Friday 28 October 2011

An interview with the amazing and fabulous Michelle Gent!...

1. Hi Michelle! Would you mind telling me a little about yourself and your books?
Oooh... me and my books... Well, I’m a tom-boy and probably always will be. I ride a motorcycle when I’m not injured (not been able to ride for 2 years now L ) and I have always loved reading.

My books are written to suit me and the way I read, I think. I love Stephen King and CS Lewis and the way I find myself immersed in the story is how I like to read so I wanted to emulate that style. I hope I managed it. With Deadlier... than the Male I wanted to drag my readers into a world where Werewolves exist and survive alongside humans, undetected and unsuspected.

Red – the main character – is a female Werewolf and at the pinnacle of her career as head of the Police Force. It’s her job to protect the head of the royal family and to ensure that the Werewolf society remains unnoticed by humans.

The book takes the reader through present day and into Red’s past and the story of how she became a Werewolf. It shows the betrayals she had to weather and her journey to becoming the chosen one who was prophesised more than a millennia before her actual birth.

Cruel... and Unusual is woven around the actual facts of the murders perpetrated by Jack the Ripper. It’s still a Werewolf story but it explains how everything happened. I had a lot of fun fitting facts to my story and I believe it works well.

Blood... on the Moon is more the true sequel to Deadlier. Red goes back to her home town to try to prevent a murder attempt on the Lycaeon’s life (Lycaeon is the head of the Werewolf royal family).

Red’s job is made all the more difficult because she has to contend with the Lupine Moon – an occurrence which comes around only every 500 years or so.

My final book is on ebook only for the time being. It’s not in the Wolf series and it’s about Dusty. She’s a Demon Hunter first class and is asked to help her friend to fight off an Incubus attack. Dusty has to travel the Astral Plane to find and defeat Impundulu, the Incubus.

Dusty is a feisty and kick-ass girl and she’s part-demon so she knows what she’s doing in the world of demons and faeries and such... or we hope she does.

2. Do you have a outlined ‘plan’ when you write, or do you just write and see where it takes you?
Hmm... a plan would mean that I was organised... I’m not. On my last book, as I was writing the final scenes, I was tapping away at the computer, my husband was at the side of me, working on the cover etc and I said: “Ooh, I never saw that coming!” He stopped what he was doing and asked me if I’d actually said what he thought I’d said. He couldn’t believe that I didn’t know what was going to happen... of course I don’t know what’s going to happen until it happens... J

My writing takes over and it takes me where it takes me... I really enjoy it when it drags me along. It means that the reader will probably be dragged along too J

3. How do you manage to come up with your amazing plots and ideas?
The plots just happen... they evolve as I write. I have a fair idea of where the story needs to go (although, sometimes, that takes a back-seat too). The ideas – I have no idea where they come from... some kind of mental email I think...

4.What was the most challenging part when you’re writing?
The most challenging part is actually being able to sit down and concentrate. Sometimes there can be all sorts of stuff going on around me and I don’t notice, but other times I can be distracted by nothing.

5. Are you the writer who listens to music, has the TV in the background, or so you prefer the silence?
It has to be absolute silence for me and preferably with no-one else in the house – which is difficult when you have 6 people living under one roof!

6. How do you spend your time when you’re not writing?
I have quite a demanding job and sometimes I’m at meetings all day but what I like to do is read. I don’t really get time to watch TV but when I go on holiday (vacation) I take my Kindle and do almost nothing! J I also have to study as I’m learning how to become an accredited proof reader and editor.

7. Which author would you most like to meet and why?
Stephen King! He’s such an inspiration! I read his book ‘On Writing’ and it helped me to learn how to edit my own work so that it reads even better than it did.

8. If you could travel to one country/place in the world where would you go and why?
Well, I’ve been to quite a few countries and I’d certainly like to go back to all of them but I suppose a country that I’ve never visited would be Egypt. I love the thought that there was a whole civilisation prospering thousands of years before we managed to become organised!

9. What’s your favourite colour?
I wear black as much as possible... I’ve been told it doesn’t suit my colouration but I can’t get out of that habit J My favourite colour is Red which could be one of the reasons my main character shares the name... maybe not ;)

10. Do you have a favourite word that you love?
‘Paradox’ is a good word I think. I love all words though because without them where on earth would we be?

11. Do you have any advice for the aspiring authors out there?
Aspiring Authors... yes, don’t give up! If you have a story, write it. If you’re desperate to get it published, please, please, PLEASE check out the company you send your work to so you’re not setting yourself up to get ripped off. The last thing is make sure the work you send in is as good as you can possibly make it before you send it. Give your ‘baby’ the best possible chance by proofreading it and editing it before you send it. If it looks professional, it will catch an Agent or Publisher’s eye for the RIGHT reasons!

12. Finally, would you like to add anything/say anything to your fans etc.?
To my fans – Thanks for the encouragement you’ve shown so far. I won’t let you down! I promise to never become one of those authors that writes because it pays to write *another* one in the series. If my next book isn’t going to have my 100% talent and ability thrown into it, then I’ll not write it.

Thanks for the opportunity Katie.

Thank you SO much for answering the questions!! It was absolutely brilliant to have you! :D

~Katie

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