The first question I'd like to ask is about the book in general. If I remember correctly, Grimaulkin is written for Young Adults? Yes, mostly in the high-school plus range. The main character is 18 years old. Did you find that focusing on that particular age range influenced the style of your writing? Oh, definitely. My first draft, the one I wrote when I wasn't paying attention to words, had a lot more detail and swear words than the final version did. Since the time period is in the year 2000, I didn't have to worry about modern lingo and...
Interview: Leah RS Braun, author of Sex on Fire
This is probably one the most common question asked of authors: What made you decide to become an author? After working for 23+ years in the fitness/yoga/wellness industries, I had decided to write a book about creating a career in those areas. I had begun that project when Sex on Fire demanded to be written. You book is a very intense self-exploration of how trauma is begun and perpetuated over time. How did you step from recognition to writing? I had struggled a lot with elements of shame in my trauma experience, and it took me years of different therapy...
Interview: J Dark, author of Best Intentions
By your own admission, you say that you came late to the writing game. What prompted you to start and want to get published? I was having a rough go of it back in 2006 when, on a whim, I got into the online game City of Heroes. When I joined, this group called “Futura Force” that had these players, “Kill Favored”, and “Electroidium” that got me interested in posting short little stories on the forums. Then both of those players started talking about “National Novel Writing Month”, and how they were going to participate because they liked writing. I’d...
Interview: Niki Lenhart, Cover & Branding Design
We'll start with one of those questions that get asked every time in interviews: When did you realize you wanted to be an artist? When I was in second grade, I use to get my crayons taken away from me by my teacher, Mrs. Desilva. All I wanted to do was color and nothing else. I lost a lot of crayons that year <laughs>. My mom and I remained friends with her for many years and she would always bring up the crayons and how hard it was to keep me in the real world as opposed to my artsy...
Interview: Lisa Jacob, author of Homecoming (A War Mage Story)
What inspired you to get into writing? I was always a voracious reader. I had been surrounded by books since childhood, and my mother was always a big reader. In junior high, I started reading “adult” authors like Stephen King and Sidney Sheldon, books my mom read. I finished The Shining and I thought to myself, I can write like this. So I started writing fan fiction for a few TV shows—this was way before fan fiction was a “thing.” My first original novel was written during the summer from 8th to 9th grade, and really improved my typing skills....
Interview: Laureen Hudson, Acquisitions Editor
What got you into editing as a profession, and what helps with being a good editor? So that’s actually a funny story. Waaaaaaay back in high school, I signed up to work on the school newspaper. The teacher noticed me informally answering other people’s questions about spelling and word choice, and decided I should be the editor. That would have been where it stopped, except that the school principal made a habit of censoring editorials in the paper. It enraged me, and I embarked on an anti-censorship campaign that ultimately got me suspended a few times… but I learned the...
Interview: Kimberley Wall, Promotions Manager
As a promotions manager, how would you describe your job? Essentially, my job is to familiarize myself with the work, collaborate with the Editor and Business Manager on appropriate genre classifications, brainstorm ideas for whom to contact, where to go, what to do to make the book visible on a larger scale, and then pursue opportunities from the office and encourage authors to pursue others on their end. Tell me about the role of Marketing & Promotions, specifically in the world of the small press. If you didn’t want people to read your book, you wouldn’t bother to publish it,...
Interview: The Unruly Woman interviews Steven Radecki, author of Building Baby Brother
When the guy who makes your book dreams come true publishes his first book, you read it. So I did. I read a science fiction book, my first ever science fiction book! And I shocked myself by loving it. I asked Steven Radecki to let me interview him so I could drag other people into my excitement about Building Baby Brother. He said, "YES!". So I did my first Unruly Books interview and it is here for your listening pleasure (http://goo.gl/92HTqM). [powerpress]
Interview: Steven Radecki, Father of Building Baby Brother
Where did you get the idea for Building Baby Brother? To be honest, I don’t remember where the actual idea for the plot came from. The story itself started as part of an exercise that, well, kind of got out hand. My son’s charter had planned to sponsor an event to help foster reading and writing skills by asking students and willing family members to write a short story and then read it out loud at this event. Always willing to write, particularly for a good cause such as that one, I started pondering possible story ideas. I knew I...