Today I have Fantasy/Steampunk author Charlotte Henley Babb in my hot seat.
JC: If you could sum up your book in two words what would they be?
CB: Maven Fairy Godmother-Fractured fairytale. 20 hours to Charles Town-Steampunk adventure.
JC: What is your target audience for your book? And why Fantasy?
CB: My audience is the large group of women readers over 40, and a subset of the under 40 crowd who like fantasy, silliness and fairy tales even if the main character is over 30. The fandom for fantasy and science fiction no longer consists of adolescent males—some of them grew up, at least physically, and some of them were always women. I’ve been reading science fiction since I was 8—more than 50 years.
JC: Do you have a muse that inspires you when writing? What is your inspiration?
CB: I am my own muse, my secret self, my inner heroine. I use inspiration from my own life, from Netflix, from my favorite writers, and even from people I know and things that happen to them. Sometimes my inspiration is that it’s 8:30 pm, and I haven’t written yet. I have two accountability partners, and I don’t want to disappoint myself by admitting to either of them that I didn’t write today…at least 500 words of new draft material.
JC: Nice dedication there, so do you have any secret writing tips to share?
CB: Don’t worry if you don’t know what you are going to write or if you can’t think of what comes next. Start typing. Think of a character and if nothing else, ask that character what the next most logical step is. Let yourself be surprised. Writer’s block is about fear, not a real thing. Type something, no matter how bad, but stay on the story, not on whining or endless character charts and world building. It has taken me 20 years to learn that, so listen to the voice of experience. The only way to do it is to do it, one letter at a time, one word at a time, one sentence at a time, one paragraph at a time, one scene at a time.
JC: I’ve heard that before about Writer’s block not being a real thing. Guess that is true even if I am stuck on my book I usually just move on and write something else so my writing isn’t really blocked now is it? Can I ask you now what do you love most about writing?
CB: I am the first reader, so I love watching the story be revealed to me as I write it. I am a world-builder, and love to research the details that can make my world work. In my current work in progress, a steampunk adventure, I have to keep myself from getting too involved in what was really possible in 1850 as opposed to just going for it and making it up as I go along, gears, smoke and all.
JC: I prefer mornings to write. Sometimes that doesn’t always happen, but do you have a personal favorite time of day to write?
CB: Since I have a day job and an evening job, I tend to write in the evenings. If I get up early and am coherent, I can write in the mornings, especially on the weekends. Ideally, I’d write in the mornings, but I rarely can get up early enough to write and then be at work at 8 am. When I do try it, I get involved in the story, and then I’m late to work. Time management is critical.
JC: Close us out with an inspirational quote for future writers out there.
CB: "People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that’s all there is to it".- Harlan Ellison
CHECK OUT ALL OF CHARLOTTE'S BOOKS
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| A dead cellphone calls with a job offer and a promise of dragons. Imagine if Terry Pratchett sat down with Kathy Bates to make up fractured fairy tales for Edward Everett Horton to read aloud: you'd get MAVEN FAIRY GODMOTHER: THROUGH THE VEIL. Giving up what's her self-esteem for coffee, her last chance to redeem her life comes as a job offer to be a fairy godmother. But Faery is shrinking, the other fairy godmothers have disappeared, and nothing she does turns out right. How can she put together the happily ever after each of her clients wants with her boss standing in her way? MAVEN FAIRY GODMOTHER: THROUGH THE VEIL is fast, fun read that shows that none of us is ever old enough to know better as we try to wish for we think what will make us happy. |
Five flash fiction stories of magical encounters.
http://bit.ly/Smidgen $2.99 kindle/ $5.49 paper
Maven's Fractured Fairy Tales
Fairy Godmother Maven Morrigan has her own way of making the happily ever after come true. These stories take on The Frog Prince, Rumpelstiltskin and Beauty and the Beast. Three fractured fairy tales to bring you a smile.
$2.99 Kindle / $5.99 Paper http://bit.ly/eMFFT
Also available as separate stories $0.99
Bubba and the Beast http://bit.ly/BubbaBeast
MavenStiltskin http://bit.ly/MavenStilt
Fairy Frogmother http://bit.ly/FrogMom
Walking Off Heaven’s Shore
A ten-piece bucket of Southern fried flash fiction.
$2.99 Kindle/ $5.99 Paper http://bit.ly/WalkShore
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Charlotte Henley Babb began writing as soon as she could hold a piece of chalk and scribble her name. Growing up in the red mud and sweet tea Carolinas, she was a voracious reader with widely diverse interests ranging from the classic folk and fairy tales to sci-fi writers like Terry Pratchett and Robert Heinlein.
Her first novel, Maven Fairy Godmother: Through the Veil, won the 2014 Sharp Writ Book Award for Sci-fi/Fantasy and an honorable mention in the 2014 National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest for adult novels. Her second novel, a steampunk story of espionage and political intrigue set in an alternate 19th century U.S., is scheduled for release in summer 2015.
FOLLOW CHARLOTTE AT: http://charlottehenleybabb.com
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Thanks for hosting me!
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