Ask the Author: Marti Leimbach
Answered Questions (9)
Marti Leimbach
Hi Leila! I'm delighted you loved Dragonfly Girl but...oh god...my publisher dropped me! I have to put Academy One up on Kindle myself, I imagine! I wish I had better news for you! x
Marti Leimbach
Hi! Your daughter is some reader! So...there's no sex in it and no swearing. There is a kiss on the cheek. The heroine is just shy of her 18th birthday but sneaks some champagne, once while dancing on a ship and once at a celebration dinner. There is peril in the last 3rd of the book especially, with an unpleasant bit of violence on page 290-291, I think? Does that help? 😀
Marti Leimbach
My writing habit is so firmly established after all these years that there is only one way I could get writer's block and that would be to worry about the publishing industry, what other people are writing and and even (dare I say it!) reviews. As long as I'm focussed on what I love about reading and writing, I never have too much trouble...however, I fear I may just have jinxed myself! 🤭🙈
Marti Leimbach
Hey Indu! Great to hear from you! :)
I know that most "how-to" books would, perhaps wisely, tell an author to choose an audience and write for it. However, I don't really do that. I just see the story in my head, and then I start to write toward that story. I don't really figure out who the audience is first or adjust my approach accordingly.
There are some advantages to this. The novel will tend to feel more "fresh" and more original if I concentrate on its unique story and characters. However, the disadvantage is that the book may not be clearly in one marketing category or another, so I could lose sales simply because it's hard to peg the novel!
Hope that answers your question. I don't recommend people do what I do, but I have to be honest about my quirky process!
I know that most "how-to" books would, perhaps wisely, tell an author to choose an audience and write for it. However, I don't really do that. I just see the story in my head, and then I start to write toward that story. I don't really figure out who the audience is first or adjust my approach accordingly.
There are some advantages to this. The novel will tend to feel more "fresh" and more original if I concentrate on its unique story and characters. However, the disadvantage is that the book may not be clearly in one marketing category or another, so I could lose sales simply because it's hard to peg the novel!
Hope that answers your question. I don't recommend people do what I do, but I have to be honest about my quirky process!
Marti Leimbach
It's the writing...I just have to do it. And maybe the hours, too. You can write anytime and anywhere. Also, sharing my work and others' work...that is a pleasure!
Marti Leimbach
First, don't compare yourself to other people. You are on your own timeline and your own trajectory to success. Next, read a lot and try to keep the love of reading for its own sake instead of being very clever and looking at everything from a kind of professional point of view (you can do that when you re-read!). Finally, don't be afraid to love the work that speaks to you regardless of what anyone else says about it. Work daily if you can. Don't beat yourself up if you can't. Don't try to write when you're exhausted. It will only discourage you. Finally, if none of this works, write to me and I'll cheer you on. :)
Marti Leimbach
I'm working on a young adult novel called Academy One. It's about an 18-year old girl who agrees to spy on a highly secret science academy hidden in a forest and very much off the grid. The idea is she will report back what goes on in the place, but of course she becomes involved with the other young people at the Academy One and finds her loyalties are with her friends, who she cannot abandon even if it puts her in grave danger.
Marti Leimbach
That's easy: I read.
When I read other people's work, whether that be fiction or non-fiction, I get that "itch" to join the conversation. I write a few pages of a story, or maybe the beginning of a chapter or a scene. Sometimes it's a blog post. often, it's an email to a friend. And then some sort of magic happens and I get hooked onto a few characters and...boom...I'm off on another crazy adventure in my head. If I'm lucky, a book comes out of it.
When I read other people's work, whether that be fiction or non-fiction, I get that "itch" to join the conversation. I write a few pages of a story, or maybe the beginning of a chapter or a scene. Sometimes it's a blog post. often, it's an email to a friend. And then some sort of magic happens and I get hooked onto a few characters and...boom...I'm off on another crazy adventure in my head. If I'm lucky, a book comes out of it.
Marti Leimbach
This sounds terrible...I had a dream about it. I didn't dream out the entire plot but I dreamed that it was possible to bring back a person who had recently died. And that this phenomenal discovery put the girl who discovered it in peril.
I knew I had to write about it but I kind of flopped around the page trying to remember what it was that had made that dream so compelling. And then this character emerged on the page: Kira Adams. A kind of misfit high school kid who was good at one thing (science) and bad at most everything else (life). It was as though I reached through the page to her and she reached up to me. We formed a little partnership, Kira and me. We've been together now for over two years and 200,000 words (Dragonfly Girl & its sequel, Academy One, which is still in manuscript form).
I knew I had to write about it but I kind of flopped around the page trying to remember what it was that had made that dream so compelling. And then this character emerged on the page: Kira Adams. A kind of misfit high school kid who was good at one thing (science) and bad at most everything else (life). It was as though I reached through the page to her and she reached up to me. We formed a little partnership, Kira and me. We've been together now for over two years and 200,000 words (Dragonfly Girl & its sequel, Academy One, which is still in manuscript form).
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Jan 10, 2023 11:19AM · flag
Mar 14, 2023 02:39PM · flag