About Vanessa Kings:
I was in Rosario, Argentina. At the age of 10 I wrote my first fairy tale as a way to deal with a very painful earache. I found writing comforting and distracting. After that day, I continued writing every time I felt the need of leaving realty behind.
By the age of 18 I had around 120 pieces written, between fairy tales, poems, life’s reflections and other stories. I always wanted to publish my stories but never had the confidence to do it. After my son was born, my husband and my best friend gave me the confidence that I needed to start writing my first book.
At the moment I have only one book finished and published, Chronicles of the Nocturnal Forest (Stories of the fairy of my dreams #1). I already started the second book of the series, The diary of Amanda, which I hope to publish this year.
What inspires you to write?
I think that the best thing about being a writer it’s that you can live not just one life, but how many lives as you want to live. You can be whatever you want to be and make your characters do all the things that you can’t do. The main inspiration I have is the books and movies of my childhood and the need to bring that kind of stories back. As I say on my blog and twitter, my main purpose is to bring the fantasy back, the old fashioned fairy-tale kind of fantasy.
Tell us about your writing process.
I have a 15 months old son, I am a stay at home mom, without a nanny or a maid or any family close to me to help, so I don’t have the chance to make myself a writing routine, I just use whatever free time I can find, and I stay awake at night if its needed. Sometimes I dream or have ideas coming to my mind and I cant sleep until I write them down, so when I am working on a book, I have a lot of sleepless nights. I am very grateful for always having coffee in my house.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
Sometimes I dream of them, and sometimes, after I gave them the personality that suits them best, I put myself on their place and think what would I do. Sometimes I feel like an actor playing their roles.
What advice would you give other writers?
Just keep writing, don’t stop to fix the details and format, just keep going, if you have an idea in the middle of the night, have your phone handy to take notes, and most important, write a book that you would love to read!
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I wanted my story to be out and ready to be read now. Right now. I didn’t want to spend months or even years trying to find a publisher, having companies tell me that it wasn’t good enough for they to publish it. I love my book, I love my characters and my story, and I know there will be people that will love it too. So I decided to self publish, to have my book out there for anyone that wants to read it as soon as it was finished. Maybe in the future I decide to find a publisher, but for now I am happy with the self-publishing process, I love to be the one that takes all the important decisions as cover, illustrations and if I keep the edition as the editor sent it or I want to go back to something I feel it fits better.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
Maybe publishers have more experience and resources to promote a book and a fixed audience that is used to buy their books, and that is great if you are focused on the sales, but I think self publishing gave authors the chance to be published without the stress of being rejected. I write, send the book to an editor or two, find someone to design the cover, and someone to make the illustrations after I gave the detail of what I want, and when I get exactly what I want, I publish. Simple like that. Then I go back to write, which is what I really love to do.
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer
What genres do you write?: Fantasy
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Vanessa Kings Home Page Link
Link To Vanessa Kings Page On Amazon
