Author Interview - Brandon

Well folks, we’re in for a treat today. I found a fellow named Brandon and he’s interesting enough that I figured we could get some cool stuff out of him…

Er. What I mean is, I’ve got a good friend named Brandon who’s a writer and blogger. We’ve been friends and beta readers for each other for… quite some time now. It’s great. Today I invited him to stop by here and answer some questions for us. Let’s get to it:

Hi Brandon, and welcome to Story Forger! Tell us a tidbit or two about yourself, if you don’t mind.

Thanks Aidan, I’m glad to be here.  (Well not here but… you get the point.)  A tidbit or two?  Okay.  I’m a young adult who writes young adult fiction.  (Usually sci-fi or fantasy.  Never both.)  I’m single.  My friends say that’s not likely to change.  But being single gives me time to write, read, and answer random questions (see below) for other cool bloggers. 

 Well let's get right into this: how/when did you start writing? Why?

When: When I turned 13.  Actually, a little before that.  I’d always been a storyteller.  To myself, anyway.  When I learned how to write (well)(enough), I started sharing those stories with the world.  (Or at least friends and family and lovely blog readers such as yourselves.)

How: My mom (cruel mother/teacher that she is) made me take a creative writing course that my church organized.  Yeah.  I hated every minute of the drive there the first day.  Loved every second after that.  (How do moms always know best?  Is it even fair?)  When the class ended, I kept writing.  Slowly.  Then my grandparents (a close second on the always-know-what’s-best list) bought me OYAN for my birthday.

Why: I’ve tried to stop for various reasons.  Time commitments.  Other dreams.  “Writer’s block.”  Haven’t been able to keep away.  Hopefully, that won’t ever change.

What are you currently writing? What is it about?

My current work in progress is an extended NaNoWriMo called Beta Sun.  Here’s my synopsis:

No one believes those old stories about Earth.  Everyone knows they are fake.  Were fake.  Now there are holes in the sky, wars on the ground, and a lot of past in the future.  The powers that be are scraping and clawing to stay on top of a world turning upside down.  Can anyone stop the madness before the connection between the worlds destroys them both?

Also, the sun may blow up.

Did anything inspire this project? If so, what was it?

 I’d read a lot of epic/high fantasy, but never any epic/high Sci-fi.  I knew there was some out there, but I wanted to take a swing at the genre.  Also a “mid-NaNoWriMo my story is over but I’m only at thirty thousand words panic attack”.  Kind of made me start moving.

Any other stories you’re meddling with that you want to talk about?

I had one really good one, but then I watched Inception and it was the exact same thing, down to military training simulations and losing your grasp on reality.  So at the moment, no.

But that’s not likely to last.

What does your writing process look like?

Like someone scrambled a bunch of scrabble pieces and let a monkey sort them out.

Okay, maybe it just feels like that.

Actually, it’s still a process in development, but this is what it looks like right now.  I start by “pantsing” the first five to ten thousand words, then I sit down and write a full outline.  Once that’s done, I rewrite what I’ve already written and go from there.  I usually lose a lot of time on the rewriting part though, so I guess I’m still trying to tune the process.

What sort of things do you do besides writing?

Well, being the coolest dude on the block is exhausting so…

No, it’s not quite like that.  I spend a lot of my time wrapping up high school and preparing for college.  I’ve got my acceptance letter and everything, so I guess I’m going to school next fall for a computer science degree.  When I’m not doing school things, I enjoy play football (or any other sport if football isn’t available), listening to Lord of the Rings music, and watching movies/tv shows.

Interesting stuff, I know.  :P

Who is your favorite fictional character (feel free to list a top three or something)?

 Just one?  Come on dude, play fair.  There’s so many.  There’s Robin Hood.  Peter Pan.  Thor.  Nick Wilde.  Frank Walker.  Elliot Spencer.  Skye. I can’t just pick one.  Because if I do, I’ll regret it tomorrow.  Characters are my friends.  And I don’t play favorites.

So here are three:

Robin Hood.  He’s caring.  He’s selfless.  Sometimes his words seem harsh, careless, or hurtful.  But he’s not that kind of guy. He gave up his wealth to help the poor.  He gave up his status to remain loyal to his king.

Peter Pan.  Not the part of him who won’t grow up.  I want to grow.  I want to mature.  I want to live.  I admire the part of him that is always a child. The part of him that never loses the boyish twinkle in his eyes.  The part of him that never loses sight of the magic in the world.  The part of him that isn’t afraid to fight an evil which curses his world.

Frank Walker.  His own machine predicted the end of the world, but he remained willing to hitch his wagon onto hope and fight against the fatalism of Tomorrowland.  (If you haven’t seen Tomorrowland, go do it.  It’s crazy, silly at some points, but heartfelt.)

Do you have any advice for the readers (now is your chance to impress on our young minds your opinions)?

