Q: WHY DO YOU
WRITE?
I'm an avid daydreamer.
I spend a lot of time drifting off into some other world after asking “What
if…” and because I love stories, I must find out how these daydreams end. So I
write.
Q: WHAT IS YOUR WRITING
ROUTINE?
Writing isn’t quite
routine yet because I have five wild children. I wrote WINGBOUND while we were
homeschooling. During that time, I could only write for 15 minutes intervals,
interrupted by “Mom, he hit me!” “She took my ball!” etc. I’m so grateful for
my husband. I finally set a writing time in the evening, he would directly
traffic, and I would get a whole HOUR!
So anyone who says they
can’t find the time to write, I say it is a choice. You must negotiate for your
time and always, always, always ask for help. You’d be surprised the kind of
support you’ll get. If I can write a novel while homeschooling, you can
too—whatever your circumstance!
In 2017, we moved to a
new town and our children started public school. Now, I set aside two hours
each morning (after they’ve gotten on the bus) to research, plot, sketch
characters, proofread, or WRITE. It’s almost too easy now. But I feel like I
fought for this life and the joy that comes with it and having my children well
taken care of while I do something I love.
Q: WHAT IS YOUR
PROCESS?
I love notebooks. (Hence
the bullet journaling.) A little daydream hits me and I have to write it down
in my idea notebook. Sometimes it’s a story line, sometimes it’s just a
question. “What if there was a floating island that circles the world? And what
if the people who live on that island have wings?” When things in life get
stressful (or boring), I dig up those ideas and see if I can go somewhere with
them. Many stay tucked away, and others are in different levels of
process.
Then in a new notebook I
start asking all sorts of “What if” Questions with the help of several
book-plotting books:
Outlining your Novel by K.M. Weiland
Writing Fiction for Dummies by Randy Ingermanson & Peter Economy
BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS
Heather's Favorite Fiction Books
Heather's Favorite Non-Fiction Books
Books by Heather's Author-Friends
Q&A About WINGBOUND
What inspired you to
finally sit down and write WINGBOUND?
 |
I snapped a selfie after I finished
writing WINGBOUND
sitting in Starbucks. |
In 2013 I wrote the first 2 chapters of WINGBOUND on a whim.
It sat for two years in the dungeon of my computer before I started seriously
writing the rest of the story. Every so often, the story would come back to me.
I needed to know if he found her and how.
In November of 2015, I was homeschooling 5 kids and frenzied
to get a moment alone because the story was coming to the surface. I had to
write it. So each week night, after a full day of homeschooling, dinner making,
and cleaning up after a full house, I would sit at my desk in my bedroom and
just write. I was only left alone for 15 minutes at a time before the next kid had to ask a question, or needed help, or wanted me for whatever crazy reason. My darling husband then took
it upon himself to field the endless pestering so that I could write. And write
I did. Thanks to him.
I finished the last sentence of WINGBOUND on a trip (from
Georgia) to San Francisco, sitting in a Starbucks in April 2016. I may have
cheered among the preoccupied, caffeinated strangers.
Where did you come up
with the world of Balfour and Ellery?
I am a daydreamer and cloud gazer. Sunsets rock my world.
When the clouds and the sun were placed just right, I could see an island in
the sky, floating on the breeze. Could people live on that island? Well, they
would need to have wings. What if they attacked us on the ground and we had to
pay tribute? We paid. And when they returned the next year the same thing
happened, until one year, a winged girl flew down, so she could meet one of us
on the ground. It happened to be a boy named Ledger. What would that dangerous
meeting between two pre-teens look like? It would be darn cute and adventurous!
Are your characters
patterned after someone you know?
I love the study of personality and use the Color Code in my
personal and ministry life. I love to understand patterns of behavior, so this is
where I started with choosing my characters, but as they grew and developed, I
realized that I was using different behaviors and ways of speaking from certain
people I know.
Angus is a lot like my husband. He’s a brute, a tank, and sometimes
says weird things. “Holy straw mattress!” ~ Angus
Hollis is a combination of the wildest sisters in the world.
Erin and Amber. Hollis is a wildcat and does all sorts of crazy things. They dragged
me into all their crazy scheme and I often responded to them as Ledger does in
the story.
The straight arrow, Tolliver, is a lot like my brother. Doing
things for people’s own good, rule follower, strong leader, etc.
Lastly, the physical description of Roi du Ciel came from a
random stranger sitting in Starbucks when I reached the chapter where he is
first seen. I took out my phone, snapped a picture, and kept writing. I would
share it here, but I don’t want to seem like a stalker. But he had GREAT
eyebrows!
If you had to choose
a character that’s most like you, who would it be?
Ledger is a cross between me and my son, Gabriel. (We are
similar in personality, so it works.) I am the one that’s afraid of animals,
and afraid of the dark. And is a total wimp. I refer to myself as a “fainting goat”
because when I’m startled, I freeze and can’t think. Sorry Ledger.
