Ask the Author: Kelly Coon
Answered Questions (16)
Kelly Coon
That’s so sweet! Definitely dogs. I think they represent all that’s good in the world, honestly.
Kelly Coon
Thank you! I am going to allow myself to give into my feelings as I write and let the magic kind of flow through me. Not second guess myself. My words flow better when I allow myself to write whatever it is I want. But with my sequel (the first draft of which I've already written), I was careful about building in my emotional craft much better in the first draft so I didn't have as much rewriting to do!
Kelly Coon
Hi Naomi! I am just seeing this! Ahh! I'd love it for young women to realize that they can do anything in the world they want to do with their lives. Societal standards mean NOTHING. Go forth and conquer.
Kelly Coon
Oh gosh, thanks for asking Naomi! I'm so thankful to have friends who are writers who know what it's like to be in my shoes. I'm also grateful for my family who has graciously given me the space to write the sequel. It's a LOT of time on my part, and they're kind of taking it in stride. I'm also sooooooo appreciative of every reader who has boosted my confidence and supported me when I was feeling down about ever completing this book. Wow. Their support means the world to me!
Kelly Coon
Haha! I love this question. Girl, I got it all for you. There are SOOO many tricks because I wanted to keep my readers on their toes. At the end of one of my chapters one of my beta readers wrote, "BOOM" and everyone else says, "Okay, definitely didn't see that one coming." So...maybe more tricks than treats. Although, there are a few treats in there, too. One of them is quite handsome. ;-)
Kelly Coon
Oooh! Good question. You know? I love cooking soooooooo much. I always want to sign up for cooking classes and rarely use recipes when I'm making dinner. There's something kind of magical about grabbing ingredients from the fridge and pantry and throwing something together that's delicious. I'd love to broaden my horizons with cuisine, and maybe one day I will. =)
Kelly Coon
I write both during the day and night, but I am BY FAR a better night writer. I feel like I start kind of waking up and unfurling my creative feathers around 8:00 PM. Then, as the night progresses, my imagination takes over. Some of my very best scenes are written after everyone else in my family is asleep. It's when I'm tired enough to shut off the "everything is miserable and I suck" persona who tends to limit my creativity during the day and allow my "what ifs" to take over.
Kelly Coon
That's such a tough question, Victoria!! Ahh! I'm really partial to my MC Kammani. She's compassionate and puts everyone in front of herself while pursuing her goal with smarts, tenacity, and heart. To be honest? I'm a little more like Iltani, her smart aleck best friend who has a tendency toward wildness, and opening her mouth when she probably shouldn't. ;-)
Kelly Coon
I force my fingers to write, anyway. My brain isn't always creative, but that doesn't mean I don't have a deadline. Once I can choke out 250 words or so, my brain starts to catch up and I'm able to move past whatever block I had.
Kelly Coon
My writing routine involves SimplyNoise.com, and I'm aware that makes me sound like an infomercial. But basically, if I plug into that white noise site, I can write anywhere. I've written in the passenger seat of my SUV on road trips with my family, while sitting in the middle of a bed on a family vacation, in bustling airport terminals, and in crowded coffee shops. As an editor and a crazy busy mom of three, I have to write when I can, and sometimes those situations are not quiet. But I can tune almost anything out with white noise!
Kelly Coon
Haha! Lisa! You are so sweet! =) This was an accidental author photo. My brother-in-law, who is exceptionally talented, took the photos of me for my website. He snapped this one when I was laughing, and out of every one, we thought it was the best. I love it because it's a reminder of how happy I was that day even thinking that I had an author website to take photos for.
Regarding the title....no! GRAVEMAIDENS was what my lovely agent Kari Sutherland came up with after I'd literally been through every title I could possibly think of with her and my family and my friends and even my editor. When I first submitted my ms to her it was SOULS OF DEAD GIRLS, and when we went out on sub, it was JERICHO ROSE. So....it's definitely been through some changes!
Regarding the title....no! GRAVEMAIDENS was what my lovely agent Kari Sutherland came up with after I'd literally been through every title I could possibly think of with her and my family and my friends and even my editor. When I first submitted my ms to her it was SOULS OF DEAD GIRLS, and when we went out on sub, it was JERICHO ROSE. So....it's definitely been through some changes!
