Ask the Author: Alma Alexander
Answered Questions (13)
Alma Alexander
WOuld you believe misreading a headline in a way that took me straight into a story...? :)
Alma Alexander
short answer: I don't get "inspired to write". I just write.
Alma Alexander
writing :) I know, glib. But there are things I like less - like copyediting, rewriting, selling, marketing, all that stuff that follows. What I love about writing is the act of creation. That, itself.
Alma Alexander
put the project I'm blocked on to one side, and work on something else - I ALWAYS have more than one iron on the fire, and I am not blocked on all of that stuff. After enough time has passed I take out the project I was blocked on and take another look at it. More often than not my subconscious has found a way to work around the blockage and I can continue with the thing - sometimes in an entirely new and unlooked for direction, to be sure, but continue nonetheless...
Alma Alexander
Well, I don't really do horror, but...
She dreamed the world was always a beautiful, fair, supportive place. And then she woke up.
She dreamed the world was always a beautiful, fair, supportive place. And then she woke up.
Alma Alexander
oh, my dear, I travel to a fictional book world every time I start a novel - and what do I do there? I lurk, I listen, I frantically transcribe all the things I see and hear until a story takes shape...
Alma Alexander
I'm still working on my Christmas book haul! Next on the list is Jeff Vandermeer's Area X books - because I want to read his latest, "Borne", of which I have heard good things but I really feel I ought to read his earlier opus first. Also on the list, Nisi Shawl's "Everfair".
And the rest of the books on my TBR teetering stack. Trouble is I am WRITING one right now so my mind is not in the right frame of mind to undertake a big reading spree...
And the rest of the books on my TBR teetering stack. Trouble is I am WRITING one right now so my mind is not in the right frame of mind to undertake a big reading spree...
Alma Alexander
There was a clarivoyant type person it was the "de rigueur" thing to do to go visit, back when I was quite young - and my mom and my aunt and I all went to see her out of pure curiosity. She told me that my absolute "gift" of being unlucky in things stemmed from a family member (unidentified of course) who had "put a curse on me". There was an elaborate ritual to be done to remove the curse. I never did do it. I'm still "unlucky", but I don't know if I can really put it down to an anonymous extended family member who hated me so much that they put a hex on me - even if I believed that I had family members who were capable of doing so. But it would make for a good book...
Alma Alexander
I... um. I am guessing that to most people when you ask that question they get visions of sugar plum fairies with the face of Colin Firth dancing in their head and Darcy and Elizabeth lead the cotillion. But I don't think I think that way - and when I actually stopped to consider that question - and please note this isn't my "favorite" ficitonal couple, but they popped into my head so they must be up there in the ones I like - the two people who came to me aren't a book couple, they're a movie couple, and one of 'em is dead. If you haven't seen "Tryly Madly Deeply", you should. :) (But then, that might just be the movie that made me fall in love with Alan Rickman...) In terms of books. In terms of books. The novel I am currently preparing for publication has a couple I rather love - but then, it didn't end happily ever after for them, not really. I don't think Great Loves necessarily DO end up there. I'm not much of a happy ending afficionado, when it comes to that - because thewriter in me keeps asking WHO LOST if these two happily-ever-after people just won EVERYTHING. I kind of care about people, not "couples", so if you're talking characters... Dianora, from Guy Gavriel Kay's TIgana, is one of the best tragic lovers out there. Yes, she's part of a couple but it's a couple who is doomed, who should never have been. There is love, nonetheless - all the more powerful for being "wrong", existing in spite of everything. Love is a great and powerful thing, indeed - and soulmates are wonderful, if you are lucky enough to find them. But I don't really HAVE a favorite fictional couple, not as such. I'll throw a few out there - Leia and Han, Ellen de Montfort and Llewellyn of Wales (read Sharon kay Penman's Welsh trilogy), Lady and the Tramp (you didn's specify human! :D ), and, if I might be allowed a threesome, Arthur, Lancelot, adn Guinevere. That cover it...?
Alma Alexander
Well, there are several projects with roots in that doil. There's one completed historical fantasy which is Byzantium-rooted, and which is looking for a home. Then there's a projected more Balkan-rooted story which so far has a synopsis and a couple of chapters. THen there's the trilogy which draws on Eastern European mythos and history (which also exists as a synopsis and a couple of chapters from Book #1).THe two standalones are definitely adult but the trilogy can go either way - leastways, there are young protags in it. But right now those are on a back burner because the current project is creating a brand new mythology for a new age - and a ver "American" fantasy. I intend to post updates on that on my Patreon page...
Alma Alexander
I guess it takes practice - and I've had A LOT OF THAT - but when you cast your mind over something that you've just finished writing it speaks to you about how good it is... and about how good it can be. It isn't something like a checklist, a bullet list of things I "look for" when I look back over a piece of writing - but it's an instinct, and sometimes it isn't even specific enough for me, the writer, it's just "there may be a problem with this, FIX IT". But there are times - and these are the times that writers live for - when you are looking at something that just came out of your head, that you just typed on the screen, and your own words raise hackles... and you have no idea where that thing you've just written actually came from, you just know it's there, and it's close to perfect. Sometimes the story takes care of itself and all you can do is sit back and take it, take whatever it dishes out. But if you really want something particular then it boils down to just a couple of things - is there "JUST ENOUGH" there (i.e. is there overindulgent purple prose that needs to be slashed out, as in too much, or are you telegraphing things that you need to explain (because YOU already know stuff and you didn't pause to remember that your reader doesn't), as in, too little); that, and did you get your voice right. Every character has their own voice. They should speak to the reader in THAT voice, not yours. If you can hit those two brass rings... you're already halfway to done.
Alma Alexander
new YA series is starting out in the Fall, with book 1 "Random" due out in October. If anyone wants to ask specific questions about this fire away! Book 1 is now available for pre-order here:http://www.darkquestbooks.com/store/p...
Alma Alexander
It's a one word answer: READ. Read everything. Well, okay, and keep writing. it's only the constant practice of the craft that makes you grow in it. But before you write a word... read a million of them. You need to love langugate that much.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more