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16th-May-2012 10:44 am - Writer Wednesday: K. Bird Lincoln

Originally published at finding my words. Please leave any comments there.

Today, I’m pleased to feature fantasy author K. Bird Lincoln! Please read to find out many interesting tidbits about her.

1. First things first… a name and bio:

K. Bird Lincoln is an ESL professional/writer/mother living on the windblown Minnesota Prairie with her family and a huge addiction to frou-frou coffee and chocolate. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, she has spent more years now in Japan and on the West Coast than in the Midwest. Her speculative short stories are published in various online and paper publications such as Strange Horizons and Abyss and Apex. She also writes tasty speculative and YA fiction reviews under the name K. Bird at Goodreads.com and Kblincoln on Amazon. (Because sometimes reading a book is just like eating a bag of potato chips.)

Want to read free speculative fiction short stories? Listen to K.Bird sing a Japanese lullaby? Check out http://www.kblincoln.com

2. Where are you from and what’s your favorite thing about where you live?

I’m from a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland gets a bad rep…but you know, we have a world class symphony, an amazing art museum, and….and…okay. My favorite thing from my suburb is Pierogi. Bacon, butter, cheese. You can’t go wrong. Even former President Clinton ate our Pierogi.

3. Tell about your latest book. What made you want to write it?

My historical fantasy novel, Tiger Lily, was just published through the Amazon Kindle Direct Program. It’s based on three short stories published in different venues over a period of about ten years. I’ve lived with her character for a long time, but it’s actually Tiger Lily’s foil, Lord Ashikaga, that was the actual impetus for writing.

You see, in Japan, the whole transvestite/transsexual thing is treated A LOT differently than in the United States. There’s the whole Noh actors (all male) portraying women for hundreds of years considered actually more “feminine” than actual women. It’s very interesting how you can take a culture very focused on outward forms and rituals and have a person living a different gender than the one they were born with. If the outward form is feminine…than that’s how society treats you, no matter the “underneath.”

I wanted to explore how a person might deal with being born in a society that considered your birth year “unfeminine.”

4. Where can people find your books and stories?

Tiger Lily is available online at http://www.amazon.com/Tiger-Lily-ebook/dp/B007Y7094O/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1335742745&sr=8-2.

Previously published short stories are also available at my website, http://kblincoln.com/mossyglen.html.

5. What are you working on right now?

A science fiction story featuring a boy who hangs out with giant Kabuto beetles (goliath beetles.)

6. What inspired you to be a writer?

Although I wish I had a cool story about an inspiration, I don’t actually have one. I’ve just been writing ever since I can remember being able to hold a crayon. Or actually, I don’t remember writing. Is it creepy to say I don’t ever remember the process of writing? Sometimes I just wake up with a Microsoft Word document covered in words….

7. Who is your favorite character in your stories? Why?

Currently I am IN LOVE with the Kabuto beetle sidekick in the current novel. He’s so big, and strong, and hard-shelled…

8. What is your favorite comfort food?

Chocolate. There is nothing else.

9. What character from your stories was the hardest to write?

The Kabuto beetle. Because he’s a bug. Not much personality there to work with, right?

10. What’s the biggest challenge about being a writer?

I’m a writer? I think despite the over 10 years I’ve spent writing and submitting stories to various markets I still don’t think of myself as a real writer. I keep waiting for the beam of light and the angel choir to signal my assumption into the hallowed ranks of WRITERS. So until that happens, it’s hard as a semi-full time working mother to feel non-guilty about taking time away from laundry or kids to write. Hopefully it won’t take another ten years to get over that.

11. Do you have any advice for beginning writers?

You don’t need what you think you need to write. You don’t need uninterrupted blocks of time or certain music or a certain chair or place. You can write anywhere and anytime and you should. Write down your ideas, or they’ll slip away. I write during swim lessons and dance classes, while my girls are doing homework, and waiting in the car to pick them up after school. Any unoccupied ten minutes is fair game.

12. Who are your favorite authors and why?

Guy Gavriel Kay because he makes me cry. Robin McKinley because her stories always make me feel like a hormonal teenager again. Haruki Murakami because the utterly self-absorbed, over-explanatory vagueness of his characters fascinates me.

13. What books have most influenced your writing?

Every single book I’ve ever read. From One Fish, Two Fish to Moby Dick. But mostly whatever I’m reading now.

14. What tools are in your writer’s tool-kit?

The ability to leave my writing alone for a few months until I can read it without the influence of what I WANTED to say and actually read it as it is written. Probably the single, most important tool I learned when making the jump from “writing” to “polishing.”

15. Where can people find out more about you and your books/stories?

Kblincoln.com

16. What question(s) did I forget to ask?

Is your middle name really Bird?: Yep, it is. My grandmother’s maiden name.

What’s the most delicious latte you ever drank?: Honey ginger latte in Tokyo, Japan

Your highest-scoring song on Wii Just Dance?: Sway

Favorite red wine under 10 bucks? Menage a trois red

Latest show addicted to, but semi-ashamed to watch: Game of Thrones

Blood type: A positive

Zodiac sign: Saggitarius

Grossest thing you ever ate?: Raw sea cucumber

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If you are a writer interested in participating in Writer Wednesday, please send an email with a short biography to ww (at) ambersistla (dot) com.

