since you first got started until now?
Aha- I could go on for ages and I'll try not to. Go on a creative writing course! I was so naive two years ago. I honestly thought I would be able to write a book then send it to publishers and they'd love it. Um no. I am quite pessimistic normally and tried to be optimistic but really, I was just being naive. You need to get it professionally edited and proofread and I spend out a lot of money doing it. You don't send out to publishers because a publisher can drop you after your first book. You need a literary agent; they are your bread and butter. You need to get help from professional, published authors; they can give you contacts to people who can take a look at your manuscript and critique it for you. I learned this lesson very early on and it helps me to stop feeling disappointed when I get rejected. It's a learning curve; your first draft is never your best. I have edited Tattoo near enough 6 times now; the one on Wattpad is my scruffy one. I owe a lot to my creative writing teacher Cathy. She has helped me so much and has taught me how to present my work to agents. Paragraphing, indents, margins; there is so much that I didn't know and because I do, people are actually reading my manuscript and debating it. If you present poor work, it gets chucked in the bin and they may not even bother responding to you. It's harsh but it's the way of the literary world.
9. You've said that you've been inspired by dreams and books and mythology for your stories. Do you keep track of those ideas as they come in? Are we likely to see any of them as stories in the future?
Oh yes! If I have an idea I'll write it down. There has never been a moment where I haven't written my dreams or ideas down; I do it all the time. After Tattoo Trilogy there is another book that I've half plotted out; I could turn into maybe two books if I plan it out right, but I'm not sure. Currently, I am writing three short stories which I'll post as soon as I have the time. All have been inspired by strange ideas and dreams. One of them has unfortunately turned out true, so it will be upsetting to write, but I hate not finishing stories.
10. What is the most difficult part for you of turning those ideas and snippets of inspiration into fully formed, and fascinating, stories?
The answer is not getting carried away. As soon as I knew that Tattoo was going to be a trilogy I saw the end and I can still see it now, but there are other things that keep popping up and it's killing me because I don't want it in my story. Though it'll be interesting, I'll just end up confusing people and putting too much into the story. I write stories how I write my music. Start off with the basics, give an underlying tone and then begin to snatch at the ideas and meld them into the plot; then bring in more ideas and then create another layer of tones on top of that. I see my writing like a score of music. There has to be a good key, I usually start off in a nice major key and a good base note, which is the main basic plot; it's continuous throughout but is covered by other notes or plots going on above it, that goes all over the place but still ends up being in the same key as the base note. Then when it is time to wind down, the base note gets louder and takes up the entire score and then it ends!
11. Which of your stories is the biggest reflection of you, as an individual, and how so?
I'm going to have to say Being. Out of all the books I have written, that is by far the most interesting, scary, horrifying and also gratifying story I have ever done. Laina just gets shoved into a world where she has no idea of what to do; her parents have gone, her family is broken up and she is alone. Though she's with the Guard, they don't act like family, so she has to stay with them for protection but she hates it. That book reflected me when I went to university. My family were miles away, I was shoved into a flat with people I didn't know and I was forced to get along with them because I was living with them. After I found my feet I hated being the baby of the group, hated being the one with less intelligence then the others. But I finally stood up for myself and found out I was needed by the people I had befriended.
12. What book of the last fifty years do you feel has been the best adaptation of ancient mythology and why?
I'm going to have to say- I have no idea. In truth, I don't read fiction that pertains to myth, though Andy McDermott sort of glances at it. He has his own twists so I'm not classing him as an ancient mythology writer; he writes about archaeology, in a gun-brazen way. I haven't even read Percy Jackson. I don't write what I read and I don't read what I write, which sounds weird because you'd think with all the myths I know, I would have at least picked up an adaption to ancient mythology and read it to see what the competition is. The truth is, I have studied all these myths in non-fiction books and I adapt them my way.
13. You're on your way to a dig and only have room in your luggage for one novel. Which one do you take and why?
Andy McDermott and the Cult of Osiris. That bloke is an utter genius. He is so funny I cannot even describe him. He is action packed, humorous, explosion crazy and can always keep you hanging off your seat. I read this book when I was on a plane to Rome last year; I had people turning in their seats looking at me because I was laughing so much. Plus, it's a good excuse to embarrass your friends! I expect great things from him in the future, he is a brilliant author! Also his descriptions are just out of this world! A lot of my action scenes have been created with an Andy McDermott undertone. Utter legend!
14. What have been the best and worst experiences of your first year on Wattpad?
My worst was that my books got stolen. Tattoo of the Black Angel and Mark of the Water Nymph was stolen by a member and fan on Wattpad. The person placed them on DeviantArt.com and named them Black Angel Tattoo and Water Nymph Mark and to add insult to injury she changed the characters names but kept my spelling mistakes!
Best experience- too many to say one! It's a toss-up between being featured for Tattoo of the Black Angel and winning a Watty Award for Realm. Both are just awesome and I thank my readers and fans so much for their support!
15. Do you feel that traditional publishing is better than online publishing? Why?
I do feel that traditional publishing is better than online publishing because I am a traditionalist and also you know there is more hard work in posting your manuscript and waiting for a letter in response. I know the saying "Go with the times" has to be taken into consideration, but I honestly think it's better that you print out your work and send it off to agencies. Plus you get more experience out of it and you see the processes. If everything is done on-line, you don't get to meet up with your editor or cover designer, you don't get to sit down and chat with your publicist over a cup of coffee. I would like to be there when people are discussing my book; I want to see how things go and how things work. I can understand the implication if your agent is thousands of miles away, but it gives you a good opportunity to travel. Having a book in your hands that you made, that you created, feels so much better than seeing it on-line in the form of constructed data. I'd feel more accomplished if I held a book that I had written personally, that I'd gone through the hardest way to get published and came out with a book that would have posters on the train stations, adverts in the newspapers and be sold in book-shops. Achieving that is a goal worth having. Online publishing just seems too easy, because you can self-publish and it's over and done with, in a matter of a few clicks of the mouse; where's the struggle? I'd feel cheated if someone accepted me and I hadn't felt the grunt work beforehand.
16. What would you say to someone just starting out on Wattpad about getting their writing known?
Join the Wattpad clubs to fit the genre of your stories and ask for help with things you're unsure of like grammar and punctuation, plot, character development etc. Also vote and comment on other people's work, it's a lovely community, so people will reciprocate. In addition, write something different and unique and finish the story. If it's that unique and interesting, Wattpad may feature it! Don't follow a trend just because it will get you more votes and comments- be original as much as you can, that's how you get found. Find a niche that people haven't used and use it to your advantage and keep at it! If you get constructive comments then learn from them and if you want help just ask!