WHEN DID YOU FIRST KNOW YOU WANTED TO BE A WRITER AND WHY?
I think there was always a part of me, even as a small child, that knew I wanted to be a writer. I was probably six years old when I first read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis, and I felt so transported by that book that I felt the stirring within me to turn around and replicate that feeling for other people. I didn't think at that time that I could possibly do such an impossible task as actually write a book (which really did seem impossible to a six-year-old!), but the desire was there. Fast-forward to my angst-ridden preteen years, and it was in the depression and loneliness of my 6th-grade year that I started writing my first attempt at a novel. I didn't have any friends, so I withdrew into worlds of my own making. I did end up finishing that novel - years later - but it will never end up seeing publication. It served as excellent practice and a bitter pill to swallow of what not to do as a writer. It was only after college that I really learned to write properly.
AS A CHILD, WHAT DID YOU ASPIRE TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP? Everything. I wanted to write and transport people as I'd been transported (as mentioned), but I also didn't want to be restricted to just that - or so I thought. If you'd asked me from month to month from age six to sixteen, I probably would have told you: famous writer, famous artist, famous singer, famous actress, adventurer/archeologist, super spy (Bond - James Bond), astronaut, fighter pilot, explorer/photographer, college professor who moonlights as an explorer/archeologist (yes - Indiana Jones), aid worker in a poverty-stricken country . . . whatever it was, I wanted it to be big and important. I used to tell my parents that I just wanted to change the world. I still have a bit of preoccupation with that. I'm still trying to figure out if that's unhealthy and hubristic, or if it's a healthy ambition that keeps me striving forward.
HOW DID YOU GET THE IDEA FOR YOUR AWARD WINNING TITLE?
I'd been toying with the idea of trying my hand at Dystopian for a while, but I only had a post-appocalyptic story idea that didn't seem quite right floating around in my head, so I hadn't moved forward on it. Then, late one night before turning off my light, I came upon an online article about a radical UN proposition regarding population control that has been around since the 1970s. It caught my interest because of some personal feelings I have on the matter, so I began to do some digging to see if the thing was a wacko conspiracy theory or if it was a real thing. The deeper I dug, the more I dug up, and before I knew it, I'd stayed up almost the entire night taking notes on what I knew was going to be my next book series. I knew I'd stumbled upon the perfect subject matter for a YA Dystopian story, especially because I'd be working with material that was grounded in reality. It takes a long time to world-build though and I was still working on writing my fantasy series at the time, so I took about two and a half years to research and due-diligence on planning BREEDER and finishing my fantasy series before I let myself start writing The Breeder Cycle.
WHAT OTHER BOOKS HAVE YOU PUBLISHED?
I have a completed 6-book YA Fantasy series called The Gateway Chronicles:
Book 1: The Six
Book 2: The Oracle
Book 3: The White Thread
Book 4: The Enchanted
Book 5: The Scroll
Book 6: The Bone Whistle
They are all available wherever books are sold! All the purchase links can be found on the Order Books page of my website.
TELL US SOMETHING FUN ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A WRITER:
The most interesting thing to happen to me as a direct result of being a writer happened in May of 2013 when my publisher flew me to Sydney, Australia to be a featured panel speaker at the Sydney Writer's Festival (one of the most prestigious writing festivals in the world!). They put me up in a nice hotel on Sydney Harbor. I found myself rubbing elbows with celebrities like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Libba Bray, and Molly Ringwald. Now, I didn't actually get up the gumption to speak to many of these people, but I got to be around them, and that was amazing in its own right. A funny thing that happened while I was there was that I was scheduled to speak at a local school as a visiting author. While there, I apparently said a word - multiple times - in my presentation to the students that is harmless in the US, but quite offensive in Australia. The kids kept squirming and giggling, but admirably held it together, unlike my friend and "handler" from the publishing house who had brought me to the school. She kept laughing silently, but uncontrollably, behind me, and wouldn't tell me why until we were long gone from the school. Ah… cultural differences. They'll get ya!
WHICH AUTHOR HAS MOST GREATLY INFLUENCED YOUR WRITING STYLE?
