Interview, interviews, interviews!
Well, it’s been just over a week since SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB was published, so I reckon it’s time for another blog entry. I think I completely exhausted us all by blogging for ten days in a row leading up to publication. I don’t know how those of you who blog every single day manage it…
ANYWAY, I’ve been doing a few interviews around the webs about writing, my book, and stuff, and because I know you all want to hear my every at-length utterance (ahem), here’s links to them.
But before that, in case you missed it, I have an author newsletter. You can sign up to it here or read the last edition here.
On with the interviews!
Casey Lyall Interviewed me on Kick-Butt KidLit
Your book sounds like an epic adventure. Where did the idea for SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB come from?
Man, I wish I had a cool answer for this, where it all came flashing into my brain like accidentally sticking my finger into a live socket (been there, done that, don’t recommend it), but that’s not how books tend to come to me. I always have hundreds of ideas bouncing around in my brain, like a swarm of slightly sticky bees, and sometimes they bump into each other and stick together to become, er, a super-giant bee or something (I think this analogy is falling to bits here. Unlike the super-bees which are definitely stuck together).
Basically, ideas coalesce until a story starts to shape itself. Some bits get added, others get shaved off or reshaped, until I can see a story. SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB came from dozens of places, like old pulp science fiction and Jane Austen and this illustration I saw from the nineteenth century which showed Napoleon’s armies invading Britain using hot air balloons and looking at Google Mars and Indiana Jones movies and so many other things.
Vincent Ripley interviewed me over at Mr. Ripley’s Enchanted books
What tips can you share in writing a believable world/background?
Detail. The key is, you need to know how everything works, even if you don’t put it in the book. In fact, as the writer you should know many, many times more than you put in your book. It has to be there in your head. You need to know the whole of your world. Then you can write the story within it.
Emily Mah interviewed me over on Black Gate
This was a video interview, which I can’t bear to watch because I hate seeing and listening to myself. You can go watch it, though.
We talked about SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB, writing as a career (things like supporting yourself as a writer) and various other stuff.
I had a beard during the interview. Beards are good for your health.
Melanie Conklin interviewed me (and other debut authors) on Kidliterati
This was an “inside scoop” interview, where each of us gave some exclusive peeks at our books.
Jana interviewed me (and other debut authors) on That Artsy Reader Girl
Four of us debut authors did brief interviews about our books.
