Meet Nazarea!

I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date. What date you may ask? It’s for an interview that I’ve been looking forward to for a very long time. Today we get to know Nazarea Andrews (or N~). Both Liz and I consider her the Mama of the Rejects, and just a wonderful all around writer.

A: Now let’s get started with an easy one. If you’d died and gone to heaven, and had the option to spend it with one person for all eternity, who would it be?

N: Oh, jeez. One person forever? I’m gonna go the cheesey route and say my husband or kids.

A: I don’t think that’s cheesy at all. So when you’re not creating wordy works of art, what do you do for fun?

N: Read. I ADORE reading, almost as much as I like writing, and it’s relaxing to me, plus I can get away with calling it ‘research’. (K, not really, Mike quit buying that excuse a long time ago.) I also love cooking new food, and playing with my kids.

A: What do you like the most about writing?

N: Going somewhere else. I love that in my writing, anything is possible, a social outcast can find love in the unlikelies of places, twins can be separated and go on these crazy adventures that completely change who they are. I love creating these characters, and then letting them do what they want, and seeing where they take me.

A: And what was the first story you ever wrote?

N: Oh, man. Your TRYING to embarrass me, aren’t you? Okay, first thing I wrote was this hugely dramatic (not in a good way) soap-opera-y drama about a teen who grows up on a horse farm and inherits it when her grandfather dies and runs away because she hates being surrounded by the pressure of being this perfect daughter. Very ‘poor-little-rich-girl’.

A: What author, either alive or dead, has influenced you the most over the years?

N: I’m gonna pick a living and dead. Dead would be David Eddings. His work was my first real experience with high fantasy, which is still a HUGE love of mine. And I loved his characters, and how effortlessly they jumped off the page. Silk is still a particular favorite of mine.

And living—Anne Bishop. She’s another fantasy writer, but her worlds are so delightfully dark, while still being utterly human. She was also one of the first authors I read who blended fantasy with modern conviences, which opened my eyes to a whole world of possibilities. And her boys are amazingly sexy. *grin*

A: Can tell us a little about your current work in progress.

N: It’s a new venue for me! I’m working on a space opera, in which two alien twins are stolen from their planet and sold into slavery. One is very much a pacifist and one is very aggressive, and the way that they grow and change because of their slavery (which is VERY different) has been really interesting to watch. I’m about 60% done with the first draft and I’m really excited about it.

A: Okay, so if you were Queen of the world, is there anything about the publishing industry you would like to change?

N: Not really. It’s changing so much that I’d probably just sit back and wait for it to show what it was gonna do.

A: Then what about the process for getting published? Anything you’d like to change, and why?

N: Yes and no. I get that this is the process, and I almost feel like waiting around for a response is a rite of passage. And I know there isn’t really a way to change that. But at the same time, I HATE waiting, so if it were possible, that’s probably what I’d change.

A: Name one piece of advice you wish you were given when you first started to seriously write for possible publication.

N: Patience. Not just with the road to publication (querying, ect) but also with yourself.  ‘Finished’ doesn’t mean typing the end, and rushing into querying is only shooting yourself in the foot. It’s okay to take time to make it perfect—it’s more than okay, actually.

And because this is just as important—community. Writing doesn’t HAVE to be solitary. Find a community to be a part of, they are SOOO important in this industry of small successes mixed with so much rejection.

A: and finally, what is the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

N: Hmm. I’m not a terribly crazy person. Probably my tattoos. Or riding a roller coaster while five months pregnant. (My daughter is just fine, but I wouldn’t recommend it.) OH!! Or, climbing a mountain with five kids under the age of five. Yeah, I’d say that one is way up there on my list of crazy things.

A: You road a coaster while being preggers? Lol, how I would have loved to see everyone face when you did that.

Well that’s about it for now. Thanks a lot for your time, Nazarea.