Louise Lyons Author Interview³
1) Tell us 3 fun facts about your writing history
I’ve been writing since I was a child. It started with stories about little girls within ponies, hammered out on my mum’s old fashioned manual typewriter.
I won a writing competition in my English class at school. The class had to write a short story/mini book about the subject of eyes. I went my own way and wrote a story about a fox cub and her adventures. It was called “A Nature Hole of Survival” and I illustrated it with ink sketches. I won a book shop voucher and the teacher also bought me a book about horses out of his own pocket, as he knew I was mad on them.
I spent a number of years writing FanFiction in various genres - Twilight, X Files, Dr Quinn and various others. I wrote a 450,000 word trilogy in the Twilight fandom and the reviews and comments I got for that gave me the encouragement to venture into the world of publishing. If anybody wants to look me up on FF, I’m Hank’s Lady.
2) Describe your writing style in 3 words
Haphazard, top speed, pantser
3) Name 3 of your literary influences
Nora Roberts whose writing I was addicted to for many years
James Herbert for shock value and suspense
Jay Northcote for encouraging me to take the jump from Fanfiction to publishing
4) Share you 3 favourite books
Kim Fielding’s Bones series - that’s actually 3 books!
Z Allora’s Dark Angels series
Wade Kelly’s Names Can Never Hurt Me
5) What are your 3 essential writing tools?
My laptop, my notebook, and silence
6) Where are your 3 favourite places to write?
I usually write in my living room on my laptop.
In the summer I sometimes write outside in the back garden.
My dream writing spot would be in front of a house in Cumbria, UK, with a view over lakes and mountains. I hope to make that reality one day and I intend to move to that region in a few years.
7) Name 3 items on your writing wish list
One would be to get one of my self-published books in print. I have self-pubbed 4 novellas so far, plus 1 novel this month, but all in eBook form only. I’d like to get something out in print as well, to join those on my bookshelf that have been done by publishing companies.
I’d like to write a historical romance, probably set in the nineteenth century in the USA. I’ve written stories set in cowboy times before, and would love to publish something set there.
I don’t have any of my work on audiobook yet, so that’s another thing on my wish list.
8) What are your top 3 tips for aspiring writers?
Read a lot. I was advised this when I started writing and it really helps to study other writing styles.
Remember that bad reviews don’t mean your book isn’t good. You can never please everyone and there will always be someone who didn’t like a character, a plot, a scene, or whatever, because it didn’t suit their taste.
If you decide to self-pub, get a bunch of pre-readers to help you out prior to editing. It doesn’t matter how many times you read over your own work, you ALWAYS miss a silly mistake. I read my work out loud so that every word has to be concentrated on, and that highlights most things, but a few still slip through the net.
9) Tell us 3 of your writing plans for the year ahead
First is the release of my first sci-fi romance, Regeneration, which is detailed in this post.
I have a novella, Separation, to finish and release. It’s about 10k from being finished and is a taboo story about twins separated a few months after birth, who meet again when they’re 21 years old.
And I have a paranormal romance to finish, The Power of Will. I have 4 chapters complete, but I keep putting it aside to work on other things. I intend to finish it this year.
10) Tell us about your latest release
I wrote Regeneration for the 2014 NaNoWriMo and finished it during December 2014. I submitted it to a publisher who said no, but they very kindly gave me some advice on how to make it better. After some major rewrites, and a second publisher advising me I’d have a “yay or nay” within 6 weeks, 4 months later I gave up waiting and decided to self-publish. Time, tide, and Louise waits for no man, haha.
Regeneration is set a couple of hundred years in the future, in a fictitious galaxy known as Sigma Kappa. Although it has a sci-fi premise, the story is based more around the main character, Kim Fortune, and his development as a failed experimental enhanced human species. He’s an explorer of worlds, but he longs to find someone to love and settle down with, even though it doesn’t seem likely he ever will. He survives crashed ships, a dangerous planet and prison, a serious injury, and a life-threatening journey. But does he find love? You’ll have to read it to find out!
Christian Novak is a successful regenerate with all the intended attributes—including lack of human emotion. Despite their immediate attraction to each other, Kim's failing confidence, and Christian's inability to empathize are a recipe for disaster. But war, imprisonment, and danger throw them together, and after each saves the other's life, their feelings begin to change.
Can a seemingly unsuitable pair ever find love, or is a future together destined to fail?
Amazon US / Amazon UK / B & N / Kobo / Smashwords
Giveaway
Louise Lyons comes from a family of writers. Her mother has a number of poems published in poetry anthologies, her aunt wrote poems for the church, and her grandmother sparked her inspiration with tales of fantasy.
Louise first ventured into writing short stories at the grand old age of eight, mostly about little girls and ponies. She branched into romance in her teens, and MM romance a few years later, but none of her work saw the light of day until she discovered FanFiction in her late twenties. Posting stories based on some of her favourite movies, provoked a surprisingly positive response from readers. This gave Louise the confidence to submit some of her work to publishers, and made her take her writing "hobby" more seriously.
Louise lives in the UK, about an hour north of London, with a mad dog called Casper, collection of tropical fish and tarantulas. She works in the insurance industry by day, and spends every spare minute writing. She is a keen horse-rider, and loves to run long-distance. Some of her best writing inspiration comes to her, when her feet are pounding the open road. She often races home afterward, and grabs pen and paper to make notes.
Louise has always been a bit of a tomboy, and one of her other great loves is cars and motorcycles. Her car and bike are her pride and job, and she loves to exhibit the car at shows, and take off for long days out on the bike, with no one for company but herself.
Thank you for having me, Nicki. The interview was great fun :)
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