(Read my review of Mad About the Boy here.)
Suzan Battah: My characters, I generally create emotional and personality traits first. I brain storm all the nitty gritty about this character — habits, issues, date they were born and work back from there. After I have an idea about their personality, an image of how they look begins to take place, I search for images online or in mags and find the closest fit and create a little book of my characters where I make notes.
CTW: How do you come up with your story ideas?
SB: I have a very wild imagination! I'm a big observer and sometimes use my own real situations and change or use my creative license to embellish this into a story. My characters would deal with this situation like this because they have different personalities.
CTW: What was your writing process like?
SB: Just write, listen to lots of romantic songs and let my fingers tap across the keyboard and enjoy the story that unfolds. I use a whiteboard for mapping, lots of notes and go with the flow :) Mad About the Boy has a really cool and very romantic playlist while I was writing. I'll be blogging about that soon.
CTW: How about editing?
SB: I sometimes edit during a writers pause it helps me to regroup and get back into my muse. Generally I already have every chapter mapped out, so it's rare to be stuck. Though I do edit 3-4 times and then when I believe it's ready it goes to a professional editor for another 2-3 rounds between us.
CTW: How did you keep yourself motivated during difficult parts of the process?
SB: There is nothing really difficult, though there are challenges and my way of dealing with it is go to the gym to clear my head, wish I could say I eat chocolate but I don't :) I plow through the rough times and head into it straight on. Sometimes I'll talk to my mom about the issue and while she may not be able to give me great advice, her listening helps me to solve the problem.
SB: My second novel, YA Urban Fantasy - BaSatai: Outside In is being released on April 14, 2012. I'm currently writing the book 2 in this series. I'm considering writing a sequel to Mad About the Boy to look at Ben's story.
CTW: What are your favorite reads?
SB: I love reading Sophie Kinsella books, Stephanie Laurens, Anna Campbell, Johanna Lindsey, Richelle Mead. There are too many great authors out there. My favorite romance in a similar style to my own book Mad About the Boy would be Sophie Kinsella's Can You Keep A Secret, I love this book!
(Blogger's Note: I love Sophie Kinsella and that's one of my favorites, too!)
CTW: Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
SB: Write, write, write! Enjoy writing, learn your craft, don't write for money, write for fun, take the good advice and ignore the bad advice, keep writing some more, edit and keep editing some more, have a thick skin, cry if you want to, go back to writing some more and just laugh lots.
About the Author:
Suzan Battah is a proud Australian born author who has loved to write since her teenage years. In 2011 she published her first novel a contemporary multicultural romance - Mad About the Boy. In her spare time she weaves magical tales to entertain. Suzan writes YA Fiction - Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance, Regency Romance and Contemporary Romance. Other fun things you can find her doing is training at the gym and Latin/Ballroom dancing. Suzan is afraid of heights, loves most things that are sweet, has no clue about fashion and one day hopes to speak Spanish fluently. Her second novel a YA Urban Fantasy Adventure - BaSatai: Outside In will be released on the 14th of April 2012.
Connect with Suzan:
@suzanbattah
Buy the Book!
Receive Change the Word's latest updates in your Inbox. Subscribe by entering your information under "Follow by email" in the sidebar. Follow me on Twitter @lmchap or become "Like" Change the Word on Facebook.
0 comments:
Post a Comment