If you want to be a writer, start now.  Right now.  Go write.  Just a little.  And tomorrow, do it again.  And again.  And don’t stop.  Write every day.  Whether you write a hundred words in a day or a thousand.  Write every day.

After all there are two kinds of people: writers, and procrastinators.

Finally, if you were a pelican, what kind of pelican would you be?

Bird-brained.

Thank you for stopping by today! Remember to take some of the complimentary coffee and donuts before you… Oh, it seems we don’t actually have coffee and donuts. Ahem. Well, before you leave, is there any way the readers can connect with you and/or your writings?

You don’t have coffee and donuts?  I need to talk to my agent.  I don’t do gigs without donuts.  (Coffee, sure.  But not without donuts.)  And usually I prefer hot chocolate to drink with them.  Hot chocolate with marshmallows and—

Oh, right.  We’re still interviewing.  Readers can connect with me on my blog, woodlandquill.com.  If you have questions, feel free to shoot me an email at thewoodlandquill@gmail.com.

Can’t wait to hear from you!

Author Interview - Bryce

Gather ‘round folks, we’ve got a special guest today: a good friend of mine by the name of Bryce, who’s self-published the first book in his trilogy, and is preparing to release the second one with a few weeks. Let’s chat, shall we?

Hey Bryce, and welcome to Story Forger! Tell us a tidbit or two about yourself, if you don’t mind.
Hey Aidan, thanks for having me. Let's see...interesting facts... I'm 17 years old, am homeschooled, and play baseball. (Hopefully these are interesting....)

You're currently published, if I'm correct. Mind telling us what the published book is about?
Yes, that's correct. My first book is titled Claervont Captive, and is a story about a young squire who joins in a rebellion against the throne. Throughout the course of the book, Michal, the main character, learns the meaning of loyalty, and must determine whose side he's really on.

Did anything inspire this project? If so, what was it?
 Ever since I was young, I've always loved the medieval era, and when I began writing, I knew that I wanted my first book to be a medieval fantasy. Specific books such as Lord of the Rings and the Chiveis Trilogy (by Brian Litfin) influenced me greatly. Some elements of the story were also drawn from Shakespeare, and the biblical story of Paul's conversion.

I know your second book is close to publication, so tell us a little about that, too. When will it be available?
 The second book picks up a few years after the end of the first, but for the sake of spoilers that's all I can say at the time. However, I plan to publish it by the end of August.

Because variety is good, what sort of things do you do besides writing?
 I love to play sports, and I play baseball on a homeschool high school team in my hometown. I also enjoy to read (though you might've guessed that), as well as the occasional archery session.

Who is your favorite fictional character (feel free to list a top three or something)?
 Oh boy... That's a toughie. I'll have to go with probably either
1) Artemis Fowl. I know, I know, these books aren't medieval fantasy. But they're still amazing and the title character is brilliant and extremely likable.
2) Achan from Jill Williamson's Blood of Kings series. He's an extremely relatable character who struggles with very real things, and his development throughout the story was rewarding to see.

Do you have any advice for the readers (now is your chance to impress on our young minds your opinions)?
 Always be aware when you're reading. Try to get more out of each book than simply a good read (though admittedly it can sometimes be hard). Think about the story's theme, and the author's purpose in writing it. Sometimes this analysis can a) deepen your appreciation for the book, or b ) (and equally as important) tip you off about issues in the messages being sent. Authors have a lot of power with their words, and as readers it's important that we realize that.

Finally, how many fish would be your friends if you were a fish?
 If I were a fish, I'd be in one of those massive schools with like 10,000 other fish. It'd be one great big party.

Thank you for stopping by today! Well, before you leave, is there any way the readers can connect with you and/or your writings?
Thank you for hosting me! It's been fun.
I'm working on building my website at the moment, but for now my books are available here: www.lulu.com/spotlight/TheClaervontChronicles
People are also free to contact me via email at theclaervontchronicles@gmail.com if they have any other questions. 



All right, everyone, that’s Bryce in less than six hundred words (because, you know, that’s all there is to know about him). As he said, you can find his books here, and the second one will be out soon!

Author Interview - Emma

Today I've got a special thing for you. Instead of listening to me ramble on about what you should be doing to your story, characters, or story world, let me introduce to you a different blogger, author, and fellow OYANer, Emma!

Hi Emma, and welcome to Story Forger! Tell us a tidbit or two about yourself, if you don’t mind.

Hi Aidan. Thanks for having me. 

So, I'm Emma, and I'm a teen writer of prose and poetry both. I'm also a One YearAdventure Novel student, and that is something that has definitely influenced my writing. Right now I'm working on my poetry book, Flutterfly, which is coming out next month. I'm quite excited for that.

How/when did you start writing? Why? 

