Artistic Reflections

AUTHOR INTERVIEW:

SHANNON McROBERTS

I’d like to thank  Shannon for stopping by and sitting down with us for a few minutes.  

. Can you tell us a little about yourself?  I am a 6 foot tall goddess with magical powers to kill immortals.  Oh wait.  Sorry.  That isn’t me!  That’s my main character, Athine.  Shannon is just a regular old mother and wife with a day job.  I enjoy MMORPGs, card games, comic books, playing with my daughter, and making fantasy art.   

. Who or what inspires you?  A lot of things inspire me.  Mostly fantasy and sci-fi art or video games.  Comic books were always big with me too!   

. Who’s you favorite author?  Anne Rice

. Do you have a favorite time or place to write?  Anywhere I can and whenever I can.  I have a day job and a 5 year old.  If I can write a few words somewhere on any given day that is pretty awesome LOL.  

. Do you have a favorite food or drink while you write?  No, I actually don’t like to eat while writing if I can help it.  I do like to listen to music!

.What do you do to relax?  R-E-L-A-X...I’ve never heard of that word.  I have no idea how to answer this question.  I always seem to be working at my day job or on my books!

. As writers, we all have to deal with writer’s block, what do you do when that happens?  Make fantasy art, veg out in front of the TV, and read great books!  

. If you could ask one question of any writer, who would it be and what would you ask?  You know I don’t know if there is any one question I would really ask any one writer in particular.  Maybe I would ask a favorite author of mine to read my book :)    

Now that we’ve got the easy stuff out of the way, let’s talk about your book.

. Would you like to share something from you latest project with us?  My latest project is Cursed Bloods, a continuation of Verses of Athine:  The Daughter of Ares Chronicles and also a few side stories for “background” books on characters.  I don’t have anything that is excerpt ready yet, but you can see some ideas on my books and character concept art at www.myepiclore.com :)

. What genre is it?  I write mythological fantasy for adults.  Pretty much it touches on all kinds of stuff from paranormal, to sci-fi, to fantasy.  I primarily say my books are in the fantasy genre.  Or if Xena met Buffy and they fell into the Lord of the Rings…..  

. Where do you draw your artistic inspiration from?  Usually from fantasy art and comics/video games.  Magic cards.  Random strange dreams.  Remote historical facts.  I have a very vivid imagination!   

. Of all your characters, who is your favorite?  Athine, she is the main character in my Daughter of Ares Chronicles.  I think she is the one that is most like me, but really I love all my characters.  I try not to kill too many of them.  No “Red Wedding” for this author!     

. What authors have had the strongest influence on you as a writer.  I’m not really sure that anyone has had an influence on me in the sense of writing.  For the longest time if you were not Anne Rice, I didn’t know who you were and I didn’t care.  It wasn’t until I got a reading app on my phone and then a table that I really began to expand what I read.  By that time, I had already written all of my books!  I believe that is somewhat better b/c I worry about outside influences so much.  When I was writing the second book in the DOAC, I refused to watch Percy Jackson.  I owned it on DVD for a whole year before I sat down to watch it just to make sure I didn’t get influenced by the movie.  I read a lot of books and watch a lot of movies/tv, but no one author has influenced my writing style per say.  I try to do my own thing.   Now, poetry wise, that is a different story.  I was immediately attracted to Emily Dickinson.  I learned about her not long after I started writing my own deep, dark poetry.  I loved her poems and wanted to write more than she did.  I don’t know if I have met that goal or not, but I definitely have the dark poetry down!

. Do you use an outline or do you let the story emerge as it goes along.  It depends.  Cursed Bloods required me to do a lot of research from my currently published books about what I previously wrote.  I had to do a big outline to make sure there were no inaccuracies or problems with the thinking.  I am one of those readers that hates to find loop holes or problems that are not easily explained.  I don’t want to look like I forgot what I said in the other books!  My working title “Miranda’s Tale”, is more of a mish mosh that I started in Scrivener.  I always start with an idea and how I am going to connect it all together.  Usually it’s a flurry of notebook pages, phone notes, and computer writing!  

. Are you traditionally or self-published?  I’m independently published.  I prefer that term to anything else.  

. What made you pick that route?  I am a control freak.  Seriously.  I had no intent of shopping any of my works around.  It just didn’t interest me.  My works.  My rules.  :)

. What has been your biggest challenge?  Finding time to write!   Also, learning how to market properly.  It’s a little draining at times.   

. What has been your greatest reward?  Finding fans that really GET my story.  Selling books is cool, but also seeing people check it out at the library is awesome!

. If you had one professional wish, what would it be?  That I could devote the time I needed to my books and marketing and could support my family off those proceeds.  If I could ditch the day job I would have a LOT more time to write ROFL. Unfortunately, mortgage holders want cash and not ebooks for that pesky house payment!  

That wasn’t so bad was it?  But before we go, do you have any last words of wisdom to offer those reading this?  Even the smallest light can illuminate the darkness and bring hope to others.  

You can find  Shannon at www.shannonmcroberts.com, www.theobsidianpoet.com,  and www.myepiclore.com (twitter, facebook, pintrest buttons, etc are readily available at those sites!)