This week’s featured author is Valerie Bowen, and she was kind
enough to answer a few questions for me about herself and her writing. So read
on to find out more about Valerie, faeries, and even Amelia.
1. What
was the inspiration for Faerie Wishes?
Wow that is a tough question. I wrote Faerie Wishes
for a friends daughter. She never seemed to be happy with her life,
so I took the old saying "the grass is always greener on the other
side of the fence" and added a little twist to it. Everyone knows
a human always wishes to be a faerie, but rarely do we hear of a faerie wishing
to be human.
2. There
are many legends and myths about the Fae. How much research did you do for this
book, or did you create your own legends?
Actually there are more legends and myths about the
fae than I care to mention. I did do a lot of research even down to the name
Talia Saturnfrost. Although she wasn't designed after any particular myth, her
image popped into my mind when I first decided to write this novel.
3. In the
beginning, Talia is faced with making a wish to send her into the human world,
or staying with her sisters. How did you come up with the rules for the wish
granting?
The rules of the wish game was a rather easy idea. I
simply decided the fae only knew a tree sprite could grant wishes. Juniper knew
she was allotted only a certain amount of wishes before her life was
over. I had to make a strong friendship bond between Talia and Juniper so the
reader would understand the meaning of true friendship. I wanted the young
adults to realize with a friend's love they could accomplish their
dreams...but at what cost? Talia was a little naive as to Juniper's wish
granting capabilities, she never stopped to think what her selfishness
would do to her dear friend.
4. Cayden
and Talia come from very different worlds. How did you balance their
differences in the book?
I balanced them by making them both lonely and in
need of love. Everyone in life craves the love of another. I needed to show the
reader discrimination in our world is not acceptable by placing a fae with a
human. This just shows we can't control who we fall in love with (a simple
lesson for the real life humans to learn).
5. Talia's
experience in the human world is more complicated than she expected. Can you
describe your process of deciding what she would face? Do you plan everything
out, or let the story develop as you write?
To tell you the truth, I imagined the fae realm to
be quite different than the human realm. So in my mind I imagined how gravity
would play out to a creature from a realm with little or no gravity. I just
wrote what I imagined, and I think that particular chapter in the book was
quite comical.
6. Do you
have any interesting rituals or habits when you write?
I have to admit when I'm writing there is little
that distracts me. I have no rituals or interesting habits, although I do find
my self easily distracted. I always write directly on a word document. With
that said, I find myself searching the internet or procrastinating on social
websites. I never put a time limit on my writing, when the ideas come into my
head I put them on the computer screen.
7. Who are
your favorite authors?
I would have to say one of my absolute favorite
authors is Dianna Gabaldon. I love the way she brings her characters to life. I
think reading her books gave me insight as far as describing people and
landscapes. Another favorite author is Karen Marin Moning. she also has a way
of pulling the reader into a time long past..
8. Your
other books are quite different from Faerie Wishes. What genre do you feel is
your niche? Or do you see yourself as a multi-genre writer?
I have often wondered that myself. The Amelia series
was my first attempt at writing, and I must say I have received many
compliments from the readers. I never thought for a moment that I could write a
novel geared specifically for young adults. I think my actual niche is leaning more
toward the thrill of the kill. I have been writing a series about a psychotic
killer and have found myself engrossed in the madness. I know it probably
sounds a bit warped, but I found it was exciting to write a great murder scene.
9. Can you
tell us a little about your publishing experience?
My publishing experience has been quite easy. It all
came about with a post on Facebook. I said, "I had to go to do some
writing" well one thing lead to another and a contact asked me if he could
read my novel. So I sent For the Sake of Amelia Tormented to him and he read
the entire book in one day. He then asked if his wife could read it...well to
make a long story short she put me in contact with an indie writer that gave me
some answers to my questions. You have to understand at this point, I had never
heard of indie writers, let alone self publishing. After much research I decided
to publish on smashwords which in turn I decided it was easy enough, so I
published on amazon and Barnes. The paperback was a bit tougher to comprehend,
I wanted to do everything myself. I chose lulu for the pod and asked a friend
to design the cover from a photo I had taken while vacationing in
Camden, Maine. I have to say if your willing to do the work yourself, it won't
cost a dime for you to bring your novels to the hands of the reader.
Since the time of the Amelia series, I discovered a
better way of getting my novels out to the brick and mortar bookstores. I
investigated how to purchase my own ISBN number so the entire book and the publishing
rights would belong to only me...the writer. Although Lulu and Create Space
will assign an ISBN the actual number doesn't belong to you, it belongs to the
company who provided the number. So in reality, you may have self published the
book, but the actual distribution and printing rights belongs to the company
who gave the ISBN to you. To make another long story short, I purchased my
ISBN's from Bowker...now my novels the have my ISBN's can be distributed
through Ingram books and they can be ordered by libraries as well as the brick
and mortar book stores. I also want to add, now that my novels have my own
numbers purchased from Bowker, they are in the Library of Congress (this is
done at the time you assign the book a number). With a Lulu or Create Space
number you don't own the rights to place your novels in the Library of Congress
(just something to think about).
10. Can
you tell us a little more about the Amelia series?
The Amelia series is a story about a woman who had
been brutally abused by her ex-husband and her determination to take back her
life and to stop living in fear. Although in the novel Amelia was brutally
whipped, I tried to get the message out to anyone that has suffered abuse in
their lives no matter how slight or evil, there are always people willing to
help you get away from a potentially harmful situation. In the story, Amelia's
ex-husband makes a vow in the courtroom to finish the job he started as soon as
he's released from prison. Amelia decides to move from her home in Kansas
to a place she thought her ex could never find her. As the story
progresses she falls in love with a man that is more than willing to
protect her for her abusive past only to realize the ex has hired someone to do
the evil deed for him. The Amelia series is a roller coaster ride of emotions
as the reader is pulled into the loving and terrifying world of Amelia's.
Throughout the series you see Amelia go from a strong woman to a terrified
person that can't be alone. By series end she comes out a stronger person, taking back everything that the men in her past had taken from her.
***
Thanks to Valerie for sharing with us. If your haven’t
gotten a copy yet, Faerie Wishes is
available at Amazon,
Barnes
and Noble, Lulu,
and Smashwords.
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