About Louise Lake:
I mainly write Horror, Science Fiction and Poetry but I am currently working on a Historical Fiction novel.
I have written over two hundred and fifty poems to date. Most of my poems are published in my book Poems for All Occasions. Although I will be publishing another collection of poems in the future.
Before I decided to self-publish I had twelve of my poems published into separate anthologies by United Press.
My other published books are: Silver City, Mina Harker: The Curse of the Vampire and my latest Thirteen: The Horror Collection; a collection of thirteen short horror stories. There will be a second volume of Thirteen: The Horror Collection within the next couple of years also.
I also worked as a writer for the Wakefield Literature Festival in 2013, where my short story ‘Luther’ was acted out by live performers.
I am still working on my Science Fiction trilogy ‘Silver City’ but as I wrote the first book for National Novel Writing Month last year, I intend to write book two for this years National Novel Writing Month and the final book in 2016.
Some of my favorite Authors include Stephen King, Darren Shan, R.L.Stein, Paulo Coelho, Rhonda Byrne, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Stephanie Meyer, Suzanne Collins, Casandra Clare, Victoria Roth and Bella Forrest.
What inspires you to write?
Everything in my daily life inspires me to write from the things people say, watching a movie, listening to music, the way people act, pictures and reading other books. My friends, family, fans, writing group and the new people I meet inspire me to continue writing.
Tell us about your writing process.
The writing processes I use differ for every book I have written. With shorter stories, as an example for my Novella Mina Harker: The Curse of the Vampire; I used the method of free writing without any plans as I knew exactly where the story was going in my mind, without mapping it out beforehand. For my latest book, Thirteen: The Horror Collection; which is a book of thirteen short horror stories, I wrote two or three sentences on the main story line for each story and then used the method of free writing again. But for my Science Fiction novel Silver City, I felt I had to outline the entire story, chapters and create brief character profiles as it is more complex than my other books being set in its own Dystopian world.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I like to imagine what my characters would do in certain situations and how they would react if they were real, like you and I. I visualize them as if I were watching a movie.
What advice would you give other writers?
When I began my journey as a writer I had no one to help me, as I didn’t even know any other writers at the time. But with time and perseverance, trial and error, I have learned a lot by myself and over time I have come to know many more writers, some of which have become great friends. I now try to help as many writers as I can, as I know how hard it is to learn everything by yourself. My advice would be to join a writing group, or create one yourself as I did and join as many online writing platforms as you can.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
After feeling that I was wasting my life, waiting for a publisher to accept my first manuscript, I looked into self-publishing. I read that it was bad to self-publish your book in many places online but after discovering online publishers and distributors like Amazon, Createspace, Smashwords and LULU and doing some more research, I realized that the world of self-publishing had changed dramatically over the years. I now see self-publishing as a godsend for writers, as it helps us to get our books out there into the world and allow the readers to decide for themselves what they like and do not like, instead of publishers having all of the power. Self-publishing also helps you learn a lot about the world of publishing from what book cover to use, editing, marketing and promoting your book as you have to do it all yourself, so if like me you enjoy learning how to do everything, then self-publishing is a great option. Although I strongly recommend self-publishing, I still do believe in most of the publishing houses and at the end of the day the choice is yours, but whichever path you decide to take it will require hard work, dedication and the perseverance to finish that book and make it the best you possibly can.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
As an Author and avid reader I do believe that if all of the publishing houses do not adapt to publishing E-books as well as print books they probably will go out of business. Although most of the bigger publishing houses have already adapted to this change and there are lots of us who support print books and big retailers like Waterstones so I do not think publishing houses will fade away altogether. Yet I do think the self-publishing industry will continue to rise and become a popular choice for most writers around the world.
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer
What genres do you write?: Horror, Science Fiction, Poetry, Romance
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Link to Author Page on other site
Your Social Media Links
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All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit, to allow you, the reader, to hear the author in their own voice.
