Take it away, Pam!
1) What
were your favorite books growing up? Oh gosh, so many! I have to thank my
mother for instilling in me my love of books by encouraging me to read when I
was young. I read everything; Nancy Drew Mysteries, all the Lord of the Rings,
Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Tom Sawyer, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Charlotte’s
Web…there are too many to list all my favorites here, but one series stood out
to me: Barbara Van Tuyl’s A Horse Called Bonnie books. Rumor has it they will
be released in Kindle soon!
2) Now
that you have, let’s say—some life experience, what would you tell your younger
self? BUY STOCK IN GOOGLE!!! Oh, I guess that’s what I would say if I could
time travel back to my younger self. So I guess if I could send thoughts back
to my younger self, it would be “Be less afraid of failure and more afraid of
not trying.” And BUY STOCK IN GOOGLE!
3) Describe
your typical day. Seriously, it’s totally dull. Being a writer is one of the
most unglamorous jobs there is. In fact, I like to joke that when I worked as a
receptionist, my day was much more glamorous. I always had a nice manicure,
wore nice clothes and makeup, did my hair, and put on my most professional
persona to greet my customers during the day. Writing is done in my sweat
pants, no makeup, with my hair pulled back in a messy clip just to get it out
of my face. I intersperse housecleaning to break up long stints in the chair.
4) Who
is your favorite character in your books? I know most writers say this, but my
favorite character is always the one I’m currently writing. If I didn’t love
them, (heroes and heroines alike) I couldn’t write about them. If I had to pick
one favorite, I would say it was Celia Brown from Once Upon a Christmas Carol.
I threw so much bad stuff at her, but she still didn’t lose her sanity.
5) What
do you do when writer’s block shows up, settles in, and makes itself
comfortable? Writer’s block is my constant companion, even when I know my
story’s beginning, middle, and end. Because I’m always looking for that element
that will make it bigger, better, more. I’m always searching for the WOOHOO
moment, the thing that makes a reader hold their breath or shout in excitement.
What is a woohoo moment? Here’s an example (and you’ll have to be a Justified
fan to get this) Raylan Givens finds himself across a table from Fletcher “The
Icepick” Nix, an assassin who toys with his victims by placing a gun on the
table between them and giving them until the count of 10 to grab it. When the
victim reaches for the gun, Nix stabs the other player in the hand with an ice pick
before taking the gun and killing them. We’ve already seen him kill someone
this way, so I’m on the edge of my seat holding my breath as Nix counts down across
from Raylan. I’m watching this thinking “No, Raylan, don’t do it! He’ll kill
you!” But what choice does he have but to try? OMG how will my sexy hero get
out of this one? And then, instead of reaching for the gun, Raylan pulls the
table cloth toward himself, causing Nix to stab the table with the ice pick,
and Raylan grabs the gun and shoots Nix in the shoulder. I threw my hands in
the air and shouted WOOHOO! Honestly every time I watch Justified I say to
myself, I wish I could write like that.
Justified is constantly giving me my WOOHOO moment.
6) Do
you find yourself pulling details from “real life” or does your imagination
rule the roost? It’s a mixture of both, because I have a wild imagination, but
seriously, real life has some crazy shit! It really is true what they say,
truth is stranger than fiction.
7) What
was the first manuscript you wrote (even if it never saw the light of day)? An
800 page rambling, implausible fantasy about a bounty hunter who seduced her
skips, drugged them, and brought them back to the police station unconscious. Needless
to say, it was not something that would give Janet Evanovich a run for her
money.
8) Have
you ever pursued traditional publishing? Or did you go straight for indie
publishing? I am what’s known as a Hybrid author. I made my first sales to
small presses: Samhain Publishing and The Wild Rose Press as myself, and erotic
works to Loose Id, Ellora’s Cave, and Lyrical Press under a pseudonym. There
are a lot of benefits to being with an established publisher, and I am
fortunate to have had wonderful experiences with all of them. But there are
also a lot of benefits to being Indie, too. Ultimately, going it Indie fits
perfectly with my personality because I like to be in charge, especially where
my own career is concerned. I use the skills from previous jobs to handle much
of it myself: I’m an expert in Microsoft Office, I write HTML so I can format
my own books, and I spent twelve years as a professional web and graphic
designer so I can create my own art. I learned valuable lessons from my
publishing houses, one of which the value of quality editing. As an Indie
author, I make a promise to my readers that my Indie books are as well edited
as my contracted books, if not better. I always start with beta readers, I hire
a technical editor and a content editor, and finally, I bribe an eagle-eyed
relative to give me a final read before I push the giant red PUBLISH button.
9) What
Works In Progress are brewing? Any
target dates for publication? This is one of the things I love about being
Indie; I can write whatever I want. I’m putting the finishing edits on a
dystopian fantasy set in the future in which vampires have come out of the
proverbial closet because of a zombie plague that threatens the human race, i.e.
their food supply. My heroine is a virus-immune bounty hunter who hates
vampires. When she’s hired by the richest man left alive to find his missing
kids, she’s forced to work in tandem with a vampire. They get into all kinds of
trouble. I loved writing this one because my heroine has some serious snark,
and I got to use my potty mouth.
10) How
can fans reach you? I have a website
that I do keep updated. I can’t say the same about Facebook and Twitter. But I
put it all out there on my website and my blog, and I have a newsletter readers
can sign up for to get notified when I have a new release. http://www.pamelafryer.com, www.facebook.com/pamelasbooks.
Thanks for having me! Like I said earlier, as a writer I just don’t get out as
much as I should anymore.
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