Thanks for meeting us at The Crossroads! Today we're featuring YA paranormal author, Amanda Ashby. I've had some great chats with Amanda via a cool author group on Yahoo, TeenLitAuthors - it's a great sharing resource and if you're a YA author, do a think on joining. ;) Amanda may live down under, but we share a lot of things in common - we both work in libraries, we write YA - and we love a good zombie tale....
1. What's your road to publication story?
I spent about six years trying to write romance novels and while I had a few near misses, but it wasn’t until my dad’s funeral when I had a very surreal conversation with him (despite the fact he was dead!). It was the inspiration for You Had Me at Halo and I started writing it three weeks later. I wrote the book very quickly and after years of getting rejected, I suddenly had two agents wanting to represent me. I signed with Jenny Bent and she sold my book two weeks later. After trying to get published for so long it was a very surreal experience!!!!!
2. Fav zombie movie?
Shaun of the Dead
3. What inspires you? Do you see dead people? ;)
My inspiration is reading other books and watching television (I do love movies as well but at heart I’m a TV and book girl!). Every time I see a great story it makes me want to work harder at my own craft so that I can find the best ways to tell the stories that are in my head!
4. Do you have a playlist for Zombie? And hey - what would zombie music sound like?
I did have a playlist for Zombie but it was on my other computer that died a death so now I’m going to have try and remember a few of them (and since I wrote the book three years ago, it’s not going to be a pretty sight)
How to be Dead by Snow Patrol
Zombie by The Cranberries
What in the World by David Bowie
You Win Again by The BeeGees
I Want You to Want Me by Cheap Trick
5. Describe a typical writing day in AmandaLand.
Monday to Friday I wake up and get my kids ready for school. I normally manage to check my emails at the same time (though I never have enough time to reply to everything, which is why I’m always chronically behind!!!!). Then I drive my kids to school and come home. I will normally do a bit of Internet stuff for half an hour and then get to work. Often I re-read what I did the day before and tweak that (or scrap it, depending on my mood). I will then write until about quarter to two and then go for a walk before I get the kids from school. The afternoon is then taken up with them and I don’t manage to get back to the computer until about eight at night. Sometimes I will keep writing (depending how the day went) or else I will do other writing associated things like blog posts etc.
Then on the weekends I work at the library so the only writing I get to do is at night time!
Then on the weekends I work at the library so the only writing I get to do is at night time!
Whew - Amanda is on busy writer! You won't want to miss Zombie Queen of Newbury High, which is the story of what happens when a teenage girl tries to do a love spell, but instead she accidentally turns her entire senior year into zombies and then has to find a cure before she becomes next on their new flesh-only diet.
Or her next upcomming releases: Fairy Bad Day is about a girl who suddenly starts to see invisible fairies. Invisible killer fairies. She also has a mid grade series coming out about a girl who gets turned into a djinn the day before she starts sixth grade. Check out her website: http://amandaashby.com/
2 comments:
I'm going to read them all! Her day sounds ideal to me. Except I let the kids ride the bus and usually they forget something at school so I'll have to run them back up there to get a piece of homework or a book or lunchbox. But other than that it sounds ideal. Wonder how she trains them not to forget stuff? Maybe she threatens to turn them into zombies.
Heather
I love Shaun of the Dead, too!
Post a Comment