Tags:author, historical fantasy, interview, japanese medieval, writer wednesday

11th-May-2012 01:47 pm - Majjigga Pulusu / Savory Buttermilk Soup

Originally published at finding my words. Please leave any comments there.

Majjigga Pulusu

Ingredients:

* 3 cups buttermilk

* 1/2 cup water

* 2 tablespoons besan (chickpea flour)

* 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

* 1 teaspoon coriander powder

* 1 red onion, thinly sliced (about 1/2 cup, but it’s okay if there is a little more/less)

* 10 okra, thinly sliced

* 1/2 cup cilantro leaves

* 1 – 2 green chilies (depending on how much kick you like)

* 1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds

* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

* 1/8 teaspoon red chili powder

* 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

* 1 inch raw ginger, minced

* salt, to taste

Procedure:

1) In a 3 quart sauce pan, add 2 1/2 cups of the majjigga/buttermilk and bring it to a simmer.

2) While the majjigga/buttermilk is heating up, put the oil and mustard seeds in a pan, heat for a moment, then sautee the onions and okra until the onions are translucent.

3) Puree the cilantro, ginger, chilies with the remaining half cup of buttermilk.

4) Add the puree to the buttermilk in the saucepan. Add salt, let it continue to simmer.

5) In a small dish, thoughoughly mix the besan and water. Pour this into the saucepan with the buttermilk and let it thicken (return to a simmer and let it cook for about 5 minutes).

6) Add the sauteed veggies, turmeric, black pepper, coriander powder, and red chili powder to the saucepan.

Serve it with rice.

Now, I do have to warn you: if you serve this to people who’ve had the dish before, they might look at it slighly askance. My version is a bit greener colored than is traditional. But, once they taste it, they will like definitely like it.

Tags:food friday, recipe, side dish, vegetarian

9th-May-2012 10:27 am - Writer Wednesday: Stina Leicht

Originally published at finding my words. Please leave any comments there.

Today’s author is Stina Leicht, a Campbell nominee and historical fantasy writer. Please read on to see what she has to say and wish her good luck!

1. First things first…name and bio:

Stina Leicht is a 2012 Campbell Award nominee. Her debut novel Of Blood and Honey, a historical Fantasy with an Irish Crime edge set in 1970s Northern Ireland, was released by Night Shade books in 2011 and was short-listed for the 2012 Crawford Award. The sequel, And Blue Skies from Painis in bookstores now.

2. Where are you from and what’s your favorite thing about where you live?

I live in Austin, Texas. It’s a liberal college town with a creative atmosphere and people who read. A friend once took Paolo Bacigalupi out to eat when he came to town for a science fiction convention. They decided to eat at a restaurant far from the convention hotel. While there, Paolo was recognised by a local who hadn’t been to the convention and didn’t even know it was going on. Only in Austin. You gotta love that.

3. Tell about your latest book. What made you want to write it?

Of Blood and Honey documents the tragic and violent circumstances which sparked both The Troubles and forged Liam as a person. Its themes revolve around loss, pain, and revenge. And Blue Skies from Pain is when Liam faces his true nature as well as the consequences of his actions. It’s also about Father Murray, his past, and his relationship with the Catholic Church. It’s about the problematic and complicated relationship between ethics, belief and truth.

4. Where can people find your books?

Of Blood and Honey is available at Indie Bound, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Night Shade Books, BookPeople and Powell’s. And Blue Skies from Pain is also available at Indie Bound, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Night Shade Books, BookPeople and Powell’s.

5. What are you working on right now?

It’s a secondary world YA fantasy set in a late 1700s era world with traditional fantasy races — mix in a failing empire, a small pox epidemic, war, racism, and magic. Imagine living in a culture where your worth as a sentient being is measured by the amount of magical power you wield. The kingdom of Eledore is on the verge of collapse. A prophecy singles out the disgraced Prince Nels Hännenen as the hero fated to save the kingdom. Nels, a lowly soldier in the Royal Eledorian army, is his father’s biggest disappointment. Now, he must survive a doomed war with a technologically superior enemy, assume leadership of a virtually weaponless rebel army, save his sister’s life, and free his people from slavery — and he has to do so without letting on that he has no magic whatsoever.

6. What inspired you to be a writer?

Books have always been a big part of my life, and from the time I was small I enjoyed making up stories. So, it was a natural progression, really.

7. Who is your favorite character in your stories? Why?

To be honest, I like all my characters equally. Liam is one of the easier point of views in which I write. He’s a combination of some of my husband’s qualities and some of my own. Detective Haddock was a little more difficult to love. Americans are conditioned to believe that policemen are intrinsically lawful and good. However, absolute power corrupts. Northern Ireland of the 1970s operated under what amounted to martial law. Detective Haddock is a product of that atmosphere. He was also a whole lot of fun because he has so few restrictions when it comes to proper behavior. He’s so self-righteous and angry that he’s downright sadistic. He just doesn’t care about anyone or anything but the job, and he loves his job so very, very much.

8. What is your favorite comfort food?

Potatoes. It doesn’t matter if they’re mashed, chipped, grilled, fried, baked or boiled. You’d think it’d be chocolate, wouldn’t you? Nope. Potatoes.

