What scares you the most? Anticipation of that very first one-star review is turning out to be pretty scary. If more one-star reviews come pouring in after, well, I imagine I’d be running for the hills screaming. However, bad reviews aren’t what scare me the most. Everyone is entitled to have a positive or negative opinion, and it’s impossible to make every single reader happy, so low reviews are something we authors simply must accept.
The scariest part of all this is, for me, failure. Now don’t get me wrong. A book that isn’t selling many copies isn’t a failure. A book with many low reviews isn’t necessarily a failure, either. Failure is when the aspiring author abandons her dream too early. Failure is when you lose the drive to keep pressing on, and you let lack of motivation win. If you let your fears and self doubts dominate you and push you to shelving every single one of your projects, that, ladies and gentlemen, is a sign of failure.
For me, failure can be remedied with a giant dose of self-confidence and motivation, and those can be found by joining a support group for writers.
What makes you happiest? In my life in general, what makes me happy is being able to travel with my fiancé Salva to different destinations around the world. I love seeing new places, meeting new cultures, tasting new foods… I also love ticking off places from my “Must See Before I Die” list. The latest item to get ticked off my list was Stonehenge, which we visited on a very windy and rainy day in May. In August we’ll go to Athens. Can’t wait!
As an author, what makes me happy is receiving feedback from readers. Just the other day, a fellow author who I had never before met contacted me through Twitter to tell me he was having a blast reading Serving Time. Those are the kind of surprises that make my day.
What’s your greatest character strength? I wonder… Is this referring to myself, or the characters in my novels? Well, I’ll just go ahead and answer for both! My own strength is my perseverance. I refuse to let myself stop, no matter how tired or lazy or down I might feel at a certain moment.
As for my characters, I believe their strength is hidden precisely in their weaknesses. The “good guys” aren’t that good, and the “bad guys” are fighting for what they believe is a noble cause. All in all, these imperfections breathe life onto the characters and make them three-dimensional and believable.
Why do you write? I write because it is my life, my hobby, my means of evasion. I write because there are characters in my head demanding their fifteen minutes in the spotlight. I write because it makes me happy, it energizes me and surprises me. I might also get the eventual headache after spending so many hours in front of a computer screen, but that’s a side effect I can tolerate.
Have you always enjoyed writing? Always, always, always! I’ve written ever since I was a child!
There’s actually a very funny story about how I started reading and writing. One day when I was in first grade, the school had a parents’ party and my mother came to see my classroom and talk to my teacher. Well, my class had a wall with construction paper ice cream cones. Each cone had our name, and each time we read a book and handed in a short book report, we received a paper ice cream scoop on our cone. Some cones almost reached the ceiling. Mine had one or two scoops.
I hated reading!
Lucky for me, my mother saw what the whole shebang was about (despite my attempt to make her look the other way), and since then, she read with me every single night until, lo and behold, I fell in love!
My mother had an old typewriter, and she’d let me use colored sheets of paper to write up my stories. One of the first I remember writing was a pop-up short about several astronauts visiting the moon. I was around 7 or 8 at the time. Another favorite of mine was a fully-illustrated short about the creation of life on Earth, the differentiation of animal species, and finally the arrival of the first spark of intelligence through the intervention of an unknown external entity. Looking back on it now, I’m amazed at the complexity of the topic, and the resemblance to the first chapters of 2001: A Space Odyssey makes me smile.
What motivates you to write? First and foremost, I write because it’s an activity I enjoy. If fiction writing were torture, I definitely wouldn’t be doing it!
My main motivation is the challenge, the pressure, the surprises my characters have in store for me. Creating something as elaborate as a novel comes with sacrifice, but it is an extremely fulfilling experience. Motivation for my novel also stems from all the support I receive from my wondrous critique buddies on Critique Circle. They’re all such a helpful bunch! I don’t know what I’d do without them and their comments, suggestions and support.
What writing are you most proud of? That would be my debut novel Serving Time, of course! Sometimes I’m watching TV or cooking or listening to the radio, and I stop and think “I’m a published author.” I actually did it! After so many years of doing what I was supposed to do (study, get a “real job,” pay the rent…), I had finally found the time for what I wanted to do: write.
I’m sure there are countless aspiring authors out there whose heads buzz with fantastic ideas for short stories or novels, but who don’t dare take that first step. They might write a few pages, then shake their heads and stuff the papers in a drawer. Their insecurity is getting in the way of their creativity. In my case, I spent many years going through that phase, until I finally broke free and got down to business. And now I have a published novel, and a second one on the way!
I went all the way, and I’m proud.
You can do it, too. Just keep calm and write. Don’t stop and one day you’ll reach the end.
Life and death have been industrialized. The Forge, the birthplace of every soul, is a rumbling factory owned by the goddess Time, managed by Lucifer, and powered by the labor of demons and imps. In this dystopian world, a renegade interplanetary pilot running from his past doesn’t stand a chance.
Handling Neptunian meth and dodging security cannons are all in a day’s work for Tristan Cross—not that he’s one to complain. Working for the smuggling company StarCorp is an improvement over what he used to do for a living.
However, when StarCorp gives Tristan a one-way ticket into the brainwashed—and disturbingly suicidal—Loyal League, he decides to run from the company and start a new life in the only safe haven he knows: Earth. With the help of his brother, Tristan embarks on the most hazardous journey of his life, one that will place him at Time’s mercy. Little does he know the demons running the universe are craving a feast, and his own soul is the next item on the menu.
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Genre – Science Fiction/Fantasy
Rating – Adult
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