Welcome to An Indie
Adventure, Elizabeth Andrews. Tell us,
what inspired you to write your book Hunting
Medusa?
Good
question. I don’t know that I have a
good answer, though. It was one of those
things where I had just a snippet of something that might be called an idea,
and I’d look at it when I was paging through my idea notebook, but it sat there
a while before I suddenly knew a big enough part of the idea that I could
attempt to start writing. I’ve loved the
old mythologies for as long as I can remember, and giving them an unexpected
little tweak appeals to me. Why
shouldn’t the monster of old be the heroine now? Why shouldn’t that old story have continued
for thousands of years into the present?
Have you been a
lifelong reader of romances? What are
some the first books you remember reading?
I’ve been
reading forever, but I was a teenager before I started reading actual romances,
and those were from my mom’s stash.
Looking back, there were romances within some of the other books I was
reading up to that point—Little Women,
anyone?—but I wasn’t reading strictly romances before I was a teenager. I had limited space for books as a kid,
though I did have a fair collection, but we were at the library once a week,
and I would bring home as many books as I was allowed to take out. I still have my tattered old copies of Little Women and the Little House series, as well the Heidi
series, and oh, there were so many! And,
wow, now that I think about it, there really was romance in some of my
favorites.
What do you do to rev
your creative juices?
In an ideal
world, I would be able to sit here at my desk with a candle lit a few feet away
and the music I’ve picked for my story soundtrack playing to put me into my
characters’ heads, and just write. In
the world where I’m living right now, however, I have to take the moments I get
to work on my writing, between the evil day-job, normal household obligations,
family, and the unexpected things that crop up.
You have to train your brain to get into that mode, and I won’t lie:
some days it’s hard. Most of the
rewrites I’m working on have been done during lunch/dinner breaks at the
EDJ.
What would be your
advice to people who are considering a writing career?
Study: Read a lot of
books in the genre(s) you love; read some more; go to some workshops or
conferences in your areas of interest and even outside that area; read more
books; join a writers’ group; did I mention reading? Really, the reading is a great way to study
the market, as well as to improve your writing skills. Consider it homework. And write because you have to, not because
you think you’re going to get rich.
Writing well is hard work, and it takes a lot of practice. If you
don’t love it, there are probably much easier ways to get rich. And if you love it, you’re going to do it no
matter whether you get published or not.
You’re
having a dinner party. What character
from your novel do you hope doesn’t show up? Why?
Stavros. He is excessively
violent, carries multiple weapons, and tends toward a drinking problem, so that
wine on the dinner table would probably start things downhill in a hurry. I don’t think the night would end well for
the rest of the guests.
Give us a brief
summary of Hunting Medusa :
The Medusa
Trilogy, Book 1
Ever since
the original Medusa ticked off Athena, her cursed daughters have been paying
for that mistake. To this day, successive Medusas play cat and mouse with the
Harvesters.
When Kallan Tassos tracks down the current Medusa, he
expects to find a monster. Instead he finds a wary, beautiful woman, shielded
by a complicated web of spells that foils his plans for a quick kill and
retrieval of her protective amulet.
Andrea
Rosakis expects the handsome Harvester to go for the kill. Instead, his attempt
to take the amulet imprinted on her skin without harming her takes her
completely by surprise. And ends with the two of them in a magical
bind—together.
Though
there attraction is combustible, her impending PMS (Pre Magical-Curse Syndrome)
puts a real damper on any chance of a relationship. But Kallan isn’t the only
Harvester tracking Andi, and they must cooperate to stay one step ahead of a
ruthless killer before they can have any future, together or apart.
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Bio:
Elizabeth Andrews has been a book lover since she was old enough to
read. She read her copies of Little
Women and the Little House series
so many times, the books fell apart. As an adult, her book habit continues. She has a room overflowing with her literary collection right now, and still more spreading into other rooms. Almost as long as she’s been reading great stories, she’s been attempting to write her own. Thanks to a fifth grade teacher who started the class on creative writing, Elizabeth went from writing creative sentences to short stories and eventually full-length novels. Her father saved her poor, callused fingers from permanent damage when he brought home a used typewriter for her.
Elizabeth found her mother’s stash of romance novels as a teenager, and-though she loves horror- romance became her very favorite genre, making writing romances a natural progression. There are more than just a few manuscripts, however, tucked away in a filing cabinet that will never see the light of day.
Along with her enormous book stash, Elizabeth lives with her husband of twenty years and two young adult sons, though no one else in the house reads nearly as much as she does. When she’s not at work or buried in books or writing, there is a garden outside full of herbs, flowers and vegetables that requires occasional attention.
Find Elizabeth:
