Kelley Armstrong-Interview with the Author
May 7, 2013 marks the release date of Kelley Armstrong’s new middle grade novel LOKI’S WOLVES-the first installment in her new Blackwell Pages series co-authored with Melissa Marr. We would like to welcome Kelley Armstrong to The Reading Cafe.
TRC: Hi Kelley and welcome to The Reading Café. For those who do not know you, would you please tell us something about yourself?
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Kelley: I’m the author of the “Women of the Otherworld” paranormal suspense series and “Darkest Powers/Darkness Rising” young adult urban fantasy series, as well as the Nadia Stafford crime series. I grew up in Southwestern Ontario, where I still live with my family. I’m a former computer programmer, but I’ve escaped my corporate cubicle and hope never to return.
TRC: 2013 is a pretty busy and amazing year for Kelley Armstrong with a number of new series, anthologies, continuations and re-releases. How do you find the time to combine writing and family life?
Kelley: With a full household and a busy travel schedule, I’ve learned to live by the Jack London quote that you can’t wait for inspiration to strike; you need to go after it with a club. I get my writing in whenever I can. My basic routine is to write and edit after while the kids are in school, then work on business after dinner and on weekends.
Click HERE for our review
TRC: The Rising is the April 2013 release in your Darkness Rising series. Would you please tell us something about the premise?
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Kelley: It concludes both the Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising trilogies. I set up two groups of kids in almost identical situations. Neither group could solve their problem on their own. They need to come together to find a solution. That’s about all I can say without serious spoilers for those who haven’t read the earlier books!
TRC: As with Thirteen, the final installment in your Women of the Otherworld Series, The Rising is the final book and conclusion to the Darkness Rising series. Do you suffer from any type of withdrawal when a popular and long running series comes to an end?
Click HERE for our review of THIRTEEN
Kelley: Not yet, possibly because I don’t consider them “done forever.” It’s been a nice creativity-recharge to work in new worlds, but I’ve written a few things in the Otherworld since Thirteen and I suspect I’ll do the same with the YA. It’s just not an annual novel-length instalment.
TRC: Savannah and Adam. Do you have any plans to write a short story with regards to their future plans? Wedding? 😉
Kelley: I don’t plan to right now, because I’m leaving that door open for longer stories. If I decide against that, I’ll definitely do a novella to show where they end up as a couple.
TRC: You have written a number of short stories for The Otherworld series as well as novellas for anthologies including the February 2013 release of Shards and Ashes and Spellcasters (June 2013) a collection of Otherworld short stories. Do you find it more difficult to write full-length storylines or short stories where an entire story and premise must be developed and come to fruition within a few pages and chapters?
Kelley: I wouldn’t say either is more difficult. They serve different story-telling purposes. Novels always sell better, but shorter fiction gives me a chance to tell the stories that aren’t novel length. Many just aren’t and being able to write short fiction means I never have the urge to take a twenty page story and pad it to 400 pages!
TRC: Loki’s Wolves (Blackwell Pages #1) co-written with Melissa Marr is your latest (May 7, 2013) foray into the world of middle grade novels. Would you please tell us something about the premise?
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Kelley: It’s a middle-grade trilogy based on Norse mythology. The main characters are distantly descended from the dead gods. That’s one thing about Norse myth—the gods can and do die. So they’re long gone and now Ragnarök (the Norse apocalypse) is coming and these descendants need to fight in their ancestor’s stead.
Click HERE for our review.
TRC: What difficulties or challenges (research, logistics, communication, travel etc) do you face co-writing a storyline with another author?
Kelley: It is very different, because all parts of the process (from planning to writing to editing) need to be shared. For the first two books, we planned and wrote together, often at Melissa’s cabin. Then we edited separately, which meant divvying up the allotted time (we didn’t get extra time because there were two of us editing, so we had to be faster than I usually am.)
TRC: How did you and Melissa divide the writing of the storyline in Loki’s Wolves? Was there any particular premise that one or the other focused on such as character development or storyline flow?
Kelley: I think the process for every co-authoring pair is different in some aspect. What’s working for us is splitting the writing by narrative point-of-view. I’m taking the male protagonist and she’s taking the two secondary characters (cousins–a boy and a girl) We alternate chapters—I do one for “my” character, then she writes a chapter for one of hers. All the plotting and editing is shared, of course.
TRC: Wild Justice is the third installment in the Nadia Stafford series to be released in November 2013. Did the fans of Nadia Stafford encourage or push you to write another storyline for their favorite hit woman?
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Kelley: I always planned to write one or two more books in that “series.” Then the YA books became much more popular than I anticipated and I just didn’t have time. I finally got far enough ahead of schedule this year to slot in a last instalment.
TRC: Four Summoner’s Tales (Anthology with Christopher Golden, David Liss and more) to be released in September 2013 is another collection of short stories. Would you please tell us something about the premise of your submission-Suffer The Children?
Kelley: The premise for all four stories is the same—someone offers to raise the dead…for a price. My story is set in northern Ontario in the last nineteenth century, after a diphtheria outbreak claims the lives of most of the town’s children.
TRC: We have heard that you are releasing a new novel in 2014 called Sea of Shadows. Would you please tell us something about the premise and to which series it will belong?
Kelley: It’s a brand new series called Age of Legends. It’s high fantasy, and tells the story of twin sixteen-year-old girls, one with the power to calm the dead, the other to fight them. They guard the Forest of the Dead, where criminals are exiled to their deaths. As you might imagine, things go horribly wrong 😉
TRC: Do your characters speak to you and tell you the direction of the story or do you direct the characters?
Kelley: It’s a combination. A fully developed character should direct the action in the sense that the author should not force him/her to act “out of character.” But it’s the author who develops the character in the first place, so she had control.
TRC: How do you deal with the stress and anxiety of writing deadlines?
Kelley: I stay away from deadlines exactly for that reason! By that, I mean that I’m always working well ahead of schedule. It’s my goal to submit books at least a couple of months before they’re due.
TRC: What do you believe is the biggest misconception about yourself?
Kelley: If there is one, I don’t think I’ve heard it! I suppose just the same misconceptions that all authors deal with—that we’re rich, that we only work a couple of hours a day (like authors on TV/movies), that we control all parts of production (like cover art) or that we control hardly anything (that we have to write what we’re told by our publishers or make changes that the publisher insists on.) All false…though I’d be happy if the rich and “hardly ever work” parts were true!
TRC: What five things would you like to accomplish in the next ten years?
Kelley: Tough question. There are personal things I’d like to accomplish, but professionally, I’m happy to tread water 😉 I’ve accomplished all my goals there, but now I’m making some major changes, so my hope is that they aren’t disastrous changes—ending successful series to start new ones. If ten years from now I’m in the same place I am at this moment, I’ll be very happy.
TRC: On what are you currently working?
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Kelley: I wrapped up my Otherworld series this past summer and I’m launching a new one called Cainsville this summer. The first book is Omens, and we’re calling it modern gothic—it’s heavy on the mystery and suspense with light supernatural aspects. I’m currently gearing up to start work on the third book in that series. Did I mention I like to stay well ahead of deadlines? Omens is completely finished, book 2 is in edits and I’m planning book 3 now.
TRC: Would you like to add anything else?
Kelley: Just a thanks for the interview and a thanks to readers, whose support gives me the best job imaginable.
Thank you Kelley for taking the time to answer our questions about the numerous new releases upcoming for the next twelve months. Congratulations on all of your success. WE miss Clay and Elena and, the wolf pack but we are definitely excited with each new short story release in The Otherworld series.
