The Qwillery

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Minerva:  I think Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary was a huge influence on my decision to become a writer at age 6. I hope some of my spelling has improved since then. I’ve dabbled in trying to talk myself out of becoming a writer ever since, but so far it hasn’t worked.



TQ:  Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Minerva:  I am a pantser until about the two-thirds mark through a project, then I sit down and outline everything I’ve already written and everything I know needs to happen so I can get a better overview of things and start to see if stuff needs to be moved around. That way I can see if there’s a subplot that needs removing, or if I’ve got any holes that need filling. I did a project where I outlined the whole thing first and it took the joy of discovery out of the process of writing for me. I will say that the projects I’ve finished, I knew where I was going, so I’m not sure an outline is as important to me as just knowing a destination.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Minerva:  I think it depends on what I’m working on. I am not sure I’d answer this question twice the same way. Right now I think trying to live up to my own expectations for my writing is the hardest thing. A month ago I would have said doing copyedits. Launch week I’m sure I’ll say promotion.



TQ:  Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors?

Minerva:  I am a big mythology and fairy tale person. I also adore science and try to read a lot of interesting scientific discoveries. Strangely whenever anyone asks me about my influences I always think of authors I read when I was younger vs. anything more recent. Authors like: Edgar Eager, Alfred Sloat, E. Nesbit, Ellen Raskin, Madeleine L’engel, Susan Cooper, and Ursula K. LeGuin (Tehanu is probably the most influential book I’ve ever read. It takes a world you’re familiar with and turns it on its head by showing you a different POV with other internal information). My favorite authors are the ones that make me think, which is not the same as those whose work I’ve enjoyed the most. Right now I’m probably most obsessed with Terry Pratchett, because I came to his books late and now I’m torn between dissecting and re-reading all of them (as well as listening to all the audiobooks) to find every bit of gleanable craft… and slowly rationing them out and savoring them. So far I’ve stuck with the latter.



TQ:  Describe Take On Me in 140 characters or less.

Minerva:  Imagine if Joss Whedon rebooted Highlander but with vampires, set in 1986 Chicago.



TQ:  Tell us something about Take On Me that is not found in the book description.

Minerva:  I drank a lot of Tang and Vitamin Supplement Powder while writing this story. I tried to take up eating Grape Nuts too, but while I like them more than Hannah does, I just never learned to love them.



TQ:  What inspired you to write Take On Me? Why vampires?

Minerva:  I wanted to write something that was enjoyable to write I knew I would finish, so I picked up a world I’d created in about 1998 but lacked the skill at the time to render it into publishable fiction. Vampires had always been one of the groups in that world and I ended up writing a scene between Alex and Hannah but decades in the future from the events in TAKE ON ME. It was just a fun little writing exercise because I was in a bad place with my writing at the time, and it happened that in this conversation they alluded to the events of how they’d originally met and what each did or did not remember about it. I just knew I had to write this story and that was the best jumping off point to bring readers into the world of The Shattered Ones.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Take On Me?

Minerva:  Alex has a tendency to flash back to events from his past that affect how he sees the events of the present time, so I had to do a lot of research to make sure those ring true and that all the medical things Alex does at that time are appropriate for what he knows at the time. It was actually hardest to find out what has changed in internal medicine since 1986 rather than the 1880s. The medical profession is kind of touchy about recently out of date medical procedures and information being easily available. I also had to do a lot of research into 1986 because even though I lived through the 80s my memory is a bit jumbled up as to what was from which year, so I had to verify a lot of stuff and I’m sure I got something wrong. The most difficult research for me, personally, was actually about Chicago as a setting. My publisher helped me consult with author Malon Edwards, who is from Chicago, to help me avoid getting things drastically wrong. I don’t think I got it perfect, but the information Malon gave me helped me drastically improve several scenes and firmly ground them in Chicago with details I never could have gotten on my own.



TQ:  Who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Minerva:  Alex is the easiest character for me to write, with Hannah a very close second. She’s a little more difficult because she’s a teenager and I have to switch over to that mindset. Alex is easy because (this is going to sound really weird) he’s very broken-in like a favorite pair of jeans. He’s just so settled in who he is without being closed off from everything that his actions and reactions are very grounded. Hannah is more reactionary. The hardest character to write is anything with is Hannah’s brother, Zachariah. His brain just creeps me out.



TQ:  Which question about Take On Me do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Minerva:  I wish someone would ask about the wider world in Take On Me. The world starts out very zoomed in on Alex and Hannah and as the story progresses over the next two books it zooms out to show more and more about the world. Hannah and Alex are uniquely suited characters to slowly unveil the world due to being on the periphery of different groups, families, and factions.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery lines from Take On Me.