9. What character from your stories was the hardest to write?

All the characters were sometimes a challenge at times, but certain scenes were far more difficult to write — chapter three in the first book for example. I had to write it one line at a time. Sit down. Write a line. Get up and walk around. Repeat. Until it was finally done. The same thing happened with certain character deaths, but you have to let the story be what the story needs to be — no matter how much you care about the characters. I bawled like Joan Wilder from Romancing the Stone. It felt so silly, but when I think about it, it makes sense. You see, it comes down to this: if the author doesn’t deeply care about their characters then why should the reader?

10. What’s the biggest challenge about being a writer?

Getting past the inner critic that insists on telling you how much you stink as a writer. Unfortunately, that voice never goes away. It only learns new scripts suck as “You’ll never write anything as good as the last one.”

11. Do you have any advice for beginning writers?

Write what you love, not just what you know, and absolutely don’t write to a market because it’s popular. Don’t worry about whether something will sell. Just write what you love. Read a lot and never stop. Read non-fiction, genre fiction as well as fiction outside your chosen genre. Attend a writer’s workshop with a good reputation. Form a writer’s group with other writers at your skill level. Go to literary science fiction conventions. Talk to other writers, successful writers (that is, authors who are succeeding in the way you wish to be successful,) and those who actually work within the business — not just vanity-published writers. Don’t rely on hearsay and outsider gossip. As for self-publishing, I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone who isn’t already an established author with an audience. It takes a long time for a writer to develop their talent. We aren’t the best judges of our own work. It doesn’t help that good writing is hard to quantify. So, it’s almost impossible to tell when you’re actually ready to be published. Publish too soon, and it’s difficult to get those readers back — if not impossible. Also, good writing is not a money-making scheme. It costs too much hard work. If you want to be rich fast, buy a lotto ticket. Your chances are better. If you want to be famous, be an actor. People know what actors look like. Be anything but a writer.

12. Who are your favorite authors and why?

Terry Pratchett is just brilliant. He’s genuinely funny, smart, and thoughtful with a gift for language that is downright awe-inspiring. Ray Bradbury has been my hero since I was thirteen years old. Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes are two of my top favorite books.

13. What books have most influenced your writing?

I read a great deal of Stephen King, and his greatest novels deal with the psychology of ordinary human beings under extremely extraordinary circumstances. I also admired and studied Ray Bradbury’s poetic prose. Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, and Charles de Lint are all brilliant Urban Fantasists and each is an influence because I spent a lot of time with their works. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, and Rafael Sabatini’s Scaramouche taught me about pacing, drama, and fight scenes. From Adrian McKinty’s books I learned about Northern Irish dialog, atmosphere and setting. I also learned about pacing and how crime novel plots work while keeping a literary edge. Duane Swierczynski’s The Wheelman taught me a bit too.

14. What tools are in your writer’s tool-kit?

Did I get issued one of those? I mainly make up stuff as I go along, and keep at it until the story is finished.

15. Where can people find out more about you and your books?

At my website: www.csleicht.com

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If you are a writer interested in participating in Writer Wednesday, please send an email with a short biography to ww (at) ambersistla (dot) com.

Tags:author, campbell nominee, fantasy, historical fantasy, interview, ireland, writer wednesday

2nd-May-2012 10:10 am - Writer Wednesday: Jennifer Wylie

Originally published at finding my words. Please leave any comments there.

I’m happy to feature fantasy author Jennifer Wylie today.

1. First things first…a name and bio:

Jennifer Wylie was born and raised in Ontario, Canada. In a cosmic twist of fate she dislikes the snow and cold.

Before settling down to raise a family, she attained a BA from Queens University and worked in retail and sales.

Thanks to her mother she acquired a love of books at an early age and began writing in public school. She constantly has stories floating around in her head, and finds it amazing most people don’t. Jennifer writes various forms of fantasy, both novels and short stories. Sweet Light is her debut novel published in 2011 by Echelon Press.

Jennifer resides in rural Ontario, Canada with her two boys, Australian shepherd a flock of birds and a disagreeable amount of wildlife.

2. Where are you from and what’s your favorite thing about where you live?

I live in Ontario, Canada. Though I’m not too fond of the snow and cold, I love Canada I live in the country and it is so quiet and beautiful.

3. Tell about your latest book. What made you want to write it?

I’ve written since I was in public school. My novel Sweet Light I started years ago and it is one of my favorite stories. I love creating a story with fantasy, action and romance all tied together, with lots of twists of course.

4. Where can people find your stories?

My stories are all available in ebook formats from most retailers, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, OmniLit etc. My novel Sweet Light is available in print from Amazon and Createspace.

Barnes and Noble page: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/jen-wylie

Smashwords author page: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jenwylie

Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/Jen-Wylie/e/B004HQ9XD8/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

5. What are you working on right now?

Writing-wise I’m working on a number of short stories. I’m also in edits for some other shorts, and my a new YA fantasy novel called Broken Aro to be published by Hadley Rille Press in Oct 2012. I’m also working on edits for the sequel to Sweet Light, called Dark Madness.

