Tell us a bit of our
journey to becoming an author.
I’ve always loved writing and dreaming up stories. I’ve been
lucky to have worked in various capacities within the publishing industry
throughout my career, so I’ve never felt like taking the leap to becoming an
author was unattainable. But, I also know first-hand how many people out there
are producing great work, and how difficult it is to have your work noticed. From
there, it’s been a matter of working hard at it, and dedicating myself to
getting better all the time. The Time of Death series is the first YA I’ve
written, but I’ve published six children’s books as well.
How did you get the
inspiration for your novel?
Great question! I remember sitting in between my parents,
sometime in the mid-1980s, watching Back
to the Future on their ancient VCR and just being spellbound. Then, reading
novels like Time and Again and Replay, I’ve just always been so
fascinated by the idea of a person moving through time.
I’d been kicking around an idea in my head, which I called my
“time-travel, prison story,” for a long time. That’s usually how my writing
projects start – a little kernel, with a few specific images. The piece of the
original concept that really pulled me in was the idea of a time traveler
having to ultimately choose when to
live and being pulled in two different directions. A big chunk of that made it
into Time of Death, and I’m so happy
with where the books wound up. I think
I’ve set readers up for a wild, exciting ride.
Tell us something
surprising about yourself.
Even though I’ve been writing for publication for many years, in
one form or another, I still send nearly anything I write to my dad for a read before
it goes anywhere else.
When writing a novel,
do you outline extensively or just sit down and write and see what happens?
I’m a pretty thorough outliner, but I don’t get so attached that
I won’t leave the door open for a better idea that comes to me while writing.
But, honestly, when my process works best, I really get down the main beats
with lots of little notes (a line of dialogue, a sequence of action, etc.) and
more or less follow through on the original plan.
Before almost every project, time permitting, I try to read a
new book about writing, just to get myself excited about the process, and see
if I can’t glean another way of thinking about the craft of it all.
How does it feel to be
a part of the newly launching EPIC Press?
I’m honored. I know quite a bit now about some of the other
launch titles, and I’m honestly really excited to read them! I was fortunate to
be able to write what I wanted to, without much direction from the publisher,
but the one mandate was to not hold back. Part of the idea of putting out these
six-book series all at once was, I think, to help these books compete with the
kinds of TV shows that young adults ‘binge watch.’ So, you’ll see some pretty
edgy stuff in Time of Death, as well
as some of the other series in the launch. That kind of direction from the
publisher made the books very fun to write!
What other projects
are you working on?
I’ve got a really fun contemporary young adult book I’m just
starting to put some notes down about. It’s very different from anything I’ve
worked on before, but I’m excited. And, I’m actually co-writing an adult
thriller with my dad, which we’ll hopefully have ready for submission to
publishers later this year.
What is the best piece
of writing advice you have ever gotten?
Tough question, and I’m honestly not sure. I’ve tried to swallow
up so much advice over the years that it’s all melded together in my head. The
piece of advice I tend to repeat the
most, though, is pretty crass. It’s just this: Ass in the seat.
It just means that you don’t get anything done, and you don’t
get better as a writer, without actually writing (putting your ass in the seat). There’s so many other
things to fill your time. And, I think a lot of writers would agree that the
actual time you’re physically writing is the least fun part of being a writer. Personally, it’s that afterglow
of having written that I find most
satisfying. But, without the hours and hours (and hours and hours and hours)
just sitting at my computer, I’d never get there.
Thank you so so much for having me here, Larissa! What a fun
interview!
About Time of Death:
What if you could go back and change the past? Kyle Cash made the biggest mistake of his life on March 13, 2014, when he crashed his friend's Audi into a school bus full of children. The accident haunts him every day, until the sister of one of the kids killed in the crash comes to visit Kyle at Stevenson Youth Correctional Facility and offers him the opportunity to travel back in time. Kyle learns, though, that time weaving is more complicated-- and more dangerous - than he ever could have imagined. Time of Death is a six-book series from EPIC Press.
