1. What inspired you to write?
a. I’ve been a reader since I was little, and so after a while I think I simply started to think, Hey! I can do this! I know I started to play with creative writing back in High School; I have to say, much of what I wrote then was terribly derivative.
Of course, every writer is inspired and influenced by other authors, whether we’re aware of it or not. There are ideas which have become lodged in our heads, for one reason or another, and they will come back out when you least expect it.
2. Are you a reader? What are some of your favorites?
a. I am definitely a reader! There are twelve full bookcases in our home which will attest to that, or would if they weren’t busy trying to stay upright under the weight of all the books.
As for particular favorites, let’s start with Robert Heinlein and Douglas Adams. Heinlein for his style and his characters; Adams for his humor and his ability to look at things sideways and yet get a clear view of them. Beyond that, well, as I said: 12 bookcases.
3. What is your newest work, and what is going to happen in the future?
a. My latest novel is called Triumph’s Ashes and is the fifth volume of The Cassidy Chronicles. Its release date is August 15, and it concludes the ‘Artemis War’ story arc in the Chronicles.
As for what’s next? Now that they’re done fighting Artemis, Cass and Ken get to do more of the exploring they’ve been dying to do; the rest of the fleet with have their missions; and don’t forget about the colony on Freyr!
I will have at least one project up on Amazon’s new VELLA service: it’s a place to read a serialized story, so Kendra is busy writing her Memories of Aiyana, recalling their shared childhood in the late 21st century.
4. Do you have advice or tips for Indie Authors?
a. The most basic advice is: money never goes from the writer to the publisher! If you’re an Indie, you’re used to the idea of spending your money on things like editing, cover designs, and maybe even marketing. But printing? No way. And be really careful of the ‘we can do it all for you!’ shops, too. Look around, find the right person for you!
As for writing advice: don’t stop. It’s much harder to re-start writing when you step away from it; you lose the threads and the momentum. Take my Chronicles as an example.
The first volume was supposed to be four novella-sized books, each 25-30k words, and they’d tell the entire story. The first two books I knocked out in a few months and I jumped into the third one. I got about 10k words done and then life intervened.
So I started doing Life things and put the third book aside.
Mistake!
I dabbled at it, on and off, but didn’t really get anywhere, if you know what I mean. So then, seven years later, I finally was able to really get back into writing it.
Unfortunately, at that point, the fourth novella was totally lost. No idea what I was going to write, or how it was going to end. The good news was I had another idea how I could end it, and so I went that direction. The bad news was the last novella ended up huge, small novel-sized, with no good place to split it, so I ended up combining all three into one volume.
And I’ve been writing steadily ever since!
The lesson is: don’t stop!
5. What influenced you as a writer?
a. The primary influence has been, is, and will continue to be, other authors. I love reading and hearing how they manipulate the language in creating their universes. Consider this:
As I left the Kenya Beanstalk capsule he was right on my heels. He followed me through the door leading to Customs, Health, and Immigration. As the door contracted behind him I killed him.
That’s how Heinlein’s Friday begins, and you immediately know several things: it’s science fiction (Kenya Beanstalk), but the world isn’t too different (Customs), and the narrator doesn’t dither or waste time. Oh, and they’re also well-trained and possibly doing something shady.
Consider this, too:
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy begins there, and again you get an immediate sense of the feel, the tone, of the entire series.
And it’s not just authors. Pop culture, especially sci-fi, has influenced me and my writing to the point that Kendra Cassidy had to be written as having an interest in our time period so I could put in all the Easter Eggs I wanted!