YA Author, Heather Reid joins the 2014 MCBF Author Line-Up
Heather L. Reid is both American and British and has called six different cities in three different countries, home. Her strong sense of wanderlust and craving for a new adventure mean you might find her wandering the moors of her beloved Scotland, exploring haunted castles, or hiking through a magical forest in search of fairies and sprites. When she’s not venturing into the unknown in her real life, she loves getting lost in the worlds of video games or curling up by the fire with good story. For now, this native Texan is back in the Lone Star State, settling down with her Scottish husband and working on the sequel to her Young Adult paranormal debut, PRETTY DARK NOTHING.
Find out more about Heather at her website, www.heatherlreid.com and in her interview here:
Patty Campbell talks about the germ for a piece of writing being like the sand in the oyster. What is your grain of sand? Do you begin with character or setting or something else?
Each story is different. For Pretty Dark Nothing, it started with a ‘what if’. As a child I suffered from Night Terrors and sleepwalking. Later in life, I struggled with depression. These experiences let me to wonder what life would be like for a teenage girl in high school if her nightmares started to manifest into her reality. What were these nightmares, what did they want, and why her? The idea of the nightmares turned into demons that exploit insecurities and manipulate negative thoughts. From there I moved on to character development.
One of my other stories started with a character. Her voice came to me so strong that I couldn’t ignore it and had to find out more about it.
Another novel I’m working on was inspired by a documentary I watched on the dust bowl, so the germ can come from anywhere and everywhere as long as you are open to finding it.
Do you outline before you write or just dive in?
Dive in! I like to feel my way through a story, to let it grow organically and see where the characters take me. I don’t like trying to stuff them into a box.
In high school, where did you fall? (Prom Queen/King, Gamer Geek, Brainy/Book Nerd, Jock, Shy/Quiet Scholar, Skate Rat, Stoner, Class Clown, etc.)
I didn’t fit neatly into any one category. I was the overachiever drama/choir girl who got along with almost anybody and who was also a book nerd and a gamer geek. You could often find me playing old school dungeons and dragons on a Saturday night with my guy friends.
It’s the dawn of the zombie apocalypse, what 3 things are a must to take with you when you flee your home for refuge from the undead hordes??
I have a dagger hanging on my wall and that would be the first thing I would grab. Great for plunging into a zombie’s brain!
I would need to pack a backpack with as many gluten free foods as I could. I have celiac disease, which means I can’t have any wheat, bread, oats, or anything that contains wheat. It’s not like a normal allergy, if I get wheat in my system, it kills the villi in my stomach which soak up nutrients and deliver it to the body. Without nutrients getting delivered to my body I would eventually I would starve to death . So gluten free foods would be essential for my survival.
My car keys. Let’s hit the road and get as far away from the city as possible.
Meet Heather at the 2014 Montgomery County Book Festival on February 15th at Lone Star College - Montgomery.
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