6. What inspired you to be a writer?

I never really thought about being a writer growing up, I just loved to read, and writing came from that. My parents eventually kicked my butt and convinced me to try to get published

7. Who is your favorite character in your stories? Why?

My favorite character in Sweet Light is Dric. I just love the strength of his character and how he interacts with others. Interesting note: he wasn’t in my first draft, but I later dreamed about him and wrote his character in.

8. What is your favorite comfort food?

Chocolate. Of course

9. What character from your stories was the hardest to write?

David was a bit of a challenge with his inability to speak. I didn’t find any of my character’s hard to write, if a character is a problem to write about, then there’s something wrong with them.

10. What’s the biggest challenge about being a writer?

Editing. I don’t mind going over once or twice, but doing it again and again and dealing with the piddly stuff drives me rather nuts at times.

11. Do you have any advice for beginning writers?

Do your research. Pretty much everything you need to know can be found online somewhere. I’m talking learn how to edit, how to market, how the book industry works. Everything. The more you know the less you’ll bang your head against a wall later.

12. What tools are in your writer’s tool-kit?

I don’t really have a kit. I use Google a lot though to look things up as I need them. Author/editor friends are a great help too for any problems I have.

13. Where can people find out more about you and your books?

You can visit my website at www.jenniferwylie.ca and also my blog at http://jlwylie.wordpress.com/

twitter: @jen_wylie

goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4499919.Jen_Wylie

facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jennifer-Wylie/151266004895266

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If you are a writer interested in participating in Writer Wednesday, please send an email with a short biography to ww (at) ambersistla (dot) com.

Tags:author, echelon press, fantasy, hadley rille, interview, writer wednesday

25th-Apr-2012 12:39 pm - Writer Wednesday: Lon Prater

Originally published at finding my words. Please leave any comments there.

Today’s guest author is Lon Prater! Please check out what he has to say.

1. First things first…a name and bio:

Lon Prater is a retired Navy officer by day, writer of odd little tales by night. His short fiction has appeared in the Stoker-winning anthology Borderlands 5, Writers of the Future XXI, and Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show. He is an avid Texas Hold’em player, occasional stunt kite flyer, and connoisseur of history, theme parks and haunted hayrides.

Lon is an Active Member of both the Horror Writers Association and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association.

2. Where are you from and what’s your favorite thing about where you live?

I was born in Virginia, but lived five years in the Philippines growing up. Stuck around southwest Georgia long enough to finish high school, and then lived wherever the Navy told me to for 22 years. Nowadays I live in Pensacola, Florida; apart from the mild winters, the best thing is being able to go sit on the coast and listen to the waves just about any time I feel like it.

3. Tell about your latest book. What made you want to write it?

I just released a short YA superhero novel to ebook. That Time We Saved the Planet was something of an experiment for me. I wanted to break some of the hidebound traditions and prohibitions. For one thing, there are several Lovecraftian elements smuggled in to the story. We have a realistic hero who has to contend with depression as well as demons. And I tried to put a bit of a backspin on the whole concept of “the hero must be the one who does all plot advancing and problem solving.”

4. Where can people find your stories?

Links to all editions of That Time We Saved the Planet, as well as a slew of my “EP” style short collections centering around a theme, and two other novel length works, can be found at www.lonprater.com

5. What are you working on right now?

I’m editing a post-apocalyptic Don Quixote novella, plotting a short story I’ve been asked to write, and also working out the kinks for a series of 50K SF novels I plan to start writing by this summer. While I devote myself to all that, I’m also trying desperately not to get hijacked by the half-completed YA homage to Verne and Wells I’ve started, or any of a half-dozen other stories I know I want to write when I get the opportunity.

6. Who is your favorite character in your stories? Why?

I’m most fond of my version of Mark Twain, as found in my short story “Never the Twain” and my “protest novel” The American In His Season.

7. What is your favorite comfort food?

Recently, it’s been tater tots covered in chili, cheese and onions. And if I told you about my close personal relationship with the McRib sandwich–well, you get the idea.

8. What character from your stories was the hardest to write?

That would probably be both George Washington and his slave Will in my story “The Atrocities of King George”. (Also known as my Vampires at Valley Forge story….)

9. What’s the biggest challenge about being a writer?

For me, it’s the long gaps between getting any sign from the outside world that your fiction is being appreciated. Or sometimes even noticed. If art is committed and nobody appreciates it, did it really happen? In the end, I say yes–but some days it takes a whole lot of chutzpah to get to that point.

10. Do you have any advice for beginning writers?

This is the advice I wish I had gotten as a beginner. The only way to figure out whether it will work for you is to try it on for size.

*Set realistic expectations in every phase of the project, from how big of a story you are going to try to tell on out to whether you need to brush up on your spelling and grammar rules.

*Never submit a story you are not proud of, that you don’t think is the very best reading experience you are capable of providing.

*Try not to agonize over things that are outside your control; instead, finish another story, and keep all your finished stories out in submission.

*Specifically challenge yourself on at least one particular aspect of the craft EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU SIT DOWN TO WRITE. Today I am going to work on writing better sensory descriptions. Today I will focus on dialogue. Evaluate your own performance and make conscious note of what you learned to do better and what you learned not to do.

*Understand the difference between editing the story and editing the prose. If you can’t get the story under control, endlessly polishing the individual words and sentences that you use to tell it is all but pointless.

