Ask the Author: Ryshia Kennie
Answered Questions (7)
Ryshia Kennie
Cintia - thanks for the question
First off, I can’t emphasize enough, unplug from industry news. Knowing what’s going on in the industry is having a negative effect on your writing and motivation. Remember, it doesn’t matter how many people want to be writers nor does it matter how many or few of them, ever write a book, or how many of those get rejected. None of them are you and none of them can write your book. As far as ideas, they're everywhere in any given day, fleeting moments that you'll forget unless you write them down. So go old school. Get a notebook and pen and take it everywhere. When an idea presents itself, and they always do, write it down. Affirm every day that you’re a writer – even if you just write a paragraph or a poem or journal. Write for yourself and for fun. The more you write, the more you’ll be able to write and the ideas will come.
First off, I can’t emphasize enough, unplug from industry news. Knowing what’s going on in the industry is having a negative effect on your writing and motivation. Remember, it doesn’t matter how many people want to be writers nor does it matter how many or few of them, ever write a book, or how many of those get rejected. None of them are you and none of them can write your book. As far as ideas, they're everywhere in any given day, fleeting moments that you'll forget unless you write them down. So go old school. Get a notebook and pen and take it everywhere. When an idea presents itself, and they always do, write it down. Affirm every day that you’re a writer – even if you just write a paragraph or a poem or journal. Write for yourself and for fun. The more you write, the more you’ll be able to write and the ideas will come.
Ryshia Kennie
I have a long reading list this summer. Or maybe I should admit that I'm really not a list kind of person. That said, my e-reader is full and my book shelf is groaning. I'm looking forward to reading an Elle James short I just found in the library - I know slap my hands, as an author I should have bought the book. But in my defence, I buy lots of books - and the library is an addiction. Other books - Harlequin Intrigue - obviously I have a list of fave authors there. I'm looking forward to reading American War by Omar El Akkad. The book intrigued me when I saw an interview with the author. Then there's Passenger 19 - Ward Larson, Hunted - Elizabeth Heiter, A long collection of non-fiction - like Why We Love Serial Killers (how creepy is that)? Some fave authors whose books i may be picking up over the summer: Rick Mofina, Stephen King, Susan Wiggs, Kristin Higgins, etc. etc. I'm sure the list will change up as I read. Speaking of which, if Amazon and Bookbub would just quit showing up in my inbox I might get through my TBR pile!
Ryshia Kennie
There is a gravestone with the family name and no given name. The gravestone is weather worn and just over a hundred years old. It is near two others, boys who died and are part of the family history. But the baby appears no where in the family tree except in a frightening rumour about a tragedy and a little boy that no one is able to verify. Did the baby exist or didn't he? And if he did, what happened and why?
Ryshia Kennie
I get inspired by so many things - an event in the news or something I've witnessed. It might be something someone says that is just a fantastic line. Or maybe it's just an urge and the fact that I've just had a vacation and have spent 48 hours without writing a word. That's when I go back to all those ideas that have inspired me but I haven't acted on. Or it can be a moment so overwhelming, that you just have to write something about it, like my inspiration for Intent to Kill and seeing the Cambodian Killing Fields for the first time. Travel inspires me a lot. But mainly inspiration is everywhere and mostly it's not as intense or horrific as the Killing Fields - it's often simple moments that make me think...what if?
Ryshia Kennie
Like every other job, you have to remember that you don't love everything about it. There are hours spent on administrative details that aren't writing, and combine that with long days writing and you're tired - especially in the marathon to a book's finish. Middle of the book, end of the book - wherever you are, sometimes you just need to take a vacation, see something new, look at the world with fresh eyes. Often I'll use those mini-vacations to read craft books and magazines. They always have a fresh perspective and reminders that get me motivated all over again - that is if the vacation hasn't done that already.
Ryshia Kennie
Doing what I love to do every single day of the week. I don't know if there's anything better than playing around with words and telling stories.
Ryshia Kennie
I was standing on the edge of Cambodia’s killing fields. It’s a haunting and horrifying place. The field is pocked by mass graves labeled only by sex and sometimes age. Just beyond the barbed wire children stood in a river, giggling as they scrubbed a bony-hipped cow as if what sprawled behind them had never happened.
It was such a surreal moment. The laughter of the children, the atrocity of the mass graves and the sun shining as if to mirror the children’s oblivion. And as I stood there horrified and fascinated, I thought about the Khmer Rouge and the genocide in the seventies.
What had become of those that perpetrated this evil, those that still lived and had not stood trial? And with that thought, the beginnings of a story, the romantic suspense, Intent to Kill, was born.
It was such a surreal moment. The laughter of the children, the atrocity of the mass graves and the sun shining as if to mirror the children’s oblivion. And as I stood there horrified and fascinated, I thought about the Khmer Rouge and the genocide in the seventies.
What had become of those that perpetrated this evil, those that still lived and had not stood trial? And with that thought, the beginnings of a story, the romantic suspense, Intent to Kill, was born.
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