Minerva: 

She poked at the garlic bulb. “How do I get it open?”
He reached above his head, pulled down a small saucepan, and handed it to her without turning away from the beef. “Hit it.”
There was a very loud thunk behind Alex.
“Uhm, Alex?”
Alex slid the fry pan to the only empty burner and turned around. Hannah stood at arm’s length from the cutting board, the saucepan in her hand. Garlic skin clung to the bottom of the pan like the mangled wings of a crushed fly. The smell of raw garlic filled the kitchen from the obliterated smear splattered over the counter and part of the wall.
Alex covered his mouth in shock. “You killed it!”
“I… I…”
He doubled over in laughter and tears ran down his face.
“It’s not funny.”
Alex gasped for breath. “Headline…” He waved his hand in front of him. “Garlic Murdered — Vampires Suspected.”
A chuckle escaped before she could scowl it out of existence.



TQ:  What's next?

Minerva:  Take On Me is the first of three books we’re rapid releasing. The second book, Cruel Summer comes out in December, with the third, Running Down a Dream in February. We’re hoping when all three books are out we can put out a print collection of the three together for people who aren’t as keen on ebooks. I have a lot more stories and characters in this world that I can write about in the future. I know there’s one story in particular my editor hopes to force me to write in the future. I’m not planning on The Shattered Ones being a 24 book read them all series. My hope is to do lots of one-shot stories and short series within the world.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Take On Me
The Shattered Ones 1
Fireside Fiction Company, October 6, 2015
eBook, 238 pages

Take On Me is the first book in a new series called The Shattered Ones. Book 2, Cruel Summer, is out in December, and Book 3, Running Down a Dream, in February.

Turning someone you don’t know into a vampire probably violates the Hippocratic oath. But Alex wasn’t really thinking about that when he found a girl bleeding out in his shower.

Being turned into a vampire isn’t as cool as it sounds. Especially when all Hannah wanted to be was dead. She thought she had finally escaped her brother. Until she woke up. Alive? Undead? Whatever. And now Hannah is stuck with the uncoolest vampire in existence.

As Alex and Hannah feel each other out — breaking some bones along the way — Alex’s oldest friend comes looking for help, and Hannah’s brother comes looking for her. What none of them see are the forces pushing them all on a collision course.

About Minerva

Minerva Zimmerman is a statistically chaotic neutral writer of tragically funny fiction. She lives in rural Oregon and works as a museum professional. She occasionally blogs at minervazimmerman.com and spends too much time on Twitter @grumpymartian.

Minerva Zimmerman

Take On Me
The Shattered Ones 1
Fireside Fiction Company, October 6, 2015
eBook, 238 pages

Turning someone you don’t know into a vampire probably violates the Hippocratic oath. But Alex wasn’t really thinking about that when he found a girl bleeding out in his shower.

Being turned into a vampire isn’t as cool as it sounds. Especially when all Hannah wanted to be was dead. She thought she had finally escaped her brother. Until she woke up. Alive? Undead? Whatever. And now Hannah is stuck with the uncoolest vampire in existence.

As Alex and Hannah feel each other out — breaking some bones along the way — Alex’s oldest friend comes looking for help, and Hannah’s brother comes looking for her. What none of them see are the forces pushing them all on a collision course.

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Andrea:  Hello, and thank you for having me! I've been writing since at least the third grade — back then it was stories about being kidnapped by an alien civilization. By eighth grade I wrote a ton of what I know realize was the worst kind of self-insertion fanfic for ElfQuest. I'm a lucky one who always had supportive family and teachers telling me, "Andrea, when you grow up, you should be a writer."



TQ:  Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Andrea:  When I wrote Revision, I was a pantser. Basically I wrote interesting scenes and chapters as they came to me, and then tried to put them into something like a causation order. Frankly all the worst problems in the book are a result of this. There are some structural hiccups I couldn't smooth out entirely; reviewers have said the first couple of chapters are a leeeetle too slow, and they're 100% right — because I wound up with four chapters that all wanted to go third for pacing!

Since then I've done more writing from a detailed outline, and I love it. It's faster for me, and comforting to be certain where it's all headed. I'm not sure I'll ever go back!



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Andrea:  The single most challenging thing is just… doing the work at all. Putting the hours in, day in and day out, no matter how I feel or what else I have going on. Isn't that the hardest part for everyone?!