*The best way to learn the so-called “rules of writing” is to learn what everybody seems to think the rules are, THEN sit down at the writing table and try your damnedest to break them. Hack at ‘em till they break. See if something stronger can be built along the fracture lines, or at least come to understand the limits of the rule and internalize why people think it’s a rule in the first place.

*Read deeply, broadly, continually. Read for pleasure. Read for research. Read classics and airport novels and small press chapbooks. Read translations, textbooks and travelogues. Read oral histories and old letters. Read everything you can get your hands on, and never, ever, ever go more than day without wandering around in someone else’s written world.

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If you are a writer interested in participating in Writer Wednesday, please send an email with a short biography to ww (at) ambersistla (dot) com.

Tags:author, interview, writer wednesday

18th-Apr-2012 10:14 am - Writer Wednesday: Shauna Roberts

Originally published at finding my words. Please leave any comments there.

Welcome today’s guest author, Shauna Roberts!

1. First things first…a name and bio:

Shauna Roberts

I write mainly science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction. A graduate of the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, I have had several short stories published as well a historical novel inspired by the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” Like Mayflies in a Stream.

2. Where are you from and what’s your favorite thing about where you live?

I grew up in Beavercreek, Ohio, but after high school I lived on the East Coast, in the Midwest and the South, and on the West Coast. I’m now in Southern California. My favorite thing about living where I do is that every room in my house has a mountain view.

3. Tell about your latest story. What made you want to write it?

When Hadley Rille Books (otherwise a sf/f press) announced its new Archaeology Series in 2008, I really wanted to write for it. The Archaeology Series novels take place in archaeologically interesting times and are as historically accurate to their time periods as possible.

I have been fascinated by ancient Mesopotamia since high school, so I contacted HRB editor Eric Reynolds, who had previously accepted a couple of my short stories for sf anthologies. Long story short, HRB published my novel Like Mayflies in a Stream. The heroine, Shamhat, is a priestess in the world’s first city, Uruk. Her king sends her into the wilderness with a dangerous mission: Tame a giant wild man.

I loved doing the research for Like Mayflies in a Stream, finding out what people ate and drank at the dawn of civilization, how they lived and how they buried their dead, and what challenges they confronted. Most of the things we take for granted today were developed by the people in ancient Mesopotamia in Uruk and its sister, smaller cities—written language, an economic system that linked a city with its surrounding countryside, irrigation, monumental architecture, city planning, a system of time and measures…the list goes on and on. What could be more exciting to write about?

Also, I had long wanted to provide a woman’s take on epic heroes, and Like Mayflies in a Stream gave me that chance. It’s been 4,500 years since Shamhat’s time, yet epic heroes are still celebrated in movies full of crashing cars and exploding skyscrapers. In Like Mayflies in a Stream, Shamhat’s family and her best friend have to live with and clean up the collateral damage. Epic heroes are not so heroic in their eyes.

Hadley Rille Books will also be publishing my novel Ice Magic, Fire Magic in 2013. It’s a fantasy with romantic elements and explores the “good Kirk, bad Kirk” dilemma much more deeply than the original “Star Trek” episode could in an hour.

Before Ice Magic, Fire Magic comes out, I plan to self-publish Shrine of the Heavens, an epic fantasy set in a world inspired by medieval Spain as well as by Rodney King’s famous question, “Can’t we all just get along?” The main characters are pilgrims of different religions and social classes who are traveling together to a holy site sacred to all three religions.

5. Where can people find your books/stories (links please)?

People can find a compact but complete list of my fiction with links to the publications available online at:

http://www.writertopia.com/profiles/ShaunaRoberts

Like Mayflies in a Stream is available as a hardcover, a trade paperback, and an e-book at Barnes & Noble online and at Amazon.com. For those who wish to buy Like Mayflies in a Stream right this very moment, the Amazon.com link is:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/098251400X.

5. What are you working on right now?

Many things. Revising Shrine of the Heavens before I self-publish it. Learning how to put up e-books. Researching and planning a historical novel for adults. Also researching and planning a fantasy YA novel. Still promoting Like Mayflies in a Stream. Preparing to put together a cookbook of the ancient world with other Hadley Rille Archaeology Series authors. Preparing a class on the “Epic of Gilgamesh” for the fall. Planning a themed science fiction anthology with some other Southern California writers.

I also have first drafts of several stories and a novella to finish and send out. And I’d like to resubmit some of my published stories to podcasters, or put those stories up online, or both.

6. What inspired you to be a writer?

My father worked as a newspaper reporter for a while. My aunt Janet Louise Roberts was a best-selling romance novel author. So writing always seemed a possible career choice. I wrote my first short stories in elementary school, and I was a science and medical writer and editor for 25 years before I decided to concentrate on fiction.

7. Who is your favorite character in your stories? Why?

That’s a toughie. I love them all, including the villains.

It would be frustrating for your readers if I choose a character who has not reached publication by the time this interview appears on your blog. So I’ll choose Shamhat, the heroine of Like Mayflies in a Stream.

With Shamhat, a priestess of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love and war, I struggled to create an honorable woman who was both strong and true to her times, So many women in historical fiction and science fiction are blatantly unbelievable for their times. I don’t like reading about thinly disguised 21st-century women in books set in the 18th or 23rd century, and I certainly didn’t want to write such an anachronistic character.

