Ask An Author, Writing

Ask An Author: Going for the Basics

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Sahar's Blog Ask an AuthorSometimes you just have to go back to basics. The question for this, the eleventh edition of the “Ask an Author” feature is one they have been often asked, but one our readers were also interested to know about: When did you first start writing? What was your first book, and when did you finish it?

Lee Murray

My first book—the first one I wrote—was A Dash of Reality, a chick lit novel about running romance and reality TV. Part of a graduate paper in Creative Writing, by the time I finished the manuscript, a strange backlash against the genre meant that publishers had turned very shy. Chick lit, the genre made famous by writers like Jane Greene, Jennifer Crusie and Sophie Kinsella, had become a dirty word—which was baffling, since the demand for rom-com movies was as strong as ever. I did eventually have the book published, but not before my children’s title Battle of the Birds was picked up by a local press. So, in effect, my second manuscript became my first published book.

Angela Barry

I started writing in 2012 and was first published in 2013. My first piece was published in 2013 and is a short writing guide called “Fan-fic Writing: The Fast Track from Good to Great”. The style and length were dictated by a contest where I placed 2nd or 3rd in and won a book cover! It has many of the tips I learned on my way to making a start writing and from writing workshops. As it stands, I’m actually considering making a second one due to new pitfalls I’m seeing young fan-fiction authors fall into. It was a fun piece.

J. C. Hart

I started writing stories as soon as I was able to – I have always been a story teller. I’d say my first book was written when I was 15. It was called A Soul Half Emerged, and it will never see the light of day lol. It was an epic fantasy piece and I still think of it very fondly. I have rewritten it once, and extended it into a trilogy, but I’m not sure I will ever publish it.

Karo O’Forofuo

The truth is, I can’t say exactly when I started writing. But I can say that from my days as a little girl, I wrote. I started with stories of about one or two sentences. By the time I was a teenager, I was writing short stories. My class mates used to like reading them and they even requested for more. It was not a professional work but it was fun. Professionally, I started writing in 2012. And my first book from then is ‘Fantasy Island; The Stolen Globe.’ I finished the book in 2013. In 2014, I revised it again and published it.

Sybil Watters

I started writing poems and silly stories as a small child.  Even before I could read, I would make my mom sit down with me, flip the pages of a book and make up a story as I pretended to be reading- which is one of her favorite memories.  I was very dramatic, of course, as I acted out scenes of grandeur I had created in my imagination.  Throughout my adolescence and in college, I wrote freelance articles and short stories for various magazines and publications.  My first book, DIXIE, Book One: Open Roads, was published last year and the second installment of the series will be available in the fall….if I meet my deadline, that is.

Catherine Mede

I first started writing as a teenager, but seriously writing about six years ago. My first story was Chrystias of Amasedon, which was an epic fantasy. Funnily enough, this was the first story I wrote as a teenager, for a school project. I decided to rewrite it as a trilogy and proceeded to expand and work on it over the next 18 months. I used SoCNoC (Southern Cross Novel Competition, the equivalent of NaNoWriMo in New Zealand), to start it. It’s not publishable, I know that, but it’s precious to me. And it will always be my first book.

A.J. Ponder

I’ve always wanted to write, from the moment I first put pencil to paper. My first epic about falling down the plug hole in the bath was all of about a paragraph long, and Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror all in one. Obviously as a writer I haven’t moved very far since then, since I’m still writing in those three genres!

My first book was Wizard’s Guide to Wellington, published in late 2012. (Although I wrote at least two books before that, they don’t count – because my books are never really finished, only abandoned upon publication.)

Jean Gilbert

I started writing when I was in high school, but it was more out of fun than done as a career. The love never left me, and so, five years back, I started writing again, but this time with a purpose. My first full novel SHIFTERS was published in 2014. The second in the series was released early this spring.

Image courtesy of Chad Mauger.

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