When did you realize
that you wanted to become a writer? What was the very first thing you ever
wrote?
I always had an unacknowledged dream of becoming an author,
but I spent the first 25+ years of my life thinking that was strictly a
fantasy, something that would never really happen (as I was pursuing software
engineering at the time). It wasn’t
until I started freelance writing professionally about three years ago and
ghost wrote a book for a client that I realized I could write a book for myself
as well! And I have NO idea what the
first thing I wrote was; I’ve been writing since I can remember. Probably it was a scary story – I wrote a LOT
of those as a kid.
Who is your literary
hero?
J. K. Rowling.
Anyone who can come up with such a captivating world and engaging set of
characters is a hero in my book.
How much of your
characters are based on your traits or someone you know personally?
All of my characters are almost entirely based on traits I
see in myself or others I know – I write best when I write from
experience. But I’m not naming names!
Describe your main
character in six words.
Strong, determined, loyal, loving, but conflicted.
Describe the world
you’ve created in six words.
Scarily plausible near-term post-apocalyptic dystopian
society. Those hyphenated compound words
only count as one word, right? ;-)
What scene was your
favorite to write?
My favorite scene to write in Shudder was definitely the big revelation in the very last
chapter. Heart-wrenching.
What scene was the
hardest for you to write?
Without giving it away, a scene in the middle of the book
where one of the characters is going through the loss of someone they love very
much. It really hurt to put myself in
her shoes – I can’t imagine dealing with that in real life.
What are you working
on now?
The Shudder Blog
Tour just kicked off a couple weeks ago and is running all summer long,
often with multiple stops in one day all with original content, so that will be
keeping me busy for the next few months!
Shortly after the tour ends, my baby is due (my first – a girl), and
then I’ll be figuring out how to squeeze in the writing for the final book in
the trilogy.
What's your favorite
thing to do when you're not writing?
Eating, what else?
:-)
