Author Bio:
Life has been interesting so far for Vicky Savage. She has resided in seven different states and London, England. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Minnesota and a Juris Doctorate from the Florida State University College of Law. She’s been employed in a number of enjoyable occupations including flag-girl on a construction crew, research assistant to a world famous scientist, trial lawyer, health-care corporate executive, and most recently author and publisher of young adult fiction. She has published the Transcender Trilogy, including TRANSCENDER: First-Timer, STREAMING STARS, and IILLUMINOSITY. She is currently working on another sci-fi/fantasy series. Vicky lives on the water in Florida with her charmingly boyish husband, her handsome son, and two effervescent dogs. In addition to her family, she loves the ocean, new adventures, Italy, passionate kisses, and room service, in that order.
What inspires you to write?
I know in my heart that this short parenthesis in time we spend on earth is not all there is to existence. The universe and what lies beyond is fascinating to me. I love to imagine other worlds, other life forms, and other lifetimes. Courageous, strong, resilient women (and men) facing unimaginable obstacles really gets my creative juices flowing. And, of course, romantic love always seems to find its way into my stories–though its not the major theme.
Tell us about your writing process.
The key to a successful writing process, in my opinion, is having a routine. All this really means is that you schedule writing into your life every day. My daily routine is: wake up relatively early, work out, meditate, dress for the day, write until I need to do something else. Some days life interferes and the routine is out the window, but as long as writing is on my schedule, there’s a strong likelihood that it will get done. The second component to my writing process is a running plot line. I write down the fifteen or so most important events that will take place in my novel and the rest gets filled-in as I go. Recently, I read John Truby’s The Anatomy of a Story, and I’ve been employing his method on my work in progress. It really does add depth and an element of sophistication to my story. I highly recommend this book.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I give my characters backstories before I begin writing. For the main characters it can be pages of material. For the minor characters it may be only a line or two. But once the story assumes a life of its own, my characters completely take over. The ethics and morality of my characters come from their unique backgrounds, but they definitely develop personalities of their own. Not to give away any spoilers, but one of my characters actually turned out to be non-human, and I didn’t know it until the second book!
What advice would you give other writers?
The best advice I ever received was: Just get it down on paper–from start to finish. It doesn’t matter how ugly it is, you can fix it later. Writing my first book, I was obsessed with having the first draft be perfect. That just bogged me down. You need to understand and accept that the story is going to change as you go along. The story you end up with may not be the one you started, so things will need to be adjusted. If you worry too much about the details in the first draft, you may have a lot of revising to do. Just get the beginning, middle, and end down. Then it’s relatively easy to go back and tweak the manuscript here and there while you’re adding color, flavor and richness to the story.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
At first, I wanted to traditionally publish my books, so I began the query process and, yes, you guessed it, received rejection after rejection. Mostly form letters. Not one agent even asked to see my manuscript. I attended a workshop on self-publishing by New York Times bestselling author, James Swain. It convinced me that I should take matters into my own hands. He began self-publishing titles his publisher had rejected and was doing better on those books than the traditionally published titles. Marketing is the major issue for self-published authors. You must have an author platform (Google it if you don’t know what it is), and you must relentlessly promote your books by running sales and advertising on the major players in the bargain eBook market. It takes a lot of work, but my understanding from my traditionally published friends is that these days, they have to do the same thing, and they get a smaller percentage of the royalties. I think I made the right decision, but hey, if someone wants to offer me a big advance and a huge marketing advantage, I might listen!
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
Is there any question? Ebooks. I still love a nice hardbound book that I can write in and keep forever, but 90% of my purchases these days are ebooks, and usually on sale. If I love the author, I will pay more for the ebook than the hardback, just for convenience sake.
What do you use?
Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?
My books are cross-genre: sceince fiction, fantasy, paranormal romance, adventure
What formats are your books in?
Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Vicky Savage Home Page Link
Link To Vicky Savage Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5065811.Vicky_Savage
http://www.facebook.com/vickysavageauthor
http://twitter.com/savagevicky
I’ve read Transcenders and Streaming Stars and am now halfway through Illuminosity. Vicky Savage has created a unique fantasy tale of adventure, romance and intrigue. No spoilers from me. The story moves quickly, and reads easily. A fun read for fantasy lovers. The first two I gave 5 stars on Amazon. I’m sure that the last one will be also.