The Charming Belle did a quick interview with us. Read what she said here:
At what age did you start writing?
I suppose the first part of my answer
would be a question: define “writing.” To me, writing is more than just
scrawling words across the page. To me, writing begins in the daydreaming
… the listening to the characters whisper their story into your imagination.
I have been daydreaming stories for as
long as I can remember. My first recollection of wanting to be a writer
was when I was in the second grade, and my teacher, Mrs. Rambin, would have us
lay our heads on our desks after lunch while she read us stories full of magic
and imagination.
Most of my early writings were stories
with a twist of science fiction…even my earliest poems. I remember
sitting on the dam of a neighbor’s pond around the time I was eleven, writing a
story about space travel. In fact, I still have that little handwritten
story. It’s still bound in the same yellow notebook that I put it in way
back in the sixth grade!
Growing up in Nacogdoches, the oldest
town in Texas, afforded me summers full of adventure with my friends. I
call on those adventures and memories a great deal for my YA stories.
Cicada has a lot of the energy of those childhood adventures spun
throughout. One of them is something that actually happened to me when I
was thirteen years old. I was on one of my adventures in the woods with
my dog, Dusty. We made our way through the woods to a neighboring pasture
and crawled through the barbed wire fence.
When we got to the top of one of the
rolling hills in the grassy field, I realized I was standing in the middle of a
giant circle imprinted in the pasture grass. No one had ever told me
about crop circles at that time in my life, so I just thought it was an odd
occurrence that there was a strange circle in the tall grass. Now
that circle is forever memorialized in my YA/NA crossover CICADA trilogy
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?
My stories are character-driven.
My characters actually step through a portal into my imagination one at a
time and introduce themselves to me. Readers may be surprised to know that
the first character I met in CICADA wasn’t the main character. It was
Everett. He, of course, ends up being the bravest and least apprehensive
of all the characters in these books, and sometimes I think that’s why he’s the
favorite character for most of my readers.
Being an avid daydreamer is what creates
the fertile soil for that seed to germinate. People-watching helps create
a vast encyclopedia of character traits. Daydreaming about things
happening at interesting places and locations builds a rich library for
settings.
For me, it all starts with that one
daydream with that one character. After that, the floodgates open and I’m
swept away!
Do you outline before you write or just
dive in?
The first character who introduces
himself/herself to me also tells me the beginning and ending of the story.
As I meet each of the other characters, they share with me some important
stops they wish to make along their journey.
I’m a character-driven plotter, I guess!
Why do you write for Young Adults?
I write
Young Adult fiction, because I get a chance to re-live my youth knowing all I
know now.
Who is
your favorite character you have written or read about?
My answer is going to reveal the depth
of my nerdiness. Brace yourselves. My favorite character I’ve have
ever read is Beowulf. He is the true hero in every sense of the word.
One must not confuse the real story of Beowulf with the warped ones in
the movies, though.
What is
one thing you would like your readers to know about you?
I love my readers and fans with a
passion.
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 was the shy/quiet daydreamer who
always had a notebook and pen, writing away at science fiction stories or
poems.
Do you
have a pet (pets)? Tell us about it (them) and how they help/hinder your
writing.
Yes! If you follow me on Facebook,
then you’ve seen pictures of my doggie. Her name is Sascha Marie.
She’s a four-year-old Lancashire Heeler, which is a rare breed in the US.
But we didn’t purchase her. She’s a rescue. 
She’d been purchased from a breeder
somewhere up north by someone in Houston. He’d decided he didn’t want her
as a puppy and dumped her at the local animal shelter when she was four months
old. Apparently, she’d been herding his children around like a little
flock of sheep! After a little research, I was able to locate a breeder
of Lancashire Heelers who helped me track down my fur baby’s history.
But the only history that matters is
that she’s a part of our family, and on days that she’s at the vet or groomer,
our house is very quiet and lonely. She is, indeed, the heart of our
home.
I’d like to say that Sascha Marie helps me
with my writing, but that wouldn’t be a true statement. This furry little
whirlwind likes to interrupt me with demands for snacks, snuggles, or potty
breaks. Sometimes, she’s just nosey and wants to go outside to see what’s
going on with the neighbors. But even though she likes to interrupt and
herd me around, I can’t imagine my home without her in it.
What books or authors have
most influenced your writing most?
Every single book and author I’ve ever
read has influenced my writing in some small way. If I had to list
authors who’ve had the biggest impact on my love of words, I would list William
Shakespeare and Robert Frost. Yes. I’m a nerd.
Which famous
person, living or dead would you like to meet and why?
I would love to meet the guy who was my
childhood hero: Lech Walesa. In my high school years, during the 1980s, I
would rush home after school and turn on the news to see what other
extraordinary things he’d done that day for his people in Poland. He is a
great man who fought for the rights of his people. He sacrificed much,
even his own peace and well-being, so that his country could be free from
Communist oppression.
I warned you about my extreme nerdiness,
right?
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??
Assuming “things”
are inanimate objects aside from my doggie and family members, I would choose
these three things to take with me:
- My copy
of “How to Survive the Zombie Outbreak” book
- A bag
full of canned food from my kitchen cabinets
- A box of
matches
Don't miss the opportunity to meet Belle at the
held at Lone Star College - Montgomery
on February 15th.
Dean James (writing under pen name Miranda James) joins the line up of amazing authors participating in MCBF 2014.
