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A.L.
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May 09, 2013 10:41AM
3rd Author interview just posted on my blog:) http://libraryoferana.wordpress.com/2...
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Sorry haven't updated this recently but there are 2 couple more reader interviews and 2 more author ones, plus some useful links and articles.I am looking to start reviewer interviews soon. If anyone wants to be involved please send an email to libraryoferana@yahoo.co.uk and please specify author/reader/reviewer interview - although you can do a combination of these.
This is the eighth author interview on my blog - with sci-fi/fantasy author A L Phillips. http://libraryoferana.wordpress.com/2...A.L. Phillips
Here is today's reader interview - with sci-fi and fantasy fan Heather. http://libraryoferana.wordpress.com/2...
Want to read what a reviewer thinks? Read the latest reviewer interview on my blog. http://libraryoferana.wordpress.com/2...
Interview with fantasy/sci fic and romantic erotica author M. Keep.http://libraryoferana.wordpress.com/2...
Today I am delighted to welcome Teresa Kennedy, editor, to my blog. http://libraryoferana.wordpress.com/2...
Here is the latest author to be featured on my blog - Matt Langford. http://libraryoferana.wordpress.com/2...
If you like YA fiction and thrillers check out the latest author to be interviewed on my blog - David Wardale http://libraryoferana.wordpress.com/2...
I have recently reviewed Wanderings on Darker Shores: A Collection of Strange Tales and Poems and as for the occasion, also had the pleasure and luck to interview author Cora Pop. Bellow you can read the questions and answers :)
1. When did you start writing and when did you decide it was about time to publish a first book?
First, I would like to thank you for having me here. It’s a great pleasure and honour for me to be featured on Stories of Duskland!
Now, let’s see… I think it all started with me reading Jules Verne’s Voyage to the Center of the Earth when I was about ten or eleven years old. I was imagining all kinds of fantastic stories long before that; my first memory of doing that is semi-embarrassing: I was about three years old, walking on the street with my grandmother, and discussing quite loudly the possibility of turning into a white peacock-hen, when the man walking ahead of us looked over his shoulder and gave me a half-puzzled half-amused look… At that moment, I probably wished I could turn into a swallow and dart away…
After reading Voyage… something just clicked. Of course, I immediately wanted to become a speleologist/paleontologist! But I also began writing my own adventures…
The idea of publishing my stories has probably always been somewhere at the back of my mind but, in those early years, and —in fact— up until very recently, the joy of writing and fully immersing myself in my worlds has always taken precedence. But after witnessing so many of my blogging friends taking the plunge into the sea of indie publishing in the last two-three years, I finally gathered the courage to do it myself.
2. By then had you already figured out you wanted to publish a collection of short stories and poems?
This collection was the obvious choice for me when I decided to self-publish. I’ve been working on some of these pieces for years, polishing them, changing them, obsessing over them, and I felt it was time to release them into the world, to give them another life of their own…
3. What inspires you when creating?
It could be anything. An image. The mood from a song. An object. The Talisman was inspired by a prop bought at the Halloween store… A black plastic bag glimpsed on a lawn immediately brought a raven to my mind. But that story is not included in this collection… And then I have certain obsessions (themes, if you prefer) that never stop haunting me: time, the sea, parallel universes… They always come back to me in various forms.
4. Which are your favorite stories/poems from Wanderings on Darker Shores and why?
This is not an easy question to answer. Of course, I love them all! Some —it’s true— resonate deeper with me. Music of the Night (my personal Eric Northman, if you want), Shadow on Your Shoulder (my glimpse into another universe), and A Harvest of the Deep (my brush with the mysteries of the sea) are some of them. Also —from the poems— The Flying Dutchman Redivivus, Counting Rhyme, and Thinking of Poe in October. But all of them have their own special voice in my head; they sing to me their siren song, always luring me to come back to them.
5. You have a Masters in Aerospace Engineering. Do your academic studies inspire you to write stories or were they used at some point as part of a story’s universe?
Ha! This is funny! Actually, it’s the other way around… my very “science-fiction-y” ideas and being realistic about my chances of getting into the space program or anything similar to that brought me to aviation…
6. Most difficult thing about self-publishing your first book?
At first, while agonizing over fonts, page set-up and choosing the right POD company, I thought that was the most difficult thing.
Now, I’d say that the most difficult thing is probably worrying about what happens to the book after it’s released… Battling with my innate shyness and modesty while trying to make other people discover it and see these stories the way I see them —while being aware that the latter is impossible. This is very time consuming and often disheartening. All parents want to protect their children and see them succeed…
Also, getting back into the mindset necessary to resume previous work. When I write, I truly live in that world —it’s really a trance-like experience. Regaining that feeling is taking me quite a bit of time.
7. What are you working on at the moment?
My most recently published story, The Thing with Feathers, has appeared in March 2015 as part of the steampunk anthology Airships & Automatons from White Cat Publications. I also wrote a story for Lovecraft Ezine —a magazine of Lovecraftian fiction— which I hope will be out in the June 2015 issue.
And now I can finally return to my novel… The Girl in the Moon is a mix of genres, I’d say, mostly science-fiction and gothic, and even romance… This girl from the Moon falls in love with a boy from Earth, only everybody on Earth is long dead… I’ve already written many scenes but now I’m looking more into outlining it —something that I’ve never done before, but which I find necessary, especially since it could be the first volume in a trilogy.
