Interviewing Aspiring Authors: Jamie from Through Two Blue Eyes!

 

Hi guys!

 

Today is a special day, it marks the first of my (hopefully) monthly interviews with fellow authors! Each month I will interview an aspiring author! This month, and the first interview ever, is my dear blogger friend Jamie from Through Two Blue Eyes ! She was SO sweet to agree to do this!

 

The purpose of these interviews is to help people meet fellow authors and to give aspiring authors a chance to get the word out about their books! :D I hope that these interviews will be both helpful and inspiring!

 

As I said, Jamie is the author I am interviewing this month! :D She is an eighteen year old who writes both mysteries and family adventures! I believe this is her first fantasy novel, and I can say without doubt that her idea is really interesting and I hope someday to be able to buy her work in a bookstore! :D

 

But now it's time to get down to the meat of the interview! So without further adieu, here is Jamie's interview! :D

 

 

1) What is your book about?

To boil it down to the bare bones, my book follows the lives of three people and their experiences with a fictional, cursed, unpublished novel that magically pulls two of those people into it’s pages to reinvent the story.

2) Who are your main characters?

Their names are Ryan Evets, Will Blane, and Penny Taylor. Ryan Evets is the creator of the novel; he has an emotionally traumatic past and a controlling spirit. He looses everything when he’s book is cursed by a witch whom he himself created. Will Blane is one of those guys that everyone loves to be with and he works at a museum that is owned by Ryan and his extended family. Penny comes from a dysfunctional, divorcing family, is really emotional unstable and insecure; she and Will are fast becoming best friends and they discover Ryan’s book together on accident, thirty years after it’s been cursed and hidden.

3) Who is your villain?

I’m still not sure about who my ultimate villain will be at this moment, but as of now, the villain I know the most about is the fictional fantasy witch that Ryan creates for his fantasy novel. Her name is Quina Jax. She takes over Ryan’s mind and, when Will and Penny are pulled into the novel, is attempting to take over the fantasy world Arrahiem with her black magic.

4) What genre does your book fit into?

I would say it falls under Young Adult Christian Fantasy.

5) What age range of readers are you trying to reach?

Teenagers to young adults, so between twelve and twenty one would be the general range, I should think.

6) What style is your book written in? Is it first person? Is it third?

It is being written in third person.

7) Is this a single book or a series?

It is going to be a single book with two parts. At first I thought I would make it a series but then I realized I could accomplish what was needed by simply making it two parts. So the first part is with Ryan Evets writing and creating the novel, the second part is the thirty year jump to when Penny and Will discover the book. The weird part of this is that I started writing Part Two first. Sooo…. Yeah, it’s kinda odd. 

8) What are your goals for this book(s)? Is it just for fun or is it for publication?

It’s started off as just for fun and while I’m not completely positive about publishing it, I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback about it from my friends. Right now, out of all the books I’m working on, I would pick this one to take all the way to bookstores. While it’s not something I’m working towards or definitely planning at this point in time, I am keeping it in the back of my mind.

9) Why will readers love your book?

That’s a tough questions and one you should ask them! I don’t think I could confidently presume what someone else would love about my story .

10) Where did the idea for your book come from?

My book is the result of two different ideas being merged together. The first idea was to try writing a fantasy story because I’ve never seriously tried writing fantasy before. The second idea was to try writing a story about two teens being pulled into a book and having to journey to change the plot as the word count goes to give a happy ending so they could return to reality. I joined these two ideas together and this was the result!

11) What is your inspiration?

What is my inspiration? Tough question because it comes from many different things. One of the main inspirations for this book is my in-real-life best friend, Dylan, who has spent probably the past nine months reading stories with me. He helped to inspire both part of the book’s plot idea and he’s graciously become the skeleton for me to base the character Will off of. He’s encouraging, he’s lots of fun and he’s been very kind to me since we first met. So, he has my respect and I’m not afraid to admit that I probably would not have gotten any of this story idea without him.

12) Any writing tips for fellow authors?

Well, this is the biggest thing that has stood out to me in the past year and it’s hard to learn and except, especially if you’re a perfectionist. Expect to write trash the first time. Ouch; that hurts but it’s true. What you hear in your head and what your fingers will write on the screen will be very different, often very discouraging and disheartening. So, just be realistic and expect to write trash the first time. It is easier to go back and rewrite your crappy dialogue the way you want it then trying to write perfect dialogue the first time. The key is this: once you have something horrible written, then there is now something tangible to work with. You can see that crap staring at you. You’ve written something down on the page but you can now make it better! You can now see which words need to be changed, if the structure of the sentence should be rearrange, if the sentence should be communicating something totally different! I have to constantly remind myself about this but once you’re able to except you can’t write your story perfectly the first way, it gets much easier to just let the words flow. It’s hard and sucks but it’s true! And the truth shall set you free!

End of interview!

Thanks SO much Jamie for wanting to be a part of this! You were awesome! :D If you want to visit Jamie's blog, it's Through Two Blue Eyes. Just stop on by, I'm sure she'd love to hear from you! :D

If anyone else would like to be interviewed about their book, please leave a comment and let me know and I'll get in touch with you! Currently, I'm looking for my March interview! So again, just let me know and we'll talk! P.S. You don't have to answer ALL the questions I ask about your book if you don't want to, I can just change a few here and there to accommodate you! :D

But once again, BIG thanks to Jamie and I hope that you all enjoyed the post! :D

Your busy and happy blogger,

Rebecca