Ask the Author: Angela Parson Myers
Answered Questions (9)
Angela Parson Myers
Among others, I plan to read The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. My mentor at the Nebula Conference suggested that my books, especially my work in progress, A Still Small Voice, might fall into the same sub-genre. I'm eager to find out if that's true because I've had trouble categorizing my published novels except to call them urban fantasies, and they aren't what most readers expect from urban fantasies.
Angela Parson Myers
The truth is, I have no mysteries in my life, much less one good enough for a book plot. My life is so dull that the NSA punishes misbehaving agents by making them eavesdrop on my communications. (That's a joke. I don't really think the NSA is monitoring me, even if I did spent a couple of days researching weaponry and how to store a body to keep it from degrading for my next book. (-: )
Angela Parson Myers
My advice is to get a day job. I've made far more money writing non-fiction for newspapers, magazines, and a corporation than I have writing fiction, but then I write fiction because I find it incredibly satisfying organize and complete the stories bouncing around in my head. If you want to make money, find out what genre is selling and learn to write in that genre. With any kind of luck, you'll discover you also enjoy it.
But whatever genre you write, find a really good editor--or at least a really good critique group. The biggest mistake a writer can make is trying to edit their own work. Most writers can't find their own errors or judge their own writing.
But perhaps the most important thing a writer can do to make money from writing--whether you decide to send your work to a big publisher, find an independent publisher on your own, or self publish--is learn to do your own publicity and marketing. Even the big publishers no longer do these things for any but their best selling authors.
But whatever genre you write, find a really good editor--or at least a really good critique group. The biggest mistake a writer can make is trying to edit their own work. Most writers can't find their own errors or judge their own writing.
But perhaps the most important thing a writer can do to make money from writing--whether you decide to send your work to a big publisher, find an independent publisher on your own, or self publish--is learn to do your own publicity and marketing. Even the big publishers no longer do these things for any but their best selling authors.
Angela Parson Myers
My first thought was that I have no favorite couples. But I gave it a lot of thought and realized I do--Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee. They aren't a couple in the traditional sense. Both are male, and I have no sense that any sexual attraction is involved in the relationship. Sam works for the Baggins family and follows Frodo in the beginning out of a sense of duty perhaps more than friendship. Then as the journey progresses, the friendship becomes deeper, and eventually their roles begin to reverse as Frodo is weakened by the ring and Sam gains confidence and purpose. So not only are the smallest and most unlikely heroes in Tolkien's trilogy given arguably the most important duty, but the less important of these, the servant who seems in the beginning to have no particular intelligence, curiosity, or ambition, winds up being the one whose wisdom and sense of duty leads them to complete their mission. I like the way these characters complete and support one another--much as a traditional couple should.
Angela Parson Myers
Doing research seems to help get me into the mood to continue writing once I have a project started. To get started in the first place seems to require a great deal of rumination. :-) The exception to this was my recently published novelette, The Will to Love. About a year after my mother died, I dreamed her former boyfriend had left me a mansion in his will because he was still in love with her. Of course, I wasn't really ME; I never am in my dreams. I was a young, unmarried woman. And when I met his son, it was like lightning struck. The dogs in the book were part of the dream, too. I don't write romance, so I passed the plot on to my daughter, author Katriena Knights. She didn't do anything with it right away, and about a year later I woke up from a dream in which I had been told the title. I HAD to write the story.
Angela Parson Myers
I have several projects started. One is a trilogy of novelettes about controlling the weather, one is a about the confusion between magic and parapsychological abilities, and one is a far-future dystopian. I also have three sequels to When the Moon Is Gibbous and Waxing started and am concentrating on the next one in that series. It takes place about five years after Gibbous Moon and brings yet another giant leap for Natalie's understanding of the world and her place in it, as well as a huge life-change for Michael.
Angela Parson Myers
When I was a kid, I'd read a book through at least twice in a row, then stretch out in the upholstered rocker, head on one arm and legs draped over the other, and daydream the way I thought the story really should have ended. When I got a little older, I realized that the vivid dreams--sometimes nightmares--that I had were really just my the labor pains of my own stories trying to be born. The best thing about being a writer is the ability to play midwife to them. I can't even begin to describe the feeling of fulfillment.
Angela Parson Myers
I do research. For some reason, I tend to write stories that involve things I know very little about. (So much for "write what you know.") Part of the book I'm working on now (a sequel to When the Moon Is Gibbous and Waxing), takes place in Scotland. Initially, I thought it might take place in Edinburgh, but then thought perhaps I could change it to Glasgow, since I have at least been to that city. But I had to do research to discover if some of the same kind of medical research took place there, if the hotel Michael stays in existed in 1995, where the old-growth forests are, and where vampires would feel at home. Doing that kind of research usually makes the characters start talking to me again.
Angela Parson Myers
The Will to Love, like When the Moon Is Gibbous and Waxing, started as a dream. Well, it actually took two dreams to make me decide to write it.
The dream grew from something my mother said shortly before she died. I didn't want to write the story because I don't do romance. In fact, I passed it on to my daughter, Katriena Knights, who does, although she writes more erotic romance than sweet romance. But before she could do anything with it, I dreamed the title, so I could no longer ignore it. I attributed my mother's words to Amanda's grandmother. Then, as I wrote, I realized the story actually had a paranormal element, so I'm now OK with writing a romance novelette.
The dream grew from something my mother said shortly before she died. I didn't want to write the story because I don't do romance. In fact, I passed it on to my daughter, Katriena Knights, who does, although she writes more erotic romance than sweet romance. But before she could do anything with it, I dreamed the title, so I could no longer ignore it. I attributed my mother's words to Amanda's grandmother. Then, as I wrote, I realized the story actually had a paranormal element, so I'm now OK with writing a romance novelette.
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