Ask the Author: Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
Answered Questions (10)
Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
When we'd been living in our current community for a relatively short time, I received a wonderful tea set: a beautiful cup, cream server on a wooden tray, with a selection of teas in silken tea bags. I had a client who had once sent me an edible arrangement when we finished a project, but he claimed to know nothing of this. I asked all my friends both here and elsewhere and even put out a request for the gift giver to come forward on my personal blog, on the Book View Cafe blog (the indie publisher/writer's coop I'm part of) and on all my social media. No one would claim responsibility for this thoughtful, and much appreciated gift.
Almost 15 years later, the tea is long gone, but I still have the lovely tea set. To this day, I have no idea who sent it, but it seems like it could be the opening of a cozy mystery, or (heh) a horror story. ;)
Almost 15 years later, the tea is long gone, but I still have the lovely tea set. To this day, I have no idea who sent it, but it seems like it could be the opening of a cozy mystery, or (heh) a horror story. ;)
Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
A dream, in technicolor, with credits and a musical score which may have sounded hauntingly similar to the theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
Sometimes characters begin talking to me. Sometimes I read something in a book of history, or a human resources magazine, or in a newspaper or on a billboard that slaps me upside the head and yells, "Story here!" in my unprotected inner ear. Sometimes I have technicolor dreams with musical scores and credits. I've learned to pay close attention to those.
Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
A small boy in a rural California town believes the creature living in the woods is a hobbit. It's not a hobbit; it's an alien specimen collector with a screw loose ... which the family cat finds very tasty.
Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
I'm a child of Star Trek, so I'd have to be doing endless 5 year missions on one of those wonderful starships. Right now, I'm leaning toward Voyager.
Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
I have a pair of novels by Mary Louise Kelly of NPR fame that I'm reading this summer. Also have a pair of Steven Harper's Clockwork Empire novels to read.
Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
I am working on several projects. Including a supernatural thriller/urban fantasy for Bird Street Books ("Devil's Daughter") and an unsold urban fantasy entitled, "Occasional Witch—Accidental Wizard".
Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
For the love of God, Montressor! READ!
Read every genre you can lay your hands on. Read science and history and psychology. Read about celestial mechanics, historical figures, religion, political institutions. Understand how the world works. Then use all that raw material to build places for your characters to live and breathe and act.
Read every genre you can lay your hands on. Read science and history and psychology. Read about celestial mechanics, historical figures, religion, political institutions. Understand how the world works. Then use all that raw material to build places for your characters to live and breathe and act.
Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
Getting to write.. :)
Seriously. Writing is like ... well, like building a roller coaster then getting to ride on it over and over.
Seriously. Writing is like ... well, like building a roller coaster then getting to ride on it over and over.
Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
That depends on where in the writing process I am. When I start a new novel, I think about roller coasters. Is the best start for this book a quick 200 foot drop or a slow ramp up to an unexpected loop? Where are the big "events", what type of event are they? In a book, that might mean a big reveal about a character or plot element, or it might be a big physical scene with danger or even battle, or it might be a piece of dialogue that sends the plot in a new direction.
When I have the big pieces in place, then I can "lay the track" and start writing the story. For me, having a good synopsis of where I want to go that's not too specific keeps me moving along. As I go, I let the characters and the rules of the universe they live in drive the plot. In practical terms, that means as I end one scene I jot down where I need to go next and as I begin to write a new scene, I keep that direction in the back of my mind. It's sort of a literary GPS system that I've worked hard to develop over the years. It keeps me from getting writer's block most of the time.
However, in those times when I just can't see where I'm going, it's often because I've derailed myself by not following my own GPS (Global Plot Sense?). The story stops feeling "right". So, I back up to the last place I felt like I knew where I was going and work forward again.
I've found it also helps to have a very good grasp of characters and plot elements—the foundation of the story. If you know who your characters are and where they've been, what they want, and what they fear, who they love and hate and why and how the universe works, then a lot of the story will just write itself.
When I have the big pieces in place, then I can "lay the track" and start writing the story. For me, having a good synopsis of where I want to go that's not too specific keeps me moving along. As I go, I let the characters and the rules of the universe they live in drive the plot. In practical terms, that means as I end one scene I jot down where I need to go next and as I begin to write a new scene, I keep that direction in the back of my mind. It's sort of a literary GPS system that I've worked hard to develop over the years. It keeps me from getting writer's block most of the time.
However, in those times when I just can't see where I'm going, it's often because I've derailed myself by not following my own GPS (Global Plot Sense?). The story stops feeling "right". So, I back up to the last place I felt like I knew where I was going and work forward again.
I've found it also helps to have a very good grasp of characters and plot elements—the foundation of the story. If you know who your characters are and where they've been, what they want, and what they fear, who they love and hate and why and how the universe works, then a lot of the story will just write itself.
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