So today I have a great tour for you today. Its a author interview with Selah Janel. Check out her amazing answers to the questions that I just had to ask her.
Can you tell us
something interesting about your writing process?
I sometimes
use a little bit of the sense memory technique I learned in acting in my
writing. I want my characters to be emotionally believable, so at times if I’m
stuck I try to think of a time and a place that I felt something that meshes up
with how I want my character to feel. That’s not saying that situations in the
book are things that I’ve been through – far from in. I have tried to find ways
to line up how characters react to things, though, to things I’ve felt or been
through in the past, so that it doesn’t come off as cliché or unrealistic.
What part of the
writing process is the easiest/hardest for you?
The easiest
part, I think, is coming up with a basic situation and characters. I’m never at
a loss for ideas, though sometimes it takes a while to flesh them out. I love
coming up with unique characters, and once I get a handle on them there’s
usually a huge amount of subplots or tangent adventures I come up with if
they’re well-developed enough. Hardest,
I think, is pacing. There are times I still want to plow along really fast in a
narrative form when certain scenes need to be fleshed out more and expanded. I
also have to realize that I probably don’t need to show every little thing, so
coming up with that balance is still something that takes me a little time to
work out – usually I can correct it after my first draft or two.
Tell us one thing
about your main character?
Jeremiah Kensington…he goes on a huge journey. He starts out
as fairly childish and wanting, and because he gets what he wants right away,
his mind and personality are pulled apart in different ways. He’s at the mercy
of so many things, and it takes a lot for him to even begin the long task of
coming back to himself and getting beyond where he even started from. I’d like
to think he’s as human as anyone else is – I didn’t write him as a gimmicky
personality…I didn’t start off liking him, but by the end I’d grown rather fond
of the guy, probably because he’d been through so much by then.
How long did it take
you to write In The Red?
It started out as a short story with very different elements
that I workshopped on various forums about eight years ago or so. I started
trying to revamp it in 2011, and got it to an eight-thousand-word revamped
piece earlier this year. Through the editing process with my publisher, I
realized that there was still a lot more story to tell, so I managed to get an
extension. By that time, I at least had a very strong idea where I wanted to
go, plus the drive to get it done, so it became a novel very fast…within six
weeks to two months. The editing process took a few more months, but I think
the reason it fleshed out so fast was that I’d been half living in that world
with those characters for so many years.
I’ve never kept such an intense schedule in my life, so it just proves
that when the right idea comes along, insane things are possible!
Who was the audience
you were writing for when you wrote In The Red?
To start with, I think I was writing for rock fans, probably
Bowie fans to an extent because that’s who I was workshopping with at the time.
As I changed the story and expanded it, I was thinking of the fairy-tale crowd,
but at some point I got really tired of trying to slant it to anyone, and just
started writing what satisfied and made sense to me. I figured if this was my
one chance to write a book…if something bizarre happened tomorrow and this was
it, I wanted to have a title that I was really pleased to claim. I definitely
fumbled and stumbled through it, but the longer I worked with the story, the more
I realized that while it you probably couldn’t look at it and go ‘oh, that’s
Selah,’ I think it’s very indicative of the things I’m interested in and
fascinated by. It’s definitely become a title that’s close to my heart.
Thank you so much, Selah, for being on Ali's Bookshelf.
Live like a rock star. Dance ‘til you die. Are you in?
What kind of a rock star lives in a small town in the middle of nowhere and plays at weddings and funerals? That’s what Jeremiah Kensington is thinking after an unsuccessful bar gig one night. Then Jack Scratch comes into his life, ready to represent him and launch him to stardom. Jack can give him everything: a new band, a new name, a new life, a new look, and new boots…although they aren’t exactly new. They once belonged to The One, a rocker so legendary and so mysterious that it’s urban legend that he used black magic to gain success. But what does Jeremiah care about urban legend? And it’s probably just coincidence that the shoes make him dance better than anyone, even if it doesn’t always feel like he’s controlling his movements. It’s no big deal that he plunges into a world of excess and decadence as soon as he puts the shoes on his feet, right?
But what happens when they refuse to come off?
Selah Janel has been blessed with a giant imagination since she was little and convinced that fairies lived in the nearby state park or vampires hid in the abandoned barns outside of town. Her appreciation for a good story was enhanced by a love of reading, the many talented storytellers that surrounded her, and a healthy curiosity for everything. A talent for warping everything she learned didn’t hurt, either. She gravitates to writing fantasy and horror, but can be convinced to pursue any genre if the idea is good enough. Often her stories feature the unknown creeping into the “real” world and she loves to find the magical in the mundane. She has four e-books with No Boundaries Press, including the historical vampire story ‘Mooner’ and the contemporary short ‘The Other Man’. Her work has also been included in ‘The MacGuffin’, ‘The Realm Beyond’, ‘Stories for Children Magazine’, and the upcoming Wicked East Press anthology ‘Bedtime Stories for Girls’. She likes her music to rock, her vampires lethal, her fairies to play mind games, and her princesses to hold their own.
Author Links
Blog – http://www.selahjanel.wordpress.com
Fandom Scene Column – http://www.fandomfestblog.com/blogs/selah-janel
Facebook Author Page – http://www.facebook.com/authorSJ
Facebook Book Page – http://www.facebook.com/intherednovel
Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5622096.Selah_Janel
Amazon Author Page - http://www.amazon.com/Selah-Janel/e/B0074DKC9K/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1346815995&sr=1-2-ent
Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/SelahJanel
