Renee Travis is an indie author with several paranormal novels under her belt. Her newest is the young adult fantasy Princess of Death. Let's learn more about Renee and her writing...
Q: How long have you been writing and when did you decide to
indie publish? What was the biggest hurdle in going it alone?
A: I have been writing since I was 13, there are millions of
half finished ideas and stories floating around my mom's house. I wrote an
adult vampire romance called As Time Passes the year I was 17, obviously I
never did anything with it. I decided to indie publish after Rose Blossom and
After Realm were shot down dozens of times by literary agent after agent.
Especially when I read some of the garbage that actually GETS mainstream
published. The biggest hurdle is not knowing if your work is actually good.
Friends and family are awesome, but they tend to sugar coat if your work is
actually crap. lol
Q: You’ve written several paranormal books. Your latest is Princess of Death.
Can you explain the idea behind the book? Where did the inspiration come from?
A: The idea behind the book was to make evil good. I see so
many books that are supposed to be "dark" but then fail. The
characters wind up good. And while, yes it is hard to be sympathetic to an
"evil" or "dark" character I have always loved dark things
and wanted to create a world I could play in, where death is common and treated
like a friend. My patron Goddess is Ereshkigal the sumerian goddess of death
and destruction so Princess of Death is a slight retelling of how she met her
consort Nergal.
Q: What drew you to paranormal fiction as a genre? Do you plan to branch out to
other genres as your career progresses?
A: I love magic and mythology, always have, have always been
drawn to the paranormal so I think I am going to stay with what I love.
However, I am planning to write an adult novel, starting this fall.
Q: Ereshkigal is the MC of Princess of Death. Can you tell us more about her?
A: Ereshkigal is the middle child of parents who don't care
about her or her older brother. She is born with dark and dangerous powers no
one except people born to the dark respect or understand. When the story starts
she is a little unsure of herself, still a child, trying to find her way,
playing in cemeteries, reading and sneaking forbidden fruit from the garden
with her best friend. As the book progresses she grows up, realizes that the
people of Adura need her and that she needs to help them break free from her
parents and be a leader they can fear, respect and adore. She struggles with
loving her magic and wishing she didn't. I have tried to make her a strong
female character.
Q: Who is the intriguing demon prince Ereshkigal meets during her journeys
in Princess of Death?
A: Oh... Nergal lol. He is the love interest, though I tried
to make the love interest a back story, I get tired of it being the main plot
too. He is a bat shape shifting demon who falls in love with Eshie and then
requests her aid at his home, Bet Pagri. He doesn't have a whole lot of depth,
which I worried about, but he is not the focal point of the novel or of Eshie's
life.
Q: How do you come up with the names for your characters?
A: With this book all the names are from Sumerian mythology.
With other books I just make them up, I have a list of names I like the
meanings of. I try to match the meanings with the character's personality.
Q: Chicken or the egg question. Do you create a character and build around
him/her? Or do you imagine a concept and create characters which fit the idea?
A: Yikes, hard question. It depends, with this book the
character of Ereshkigal and her best friend Namtar were first and then the plot
came. With Rose Blossom and After Realm it was totally the other way around.
Q: How do you avoid writing a Mary Sue or Marty Stu when most writers can’t
help falling desperately in love with their creations?
A: I think we all fall into this. In Rose Blossom, my main
character is a bit of a Mary Sue, but it was hard for her NOT to be based on
her role in the novel. In After Realm, Hellebelle has Mary Sue moments, because
really all of us have them. I write my main characters kind of like how I would
act in their place, and then toss in their unique personality. If it comes out
Mary Sue or Stu then I guess in real life I might be a bit of one too :)
Q: Do you use anything to inspire you while you’re writing? Music, visual aids,
etc? Also have you found ideas come to you more freely in particular places or
at certain times of the day?
A: I have a piece of rainbow fluorite I keep at my computer
desk and I play with it while I think or if I have a moment of writer's block.
I also create a play list and listen to music. I can't tell you what because it
changes depending on the book. For example during Rose Blossom, I listened to
Tear Your Apart by She Wants Revenge...a lot.
Q: When an idea hits you, do you start writing immediately or plot it out
first?
A: I will usually free write the first chapter and then take
a week or two to outline and plot. I write better if I already know where I am
going.
Q: When you read less than fawning reviews, how do you know when to use the
critique to improve your future writing and when do you chalk up the criticism
as different strokes for different folks?
A: Honestly? Reading a bad review is hard, I mean this is
something I have spent hours, over months pouring my soul into. Alas, it is
JUST a review, I have written some pretty nasty ones about books I didn't care
for that some other person put their time and effort into. I look at it this
way: any review is better than none. If NO ONE is talking about my book that's
horrible because it means word isn't getting out...A negative review? Well it
hurts but ignore it, there will always be SOMEONE who hates your shit. That's
just life. And whether I use it to improve my writing depends on what the
review actually says...Though honestly I try not to read my review, makes for
stress.
Q: I’ve read criticism from particular bloggers (Fangs for the Fantasy being
one) about the lack of people of color and different sexual orientations in
fiction. Do you take this lack of diversity into consideration when creating
plots and characters?
A: Not really, I write what I like. In Rose Blossom, the
vampire love interest of my MC has lesbian moms and in After Realm, two of the
princesses wind up being gay. My characters also are usually weird. Hellebelle
has blood red skin, Raven has skin black like night, Mikado is Hispanic (all in
After Realm) and in Princess of Death I have characters with blue, gray, black
and green skin.
Q: Do word counts mean anything to you? Do you find your books top out at
around the same lengths?
A: I try really hard to make lengthy novels, but it doesn't
always work out that way. Each of my books is slightly longer than the next. I
just write until my characters do what they have to and until the plot
finishes, if they need more time/words then I give it to them...You know when
my MC screams in my head she wants another scene to show the world how bad ass
she is. lol
Q: How big a deal is writer’s block for you and what do you do to shake it off?
A: I don't so much have writer's block as I will have a few
weeks where I am just too busy with work, kids and school to even think about
sitting at my computer. During that time however ideas start collecting and
need to be purged.
Q: What books did you enjoy most in 2012?
A: The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers, Mark of the
Witch by Maggie Shayne, The Kingdom by Amanda Stevens, Delusion in Death by JD
Robb, I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga, The Far West by Patricia C Wrede and Tiger
Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Q: What trends do you hope die in 2013? Are there any you hope take off?
A: Love triangles! Ughn I friggin HATE love triangles. They
bore me to death and bother me. I also could do without dystopian stuff and
angels. I love fairy tale retellings and retellings of famous stories and
historical events from different view points. Now I am not talking crap like
Little Women and vampires (or whatever) which is just bad fan fiction, but
actual retellings. I would love to see more of that.
Q: What are you plans for 2013 as an indie writer?
A: I am about half way done with the first book in a new
series about witches, I plan to put out 0.5 of the Three Provinces series and
this fall start an adult novel about the first wife of Vlad the Impaler.
Find Renee's books at Amazon.
***Rose Blossom is currently free.***
Follow Renee at her blog.
Renee Travis is an indie author with several paranormal novels under her belt. We talked to her earlier in the week about her writing. Now, let's learn more about her as a person...