I started writing little short stories in elementary school. Not that I can vouch for any quality of excellence there..As I got older, writing became more neccesary, as an outlet and means of expression. I started OYAN when I was 12 and joined the forum when I was 13, and from there, my writing definitely morphed. 

What are you currently writing? What is it about?

I actually have a few WIPs. My first is a verse novel about ballet culture. My second is a speculative fiction about a falsely utopian society based around contrasting ideas of mandatory euthanias, depression, overdiagnosis and human nature. Whooo. And I'm involved in a couple collective novels. 

Did anything inspire this project? If so, what was it?

I've just been trying a lot to find the beauty in everything- rough calluses and gorgeous sunrises alike. I am driven by need to hold onto these things, I think, because that's where I find life is most current, vibrant and real. (And yes. I know I'm wonderfully, awfully sappy. Thanks for noticing.) 

 

What does your writing process look like?

Sit down in my bed and grab my laptop. Go on Pinterest. Go on writing forums. Catch up on blog posts. Realize I spent all my allotted free time up already and proceed to bang head against wall. 

*cough* Not really.

For poetry, I try to catch myself in the heat of the moment, in really vivid emotions- and then I make myself stop, scribble down a couple verses or two. It'll probably be pretty bad, but later, when I am editing in a crisper mindset, I'll have that raw emotion already there to turn into something more clean. 

The more I write it in the midst of strong emotion, the easier it is to write it /not/ in those fits of passion. 

For prose, I just force myself to do it, honestly. You have to. You can't always wait for the mood to come, or nothing will get done. I go into a closed off room, turn a playlist on quietly, set a timer and just write. 

What sort of things do you do besides writing?

I enjoy politics, so I'm involved a lot with TeenPact. I love to read, immensely so. And the plague of the teenage world, I do school! Hurrah! 

Who is your favorite fictional character (feel free to list a top three or something)? 

Oh gracious. You do understand this is like trying to make me choose between children, right?

This is a hard question to answer because like...Moriarty is not an admirable character, but he is one brilliantly done. So that leads to the question of, characters that I like as people? Or characters that I like because the author did an amazing job on them? 

(I am starting to say both on way to many Moriarty-eske characters and am unsure how to feel about this.) 

Anyway. Let's see. In no order, Jo March. Lovely girl. Surprisingly relatable. Bean, from Ender's Shadow. I would say Ender, and a couple of days my mind will probably change again, but at the moment, Bean. And lastly, Clarisse, from Fahreinheit 451. 

Do you have any advice for the readers (now is your chance to impress on our young minds your opinions?)

Stop being hypocritical in your reading. If you say a book is stupid, don't buy it, give it name recognition value, check it out at the library, and give it away to a friend. That's defeating the purpose. That might sound obvious, but apparently it's not. 

Read for fun, then read for knowledge and enrichment, and learn how to make that fun.

And let's see...

OH WAIT did you mean people who are reading this post or people who like to read

because I totally took it as the latter. 

Erm. 

Well, for the latter, here's my life tips for the day!

First off, be intentional in whatever you do. 

Second off, be nice to people; it's free for you and invaluable for some of them. 

AND ALSO you should definitely get my book when it comes out. Mmhmm. Great life tip right there, for sure. Yup. Of course. 

Finally, what day of the month is your favorite, what color would you assign it, and how many woodchucks do you suppose it has as pets? 

Is this a question about synesthesia, a parody of a nightvale quote, or purposefully random question in order to make us look like sympathetic and approach human beings? 

But if you must know.

The 8th. Teal blue, the dark kind. 

And how many woodchucks? Easy. 42. 

42 is the answer to everything.

Thank you for stopping by today! Remember to take some of the complimentary coffee and donuts before you… Oh, it seems we don’t actually have coffee and donuts. Ahem. Well, before you leave, is there any way the readers can connect with you and/or your writings?

The donuts, I think I could live without; I'm not terribly disappointed. But coffee? You don't have /coffee?/ What cruel alternate dimension is this? 

Well, at least now readers know a reason behind the randomness of my brain today (coffee deprivation, you see.) 

So yes, I'd love to hear from readers. You can find me lots of places, the links of which I will put below. 

You can send me a message on any of those sites and I'll get back to you as soon as unhumanely possible. (Because I am not human, I am Spock. A poetic, sentimental Spock.)

flutterflybook.wordpress.com

My blog.

the-lilac-ampersand.tumblr.com

My poetry.

pinterest.com/lilacampersand

full of storyboards and 'please don't judge my stab wound infographics I'm a writer' posts.

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/47945715-emma

And all the books. Because books are important. 

And you can email me at lilacampersand@gmail.com

 

Thanks again for having me! Love your blog. Keep it up. 

Emma out. 

[special note: if you (a writer/blogger/what have you) wish to be interviewed, shoot me an [in]formally worded email at forgingstories@gmail.com]