Yep, I’ve been incredibly slow. But you can actually blame the writing for a change! I’ve been hammering out Book II of Counterbalance, and it’s progressing very well. If all is good, I may be able to finish the first draft by the end of 2016.
Today I have a very special interview to share. Celebrating the release of her excellent steampunk novel Legacy, is the talented friend of mine and experienced author Michelle Lowe. *Drumroll* Her book link on Amazon is below:
Legacy by Michelle Lowe
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First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write?
My name is Michelle Lowe, I enjoy oil painting, driving fast, doing art & crafts, spelunking, and of course, writing. I’m originally from Atlanta Georgia, but now live in Lake Forest, California. I have a dream to travel abroad starting with England. I like to write fiction mainly. Science fiction, action adventure, and fantasy are my favourites.
2. How do you develop your plots and characters?
When an idea comes to mind, I like to start off jotting down an outline and work to develop a more in-depth plot. With my characters, I learn about them as I go. The more I write about my characters, the more I begin to understand who they are. It’s kind of strange how it all turns out in the end. They’re like actual people you’ve just met who you get to know better the more time you spend with them.
Tell us about your current project.
Legacy is an action/adventure novel set in the Victorian era. It’s a mixture of both steampunk and fantasy that will take the reader on an exciting journey. Legacy is the first of a six part series with a standalone novel in the works.
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Who would you say is the main character of your novels? And tell me a little bit about them!
I won’t go into all my protagonists in every book I’ve written, but in my only nonfiction book I wrote in 2007, Cherished Thief, the main character is none other than Claude Du Vall, one of Britain’s most infamous highwaymen. It was interesting writing about an actual real person. My favorite character, though, is from my Legacy series, Pierce Landcross. He was born into a gypsy family until him and his older brother, Joaquin, get separated from them. Over the years searching for their family, they become fugitives. Pierce is intelligent and crafty, which is good, considering that he constantly gets into trouble. He’s also a bit of hick and is downright a proper smartass, which makes writing him loads of fun!
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What advice would you give new writers on how to delve into creative fiction?
My best advice is to read! Read! Read! Read! When a writer is reading, it’s different than any other reader. We’re not just reading, we’re studying, finding out new ways to describe things, broadening our vocabulary, and learning how these other authors thread their stories together. Whatever you want to write, whether it’s science fiction, nonfiction, creative nonfiction, fantasy, etc. . . simply reading in your preferred genre will help significantly when you put your own pen to paper.
7) What inspires you to write?
I’ve always enjoyed writing stories even years before I discovered that I wanted to actually be an author. Pretty much everything about writing interests me. I love creating different places and inventing people as well as challenging myself to come up with a storyline worth writing about.
8. What was the hardest part of writing this book?
Legacy had its up and downs. The hardest thing wasn’t the book itself but the fact that I wanted to write out the entire series even before the release of the first one. For a year and some months, I wrote constantly. Initial it was only going to be a three part series, but it turned into five and then six books when I realized that there was a hole missing in the center of entire thing. The last book I wrote for the Legacy series is actually the fourth book. It was the added piece needed. Sometimes with writing, it feels that we as writers are just along for the ride while our own story tells us where to go.
9. What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?
I think one of my favorite chapters in Legacy is the prologue. It beings with a Cambion Demon and a stranger, chatting for a time and in the end, something terrible happens to one of them. What I love about this chapter is that it’s the cause of why everything in the entire series is happening, although the reader won’t know how until much later. It is Legacy’s true beginning.
10. Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?
I learned a lot, actually. Like with any story, there is research to be done. Being a steampunk novel, I needed to research on mechanical things, how they work, and such. One of the best things I’d learned was about the locations the story—as well as the stories in the other five books—take place. Learning the history of the area, towns and cities, exploring them via Google Earth, it really got me wanting to go visit it all one day.
11. It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it?
As I mentioned before, I just write about these people, and in time I get a grasp on who they are. Some writers write a profile about their characters, what they look like, their habits, nervous ticks, their personalities, and all that. It’s very smart to go that extra mile. Me, I’m a tad too lazy for that. I just write.
12. What are your future project(s)?
If Legacy does well, I will being the next series, The Age of the Machine, which will have an abundance of action and even more steampunk influence.
13. If you couldn’t be an author, what ideal job would you like to do?
A film director. In a why, that’s what writers are, but we do all our directing in notebooks or on computer screens.
14. What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?
I have a few key sites. My Facebook page is one of them, website, Twitter, and yep, I’m on Goodreads. You can also find all my published work on Amazon.
Website
Amazon
Thankyou very much for your time, Michelle. Legacy is out now, the link is posted at the top ❤ I will return soon!
The Thousand Scar's Muse 
Reblogged this on firefly465.
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