Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Meet Auzy!

Hey ya'll so Auzy is our resident dude, giving our audience a unique take.

1. L: To start off, what genres do you write?

My main focus is with YA, but I like to mix up a lot of the genre’s within it. I would say I’m most comfortable with fantasy because almost anything goes with that genre. You’ll need solid rules to make it believable, but with fantasy, you’re only limited by your own imagination. I love to add mystery, horror, and some romance within the fantasy too. That being said, I would never limit myself to just YA.

2. L: How many books have you written and/or are working on?

So far I’ve written two books, Beyond and Violet Luck, and only Beyond is fully edited. Currently I’m working on my third book called Isle of Exiles.

3. L: How old were you when you first started writing?

Seriously writing? That was just a few years ago, like around 28 or 29, I think. If we’re counting writing in general, that was when I was around 15 or 16. I mostly dabbled in poems and song lyrics, but I had always wanted to write a novel.

4. L: What's your stance on self publishing vs. the traditional route?

My stance is simply—whatever floats your boat. For me, I want the traditional route. That’s not saying anything bad about self-publication. I think that if the novel is great and you know how to self-promote like it’s nobody’s freakin business, then go for it. No matter which direction you take, it can still be a long grueling road to success. In the end, it all comes down to which way makes you happy.


5. L: What's your favorite author and favorite book? You can only choose one for each!

My favorite book is Wizards First Rule by Terry Goodkind. My favorite author is J.K.Rowling. However I must say that one of her books was number one before I read Wizards First Rule.

6. L: Alright, let's leave readers with a final piece of advice. What's something you wish you'd known before starting the writer's journey?

That writing well is really hard work. When I first started to write, it took me only a month and a half to write the first draft of my novel, which was roughly around 130k. I knew I had to edit, and dumb ass me increased that word count to 150k in another month. Then I queried, and surprised I was rejected and they were all formed rejections. I actually even had an agent send me what was obviously a slivered cut out paper that printed nothing but the same formed rejection over and over on the paper. Ouch!
Luckily, I had to foresight after that to look for other writers who could help me see what I was doing wrong. lol, two things I learned right away were that most novels run around 70 to 90k (a far cry away from my 150k) and when we write, we need to ‘show, don’t tell’. It took me a while to get it down, but with their help, I learned how to improve my craft.
Writing isn’t easy. It can be fun at times, and it can be a frustrating ball of putrid hate at others. It’s really difficult a lot of the times. I’m constantly thinking of how to make it better. I’m editing, cutting, slashing, and hacking at the story, hoping to turn a bloated and ugly wart-hag into a sexy supermodel wearing a teeny weeny polka-dot bikini. Then having to do it all over again when I have the constructive feedback from beta readers.
Still, I can’t see myself doing anything else.

7. L: Cookies or cake?

Now I know you think this is an easy question, but to me it’s a bit of a trick one. See I can see it a taste in food, in which nothing compares to a fresh out of the oven, gooey chocolate chip cookie. You know the ones that smears chocolate all over your front teeth like you’re a tooth fairy gone crazy. On the other hand, cookies and cake remind me of Cookie Monster or Animal. If I went that direction, the Animal will always win out. Just imagine Animal attacking his birthday cake head on, and not even bothering to put out the candles.
Sorry, didn’t really answer that did I? Guess we may never really know.




L: Total cop out Auzy... ;)

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