This is a tricky question! As to writing style, I guess I would have to say J. K. Rowling. Her dialogue flows so effortlessly, and you learn so much about her characters from how they speak. You can identify the main characters in each of her books by their speech patterns alone in most cases. That is something I tried to emulate in my early years of writing when I was actively trying to teach myself how to write well. Of course, BREEDER is dystopian and written in the first person present tense, so it doesn't sound at all like Harry Potter. Before I put pen to paper on BREEDER, I sat down and re-read The Hunger Games to solidify that effortless FPPT voice in my head that Suzanne Collins does so well. But J. K. Rowling was the first and most influential when it comes to my writing style.
WHAT BOOK HAS HAD THE GREATEST IMPACT ON YOUR LIFE?
This is another tricky question! How can you ask an author to choose just one book that has had the greatest impact on his or her life? I usually have to list at least four or five that have done various things for me. But for this question, I guess I'll go back to the first book that I remember transporting me to another world: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. I couldn't believe that someone had made something like that up out of their own imagination that had moved me so much and made me long so greatly for something other. I desperately wanted Narnia to be a real place. I devoured the rest of the Narnia Chronicles and mourned that there were not more of them. Because it was The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe that first made me dream of being an author, I would say it had the greatest impact on my life.
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR GREATEST LITERARY ACCOMPLISHMENT?
I think winning this silver award from Literary Classics has been my greatest literary accomplishment so far! Although being flown out to speak at the Sydney Writer's Festival is a close second. Something I would put as a feather in my cap is that I was contacted early in my publishing career - after I had only published book 2 of my fantasy series - by the gentleman who (at the time) ran the C. S. Lewis Society in Oxford, England. He e-mailed me and told me he had read the first two books in my series and found them to be quite good and written in the spirit of Lewis's works. That brought me to tears.
CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE PROCESS OF BECOMING PUBLISHED AND ANY TIPS YOU MIGHT OFFER FOR OTHER ASPIRING AUTHORS?
The process of becoming published is like walking the wrong way up an escalator. At the bottom, it doesn't look so daunting, but when you get going, you realize it's going to take a lot more work than you anticipated at first, you're never really sure if you're going to reach the top, and if you stand still, you'll find yourself at the bottom once again. It's really not for the faint at heart, and it takes endurance, stamina, and very thick skin. So much of the process is not actually writing, and that part definitely took me by surprise. You have to set up your online platform and maintain it with voracity - in fact, that takes up most of your time. For aspiring authors, I would advise them to begin building an online community before their first book is ever released: Website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Etc. Build that momentum ahead of time. When it comes down to the book: Make sure it's a quality product before publishing it (or shopping it around to publishers) and do your research! So many new authors get taken in by scams and schemes, and with how much information is available to us on the internet these days, it's just totally unnecessary. I think many aspiring authors are too eager to get their work published fast to slow down and do it properly. And then I would advise them to not be discouraged when (if) their work doesn't take off. For most authors, it takes many years and many publications before they have a loyal following of readers.
CAN YOU OFFER ANY ADVICE FOR WRITERS ON HOW BEST TO PROMOTE THEIR BOOK?
Having the online community I mentioned above is hugely important, and I've found that one of the best tools for promoting my books is Twitter. On days that I tweet about my books, I tend to make sales. But it can't all be impersonal sales-link communications. I try to maintain a good relationship with my readers. The posts to Facebook that are actually social in nature (and not just "go buy my books!") get the most hits and build reader loyalty. I also find it beneficial to travel and do speaking engagements. Oh, and blog! Blogging is an absolute must.
IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE WITH OUR READERS?Speaking of online communities, if anyone would like to join mine, you can sign up to receive regular updates from me via my newsletter on the main page of my website at www.kbhoyle.com!
DO YOU HAVE ANY NEW BOOKS IN THE WORKS?
Yes! Always! I have turned in the second manuscript of The Breeder Cycle to my publisher, so the sequel to BREEDER, called CRIMINAL is in the editing stages. And I am currently writing the third book of the trilogy, called CLONE.
I do not have a release date for CRIMINAL yet, but it will be sometime in 2016. It will be available for purchase from my publisher, TWCS, and from Amazon, B&N, iTunes, Kobo… all the usual places books are sold! It follows the main characters from BREEDER, Pria and Pax, as they continue to assimilate into the real world and assist with the rebellion against the Unified World Order.
LITERARY CLASSICS Book Awards & Reviews International Book Awards • Top Honors Youth Book Awards • Seal of Approval http://www.clcawards.org
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