Please start by telling us a little about yourself
(education, jobs, significant other, children, pets, etc.)
~ Well, I'm married
to an ex-Navy man who is now an author (Arleigh Bison Westunlied) and truck
driver and have 3 awesome boys (David, Jaime and Imz) and one cat (Onyx). I
graduated from UC Santa Cruz (GO BANANA SLUGS!) and am currently a stay-at-home
Mum. In the past I have worked mostly social service type jobs, usually with
the developmental and behavourial community. I live in a "tiny house"
in West Virginia with a garden and lots of WV magic!
Tell us about your latest New Adult book and what
inspired you to write it.
~ Acquittal (The
Revenant Series Book One) is the first in a five book NA paranormal mystery
series (though it could extend to more than five if I don't stop brainstorming
with the husband!) I had just finished writing my first book, The Fantastical
Life of Serenity: A collection of short stories about what could be… but not
quite is, and told my husband that I loved the little supernatural teases in
the book and decided then and there I wanted to write a paranormal mystery. I
started it as a back-burner project while I wrote the second Fantastical book,
then went full force on it once Fantastical: Epilogue was released. I love
paranormal and I love mystery so I guess what inspired me was wanting to be a
magic detective LOL.
The New Adult genre is fairly new. What's your
definition of it? How does it differ from Young Adult or just regular Adult
books?
~When I think New
Adult, I think of college age. Or, rather the age most people are when they go
to college, 18-25 ish I guess. I think it's a great way to include those
readers/characters that are somewhat lost between childhood and adulthood… not
young enough for "young adult" but not considered full on adults yet.
Do you belong to any critique groups and/or do you
have other people read your work as you're writing it? Who's brutally honest
and who's a cheerleader? Which do you prefer?
~I don't belong to
any groups, but I do have my husband read. We have a 100% honesty policy in
everything we do, including our writing. If he does or doesn't like something,
he'll say it and I do the same for him. He's my brutally honest cheerleader! I
have gotten better about taking criticism as I've gotten older, but he has a
way of being honest without hurting my feelings-too much!-, so it works.
What are your all-time favorite authors/books?
~Oh, how long do you
want this to be? Short list, okay… um… Annette Blair's Kitchen Witch/Favorite
Witch/Scot, Witch and the Wardrobe series (LOVE!), I ADORE Maggie Shayne, I'll
read just about anything mystery and I liked Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches
series. VC Andrews was just twisted enough that I read everything she put out
(up until her passing, her ghostwriters don't write the same) and I also
enjoyed Mary Higgins Clark…M. Jet is my new current favorite and I do believe I
will read everything she writes!
Do you outline before you write or just dive
head-first into a manuscript? Do you maintain a schedule for writing, or is
it more haphazard?
~Outline? What's that? LOL, no
seriously, I am actually pretty organized, but I don't do outlines. I have a
running list of characters/arc ideas and a calendar that I put story happenings
on, but I pretty much just dive right in. As for scheduling, I have a toddler…
there is no such thing as a schedule! :)
Where do you do your best writing? (Ex: desk in your office,
public library, under a tree in the park, in front of a Real Housewives TV marathon, etc.) Do you like music or some other
background noise, or do you need quiet?
What are the best and worst parts of writing a
book?
~The worst part is
waiting for that first person to let you know what they thought… the best part
is everything else!
When you're driving and you have a sudden, brilliant idea for
the new manuscript you're working on, what do you do? (Ex: pull over and fire
up the laptop, keep driving while scribbling on a McDonald's bag, tell Siri,
etc.)
~If my teenager is in the car, I
tell him (for some reason, telling someone else out loud helps me not to
forget), if he is not in the car, I will record it on my phone (I have the
voice recorder app front and center for just this purpose).
Imagine you have a whole day free for shopping.
Where do you go? (Mall, unique boutiques, flea market, antique shops,
bookstore, home improvement store, etc.)
~I love eclectic shops,
independent shops, things like that. Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz before The
Limited and Coldstone moved in sort of shopping.
What are the top 5 titles in your Netflix queue? (Be honest.)
Or if you don't have a Netflix queue, which books are on your bedside table?
(Again, be honest.)
~Right now I have the Once Upon a
Time Season Two DVDs in my top five. My son and I cosplay and we decided to
cosplay some Once Upon a Time characters, we're doing research ;) On my bedside
table currently is Actual Innocence (Scheck/Neufeld/Dwyer), which is a
non-fiction book containing real stories of justice gone wrong and how it was
made right.
Do you prefer to read ebooks or print?
~I prefer print, though I do have
some ebooks. I don't have a Kindle or a tablet, so I have to either read them
on my computer or phone, which honestly I find annoying. I'd rather prop up in
bed with a paperback.
Where is your favorite place in the world?
~At home with my
family.
Do you have any advice for people who want to
write a book?
~Just do it! THEN get
a brutally honest cheerleader to tell you if you should put it out!
Links:
~I am in several
places online and I LOVE to interact!
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/author.serenityvalle
Wordpress: http://serenityvalleauthor.wordpress.com
Twitter:
@SerenityValle
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/serenityvalle
Instagram:
serenityvalle_author
Google +: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+SerenityValle/posts
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