The Fantastic Blog Hop presents Crimson Kildare and Kat Marlow

Today we share our blog space with not one, but two talented ladies. Welcome Crimson Kildare and Kat Marlow! First the questions and then more fun stuff.

1 Who is your favorite author?

CMK: This is such a hard question to answer! There are so many I love and adore and for such vastly different things, but if the criteria are the content of what was written, the author’s intelligence and cleverness and their ability to inspire by the way they chose to live their own life as well? Then the clear winner across all of those categories would have to be the 19^th century authoress Madame George Sand!

KM: That’s like trying to pick a favorite child! I think Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye is one of the best novels ever written, and I adore Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. There are a few authors of the Star Wars novels that I love, such as Timothy Zahn, Troy Denning, and Aaron Allston. I’ve really enjoyed the books that John and Carole Barrowman have written so far, and they’re a great example of a successful writing partnership.

2 What’s best: Pen and paper or laptop?

CMK: Both have their merits and I truly love pen and paper for journaling and personal letters, but for writing a book? The laptop wins hands down!

KM: I usually prefer pen and paper, but I enjoy the benefits of writing on a laptop. No ink to waste and edits can be done with the push of a button!

3 What are you reading now?

CMK: I am currently reading George R.R. Martins Game of Thrones books, The Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson series, both of Laurel K. Hamilton’s ongoing Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series and the John and Carole Barrowman Hollow Earth series! All of them exceptional books!

KM: I’m currently reading Hollow Earth by John and Carole Barrowman and next on my list is the second book of the Star Wars: Dark Nest trilogy by Troy Denning.

4 If your house was on fire; what would you save: your computer or your book collection?

CMK: If my house were on fire the first thing I would save would be my 11 year old daughter. The next thing would be my laptop case in which I keep both the computer and my copy of George Sand’s Letters D’un Voyageur! That’s Letter of a Traveler for those who are interested.

KM: Oh God, another ‘pick your favorite child’ question! I consider books to be precious, so I would want to save my book collection after I save my mom. There would be a lot to carry though, and it also depends on whether I’ve transferred my computer files to a flash drive! I admittedly can’t live without my computer, but if I lose it I can always get another one. I guess I could always get new books, but some of them might be out-of-print and hard to find. I appreciate modern technology, but there’s nothing like having an actual book in your hands and turning the pages. I hope books don’t fade out completely.

5  Have you gotten in trouble for your work?

CMK: Kat and I both got our start writing fan fiction. Thankfully no one has ever complained about our playful musings.

KM: Thankfully no. I’m lucky to have not gotten in trouble for my publicly posted fan-fic, and as I mentioned before I keep my other work private. Whatever results from this novel remains to be seen!

6 Do you consider yourself a tech wiz?

CMK: Good Heavens no. I get along and that’s all I can say about that. My husband is the tech wizard in our house.

KM: Ha, barely! I’m only now getting the hang of Microsoft Word!

7 What’s the strangest length you ever went to research your book?

CMK: Not sure this is strange per se, but I’ve called complete strangers to ask them about their towns, professions and so on.

KM: I wouldn’t call this strange, but I did find it fascinating to research Welsh names. My love for the show Torchwood has led to a love and admiration for the Welsh people, and I find their language and ancient culture very interesting. I suppose that comes from my own Celtic blood, as I’m part English and Irish.

CMK: Oh me too, Irish, Scottish, English and the list goes on, lots of Celts in me.

8 Do you read online reviews? If so, how do you deal with any negativity?

CMK: Yes, I want to know the reaction people have to my work and the work of other authors I admire. Sure it’s difficult when someone hates your stuff, but oddly I find I dislike it more when people knock the work of other writers I admire. I think to myself, ‘Really? But they’re so talented!’ I can find it baffling when others aren’t inspired by what seems so immediately and obviously inspiring to me. Still the finest authors who ever lived got bad reviews from time to time. No two people have exactly the same taste and that’s what makes it so exciting, because there’s room for everyone’s work.

KM: I like to know what people think of my work, and I know I’m going to have to develop a thick skin if this is going to be my career. No one likes negative things being said about their baby, but you have to remember it’s not always personal and try to take your emotions out of the equation. Ideally, critical reviews will also be constructive, and hopefully I can use such reviews to fix any flaws in my writing.

