Blog Ring of Power Presents: Barbara Ann Wright
It's Friday!
Wait for it...
You know what Friday means. Ok ok there's the whole "The weekend is here." but it also means that it's Blog Ring of Power time!
She is married, has an army of pets, and lives in Texas. Her writing career can be boiled down to two points: when her mother bought her a typewriter in the sixth grade and when she took second place in the Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing in 2004. One gave her the means to write and the other gave her the confidence to keep going. Believing in oneself, in her opinion, is the most important thing a person can do.
BRoP: Where do you get your story
ideas?
BRoP: How do you deal with
writer’s block?
BRoP: Are you a “plotter” or a
“pantser” (do you plan/outline the story ahead of time or write “by the
seat of your pants”)?
BRoP: Do you use critique partners
or beta readers? Why or why not?
BRoP: Is there anything you find
particularly challenging to write?
To
most, Princess Katya Nar Umbriel is a rogue and a layabout; she parties, she
hunts and she breaks women's hearts. But when the festival lights go down and
the palace slumbers, Katya chases traitors to the crown and protects the
kingdom's greatest secret: the royal Umbriels are part Fiend. When Katya
thwarts an attempt to expose the king's monstrous side, she uncovers a plot to
let the Fiends out to play.
Starbride has no interest in being a courtier. Ignoring her mother's order to snare an influential spouse, she comes to court only to study law. But a flirtatious rake of a princess proves hard to resist, and Starbride is pulled into a world of secrets that leaves little room for honesty or love, a world neither woman may survive.
Wait for it...
You know what Friday means. Ok ok there's the whole "The weekend is here." but it also means that it's Blog Ring of Power time!
Barbara Ann Wright writes fantasy and science fiction novels
and short stories when not adding to her enormous book collection or ranting on
her blog. Her short fiction has appeared twice in Crossed Genres Magazine and once made Tangent Online's recommended reading list. She is a
member of Broad Universe and the Outer Alliance and helped create Writer's Ink
in Houston. The Pyramid Waltz is her
first novel.
She is married, has an army of pets, and lives in Texas. Her writing career can be boiled down to two points: when her mother bought her a typewriter in the sixth grade and when she took second place in the Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing in 2004. One gave her the means to write and the other gave her the confidence to keep going. Believing in oneself, in her opinion, is the most important thing a person can do.
Section
#3: The Creative Process
BAW: For me, stories can start anywhere. I've written a
short story starring a passenger from the Mary
Celeste and another that evolved from my half-assed Star Trek fan fiction.
I wrote a science fiction novel after seeing a fragment of sign that read,
"Very sharp teeth." I couldn't get the image out of my mind.
For The
Pyramid Waltz, the characters had to come first: Katya, the blade-wielding,
sarcastic princess; and Starbride, the studious, warm-hearted courtier. Then
the story grew around them: secret identities, family in danger, evil
conspiracies. I throw everything in but the kitchen sink, see what works, and
ditch what doesn't.
BAW: The
first thing I do is change my environment. That's the ol' blame-everything-else
solution. Really, though, sometimes I find that my creativity flows better in a
different setting. If that doesn't work, I try and work on anything I can
rather than my current project. I'll do writing prompts or bounce ideas around
with friends.
BAW: I've always called myself half-plotter,
half-pantser. I make initial notes about character and plot and lay out the
first half of the book, but by the middle on, I'm writing by the seat of my
pants.
In the end, there's a lot I have to throw away. I
see writing like a river, and if I take a tributary down to a dead-end, I have
to back up, ditch what I've written and start from the place where I branched
off. The seat of the pants approach works well for me as I write pretty
quickly, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't want to delete a lot
of what they've done and start again.
BAW: I
absolutely use critique partners and beta readers. I love critique groups and
think that joining one is one of the most important steps a writer will take in
their entire career. My advice to writers is to seek out the best group you
can, and if they're not doing anything for you, find another. If there isn't a
good face-to-face group near you, make one, and don't stop dragging your writer
friends out of their caves until you've got about five or six good writers to
work with.
Expository
scenes are probably hardest for me. At heart, I'm a romantic who loves action
scenes, so they are where I feel the most comfortable. Any long passages of
exposition usually get cut in my stories until enough people suggest I put them
in.
Book
blurb for The Pyramid Waltz:
To
most, Princess Katya Nar Umbriel is a rogue and a layabout; she parties, she
hunts and she breaks women's hearts. But when the festival lights go down and
the palace slumbers, Katya chases traitors to the crown and protects the
kingdom's greatest secret: the royal Umbriels are part Fiend. When Katya
thwarts an attempt to expose the king's monstrous side, she uncovers a plot to
let the Fiends out to play.Starbride has no interest in being a courtier. Ignoring her mother's order to snare an influential spouse, she comes to court only to study law. But a flirtatious rake of a princess proves hard to resist, and Starbride is pulled into a world of secrets that leaves little room for honesty or love, a world neither woman may survive.
Thanks so much for joining me and the other Blog Ring of Power hosts! To find the rest of this interview, please visit:
Part 1 @ Terri (www.terribruce.net) - Wednesday, September 19th
Part 2 @ Teresa (http://twfendley.com), Thursday, September 20th
Part 3 @ Emily (http://emlabonte.blogspot.com), Friday, September 21st
Part 4 @ Sandra (http://ulbrichalmazan.blogspot.com), Monday, September 24th
Part 5 @ Dean (http://deanswritingtime.blogspot.com), Tuesday, September 25th
Where can we find you Barbara?
Goodreads
author page: http://www.goodreads.com/BarbaraAnnWright
Twitter:
@zendragandt
Amazon:
amazon.com/author/barbaraannwright
What
format is your book(s) available in (print, e-book, audio book, etc.)
It
is available in print now and will be available in e-book form on September 18,
2012.
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