TQ:  Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors?

Andrea:  My #1 literary influence is probably Naomi Alderman, because she's a dear friend and we've spent so much time talking about the mechanics of writing over the years. If you happen to have the opportunity to befriend a highly acclaimed literary author and talk about writing over the course of years, I recommend it; your writing cannot fail to improve.

The whole world influences me and how I approach writing. Elizabeth Bear and Jennifer Crusie write about writing on their blogs, and I learn from them constantly. I read Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass many years ago and finally understood pacing and tension for the first time.

And then there's the stuff you learn from by way of example: Sean Stewart, Tim Powers, Roger Zelazny for showing me how magic can be hidden in the now, and not just long-ago and far-away. Anne McCaffrey and Marion Zimmer Bradley for showing me that you can write SF/F about women and women's concerns. Not just literature, either — the game Ultima IV showed me what moral ambiguity is and how to use it, for example. The whole world is constantly teaching you how to be a better writer, the trick is learning how to see it.



TQ:  Describe Revision in 140 characters or less.

Andrea:  Revision is about a wiki where your edits come true. Also snark, startup culture, and bad relationships.



TQ:  Tell us something about Revision that is not in the book description.

Andrea:  One of my goals with Revision was to write a book from a decidedly feminine point of view, that is also unquestionably science fiction. Alas some readers may be put off by the first couple of chapters because of this, because yeah, it feels like chick-lit. Not going to lie, that's a little scary, because "chick-lit" means a bunch of things that we tend to think are the exact opposite of "serious science fiction." So there's the terror that people won't take the book seriously purely because of tone.

But the truth is, it's a book I would love to read, and I can't be alone. So I'm trying to shrug off that reflexive sense of shame. And c'mon, let's be real — if I get a fraction of the readership of a Marian Keyes or Helen Fielding, I'll be selling beyond my wildest dreams.



TQ:   What inspired you to write Revision? What do you hope that readers will take away from Revision?

Andrea:  The intersection between magic and technology has fascinated me since I was a kid playing Trinity (the Infocom game), and first came across that famous Arthur C. Clarke quote: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That comes out in my writing in lots of ways; AIs that do spellcraft, for example, or ghosts that send email.

Along those lines, I'm fascinated by the process by which technologies slowly accrete a sense of magic. We have ghost ships and ghost trains; mirrors that show the truth or take you somewhere else; phone calls from the dead; dolls that take on a life of their own. But it takes a while for a technology to reach that eerie tipping point, and some technologies never really become magical at all. Who writes about ghost ATMs, or light bulbs? Has anyone ever written about a magical blender or flush toilet? We have endless stories about books where their contents come true; so why not… a wiki instead?



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Revision?

Andrea:  I'm not typically much of a researcher, honestly. I'm more likely to draw from the well of things I already know in the heat of writing.

There's one thing, though, I researched exhaustively — data center disaster recovery systems, building codes, water sprinklers, halon. For the most part, Verity technology in the book is what I say it is and I can wave my hands and tap-dance until it works the way I want. But for this one particular scene, if I got it completely wrong, I knew someone would be annoyed. And who wants to annoy their readers?



TQ:  Who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Andrea:  The easiest character was Mira herself. Which is a good thing, since the book is first person! Since I spent so much time in her head, I developed a really solid sense of what she's like and how she thinks: she has generally low expectations for herself and for the world, she's a little too self-centered, she has a bunch of principles but isn't great at living up to them. She's very human, I think.

It was much harder to write Benji, though, Mira's boyfriend. He's meant to be a bad boyfriend — patronizing and kind of douchey, but with enough heat and magnetism that you see why Mira would stay with him. It's funny, because people cling to bad relationships allllll the time in real life, but in fiction you have to work hard to make a character's terrible life choices seem plausible.



TQ:  Which question about Revision do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Andrea:

Q: Wait, your book has a content note? What's that all about?

A: You know how some people don't want to read a book if it has a pet die in it, that kind of thing? No animals are hurt in Revision, but there are some things that happen in the book that might be upsetting to some readers, and the publisher and I thought it would be kind to provide some sort of warning. We felt it was the right thing to do, and so we did it!



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery lines from Revision.

Andrea:  In terms of sheer lyricism, I love this one the most:

I found myself craving the earthy flavor of truthful words.



TQ:  What's next?

Andrea:  Right now I'm writing a YA novel about the Luckiest Girl in the World (literally), which has a mythology involving luck-eating magicians, the Ancient and Honorable Order of Turtles, and attempted human sacrifice. If things go according to plan I should be done writing it this summer, and then… I'll try to sell it, I suppose!

