☆ INTERVIEW: Kathleen Peacock author of HEMLOCK ☆

I had the great fortune of being able to read Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock, and I absolutely adored it. Here is an interview with the writer behind this incredible book, which is to be released May 8^th by Katherine Tegan / Harper Collins books.

Me: When did you first get the idea for Hemlock?

Kathleen: I first had the idea several years ago. A scene of Mac, Jason, and Kyle popped into my head one morning while I was walking to work. I wasn’t writing at the time (I had given it up after high school), but when I did finally decide I wanted to try my hand at a novel, those were the characters I wanted to do it with.

Me: If you can choose to be any YA book character who would you be and why?

Kathleen: Probably Sophie from Hex Hall. I love how witty she is. Plus, she gets to kiss Archer Cross AND has Jenna (coolest vamp sidekick ever!) as a best friend.

Me: Where is your favorite place to read a book?  For me I read everywhere because I have to steal moments throughout my busy day, but if I could choose a favorite place it would probably be curled up on my bed. 

Kathleen: I totally read almost everywhere. I always have a book with me to flip through in stolen snatches while waiting in line or for the bus. My favorite place to read is a tossup between my living room couch and this great little deli that has awesome sandwiches and terrific music.

Me: Did you always want to become an author? At what point did you say to yourself “I want to become a published writer?”

Kathleen: I have a very clear memory of saying I wanted to write and illustrate books when I was four or five, and it was a goal I had until my senior year of high school. I’m not sure what happened that year, but I got it into my head that I would never have any success at writing and ended up going to art school to study graphic design (because art was the only other thing I was passionate about).

It wasn’t until several years after college that I started writing again—first blogging, then short stories, and finally Hemlock.

Me: What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

Kathleen: Don’t do what I did. I look back on those years when I wasn’t writing and cringe. I don’t regret going to art school—it led to a successful career that I enjoyed and that paid the bills when I did start writing again—but I do sometimes think I would have continued to write (even while pursuing other things) if I’d had more confidence in myself. 

Also, the importance of reading often and reading widely cannot be stressed enough. My high school didn’t offer a creative writing class while I was there, and I went to art school instead of university. I almost always have, however, read voraciously.

ABOUT KATHLEEN

Kathleen spent most of her teen years writing short stories. She put her writing dreams on hold while attending college but rediscovered them when office life started leaving her with an allergy to cubicles. Hemlock, her first novel, will be released on May 8th by Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins

Find Kathleen on:

GOODREADS | TWITTER | WEBSITE

 

☆ INTERVIEW: Kathleen Peacock author of HEMLOCK ☆

Tip Tuesdays

These are 5 random tips I often point out when giving critiques. Feel free to add a tip that’s not already on here.

• Be careful of how many times you use the forms of to be (for ex. am, is, are, was, were, being, been) in your writing.

• Read over sentences and see if you can change it to make it sound more active. Active sentences add more life to your writing. To learn the difference between active and passive verb tenses go here.

• Often times the place where you start your novel (i.e the first chapter) might not be the best way to start it off. Look for a place in the beginning of your WIP that you think would be the perfect starting place for your novel, then go back to your old one and compare.

Which opening is more un-put-down-able?

• Do you know what side of the bed your characters wake up on? Their next door neighbor? Their favorite things to eat? If not, you might want to take some time to get to know your characters a little better. Put them in odd scenarios and see how they react to them. Their reactions to said scenario should be unique to their character.

• The dog was brown. The dog was brown and furry. The golden retriever was a light shade of brown, his coat as furry as my winter coat.

Be descriptive. Add some visual to your words.

 

Tip Tuesdays

The Advice We Get From Authors

What I’ve noticed in the past was that authors typically gave similar answers when asked:

What advice would you give to an aspiring novelist?

So I decided to make a list of advice from different authors. Some of them come directly from my author interviews, and others may come from their websites. Although the advice is along the same lines I feel as though they each helped me in a different way. They reminded me that even though these are accomplished published writers that they had to take the same vigorous steps we’re taking in order to get where they are. And who better to get advice from than the people who made it to publication themselves?

