Ella Medler author of Blood is Heavier and Martin Little, Resurrected tagged me in The Next Big Thing Blog Hop (thank you, Ella) where authors spotlight a book or project they’re working on.
Q1: What is the working title of your book?
The Awakening & Other Stories
Q2: Where did the idea for the book come from?
I mentioned to my father that I was thinking of self-publishing a few short stories I’d written over the years, and he said, “why not?” So I’m going for it. Of course I can’t keep things simple for myself. I ended up deciding to use 4 stories I’d already written and write 4 new ones.
Q3: What genre does your book fall under?
Paranormal
Q4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
There are dozens of characters in these 8 short stories. I have no idea who would play who. I’ll leave it up to the reader to imagine who the characters would be played by.
Q5: What is the one sentence synopsis for your book?
8 short tales, each with a slice of the paranormal.
Q6: Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Self-published
Q7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Hmm, I need to think about this. A couple of the stories date back to 2005 or 2006 and I ended up re-writing them just a bit. The four new stories took a few weeks to write and then a couple of months of editing the entire collection.
Q8: What other books would you compare this story to, within your genre?
Think paranormal anthologies.
Q9: Who or what inspired you to write this book?
The older short stories in this collection were written as part of a creative writing class I took some years back. One story called “The Knocking” was inspired by my grandfather, Paddy. The others come from my love of supernatural fiction.
Q10: What else about your book might pique the readers’ interest?
It’s packed with both supernatural and ordinary people: a witch, ghosts, a vampire or two, a young woman who wants to end it all but doesn’t quite get what she bargained for and a Christmas story.
I’m tagging three wonderful writers who will post their answers on or near November 21st:
L.J. Kentowski – author of Guardian of Fate
L.H Cosway – author of Tegan’s Blood
Michelle Cornwell-Jordan – author of Night School. (Michelle will be visiting the blog shortly to discuss her new release :))
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Emma's Ramblings on Supernatural Fiction 
Very cool, Emma. I’ve got a bunch of shorts I’d love to do the same thing with.You’re inspiring me 🙂
The title of the story you mentioned THE KNOCKING gives me goosebumps from the title alone!
Thanks, Mae. I’m glad the title alone did that to you!
Think about publishing the shorts. You may as well put them out there for people to read. Mine were just lying around in folders for years.
I have so many short stories, well… a few thousand words is short in my language 🙂
I’m just never able to let the characters go after such little time together. I admire the fact that you can deal with that. I’d feel compelled to make each story into a full-length book. 🙂
Thanks for tagging me, Ella. I’m actually having that problem with one or two of the stories. I’m thinking they could be turned into novellas If I ever get the time to write them and that’s a big if 🙂
I loved The Knocking! Great stories Emma. If you ever do write the novellas, I’ll be first in line:)
Yay, I’m glad you did. That was the most personal story for me.
Thanks for the tag Emma! Your short stories sound very inspiring. Can’t wait to read them!
Thanks, L.J.
Reblogged this on Indiewritersreview and commented:
Check out Emma The Next Big Thing!:)
Thanks, Michelle. You’re a star.
See…gonna have me blushing!:o) LOL You’re welcome:)
Very interesting. Check out my blog pag. I love paranormal stuff. Would love to do a review when your book is available.
Thanks, Kimmie. I’m heading over there now.
Witches, ghosts, and vampires, oh my! LOL. That’s almost like my blog tagline. 🙂
Sounds like an intriguing read.
Oh my indeed! I hope it is anyway.
Reblogged this on jbcultureshock and commented:
Thought I would pop in now that my NaNo word count is done for the day and share this. I love reading people’s “Next Big Thing” responses 🙂 I’m planning to answer it for my latest on my website blog after being asked by Michelle Cornwell-Jordan. I’ll also be updating about the NaNo write-in tomorrow, sharing an excerpt and other stuff. See ya then!
Thanks, Jamie. Congrats on doing NaNo – too scary for me, but maybe next year. I’ll keep an eye out for your blog post.
Thanks, Emma!
Very Cool I love short stories. Especially when the collection spans over years. Thanks for sharing I visit from time to time, today Iread carefully as I was Tagged 🙂 GREAT answers . All the wishes for the greatest success.
Thanks for stopping by, Maria. I’m glad that you visit from time to time 🙂
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