After that I have an experimental story I want to do called Attachment Study. It'll be told in emails and text messages to the reader in real time. One of the characters will fall in love with the reader over the course of the story. Speaking as an artist, that's a very interesting emotional dynamic, and you can only really explore it in a work that feels interactive.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Andrea:  Thank you so much for having me! Eeee! This has been a delight.

Revision
Author:  Andrea Phillips
Publisher:  Fireside Fiction Company, May 5, 2015
Format:  Trade Paperback and eBook, 230 pages
List Price:   $14.99 (print);  $6.99 (digital)
ISBN:  9780986104015 (print)
Review Copy:  Provided by the Publisher

Mira is a trust fund baby playing at making it on her own as a Brooklyn barista. When Benji, her tech startup boyfriend, dumps her out of the blue, she decides a little revenge vandalism is in order. Mira updates his entry on Verity, Benji’s Wikipedia-style news aggregator, to say the two have become engaged. Hours later, he shows up at her place with an engagement ring. Chalk it up to coincidence, right?

Soon after, Benji’s long-vanished co-founder Chandra shows up asking for Mira’s help. She claims Verity can nudge unlikely events into really happening — even change someone’s mind. And Chandra insists that Verity — and Mira’s newly minted fiance — can’t be trusted.

Melanie's Review

Mira does what every heart broken girl does when her boyfriend says the fateful words 'its over'. She cries her eyes out, looks in the freezer for the largest tub of ice cream available, drinks too much and then hits social media with a declaration of the scoundrel's undying love and imminent engagement. No one is more surprised than Mira when the very recently ex-Ben turns up on her doorstep on bended knee to propose. Pure coincidence or something more sinister? Mira soon learns that Verity, the news aggregating software Ben's company has developed can turn statement into fact. Science or magic? Is it good or evil? Is Ben involved? Mira is about to find out.

Revision is Phillips' debut novel and she does an admirable job of setting the scene and further chain of events that lead Mira on her journey to discover the truth. The plot is punchy and the dialogue is witty, especially Mira's inner dialogue. Phillips carefully builds the plot and leaves the reader so many breadcrumbs that its not difficult to figure out what the Verity software is capable of and what Ben's role in it really is. It is therefore, quite surprising that Mira seems almost the last to know or should I say, last to believe the truth that is practically slapping her in the face. When Chandra, the former Verity employee that everyone thinks is dead shows up and tries to convince Mira that all is not as it seems she is still reluctant to believe. After a near fatal car accident of a dear friend and the death of a loathed one Mira is forced to face the facts of what Verity can do and what Ben is capable of.

As much as I enjoyed Revision and thought that Phillips had created an interesting concept with Verity I didn't warm to Mira. The trust fund heiress slumming it as a barista in a boutique coffee shop did not ring true. Mira comes across as being on the world's longest pity party and apart from a demanding mother I couldn't really see why she she disliked everything about her former life. She also lacking in empathy or true remorse. There is a whole series of events from her best friend almost dying to her witnessing the death of someone she knows from childhood, yet Mira shows very little in the way of feeling. She even makes a comment about her fiance almost killing her best friend and then continues on with her self involved life. As much as I think that her dialogue was, in parts, extremely funny she just isn't the heroine for me.

I like Revision and think it could have been an 'I love it' book had I liked Mira a bit more. Well done though to Phillips' on creating a great plot for her debut novel.

About Andrea

Andrea Phillips is an award-winning transmedia writer, game designer and author. She has worked on projects such as iOS fitness games Zombies, Run! and The Walk, The Maester's Path for HBO's Game of Thrones, human rights game America 2049, and the independent commercial ARG Perplex City. Her projects have variously won the Prix Jeunesse Interactivity Prize, a Broadband Digital award, a Canadian Screen Award, a BIMA, the Origins Vanguard Innovation Award, and others. Her book A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling is used to teach digital storytelling at universities around the world.

Her independent work includes the Kickstarted serial The Daring Adventures of Captain Lucy Smokeheart and The McKinnon Account, a short story that unfolds in your email inbox. Her debut novel Revision is out on May 5from Fireside Fiction Co. and her short fiction has been published in Escape Pod and the Jews vs. Aliens anthology.

You can find Andrea on Twitter at @andrhia. I mean, if you like that sort of thing.

I was finally quite productive this week both with reading and with writing reviews. I was starting to get worried that I had lost my reading and review writing mojo but its back. So what did I read?