9 What would you like aspiring authors to know about the realities of a writing career?

CMK: It’s a real career. It’s real work; it’s not a ‘bird course’ way to make a living. Like anything worth doing it requires three things: a modicum of talent, the ability to learn, grow and improve and the willingness to work hard and even then it’s no certain guarantee that you’ll be wildly successful. It will however guarantee that you’re worth reading, that you’re a good writer. You have to do it, because you love it, for its own sake. As Rainer Maria Rilke said, “Don’t ask me how to be a writer, just do it. If you wake up in the morning and all you can think about is writing? Then you’re a writer! Go do it!” That may be a bit paraphrased, but you get the idea. My mother is a phenomenal singer, truly talented, beautiful voice. She’s been singing professionally for 40 years now. She’s well known and well respected in the music industry in certain circles, but she’s not famous or wealthy. When I was a teenager I asked her, ‘After all this time, you should be famous, why do you keep doing it?” she told me, “I don’t do it to be famous. I do it because I love it. I do it because I need to, it’s who I am.”

That’s what you have to know about being a writer, a singer, an actor or anything creative; do it because it’s who you are, because it lives in you, do the best you can, learn, grow, get better and pray for the best.

KM: As I said before, you’re going to need a thick skin. You’re also going to need determination and a willingness to work hard. Your work will not be accepted for publication right away, and you might have to submit it countless times, which can be frustrating. Most publishers will point out what they think your work is lacking, and it wouldn’t hurt to take their advice. Your work will hopefully come out better in the end. Publishers are mainly out to sell books, and sadly the quest for profits overrides good writing sometimes. The balance between good writing and sellable writing is hard to find, but it can be done.

10  What’s your next project?

CMK: The next book in this series which we anticipate being at least three books long. Also before any of the books will be published in complete form and offered via Amazon and possibly other publishers as well; they will be available to read chapter by chapter at our website starting April 4rth, 2013. We will put up a new chapter every month. The site is called The Looking Glass Writer’s Cooperative. Our aim is to promote both our work and the work of other writers each month, while also providing some good excerpts, reviews and articles on writers, books, television and films. We want to create a warm, welcoming space that engenders a sense of community for authors and avid readers alike.

The web address is thrutheglass.net

KM: Yes,Crimson and I will be working on the next book, and my fan-fiction is always a work-in-progress. I also write reviews for our website.

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And now, enjoy an Excerpt of In The Wyverian Wilds:

…

The Village of Drysor Y Ddraig was laid out at the foot a large, sloping hill. The back end of the hill and the far edge of the village were bordered by a rushing river that flowed over the edge of a cliff. It was a lush, green land full of trees, plants, wild life and small insects. A view filled with beauty and tranquility.

Jamie sat on the lawn behind the house of Yates looking out over the cliffs at the roaring water of the falls. He was lost in thought when the older man, Henry, who’d come with the visiting dignitaries walked over and sat down beside him. He looked up and offered him a small smile. His eye wandering over to see Idris still deep in conversation with Charles and …Val…Val was walking down along the edge of the cliffs on the far end of the lawn. He really, really needed to talk to Val, but where to begin?

Henry watched Jamie for a few minutes and then chuckled. “You’ve so many things on your mind at once you can’t form a single coherent thought about any one of them can you young one?”

“No, I guess I can’t. I…I just have so many questions…” Jamie answered.

“May I ask what sort of questions?”

“About how I got here to begin with…I mean yeah I was frozen and they thawed me out, okay…but how is that possible after all this time, without…any kind of medicine or science…with nothing to help them but a fire?

Henry looked at Val and then at Jamie and gave him a smile in return. “This is where you wish to begin? Talking with me, about the nature of things?”

Jamie spared a guilty look for Val whose back was turned to him in that moment. “I…I…yes, because I don’t know how to begin…anything else…”

Henry nodded as he errantly picked a few blades of tall grass and began to weave them in an intricate pattern as he considered the concerns mentioned.

