About M.E. Kinkade:
M.E. Kinkade wanted to be an architect when she was in third grade, but that didn’t work out, so now she builds (and destroys) imaginary worlds instead. Her work has appeared in The Dallas Morning News, CURE Magazine, and several online venues. She loves science fiction and dystopian books, movies, and TV shows. She watches too many crime dramas and is insufferable about trying to guess the killer. She knows the lyrics to just about every major song in a Disney movie.
She lives in Dallas, Texas, and would absolutely be toast in the event of a real zombie outbreak.
What inspires you to write?
I’ve always been a writer of some kind, from little stories as a kid to personal diaries to–well, to silly zombie adventure novels! I can’t tell you how often I’ve had the “so how would you REALLY survive a zombie apocalypse?” conversation. It just made sense to write it down and let people try it out themselves.
Tell us about your writing process.
I wrote most of “Undead Rising: Decide Your Destiny” during National Novel Writing Month. It’s a great way to light a motivational fire and get booking on writing a book! Because of the frenzied writing of the month, I’m a bit of a “pantser” and a smidge of a planner. For this book, my “planning” went about as far as “oh yeah, I need to write that one bit next.” Much like an actual survival situation, sometimes you just have to make it up as you go along!
The real work comes after the writing; I went back for months, revising and smoothing out the story and adding new endings. There are more than 45 in total!
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
These characters are a little bit different: since the main character is you, the reader, I can’t make too many assumptions. I wrote it without race, gender, height, eye color and all the other myriad things that make up a book character. That said, there are other characters, and I definitely saw them in my minds’ eye as I was writing. Those characters I talked to; the main character, I mostly just laughed at!
What advice would you give other writers?
Write something you’ll get a kick out of. You’ll be spending a lot of time in this world, with this creation, so you’d better like what you’re doing! As we all know, writing is more about enthusiasm than bringing in big bucks, so you have to enjoy yourself. Sure, not all parts of writing are fun, by if NONE of it is fun, well…you may want to try something else for awhile.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I followed the traditional publishing path for two and a half years with this book before switching teams and trying self-publishing. I wrote query letters, met with agents, submitted to publishers, the works. I got positive responses, but it turns out that gamebooks are a bit of an odd niche! (who could have guessed?!) In that time, the options and opportunities for self-publishing have dramatically changed! If you’re a new author (or want to be one!), I recommend you really consider your goals for your book before you make up your mind. There are merits to both options and I don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all choice.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think things will continue to evolve. There’s a lot in the industry that is worth watching, and I don’t think either self-publishing or traditional publishing could currently stand alone without the other. There are a lot of merits to each.
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: science fiction, horror, humor, gamebook
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
M.E. Kinkade Home Page Link
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Twitter
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.