I started the week with a debut novel that the lovely Qwill sent to me. Revision by Andrea Phillips is the very first novel to be published by Fireside Fiction Company and will be released on May 5th. I will be writing a full review of this book so keep your eye on the blog next week to find out what I thought about it.


I turned to my Amazon recommendations (again...very bad) and found that the next book in the Seven series by Dannika Dark had been released. It wasn't long before Three Hours was on my Kindle. I have mixed views of this series. I liked book 1 Seven Years, thought book 2 Six Months was OK, did not like book 3 Five Weeks and back to another OK review for book 4 Four Days. Part of me wants to continue reading this story just so I can find out if Dark can get her characters to fall in love in a matter of seconds. There are 2 more books in this series. It's going to have to be love at first sight by the time we get to book 7!

This instalment starts a few years after the end of book 4 with Lexi and Austin still in love, Izzy and Jericho and Ivy and Lorenzo both have young children and Lexi's human sister Maizy is a tweeny. The story is told mainly from Naya's POV. Naya has appeared in most of the novels as she is Lexi's friend and former neighbour. Naya is an exotic dancer and secret panther shifter. Panthers are feared for being too violent so she has kept her shifter identity secret. When young women start to go missing from her strip club Naya approaches the wolf Alpha Austin for help. He assigns the tattooed Wheeler to be her bodyguard. Naya and Wheeler do not get along and the fireworks start when they are forced to spend more time in each others company. Hiding secrets is the theme in Three Hours as Naya isn't the only one who is keeping secrets. Wheeler has almost as many secrets as he has tattoos and Naya is determined to find out each and every one of them. The other sub-plot is the shifter cage fighting and the seedy underworld that Naya and Wheeler find themselves reluctantly involved in.

This book gets another 'OK' for me. Unlike some of the other female characters Naya is a bit more complex and more developed. She is obviously the most noble and well centered stripper in town who helps out her local animal shelter and came to Lexi's aid more than once. I had a hard time imagining what Wheeler was like besides being covered in tattoos. He also kept saying 'preciate ya' and talked about 'his woman' which I found annoying and misogynistic. I can't understand why the female characters in this series are so objectified and are always getting into trouble when not shaking their 'booty'. I was fully expecting the one book of the series that involved a stripper to have the most hot and steamy but it really didn't. Yes, there is a smoking hot sex scene but really only the one. This is quite refreshing as there is more romance in this PNR.


My final book for this week was a little bit different. The good people at Curiosity Quills Press rescued my copy of I Kissed a Ghoul by Michael McCarty. I had received a copy from NetGalley in a format I couldn't open, I forgot I had it and then when I went back to sort it out the book had been archived. I apologised for not reading it in time and within an hour the publisher was sending me another copy in a different format. Hurrah!

If you are looking for a light hearted read look no further than McCarty's I Kissed a Ghoul. The 'big boned' teenager Tommy has been desperate to lose his virginity and every time he thinks he is going to get lucky he is thwarted by one of the many supernaturals in his small town. This book is a mere 120 something pages of Tommy's desperate attempts to seduce almost every female in town while fighting off vampires, werewolves and cannibals. Tommy doesn't seem to think that any of these supernatural encounters are anything out of the ordinary which makes it all the more amusing. One particularly funny scene occurs when Tommy's parents go on vacation leaving him home alone. He watches Tom Cruise in Risky Business and with the help of his father's credit card decides to re-enact the movie. This had me chuckling all the way through. Tommy isn't especially likeable and does seem to be either incredibly naive or incredibly dim but even so, you can't help but feel a bit sorry for him. He is just an overweight teenager looking for love (or a desperate girlfriend who wants to have a lot of sex). If you are looking for something different, a few laughs and a quick read then this is the book for you.


That is it for me for this week. I hope you have a great week ahead and Happy Reading.

Andrea Phillips

Revision
Fireside Fiction Company, May 5, 2015
eBook, 230 pages

Mira is a trust fund baby playing at making it on her own as a Brooklyn barista. When Benji, her tech startup boyfriend, dumps her out of the blue, she decides a little revenge vandalism is in order. Mira updates his entry on Verity, Benji’s Wikipedia-style news aggregator, to say the two have become engaged. Hours later, he shows up at her place with an engagement ring. Chalk it up to coincidence, right?

Soon after, Benji’s long-vanished co-founder Chandra shows up asking for Mira’s help. She claims Verity can nudge unlikely events into really happening — even change someone’s mind. And Chandra insists that Verity — and Mira’s newly minted fiance — can’t be trusted.