The many legends of the goddess Inanna showed what traits the Sumerians attributed to women and how they saw a woman’s life journey. The legends also served as inspirations for some of Shamhat’s adventures; for example, Shamhat’s journey into the desert to tame the wild man Enkidu parallels Inanna’s descent into the Underworld; each loses her jewelry, her clothes, her pride, and finally the life she had known.

Another inspiration was Judith in Friedrich Hebbel’s 1841 play “Judith.” Hebbel’s Judith is a devout widow with a strong sense of duty, but her various obligations conflict, forcing her to make choices that she herself is not sure are morally right. I gave Shamhat even more conflicts and morally ambiguous choices than Judith had.

8. What is your favorite comfort food?

From the hardest question to the easiest! Dark chocolate!

9. What character from your stories was the hardest to write?

Kassia in my forthcoming novel Ice Magic, Fire Magic. Before writing her, I had based all my villains on myself. Kassia needed faults and virtues and desires that I lack. It was hard to get into her head and write from her perspective because she was so alien to me.

10. What’s the biggest challenge about being a writer?

For me, the biggest challenge has been that I have many chronic illnesses and must spend 20 to 25 hours a week dealing with medical matters. These obligations disrupt my writing sessions and concentration and further reduce the time and energy I have for writing.

11. Do you have any advice for beginning writers?

Join the Romance Writers of America as well as your local RWA chapter, even if you don’t write romance. Almost everything one learns about writing fiction in RWA applies to other genres, and membership lets you meet and become friends with other writers, published and unpublished.

Schedule regular, sacrosanct times to write. Dedicated writing time demonstrates clearly to children, spouses, friends, and relatives that your writing is important, and it ensures you actually write instead of just thinking about writing.

Keep track of how you spend your time for a week or two, and then make a list of all your activities. Rate them by priority. Everything less important than your writing should be dropped, if possible. Don’t be one of those people who say they don’t have time to write yet find three hours a night to watch TV and play video and computer games.

Don’t worry if your first drafts are crap. Mine usually are. So are those of many other writers. Getting it down on paper is only the first step for some of us. We fix the problems later, and so can you.

12. Who are your favorite authors and why?

Ursula K. Le Guin: She is wise; she wrote realistically about women and people of various races and ethnicities before other sf/f authors did; and her story “Gwilan’s Harp” (http://web.me.com/dougday1/english_1a/literature/short_stories/gwilan’s_harp.pdf) helped me greatly when I was young to come to terms with having chronic illnesses and the accompanying disabilities and lifestyle restrictions.

Barbara Hambly: She has written in many genres—science fiction, fantasy, fantasy romance, horror, historical mystery, historical fiction. Her writing is original and entertaining in every genre, and I, too, would like to write successfully in more than one genre.

Gay Gavriel Kay: His books have a depth and breadth that few sf/f books achieve. His best books draw from actual events in human history and have complex plots involving multiple main characters, each with his or her own complete growth arc. I wish I could write like him.

13. What books have most influenced your writing?

The books of my aunt Janet Louise Roberts, because I learned being a fiction writer could be a lot of fun and one could make a living at it.

The books of Guy Gavriel Kay, because he successfully breaks so many of the “rules” of plotting and structure that beginning writers are taught.

The books of Anne Rice, because she writes lushly, yet her style doesn’t limit her readership.

14. What tools are in your writer’s tool-kit?

Stubbornness

A belief in myself

A good knowledge of grammar

A huge vocabulary

A liberal arts education

A broad knowledge of human nature and behavior gained through earning a BA, an MA, and a PhD in anthropology

Good research skills

A background in nonfiction writing

A willingness to work hard

Joy in the writing process

A good knowledge of world history, religion, and philosophy

Supportive family and friends

A wonderful critique group

15. Where can people find out more about you and your books and stories?

My fiction Website at http://www.ShaunaRoberts.com talks about the themes I return to repeatedly in my fiction, has a perhaps-too-long autobiography, provides brief summaries and the genres of my published stories and novel(s), and has the opening chapter of Like Mayflies in a Stream, which can be read there for free.

16. What question(s) did I forget to ask?

QUESTION: What do I see as my obligations as a fiction writer?

ANSWER:

To entertain my readers

To delight readers with the unexpected and the amazing

To give readers stories with substance

To make my readers think

To help new writers on their journey to publication

To help readers discover the books of my writer friends and my favorite authors

17. Other interesting links…

I blog about writing twice a month at the “Novel Spaces” group blog at http://novelspaces.blogspot.com.

I also post irregularly at my personal blog, “For Love of Words,” at http://ShaunaRoberts.blogspot.com. There I interview other authors, explain points of grammar, talk about writing, talk about books I’ve read, and post photographs as part of a recurring feature called “Things in My Yard.”

You can find Hadley Rille Books at http://www.hadleyrillebooks.com. You can learn more about its Archaeology Series there as well as about their other books. Their fantasy line is unique and particularly worth checking out. HRB specializes in fantasy with strong women characters who are definitely not clichéd “kick-butt heroines” who stomp around sullenly in high-heeled boots being rude and beating guys up.