1. Read everyday and read widely. 2. Write some fiction everyday, even if all you can do is a paragraph 3. Understand that not all criticism is valid or even well-intentioned, but the good stuff is gold for you.

—Daniel Waters, Author of Generation Dead

Finish that book, of course. And just keep writing.
—Julie Kagawa, Author of the Iron Fey series

Write every day, even if it’s only for half an hour. Don’t outline too much, don’t think too much. Just start writing and keep writing. Eventually, if you have talent, your own voice will emerge.

Writing involves hard work more than genius. Writing is rewriting. Of course, it’s true: we all read these articles about a person who sits and writes their first book and it sells ten million copies. But in the real world that doesn’t happen too often. And usually those authors who succeed too soon never learn to write. My books were rejected for seven years before I got published, and I consider myself lucky.
—Christopher Pike, Author of Thirst

I’ve found that writing is a two-part process: learning the craft, and finding the story you are meant to write. You can learn the craft by reading and writing, taking classes, going to conferences, meeting writer friends. You can find the story by living. And don’t waste time beating yourself up for bad writing! It’s all a part of the process.
—Holly Cupala, Author of Tell Me A Secret
 

The best advice I can offer is to read, as much and as widely as possible. The more you read, the stronger your writing will be. And also try to carve out time every day, or as close to it as possible, for writing. Sitting down and staring at the blank page or empty screen takes discipline.
—Lisa Ann Sandell, Author of Song of the Sparrow

 I’ve been asked that question a lot. I’ve always found it very difficult to answer. I feel there’s an expectation that I should know what the magical formula was, but in truth I wrote what I liked reading.
 I wrote about characters I was deeply interested in.
—J. K Rowling, Author of Harry Potter

 If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware off, no shortcut.
— Stephen King, Author of On Writing

I say, Write what makes you happy. Write what makes you want to write more. Write to please yourself first, because you may be the only audience you have for years and years. Listen to what other people tell you, because there may be something in what they say that's useful, but learn also to trust in your own instincts about your writing.

Write the kind of thing you like to read. Try different kinds of writing, because each new form helps you to see your writing--and what you want to do with it--differently. So far I've written: stage plays, radio plays, screenplays (none that were made into movies, though), poetry (bad poetry!), articles, movie reviews, stories for women's magazines, all kinds of other short stories, articles about computer games. I've also worked as an editor, copyeditor and proofreader, which has been very useful. Helping other people sort out their mistakes teaches you how to avoid some of them yourself.
—Tamora Pierce, Author of Bloodhound

 Be disciplined. Write every day, at the same time. Train your brain that you need to work then, and you'll always be aware when you're not writing and should be. Read as much as you can, because that's really the only way to learn besides just writing itself.
—Sarah Dessen, Author of The Truth About Forever

I think there are two things I would advise for someone who wants to be a writer. The first is to keep reading—not just vampire books, but any and all books that even slightly catch their interest. Reading will open the world to you.

And, second, write a little something every day. It can be as simple as a long text con-versation (but remember that when you’re sending in your first book, grammar counts!) or writing in a diary, or blog, or scribbling down an idea for a story. But the absolute best training is to try to write stories in a normal conversational style, to keep a blog that you update frequently, to write fanfic, or to write poetry (if you want to be a poet—or even if you don’t.)
—L. J. Smith, Author of the Vampire Diaries Series

The Advice We Get From Authors

APRIL: Sites for Writers

For fantasy writers a great resource would be mythcreatures.co.uk

This website provides great information on creatures you might not have ever heard of. If you’re tired of using the same paranormal critters all the time then this is the site for you.

I also recommend these articles from Victoria Mixon’s website:

5 Ways To Make Your Novel Unforgettable

5 Ways to Make Your Novel Helplessly Addictive


For those of you who have trouble beginning your novel then I suggest these articles from the Writer’s Digest website:

From Idea to Page in 4 Simple Steps

10 Ways to Start Your Story Better


OR if you have trouble finding the right way to end your novel try this article:

Returning Characters to Life

If you are more of a visual person then I suggest you watch these ehow videos on Youtube.

