Ask the Author: A.D. Seeley
Answered Questions (5)
A.D. Seeley
I'm working on two different series. One is called Evolved. It's a trilogy about this evolved species of human that normal humans didn't know about until 40 years ago, though they were the basis for elves in stories throughout history. That comes out next year. Then I just started writing a new story about Tartarus and Elysium (not a religious series at all). I'm still figuring that one out, but it's been a lot of fun coming up with the rules of these worlds, and doing lots of research into every culture's version of the afterlife, if they have one. Mixing it all in there. :)
A.D. Seeley
Never think that you're at the pinnacle of your writing. You need to always be learning how to be better. Also, you need to listen to constructive criticism. All the best fixes to my problem areas in my writing came from that. But also, know when to look at the constructive criticism and know whether that's really the best thing for your novel. Someone once mentioned that I should make Hara ugly. That it would have a bigger impact. Well, but Cain wouldn't give her the time of day if she wasn't pretty. And a reviewer complained that he lived in a penthouse (I wrote this pre 50 Shades, thank you very much). My Cain is rich and powerful, and very selfish. He wouldn't live in a podunk apartment. It didn't fit his personality. So where constructive criticism can be amazing and open your eyes to problems in your writing and story, you need to know when to say no to it as well and stick to what's best for your characters and story.
A.D. Seeley
I've always been so imaginative, and it's just really fun being able to get that out. I always write books where I make my own rules. In Cain, it was how he was immortal. Could he get hurt? If so, how? Then I got to go to my favorite parts in history and rewrite them with the "truth." That was a blast. My upcoming series Evolved is about an evolved species of human. Making the rules of their culture was a blast! I learned so much about not judging what I might think is weird, because it might actually be beautiful. Now I'm working on a novel about Elysium and Tartarus, so again, I get to make my own rules. I'm still figuring that world out, which is the funnest thing in the world.
A.D. Seeley
Ugh, this is something I had to deal with the last year. I had a massive hip injury and the last thing I could do was write. Instead of writing something new, I worked on my next series, Evolved. I edited like crazy and just got them as ready as possible. All while thinking about how to put something seriously cool together to come up with an idea that I could be seriously passionate about like I was with The Cain Chronicles and my upcoming Evolved trilogy.
A.D. Seeley
I get all my ideas from dreams, which is why sleeping is my favorite thing to do! Most often I write down my dreams and they sit for a long time until a few of them mix into something I want to write about, and none of them actually ever stay the way they were in my sleep. Sometimes they're really detailed and I know everything about the book, but in the case of my Cain series, I merely had a dream about Vlad the Impaler. He was on a rise above a field in the dead of night and the midst of a storm. I could see all the dead people on stakes below. When he turned to look at me, I all of a sudden knew, "He's really Cain and he's been all these conquerors in history!" That's when I woke up, but I had a seriously cool idea that had never been done before. Because I wanted to read it so bad, I had to write it. It was one of the first moments where I realized I wanted to be a writer.
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Oct 08, 2014 10:45AM
Oct 08, 2014 04:36PM