Monday, June 10, 2013
And what's a spotlight without a little Q&A? Michelle was gracious enough to answer all my nosy questions...
Why go the indie route and how long have you been publishing?
The main reason I decided to self-publish is because I’m impatient. I’d heard it can take years and many rejection letters before being accepted by a publisher and I just wanted to get my book out there. Also, I like that I have total control over my characters and plot. I’ve been publishing since April 2013.
What advice would you give to a writer starting out on the self-publishing path?
Write the best book you can and thoroughly check it for errors before publishing. Be prepared to spend a lot of time marketing, I had no idea how hard it would be to get my book noticed, I’m so grateful to Annmarie for giving me this opportunity. Send it to as many bloggers as you can who review in your genre. Also, try to write a book that fits solidly in one genre because it’s easier to market. Looking back, I wish I had done that because although my book is a romance it has a dystopian feel to it but it’s not fully dystopian and is hard to categorize. Finally, don’t get hung up on your sales, it can take years and several books to become successful. Just be happy there are people who are reading and enjoying what you’ve written.
Right from the first chapter you know immediately this is a very different world. The story had a very dystopian feel to it, was that the intent?
Not initially, no. I wanted my male character to be an underdog (as most of my male characters will be), someone who hadn’t had a great start in life, a tortured soul. I came up with the idea of him being a slave but I didn’t want to write a historical novel because history isn’t my strong point. Having decided it would be set in current time I got to thinking about the methods of control that would be available today. It wasn’t until I’d finished that I realised I’d written something that could be described as dystopian.
The world of Savannah and Kayden was very real to me, the prose was great, how long did it take you to create the story?
From the first sentence through to publishing it took me three months but I spent many, many hours each day working on it to the exclusion of everything else. I lived and breathed it for those three months.
I also found them very Romeo and Juliet. Do you think they will ever be accepted together?
They will get their happy ever after and some people will be accepting but Savannah will still be looked down on by most of society for loving a slave. Slavery will exist for a few more years, so Kayden and Savannah will still be limited in what they can do and where they can go together.
I loved Kayden. He is a great character. He also seemed that it would be very difficult to write considering his origins as well behavior. How did you ever come up with his characterization?
Before I began writing him I knew I wanted him to be in his twenties, unattached and in need of love and most of all I wanted Savannah to be the centre of his world, I wanted him to adore her. He had to have dark hair because I love dark haired men, have beautiful, expressive eyes and be long, lean, toned and physically strong. Once I began writing he showed and told me his character, each scene played like a movie in my head. I could see his movements and facial expressions, feel his emotions and hear him talk and I just wrote his words as I heard them. It’s for that reason that I write in first person, because that’s how I hear my characters. It’s also why there’s swearing in my book, that’s how he spoke and I didn’t want to change it. Kayden’s past with his mum wasn’t planned, it just played in my head and I went with it. Often, the little movies would play when I was nowhere near my notepad and I’d have to hunt around for scrap paper to write it all down, usually the back of an envelope. My home ended up littered with scrap paper. I now keep notebooks in every room.
Who was your favorite character to write? Why?
Kayden, because in a way he is my ideal man. I love how he had the inner strength to deal with everything that life threw at him and still kept a sense of humour and fun. I love how devoted and protective he was with Savannah. I liked his jealous moments and I enjoyed experiencing how good Savannah made him feel. I loved spending time with him.
When can we anticipate book 2? I know I am dying to know what happens to these two!
The second book, ‘Locked Together’, will be longer than the first. I’m a third of the way through writing it and hope to have it published by the middle of September 2013. After that I’m going to write a stand-alone romance.
What one materialistic thing you can’t live without?
My PC and the internet. I do all my writing on my PC and use the internet to keep in touch with friends and family, download books, banking, everything really. When my internet goes down I’m lost, I don’t know how I ever used to manage without it.
If you could live in one period of time, when would that be?
It would be the present day because of all the opportunities that just didn’t exist in the past. The internet has opened up the world, healthcare is more advanced, living standards are better for most people. If I had to choose a time period in the past it would be just after the Second World War. I wasn’t around then but it would have been a time of celebration, people would have been happy. My mother grew up in that period and she told me people were always willing to help each other and the world was a safer place to be.
If stranded on a deserted island, and you could have one "book boyfriend" with you, who would it be?
Hmm, it would have to be Kellan Kyle from the ‘Thoughtless’ series because I love a tortured soul that needs mending. He was devoted to Keria, he was fun, flirty, good in bed and he played guitar, what more could I want.
*I am not familiar with the Thoughtless series, but after snooping around to see who Kellan Kyle was, I have just added this series to my TBR list. Thanks Michelle!
Thanks for the giveaway. The books look like it will be a good read.
ReplyDeleteWhen you told me you'd be featuring In Chains for the event I was really curious because it was the first time I had heard about it. But watching the trailer(love it!),reading you review and the interview I can see why you'd go for this book. :)
ReplyDeleteThe whole slave concept is intriguing and so is Kayden! ;)
Thank you very Michelle Abbott and Annmarie for participating!
Loved your interview questions!! Thank you so much for participating in this event that we decided to host and did I mention that I love your blog layout? :D
ReplyDeleteI got curious of this book because of the book trailer. It seems interesting! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the giveaway. This sounds like an awesome book! Congrats to the author!
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