“You have old knowledge Jamie, compared to what is known to most now. However compared to what I know and more importantly what Thera knows it is the knowledge of the young, of a child. Long, long ago, before the times your people were able to map out and attempted to explain with their analysis and sciences there was another world, another people. These people, they were the first ones, the first of all peoples, of all beings. They were not like you or I or anyone you’ve ever met. They were beings of…possibility. They took form as it pleased them, from them came all the variety of life that has ever existed from the smallest to the largest, from the most benign and powerless to the most clever and powerful. These people had knowledge to be sure, but their knowledge did not come from learning or analysis, but from the source of all things. They were born knowing. They also had healing and power, but theirs was made of the essence of all that is. You would call this magic. They did not have medicine, science or tools, because they did not need them. They had will. There came a time when some of these first ones grew to like physicality, to favor various forms and they chose to take on these forms permanently. This is where life on this world as we know it now and as you once knew it came from. Now I could explain this all in much greater detail, as I used to do for Charles and his brother Cedric when they were young, but my point is that Thera, the land, the earth herself she knew what was coming. She is part of all that is and is connected to it still. She knew that great rock in the sky would come and hit her. She knew the cataclysm it would bring, the harsh reality that would be brought to bear on the peoples on her surface. So she spoke to the Great Mother and together they began to make preparations…they began to rework the nature of the people so that they might survive. They rewove the power of their will for them, giving them back the magics they had abandoned long ago…

“Okay, okay whoaaa Nelly! So what you’re telling me, is that the Earth, who you call Thera, and the Great Mother…by which you mean the spirits of all nature and the planet re-engineered the DNA of the people to give them magic, because they would be robbed of all their tools and sciences?”

“Exactly.”

“Okay…And even “IF” I choose to believe that, it explains what happened to me how?” Jamie asked.

“Easily. You are sitting on the ground in the land of the Lords of Wyveria, a people who can slip their skin and become Dragons. A people who can cast spells and affect the elements, who can speak to the wee creatures and you find my explanation what…too farfetched? How does it explain you? Do you not listen when others speak to you Logan? Did you not yourself hear Idris say he felt you in all that ice, sensed you were there, that you were pulsing with life. Does that not ring any bells for you, as it were?”

“Are you saying that I…have some sort of…magic?” Jamie asked.

“As you said yourself, you were frozen in a block of ice for many thousands of years and yet you thawed out whole and undamaged, not even the biting of frost upon your fingers and toes. What else would that be, but a great ability to heal oneself?”

Jamie blinked, “You mean I can…regenerate?!” he asked startled.

Henry merely nodded and smiled. Then he looked at Val again. “You have it in you to be a great healer Jamie Logan, go start now. Heal with words, heal with your heart.” He said nodding toward Val and gave Jamie a small shove.

….

The ‘Bio’s:

Crimson M. Kildare and Kat Marlow are good friends who decided to take their friendship and their creative camaraderie and turn it into a fabulous writing partnership.

Kat lives in a beautiful little town in one of those picturesque American coastal states. She is a lover of films, t.v., books, music and comedy as well as football and baseball. She especially loves sci-fi and like so many of us has a special place in her heart for Star Wars and Star Trek. She is a proud geek and collector of sci-fi toys and memorabilia. Her professional dreams, aside from the success of her books is to get a job writing in Hollywood for, tv., films or comic books! She has a truly stellar personality, warm, funny, kind hearted and honest. She’s the best friend you could hope for and a great partner.

Crimson lives in one of those picturesque Midwestern American states in the suburb of a large city. Like Kat she’s over 21 and ready to meet life head on. She lives with her family, sans pets due to the terror of allergies. She’s also a lover of books, films, t.v., music, art and especially sci-fi fantasy, adventure and romance. Her first favorite book was Alice in Wonderland, her first favorite film was The Wizard of Oz, her first favorite song was Afternoon Delight by K.C. and the Sunshine Band and her current favorite is In The Mood as made famous by Glen Miller, although she also favors versions done by the Puppini Sisters and Brian Setzer and his Orchestra.

These women are eclectic and unpredictable and full of excitement for their future. Find them at their wonderful website:  http://thrutheglass.net/

And for more on Crimson and Kat, check out more interviews today at:

Dellani Oakes: http://dellanioakes.wordpress.com/ http://writersanctuary.blogspot.com/

Juli Morgan: www.julipagemorgan.com

www.julipagemorgan.com/blog

Karen Vaughan: www.karenvaughanbooks.com www.karenwritesmurder.wordpress.com

Kristen Duvall: http://www.kristenduvall.com/

Rachel Rueben: http://www.rachelrueben.com

S. A. Hussey:  http://sahussey1.wordpress.com/

Karina Gioertz:  http://friedgatortail.wordpress.com/