1. When did you start writing and when did you decide it was about time to publish a first book?
First, I would like to thank you for having me here. It’s a great pleasure and honour for me to be featured on Stories of Duskland!
Now, let’s see… I think it all started with me reading Jules Verne’s Voyage to the Center of the Earth when I was about ten or eleven years old. I was imagining all kinds of fantastic stories long before that; my first memory of doing that is semi-embarrassing: I was about three years old, walking on the street with my grandmother, and discussing quite loudly the possibility of turning into a white peacock-hen, when the man walking ahead of us looked over his shoulder and gave me a half-puzzled half-amused look… At that moment, I probably wished I could turn into a swallow and dart away…
After reading Voyage… something just clicked. Of course, I immediately wanted to become a speleologist/paleontologist! But I also began writing my own adventures…
The idea of publishing my stories has probably always been somewhere at the back of my mind but, in those early years, and —in fact— up until very recently, the joy of writing and fully immersing myself in my worlds has always taken precedence. But after witnessing so many of my blogging friends taking the plunge into the sea of indie publishing in the last two-three years, I finally gathered the courage to do it myself.
2. By then had you already figured out you wanted to publish a collection of short stories and poems?
This collection was the obvious choice for me when I decided to self-publish. I’ve been working on some of these pieces for years, polishing them, changing them, obsessing over them, and I felt it was time to release them into the world, to give them another life of their own…
3. What inspires you when creating?
It could be anything. An image. The mood from a song. An object. The Talisman was inspired by a prop bought at the Halloween store… A black plastic bag glimpsed on a lawn immediately brought a raven to my mind. But that story is not included in this collection… And then I have certain obsessions (themes, if you prefer) that never stop haunting me: time, the sea, parallel universes… They always come back to me in various forms.
4. Which are your favorite stories/poems from Wanderings on Darker Shores and why?
This is not an easy question to answer. Of course, I love them all! Some —it’s true— resonate deeper with me. Music of the Night (my personal Eric Northman, if you want), Shadow on Your Shoulder (my glimpse into another universe), and A Harvest of the Deep (my brush with the mysteries of the sea) are some of them. Also —from the poems— The Flying Dutchman Redivivus, Counting Rhyme, and Thinking of Poe in October. But all of them have their own special voice in my head; they sing to me their siren song, always luring me to come back to them.
5. You have a Masters in Aerospace Engineering. Do your academic studies inspire you to write stories or were they used at some point as part of a story’s universe?
Ha! This is funny! Actually, it’s the other way around… my very “science-fiction-y” ideas and being realistic about my chances of getting into the space program or anything similar to that brought me to aviation…
6. Most difficult thing about self-publishing your first book?
At first, while agonizing over fonts, page set-up and choosing the right POD company, I thought that was the most difficult thing.
Now, I’d say that the most difficult thing is probably worrying about what happens to the book after it’s released… Battling with my innate shyness and modesty while trying to make other people discover it and see these stories the way I see them —while being aware that the latter is impossible. This is very time consuming and often disheartening. All parents want to protect their children and see them succeed…
Also, getting back into the mindset necessary to resume previous work. When I write, I truly live in that world —it’s really a trance-like experience. Regaining that feeling is taking me quite a bit of time.
7. What are you working on at the moment?
My most recently published story, The Thing with Feathers, has appeared in March 2015 as part of the steampunk anthology Airships & Automatons from White Cat Publications. I also wrote a story for Lovecraft Ezine —a magazine of Lovecraftian fiction— which I hope will be out in the June 2015 issue.
And now I can finally return to my novel… The Girl in the Moon is a mix of genres, I’d say, mostly science-fiction and gothic, and even romance… This girl from the Moon falls in love with a boy from Earth, only everybody on Earth is long dead… I’ve already written many scenes but now I’m looking more into outlining it —something that I’ve never done before, but which I find necessary, especially since it could be the first volume in a trilogy.
An Overview of Interviews with Jim Vuksic, Author of LevelsInterviewed by Michael Brooks on Oct. 20, 2014 for The Cult of Me, a literary blog published in the United Kingdom.
http://thecultofme.blogspot.co.uk/201...
Interviewed by Vinny O'Hare on Sept. 10, 2014 for Book Reader Magazine.
http://bookreadermagazine.com/feature...
Interviewed on Aug. 11, 2014 by a representative of The Platinum Journal, a teen literary magazine published in the United Kingdom.
http://theplatinumjournal.com/2014/08/
Interviewed by Judy Gill on June 19, 2014 for Interviews Around the World.
https://nrc14.wordpress.com/2014/06/1...
Interviewed by Vinny O'Hare on Dec. 3, 2013 for Awesomegang.com, a literary website.
http://awesomegang.com/jim-vuksic/
Interviewed by Heather Holtschlag on Nov. 5, 2012 for In Shaler Ares, a community quarterly magazine.
Writers and Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
Wanderings on Darker Shores: a collection of strange tales and poems (other topics)Authors mentioned in this topic
Cora Pop (other topics)M. Keep (other topics)
Nicole Storey (other topics)
A.L. Phillips (other topics)