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If you are a writer interested in participating in Writer Wednesday, please send an email with a short biography to ww (at) ambersistla (dot) com.

Tags:author, hadley rille, interview, writer wednesday

13th-Apr-2012 10:56 am - Oatmeal Bars

Originally published at finding my words. Please leave any comments there.

This is a quick breakfast meal for at home or on the go.

Oatmeal Bars

Ingredients:

* 2 cups quick oats
* 1 cup whole wheat flour
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 cup butter
* 1/2 cup apple butter
* 1/4 – 1/2 cup milk
* 1/4 cup ground organic flax
* 1/4 cup ground almond powder
* 1/4 cup protein powder (vanilla or chocolate flavor)

1. Melt the butter in a mixing bowl.

2. Add oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, flax, almond powder, and protein powder and mix well.

3. Add the milk, a little bit at a time, just until the ingredients begin to bind together.

4. Split the mixture in half and spread on the bottom of an 8x8x2in glass dish. Tap it down with a spoon.

5. Spread the apple butter over the top. Top w/the remaining batter and pat down.

6. Bake in 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes.

Tastes great eaten right away, saved for the next day, or even frozen and warmed on another day of your choice.

Tags:breakfast, food friday, recipe, vegetarian

11th-Apr-2012 10:20 am - Writer Wednesday: Melissa Mickelsen

Originally published at finding my words. Please leave any comments there.

Today’s guest author is Melissa Mickelsen. Please read on to see what she has to say.

1. First things first…a name and bio:

My name is Melissa Mickelsen. I graduated from college in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in Art History. I’m currently working toward my master’s in technical communication and information design.

2. Where are you from and what’s your favorite thing about where you live?

I’m originally from Macon, Georgia. I currently live in Germany; we moved here because my husband is in the Air Force. My favorite things about Germany are the castles and the schnitzel.

3. Tell about your latest book. What made you want to write it?

My latest stories are the third and fourth books in the possible Nightingale series. They are actually mostly completed, but I’m always thinking of things to go back and change. One day, hopefully, they’ll be finished. I wrote them because I had a story to tell, and the Nightingale’s journey was not finished after the first or second books. Also, I had fun writing them. I enjoyed the characters, the settings, and the motives. It was as if I was discovering a world.

4. Where can people find your books?

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Nightingale-Melissa-Mickelsen/dp/0984967001/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330075442&sr=8-1

Barnes & Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/nightingale-melissa-mickelsen/1108598735

5. What are you working on right now?

I like to scratch out short stories that don’t have homes quite yet. My most current one is about the bells they used to place on graves, just in case someone had been buried alive. The grave keeper, wandering the grounds at dusk, hears a bell and goes to investigate. What he hears next is not what he expected. I wanted to write it because I had read a lot of spooky ghost stories over Halloween and an idea snuck in. What if someone had been buried alive? What would happen if the grave keeper heard the bell, a whisper, or a scratch? It was an idea that unnerved me, so I decided to test it.

6. What inspired you to be a writer?

I’ve always loved to write. I started out writing stories for me, because I enjoyed them and they gave me something to do when I was bored. I was sometimes disappointed in books I’d read because the ending wasn’t want I wanted or the characters were too static. So I started writing stories that I enjoyed.

7. Who is your favorite character in your stories? Why?

My favorite character is Tylidae, the Nightingale. She’s strong yet vulnerable, harsh yet compassionate. She can take care of herself and doesn’t rely on others, but once you have her trust she is incredibly loyal.

8. What is your favorite comfort food?

Cereal.

9. What character from your stories was the hardest to write?

General Talros. I wanted to make him honorable but not boring. Also, getting into the male perspective was a little more difficult than I had anticipated.

10. What’s the biggest challenge about being a writer?

Always second-guessing what you’ve written. I always want to go back and fix something. “No, no, wait! I can do that better!” It’s hard to push the manuscript aside and stop worrying and/or nitpicking.

11. Do you have any advice for beginning writers?

Read, read, read any and everything you can get your hands on. Learn what you like and what you don’t. Then write for yourself. Write to develop a voice of your own and find a story that interests you. Then write some more. Most of your stuff at the beginning will be pretty awful but don’t get discouraged. The more you write the better you’ll get. It really is about practice.

12. Who are your favorite authors and why?

Jean M. Auel – the beauty of her settings and the detail she uses to describe them. The world that Ayla lives in is so crisp and vivid and real.
Stephen King – The Dark Tower books are my favorites. The world is so familiar and strange at the same time, and King’s characters just pull me in.

13. What books have most influenced your writing?

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen was the book that started my interested in surviving off the land with little more than your hands.

The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel. She has a gift in describing a land and its people. She makes them feel alive.

14. What tools are in your writer’s tool-kit?

Noise-reducing headphones, my laptop and wireless mouse, and music. I enjoy movie soundtracks (Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean), and Florence + The Machine, Foo Fighters, and others.

15. Where can people find out more about you and your books/stories?

My homepage: http://melissamickelsen.com and my twitter page http://www.twitter.com/mmickelsen

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If you are a writer interested in participating in Writer Wednesday, please send an email with a short biography to ww (at) ambersistla (dot) com.

Tags:author, interview, writer wednesday

4th-Apr-2012 10:47 am - Writer Wednesday: Nancy Fulda

Originally published at finding my words. Please leave any comments there.