*Look in the suggestions corner and find more videos by Laura Turner.

I also thought these videos by TheRobinRice were extremely helpful so check those out too. :)

How To Write a Blockbuster


Happy Writing,

Ezmirelda


*edit - I found this post on Julie's Website that I thought was really important for every writer to know: How to handle negative comments about your book.

APRIL: Sites for Writers

March: Sites for Writers

So I decided that at the beginning of each new month from now on I’m going to post the links to some of my favorite writing articles/websites. If you wrote a helpful article on your blog and would like to be linked please let me know and I’ll add it to the list.

One of the places where I get the best advice on writing is Writersdigest.com.

The one I recently got in my mailbox was called:

8 Ways to Write a 5 star Chapter One

http://writersdigest.com/article/8-ways-to-write-a-5-star-chapter-one/

And here are some other articles that are a MUST read:

Beyond Basic Blunders

http://www.writersdigest.com/article/Beyond_Basic_Blunders/

This one is my absolute favorite article! You have no idea how many times I’ve seen the Morning-routine cliché, especially in published books. For some reason it bothers me to see it so much even though I’ve done it a fair number of times when I first started writing. Everyone should read this ASAP, and see whether or not you have some of these clichés in your own work.

How to Build Tension and Heighten Stakes:

http://www.writersdigest.com/article/how-to-build-tension-to-heighten-the-stakes/

This basically tells you all the ways you can heighten the stakes in your book: for ex. with change, twists, dialogue, etc...

~~~

Another site I’d recommend for the general dos and don’ts of writing is darkwaves.com’s Advice on Novel Writing by Crawford Killian. I think this is the first article on writing I’ve ever read and it’s always been a great resource for me to go back to. I highly recommend reading through this at least once.

http://www.darkwaves.com/sfch/writing/ckilian/

~~~

Reccomended blog:

http://www.editsthatrock.com/blogETR/

"...we provide tips on writing, editing, and publishing." -Rochelle French


Note: I've noticed that there is a problem with the comments. It sometimes swtiches back to the regular blogger comment system even though I'm using intense debate. This usually happens because the page isn't loaded all the way. If it continues I'll just go back to using the regular blogger comments.

March: Sites for Writers

Interview With Author Daniel Waters!

Welcome our Guestblogger Daniel Waters

Author of the Generation Dead Series

What made you think of writing about teenage Zombies?

I've always loved zombies; and I think they are the perfect universal metaphor for just about any aspect of the human condition, because they are just like us, but dead.


How was it like when you got The Call?


One of the top ten moments of my life, certainly. I worked for many, many years before The Call came.


What do you think? Outline or no Outline?


I usually write a chapter or two and then write an outline. I like an outline. I think of the outline as a fragment of a road map and allow myself to go off into uncharted territory if I feel I need to.


How was the process like while writing Generation Dead?


One of the most enjoyable writing experiences of my life. Went very, very smoothly, as did Kiss of Life. Passing Strange was a little rockier, but I think that is because I explored the darkness a bit more in that one.


How was it like writing from Phoebe’s point of view?


Love it; actually I really enjoy the shifting POVs and writing in different voices. I haven't done Tommy as a POV character, yet...


Do you have any advice for aspiring novelist?


1. Read everyday and read widely. 2. Write some fiction everyday, even if all you can do is a paragraph 3. Understand that not all criticism is valid or even well-intentioned, but the good stuff is gold for you


Favorite TV show?


I am literally watching zero TV right now, just movies. But some of my past favorites are Mystery Science Theater 3000, Homicide, The Wire, The Simpsons, and South Park. I love SpongeBob, too.


Thanks for sharing with us Dan!

***

To purchase Generation Dead click here.

To visit Daniel's website click here.

Interview With Author Daniel Waters!