Ask the Author: Shea Ballard
Answered Questions (6)
Shea Ballard
Noble came out of the reading a faerie tale; Cinderella to be exact. I was sitting in a Barnes & Noble Cafe, years ago, reading a copy of "Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales." After reading the original Grimm Brothers version of the story (which is quite different from the one that Disney gave us), I decided I wanted to write my own faerie tale. I thought it would be fun to take the basic story idea and flip it around, so that the boy is the lowly peasant and the girl is royalty.
That idea turned into a short story, which turned into a novella, and then finally become the novel that exists today, after many many rewrites.
That idea turned into a short story, which turned into a novella, and then finally become the novel that exists today, after many many rewrites.
Shea Ballard
Inspiration can come from anywhere. Noble came from reading the original Grimm Brother's version of Cinderella. Otherworld came from the childhood memory of a video game my brother and I wanted to invent.
A story can come from something you read, a movie or TV show you watch, something you see on the news, or an event that happened in your own life. Inspiration can come from anywhere and everywhere.
A story can come from something you read, a movie or TV show you watch, something you see on the news, or an event that happened in your own life. Inspiration can come from anywhere and everywhere.
Shea Ballard
Presently, I am working on a new book called Otherwold.
Otherworld is the story of a 12-year old, second-generation, Irish-American kid, named Rowan Murphy.
Rowan grows up hearing stories of the legendary "Otherworld" from his Irish grandmother. Longing to escape what he views as a rather dreary existence, Rowan wishes he could live in the Otherworld, instead of the real one.
One night, he gets his wish when, getting caught in a freak snowstorm, he is transported to a land inhabited by a race of giants, called the Danoi.
Falling from their sky, he is mistaken for a god, a god they've been waiting to appear for a long time. And the Danoi have high expectations.
Will Rowan finally find a place where he belongs? Or does he find a bad dream he can't wake up from?
Coming in 2017, a new fantasy-adventure from the author of Noble: A Faerie Tale.
Travel across the ages, to a land of myth of magic. Welcome to -
OTHERWORLD
Otherworld is the story of a 12-year old, second-generation, Irish-American kid, named Rowan Murphy.
Rowan grows up hearing stories of the legendary "Otherworld" from his Irish grandmother. Longing to escape what he views as a rather dreary existence, Rowan wishes he could live in the Otherworld, instead of the real one.
One night, he gets his wish when, getting caught in a freak snowstorm, he is transported to a land inhabited by a race of giants, called the Danoi.
Falling from their sky, he is mistaken for a god, a god they've been waiting to appear for a long time. And the Danoi have high expectations.
Will Rowan finally find a place where he belongs? Or does he find a bad dream he can't wake up from?
Coming in 2017, a new fantasy-adventure from the author of Noble: A Faerie Tale.
Travel across the ages, to a land of myth of magic. Welcome to -
OTHERWORLD
Shea Ballard
Write. Just keep writing. And re-writing. Someone once told me, "If you want to be a writer, then write." Writing is what writers do, so if you're not writing, you're not being a writer. Write. Re-write. Try. Fail. Write again. You'll get there. Just keep writing and learning.
Shea Ballard
For me, it's about being able to create whole new worlds. For years, the story of Lucas and Stefanie existed only for me, in my imagination. Now it is on paper, released to the whole world. In a sense, that story has now become real, because it is in book form.
Shea Ballard
I use a technique I call "think and forget," in which I ponder the story problem intensely for several minutes, and then put it out of mind. I go do something else, and then anytime from a few days to a few weeks later I got an "aha moment," where the answer will just come to me out of the blue. This works because my unconscious brain is still working on the problem, even if my conscious brain is doing something else.
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