Hello Kristan Cannon!
Week
three of the Summer Splash Blog Tour!
This
week, I'd like to welcome back Kristan Cannon. You may remember her
from “Boldy
Going Where...”, as the proprietor of the Lone Wolf Bookstore.
Today, I've asked her some questions about her work as an author.
Tell
me now; who are you?
I
suddenly feel like I should be singing that opening to CSI:Miami.
Haha!
I'll cue the theme music! In the meantime, why don't you tell us more
about what you write?
I
write mostly speculative fiction, which means I bounce around from
post-apocalyptic to near-future sci-fi, and low-magic urban fantasy.
Worlds that are recognizably our own with minor changes. I ask
a whole lot of "What if? What would be different in our
lives?"
So
tell me a bit about yourself; What else do you like to do?
Lots.
I have a weakness for chocolate and coffee, and I like to sail and
spend time in the outdoors. I paint and draw, sometimes mixing
the two into mixed media... pictures that are not 100% drawn and
paintings where the drawn part is easily seen. I use
watercolour, so much of the painting is used to highlight the pencil
and ink work.
I've
seen pictures of your sailboat! Completely gorgeous. I love mixed
media art, you can achieve so many textures and details that would be
lost otherwise.
What
is your favorite way to story build and brainstorm?
I
start with building and creating my characters. People who are
living life like you or me, and perhaps, if the story calls for it,
they may have magical abilities or something that only exists in the
realm of hard sci fi right now. Afterwards I ask what kind of
world these characters live in. Why are they the way they are.
And
then I create drama for them to react to.
How
do you create your characters?
I
used to play a lot of the game Rifts, or even D&D, so I typically
create a character using those rules. It gives me a fair idea
of their abilities and limitations. Even when I create
characters based on people I know, I still use the same template and
method. I just recreate them using Beyond the Supernatural (a
Palladium game book) with a bit of the game Dead Reign mixed in so
they are as realistic as possible, even if not perfectly a clone of
their inspiration. Actually, there are usually some key
differences between the character and the inspiration behind that
character. Changes I twisted to match the environment or
to hide key facts about them to protect their privacy from strangers.
Normally,
though, the characters are more or less randomly created using the
rules from BTS, with personalities using other generators. This
creates random people that breathe life into the books because
they're not all clones of each other but instead are their own unique
individual.
What
was the best feedback you've ever gotten from a reader?
That
they believed the characters were real, even if they knew that a few
of them were based on real people, the fact that even the bit
characters were so different instead of cookie cutter. When I
manage to suspend belief over a character being real to someone or
not, I've done my job as a writer.
That
is absolutely fantastic. And not easy to achieve.
Tell
me more about your writing: What was your first published work?
I
can't even remember that anymore. It was a short story in a
magazine I didn't expect to get published. It might have even
been Blue Star (a fan fiction piece I wrote before fan fiction was a
thing) that got published in a fanzine.
Do
you have a favorite project so far? What makes it so?
So
far, it's the Kingdom
of Walden series. The first book wasn't even supposed
to get published--I had written it on a lark--but people liked it too
much. Soon, others liked it and wanted more, so I continued it
with the intent of it being only a trilogy. Now it's a series,
with a fourth book already written and ready to for editing and plans
for more. It's my favourite, so far, because it's a book series
that takes place where I live. I live in a city that has played
host to many a Hollywood star and movie, but never as the city
itself. We've always stood in for somewhere else. This
series actually showcases our city and the surrounding area... front
and centre.
What's
next on your agenda? What can we look forward to in the coming year?
The
third book of the Kingdom of Walden series is coming out at the end
of August, and it's called Between
Silence and Fire. I know there's been a few readers
eagerly waiting for it to hit shelves. I might finish a
painting, or perhaps even a sculpture, or two before the end of the
year. We'll see.
Why
did you decide to write and publish?
I
don't remember ever thinking I wouldn't. It was just a matter
of what was going to end up on shelves and when.
What
do you think is your driving force behind your writing? What keeps
you going?
I
can't imagine doing anything else, so it would be what keeps me going
when other things are too much.
The
mother of all questions: Tell us about a favorite book?
I
have too many, but right now my favourite is Hunting Party by
Elizabeth Moon. Horses, space travel, a space navy and two
strong badass women leading.
Anything
else you'd like our adoring masses to know?
I
will be opening a bookstore soon in Sudbury. (Lone
Wolf Bookstore) Keep an eye out for that! We welcome indie
authors for signings and other events, even a NaNoWriMo event or
two. Bring us your write-ins and cafe crawls! We're
hoping to be open in time for NaNo 2016.
Kristan Cannon
Author
of
The
Kingdom of Walden Series
and
upcoming
Between
Silence and Fire
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