Today’s featured author is Nancy Fulda, a recent Nebula and Hugo nominee.

1. First things first… a name and bio:

Nancy Fulda is a Nebula nominee, Hugo nominee, a Phobos Award Winner, a Vera Hinckley Mayhew Award recipient, and the winner of the 2011 Jim Baen Memorial Award. She studied artificial intelligence during her graduate work at Brigham Young University, coupled with advanced studies in computer vision and quantum computing. During the years since, she has grappled with the far more complex process of raising three small children.

Nancy has been a featured writer at Apex Online, a guest at the Writing Excuses podcast, and is a regular attendee of the Villa Diodati Writers’ Workshop. Her short story “Movement” has been nominated for a Nebula Award and Hugo Award.

2. You were born in California but now live in Germany. How did that happen?

The same way most of life’s major events come to pass: through a combination of luck, providence, and true love.

My husband was actually concerned, when we first met, that I wouldn’t want to come back to Germany with him. As it turned out, I’d already fallen in love with the culture (and the pastries!) several years earlier, during an eighteen-month volunteer project in Berlin. We both felt strongly that we wanted to raise our family in Europe, and we are both accustomed to following those kinds of impulses. And here we are.

3. Is it difficult to pursue a writing career when living overseas?

Well, snail-mail submissions are a major pain. Not only is the postage expensive, but acquiring International Reply Coupons is danged inconvenient. For a long time, my wonderful mother printed and mailed out all my manuscripts. These days, I mostly just submit to markets that take email.

4. Tell us about your Hugo and Nebula-nominated story “Movement”. What made you want to write it?

“Movement” grew out of the collision of two ideas. The first was the observation that the mosquitoes in Germany seemed much more difficult to swat than the ones from my hometown. The second was the question of how an autistic child might perceive herself, and her interactions with the world.

The danger in creating an autistic protagonist is that, whether the author intends it or not, the story is likely to be interpreted as a statement about autism in general. I attempted to circumvent that chasm that by making it clear that Hannah’s condition is unique to the world of the story.

“Movement” explores a number of themes, but I think Ken Liu summed up the story best when he described it as being about the “inner conflict in each of us between conformity and transcendence”.

5. Where can people find your stories?

Nancy’s fiction at Amazon

Nancy’s fiction at Smashwords

Nancy’s fiction at Barnes & Noble

A lot of the material at the above sites is in ebook format. For those who still enjoy paper books, you can find reprints of most of my work at AnthologyBuilder.

6. What are you working on right now?

A couple of different projects. One that’s in the planning stages – tentatively titled Daughter of Demons – involves a tiny mountain kingdom besieged by three separate armies. Desperate to aid her people, and fully aware that her kingdom does not have the resources to stave off the coming onslaught, young Danika enters into a bargain with the Demon Lords her royal house has sworn to keep imprisoned.

7. What inspired you to be a writer?

My older sister used to write stories. She’d sit on her bed, with a bound book of blank lined paper on her lap, and write and write and write. Sometimes she’d read her stories to us, or draw pictures of her characters.

It wasn’t long after that I began writing stories of my own.

8. What’s the biggest challenge about being a writer?

Finding time for it.

9. Do you have any advice for beginning writers?

Follow your passion. Don’t give up on a book or story idea just because someone tells you its cliché. If you think it’s cliché, then by all means, move on to something else. But if the subject matter excites you, go ahead and harness that excitement to tell your story.

10. What books have most influenced your writing?

Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series; also Robin McKinley’s pit dragon series and Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vokosigan books. The best compliment anyone can give me is to say my story reminded them of one of those authors.

11. Where can people find out more about you and your stories?

NancyFulda.com

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If you are a writer interested in participating in Writer Wednesday, please send an email with a short biography to ww (at) ambersistla (dot) com.

Tags:author, hugo, interview, nebula, writer wednesday

28th-Mar-2012 10:29 am - Writer Wednesday: Brian Rathbone

Originally published at finding my words. Please leave any comments there.

Today’s guest author is Brian Rathbone! Find out what he has to say.

1. First things first…a name and a bio:

Brian Rathbone is a farmboy with tech savvy and a passion for writing.

2. Where are you from and what’s your favorite thing about where you live?

I live in western, North Carolina, in the foothills of the Blueridge Mountains. It is a beautiful place with diverse wildlife and a serene presence.

3. Tell about your latest book. What made you want to write it?

Lure is an adult paranormal adventure that I couldn’t get out of my head. I wrote the first couple chapters just so I could get back to my fantasy series, but my wife read it and insisted I finish it. I’m glad she did. It was a lot of fun. The story starts out in my hometown of Salem, NJ and end up in Lake Lure North Carolina.

Sam Flock is a good cop, but when she has a paranormal experience on the job that causes her to drive into the side of an ambulance, her career in law enforcement meets its end. Determined to find answers, she forms a paranormal investigation agency with her friend, Shells. Though they are perhaps the world’s worst paranormal investigators, they find something beyond their wildest imaginings.

4. Where can people find your books/stories (links please)?

http://www.amazon.com/Brian-Rathbone/e/B002BM0ENS

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/brian-rathbone?keyword=brian+rathbone&store=allproducts