Kelly Coon
Thanks for the question, Heather!
So....I didn’t. My amazing unicorn of an agent dreamed it up after we went through about a hundred different options. It was initially called SOULS OF DEAD GIRLS and then JERICHO ROSE and then we couldn’t decide after that between many more. One day, she texted me GRAVEMAIDENS, and I said “Nah. That sounds like a death metal band.” And then I said: “YES!!! That sounds like a death metal band and I love it!” I certainly get a reaction from it, which was important to me when deciding.
So....I didn’t. My amazing unicorn of an agent dreamed it up after we went through about a hundred different options. It was initially called SOULS OF DEAD GIRLS and then JERICHO ROSE and then we couldn’t decide after that between many more. One day, she texted me GRAVEMAIDENS, and I said “Nah. That sounds like a death metal band.” And then I said: “YES!!! That sounds like a death metal band and I love it!” I certainly get a reaction from it, which was important to me when deciding.
Kelly Coon
Hi Lizzy!
As a teenager, in the early-mid nineties, YA wasn't as popular as it is now, so a voracious reader like me gobbled up murder mysteries, because that's what my mom had on hand (John D. MacDonald, Kellerman, Patterson, etc.) I was a big fan of WUTHERING HEIGHTS at the time, though, because of the dark side of things, (heh!) and my penchant for books that don't end all tied up in a neat bow.
I wish I would've had a Simon Vs. The Homosapiens Agenda as a teenager, because I would've been able to help my little brother more as he came out. Books like this--that let you into the mind of a boy struggling to find a way to express who he really is--would have truly been an eye-opener for me. That's why these kinds of books and the authors who write them, are so incredibly important.
As a teenager, in the early-mid nineties, YA wasn't as popular as it is now, so a voracious reader like me gobbled up murder mysteries, because that's what my mom had on hand (John D. MacDonald, Kellerman, Patterson, etc.) I was a big fan of WUTHERING HEIGHTS at the time, though, because of the dark side of things, (heh!) and my penchant for books that don't end all tied up in a neat bow.
I wish I would've had a Simon Vs. The Homosapiens Agenda as a teenager, because I would've been able to help my little brother more as he came out. Books like this--that let you into the mind of a boy struggling to find a way to express who he really is--would have truly been an eye-opener for me. That's why these kinds of books and the authors who write them, are so incredibly important.
Kelly Coon
Get a solid base of smaller publications before you start querying your novel. It's important to establish that you have some success in the writing world--even unrelated to fiction-- because it indicates that perhaps you can put words together in a somewhat coherent way.
Submitting essays and writing blogs isn't just good for cred, either. It can hone your skills by pointing out some of your weaknesses, too. If you're constantly turned down for essays because you can't focus your thoughts or struggle mightily with grammar, it's best to fix that before plunging into an entire novel and getting 56 rejections in a row.
And always, always, always try again. But when you do, be smart. Fail forward and fail better. Learn what you did wrong and fix it. In other words, be smarter than I was when I first started! I failed hard and horribly at first and didn't learn from my mistakes. When I finally started paying attention, and working very hard at honing my craft, I began to find success.
Submitting essays and writing blogs isn't just good for cred, either. It can hone your skills by pointing out some of your weaknesses, too. If you're constantly turned down for essays because you can't focus your thoughts or struggle mightily with grammar, it's best to fix that before plunging into an entire novel and getting 56 rejections in a row.
And always, always, always try again. But when you do, be smart. Fail forward and fail better. Learn what you did wrong and fix it. In other words, be smarter than I was when I first started! I failed hard and horribly at first and didn't learn from my mistakes. When I finally started paying attention, and working very hard at honing my craft, I began to find success.
Kelly Coon
Putting the dialogue that rattles around in my head to good use. Otherwise, I'd just be another person having conversations between made-up people in her head and that would be weird if I weren't a writer.
Kelly Coon
I force myself to just type words, even if they're terrible. And I refuse to edit them as I go. Eventually, the muse kicks in and I'm able to write. Typically, I've found that the times I feel like I'm stuck, I have something else dinging around in my brain. If I can just mentally put that in a box--set it aside--I'm able to refocus. But. I'm kinda good at focusing amidst chaos, anyway. I'm the mom to three rowdy boys!
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