Showing posts with label fractured memories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fractured memories. Show all posts

Monday, October 9, 2017

CHARACTER INTERVIEW: Wendy from Fractured Memories

Tell me a little about yourself (where you live, who you are, what you look like, what you hope to achieve, etc.)

My name is Wendy. I’m sixteen years old, but I still look like I’m thirteen. My goal is to avenge my family. I live in the world after the Starvation took out 90% of the population. It’s been twenty years, and humanity is still fighting to recover. I used to live in a little compound in the mountains called the Den. My parents built it right after the Starvation, but the Skinnies attacked, and I am the only survivor.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

Practice fighting. My mom died when I was young, and I turned to defend myself as a coping mechanism. I prefer two knives along with my own hands and feet.

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What is your favorite color and why?

I’ve never thought about it.

What is your favorite food? Why is it your favorite?

Sugar cookies. I’ve only had them a few times, and they are the last gift my dad gave me before he died.

What would you say is your biggest quirk?

Everywhere I go I make a mental map of the route. I can keep track of a path and can get back to where I started no matter what. The Den, where I grew up, had a bunch of tunnels, and I hated getting lost. My dad always said it was the way I coped with that.

What is it about your antagonist that irks you the most, and why? Share a line in the book where this irk is manifested.

When I figured out who betrayed the Den, it took everything I had not to kill him right then and there. Unfortunately, he had about ten friends with him, and while I could maybe handle four or five of them, he taught me to fight. He knows all of my moves.

He thinks I’m like him. He thinks I would rather let weak people die and save them the trouble of suffering rather than help them. He’s wrong.
“I’ve been looking for you,” Wendy said.
“Why?” He stopped twenty feet away.
“Because, I’m going to kill you.”
“You’re here for a rematch?”
“I’m here for your head.”
He laughed. “Still upset about the Den?”
“I’ll get over it just as soon as you’re dead.”

What or who means the most to you in your life? What, if anything, would you do to keep him/her/it in your life?

After I figured out who betrayed the Den, I realized that I’d found a new family. Arie, Kev, Cal, Matt, and Jeff had become my family. I’ll do anything to keep them safe. Anything. Even live when I would rather die.

What one thing would you like readers to know about you that may not be spelled out in the book in which you inhabit?

In Fractured Memories, I’m deep in the clutches of PTSD. That’s why the book feels a little disjointed because I’m still processing the death of my family and friends from the Den. It’s a bit rough at first, but throughout the series, I come back to myself. Actually, I become a better version of myself, thanks to the friends who take me in and guide me back to my humanity.

If you could tell your writer (creator) anything about yourself that might turn the direction of the plot, what would it be?

I’ve been gathering bad puns since this series started. Can I use them in the last book? Pretty please? I promise to give Kev a run for his money.

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A Question for Kathryn:

How much of yourself do you put in your characters? If I were to come to life, I wonder how much of Jo is in me.

I put quite a bit of myself into my characters, especially when I wrote my first book, A River of Stones. After Samantha's parents' divorce, she has to figure out how to get through the hard times ahead. The good news is that there are also good times, times Samantha learns how strong she really is. 

Books that have come after that, are are more of a mixture of me, but I still have some of me in each one, whether that's a character's thoughts, mannerisms, or a portion of their life story.

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Monday, October 2, 2017

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Jo Schneider

Tell me about yourself. What got you started in writing?

I grew up in the wild west, and find mountains helpful in telling which direction I’m going. My lifelong goals include: travel to all seven continents, become a Jedi Knight and receive a death threat from a fan. So far I’ve been to five continents, have a black belt in Kempo and am still working on the death threat.

Being a geek at heart, I’ve always been drawn to science fiction and fantasy. I write both and hope to introduce readers to worlds that wow them and characters they can cheer for.

 I got started in writing through other stories. I wanted to live in Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid and used to play all of them with my friends. Once I grew up, instead of playing make believe, I just started writing.

How do you schedule your writing time? When do you write?

I write part-time and I work part-time. I’ve found that I’m most productive with writing between noon and 7pm, so I do my best to leave those hours open when I can.  I usually look at my week, see my schedule, and then make a goal of what I want to get accomplished before Friday afternoon.

How and where do you write? Do you prefer a laptop or some other method of getting your words down?

I have an office at my house, and that’s where I write. However, if I’m getting too distracted by chores that need to be done or the candy in the other room, I’ll go to Barnes and Noble. I use a desktop at home, but I have a laptop that gets plenty of words typed on it.

What's your favorite part about writing? Your least favorite part about writing?

I love editing. I know, that’s strange, but it is my favorite part of the process. It’s me, hammering out my original idea into something even better than I could have imagined! (In theory, anyway.)

My least favorite part is writing the second draft. It kills me. I probably gain five pounds every time I slog through a first draft. Mostly because I know I’m going to have to change over 50% of it no matter how much I outline.

How did you come up with your book idea? How long did it take you to write your book?

I used to have a hard time coming up with ideas, now they just come to me. I had to train my brain to think outside the box. To be able to look at something—say a stuffed animal—and wonder twenty ‘what if’ questions about it.

It took me over a year to write my first book. Now I can do it in 5 or 6 months. I’m trying to get faster, but life is so persistent!

What types of marketing do you do to promote your writing?

I’ve just started to try to understand the big bad world of Amazon. I have a newsletter that I try to put out consistently, and that’s really fun. I try to do newsletter swaps with other authors who write my same genres in order to broaden my reader base. And I love going to conferences and author signing activities.

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What are you currently working on? Do you have a new book out?

I’m currently working on the final book of my YA Post-Apocalyptic Jagged Scars series. I had no idea that finishing a 5 book series would be so difficult. Everyone needs screen time, a bunch of stuff needs to get resolved, people have to die…its exhausting! It should be out in November.

Do you have a project on the back burner? Tell me about it.

Oh, so many back burner projects…
I have a YA Contemporary Fantasy trilogy that still needs a final book, not to mention a novella for Kamau and his sister.

I have one more novella in Jagged Scars to write. It’s going to be amazing.

I also write a satirical series called Babes in Spyland. It’s James Bond in heels, and it is as cheesy as it sounds. I need to get back to this one because it is hilarious.

What would you tell a beginning writer who wants to publish but doesn't believe he/she has enough talent?

Pfft…talent is overrated.

Seriously. I have a friend who is a phenomenal writer. She blows me out of the water with both her ideas and her prose. However, she has never put the time and effort into cultivating the rest of her writing palette. I have seven novels, three novellas and two short stories published. She has nothing.

Hard work will go further than talent any day of the week. Writing dialogue is easy for me, and I’m good at it. It’s a talent I have. However, plotting doesn’t come easy for me. I have to work at it. Because I put in that effort, I have moved forward in my writing career while so many of my friends have not. If you want it, you can do it.

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