A Strange Place In Time

Interview with author Alyx J Shaw by 'All Romance E-Books'

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Julie: How long have you been writing? What inspired you to pick the pen up one day and create characters that capture the imagination?

Alyx: I've always been a writer. Always. I wrote my first story at age five, about a horse swimming a river. Fully illustrated by the author! I honestly cannot think of a time when I did not write. It's just something I do. Like breathing or eating.

Julie: What is your writing process? Do you outline, fly by the seat of your pants or a combination of both?

Alyx: I fly by the seat of my pants. I tried doing outlines and such and I found it just bogged me down. By the time I had the outline done I found I didn't care about the story anymore. I really hate doing things twice. So I just write it and go back later and run a trowel over it.

Julie: What influenced you to get published? How long did it take for your first book to get published?

Alyx: What influenced me to get published? Ego. I'm a ham. I like attention. Also I know some writers and they are people in my life I really admire and look up to, and that made me want to do it as well, to maybe be on the same level they are, though personally I think my friends are all better writers than I am. As for how long it took me to publish my first book… I'd say 20 years. You gotta be persistent.

Julie: When you write, is atmosphere important? For example, do you use mood music or candles? Do you need complete quiet to concentrate?

Alyx: I need music, candles, activity. I can't write in a vacuum. Music especially, and sounds of life. I like to play Cat Stevens because my crow Harry likes to sing along to it. I keep trying to convince Harry he's a wild animal but he doesn't believe me. He can't find turkey pie in the wild. But he likes to sit in the open window and watch the other birds. He's great company for writing with.

Julie: What's next for you?

Alyx: I'm working on one book while editing another, so depending on which one I am done with first it will either be a sequel to my trilogy or a story about alien rock stars.

Julie: What did you do before you became a writer?  Do you write full time?

Alyx: I do write full time. I used to work in radio, and I also worked for a couple of small papers. But my health took something of a dive and I couldn't work in the real world anymore so I decided to just focus on writing.

Julie: Most people envision an author's life as being really glamorous. What's the most unglamorous thing that you've done in the past week?

Alyx: (( Laughs!! )) Well I have a lot of pets – two cats, three guinea pigs, a couple tarantulas, my loyal house-duck, and two crows that I'm housing because one is unfit for life in the wild and the second one won't leave her even though he's healthy. I would have to say the most unglamorous thing this week is pick crow-poo out of my hair, followed closely by cleaning up hairballs.

Julie: How does your family feel about having a writer in the family? Do they read your books?

Alyx: Uh…. Well my oldest sister does read my stuff. My other two sisters think I'm a bit far out. My mom only reads bodice-rippers but she loves to brag about me to her friends. I hope to hell she never actually reads anything I wrote! I don't actually stand out in my family. We're all talented in different ways. We're all artists. One sister sculpts, another creates fashions, another paints, I write. My mom used to make gowns for our Barbie dolls, and in my mind that counts as art. You try making a faux fur jacket for something roughly a foot tall. It ain't easy.

Julie: What do you do when you aren't writing? Any hobbies or special interests that you can tell us about?

Alyx: Gardening, Herbalism, my animals… I'm also addicted to Sims 2. I also play a little bass guitar, and Dungeons & Dragons every second Thursday.

Julie: If you weren't writing romance, what would you be writing?

Alyx: I don't actually write romance. I write science-fiction and fantasy with romantic aspects, and happened to get picked up by a publishing house that specializes in romance and erotica. I'm a bit of a green fish in a blue pond. If I couldn't do fantasy I would do horror. I'm told my horror is pretty damned funny.

Alyx J Shaw is an irritable rantaholic who enjoys writing, making medieval honey wine, smoking, tarantulas, and raising strange and toxic plants. She shares her seedy apartment with two cats, two tarantulas, three guinea pigs, and pet duck named Master Erestor. She's pretty sure there is a husband in there somewhere as well, and expects she will find him buried under the laundry the next time she feels like doing a washing.

Alyx has worked for newspapers and news radio stations, and Book III of her trilogy 'A Strange Place in Time' will available from Torquere Press in December of 2008 or January 2009. Alyx has been a practicing Wiccan for ten years, and is one of the few people in Vancouver, British Columbia who actually enjoys the rain.

Disclaimer:

All original fiction and the characters, places and situations with them are copyright Alyx Shaw, and may not be published, copied, distributed or archived without the author's prior written consent.

The characters, places and situations described in these stories are fictional unless otherwise stated in the story headings.

(C) 2008 Alyx Shaw