Time to give Madison Sevier a Vegas Adventure!

Interview with Author Madison Sevier

Now to have a bit of fun I’ve decided to not only interview Madison, but to also Answer my own questions and reply to anything she says in her answers.  And here we go!

Hi Madison and welcome to your Vegas Adventure interview!  Firstly, I’d like to thank you for agreeing to do this, I really appreciate your time.  And secondly, relax and enjoy yourself with these questions.  Have a good time!  And let’s begin!

How did you get started in writing?  And have you taken any college courses or classes to help you with your craft? 

 Thanks so much, Robert.

I began writing when I was around eight years old. I'd been reading (sneaking my aunt's books) V.C. Andrews and Stephen King since first grade. I'd also "worked" with my aunt at our local library. So, when my grandfather found out about my love for books, he gave me a powder-blue typewriter for Christmas—Right then, I knew I'd write books someday.

As for courses or classes, no. Not yet. I've been fairly busy homeschooling my daughter and once you add in all of my other "duties" plus writing and everything that goes along with it, that doesn't leave much time for anything else. However, I do plan on it.

I’ve been writing since I was a kid.  My favorite class in high school was Creative Writing.  There is so much of my older writing that just disappeared and that’s kind of sad.  I think that’s because I started writing stories and things back when there were typewriters.  If you wanted to keep something you needed to keep a hard copy of it and I was never really organized enough to keep track of a bunch of papers.  It’s so much easier now in the digital age to just save writing as a file.  Other than high school I’ve never taken any writing classes either.  I’ve been encouraged to do that, but I’m one of those egotistical people who thinks he doesn’t need writing classes.  *chuckle*

Can you write without coffee?  What would you write if I kept you away from coffee for a week?  How about if I told you no coffee before you’ve written 10,000 words?  (*chuckle*  Yes, I have a mean streak sometimes.)

No way. I'd end up writing a horror book or a murder. No, you wouldn't be the victim **wink, wink** Oh, if I had to work for my coffee, I'd write 10,000 words in no time. :)

I personally don’t drink coffee.  I’ve never liked it.  I’ll be happy to make coffee for you if you’re pushy, but all kinds of things will make it into the coffee filter.  *snicker*  Yes, I love to make coffee, I’m just not much for drinking it. 

I really enjoyed your story Banged in the Bayou and you’ve told me that you’re doing more work on that.  I read a comment on Facebook saying “You'll be happy to know that Rosie is on the road again.   Searching...  Can't wait to see what she finds next”  So will we maybe be seeing more Monster Sex stories with Rosie Peaks?

Thank you so much! Yes, Rosie will be appearing again. Honestly, Banged In The Bayou began as a joke between another great friend and myself. Never in a million years did I think anyone would actually like the story. I have grown to love Rosie's character and she may appear shallow on the outside  (I wrote her that way), but she will show more of her personality and strengths in her next story. There are so many monsters in the world and she's been trying to find one that satisfies her like Nessiana did.

One of my books started out with a bit of joking around.  I came up with the idea for Terminating Vegas while working a security dispatch position with a good friend of mine.  It started out with that good ol’ question, “So, what would you do if you won the lottery?”  *chuckle*

Bad reviews always bother authors, me included.  But would bad reviews matter to you at all if you were selling a couple of thousand kindle copies a month?

Honestly, yes that would still bother me. However, I wouldn't let it stop me from writing. I know that not everyone will love what I write and some people will hate it. That's okay. We all have different tastes. As long as the reviews aren't cruel (I had one once), I'm fine with constructive criticism.

My book Frigate November has 35 reviews on Amazon.com right now.  Most of them I don’t bother to read.  I get a lot of people complaining that the book isn’t “realistic”.  It wasn’t written to be realistic, it was written to be entertaining.  The book still sells more copies each month than all my other books put together.  Obviously not enough copies to pay my rent, but still it puts a few dollars in my pocket.  I recently edited and rewrote quite a bit of the story.  The rewrite added around 100 pages to the paperback version.  *chuckle*  It remains to be seen if changing a few things will help with the sales and reviews.  If the reviews change, I probably still won’t read them.

 Let’s say you just made ten thousand dollars in book royalties this month.  Not including bills (we all have to pay those), what would you go out and spend the money on just for fun? 

 

Oh, I wish. LOL! Let's see. I'd definitely head down to the Smokies with my family. There's something magical there that I can never put into words. So, I'd spend a good chunk of it for that trip. Maybe I'd stay for a month. Maybe use the money for a down payment on a house there. I'm not big on blowing money, so I'd put it to good use.

I know...booooring :)

Women always seem to be like that, thinking about a new house or a trip somewhere.  I think ten thousand dollars would pay for a nice trip to Orlando, Florida for me.  I’ve also promised a friend that if one of my books ever took off and made me major bucks I would treat her to a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida.  So that’s where the first bit of my huge royalty check would go.  *chuckle*  The rest would probably be spent on video games, computer stuff, and maybe a nicer car.

Let’s move on from Monster Sex and talk about your book Wicked By Nature.  I haven’t read this one, but it seems you have a flair for the supernatural.  Is this your preferred genre, or do you ever expand your writing to other things such as comedy, straight romance, historical, or things like that?

I definitely have a love of the supernatural/paranormal. I combined it with my love of RomCom and a bit of the erotic to get Wicked By Nature where it is today. (Currently being re-edited and re-covered) and will be available for purchase again by October—I hope.

I'd say my favorite genre would be RomCom. I tend to put real-life, comical things into my stories. I like snark and wit in my romance, so I try to bring those to my characters. Luckily, they cooperate. I also love cozy mysteries and I have one saved in my files (that I'm supposed to finish). I've never written historical or western, but up until a short while ago, I'd never written monsterotica either. So, who knows. Maybe someday.

I think most of my books have comedic parts in them.  All except for Kiss the Darkness.  Not too much humor in that story.  Lots of emotion there, though.

 Most writers have things they’ve written long ago that they never share.  My secret thing is an old Western story.  It was written on a typewriter back in the mid 80’s.  Do you have any hidden writing that you’ll probably never let anyone see? 

Honestly, no. But that's very cool and I think you should publish it!

I've thought about it. But I worry that if I wrote something secret, it would one day find it's way into the world. So, I keep those secret things to myself.

My western won’t see the light of day.  At least I won’t be the person showing it to anyone.  On the frightening side, a girl I knew back in my military days still has a copy and has told me she rereads it every so often!  GAH!

I did a “Bob’s Books” episode for your book Banged in the Bayou and you really enjoyed it!  So how shy are you?  If I could ever arrange it (I’m learning more every day!) would you ever consider a live video interview?

 Yes, you did and I truly did enjoy it. Thank you again!

I'm fairly shy at first. I'm okay behind the computer, but in real life, I'm very quiet until I get to know you. Just like RAGT14 this year. I didn't know many people, but once I warmed up, I was talking to the point that I lost my voice. LOL

I'd definitely be open to a live video interview. Just let me know :)

I’ve asked another author or two, but they always waffle out somehow.  They’re either using a pen name and don’t want to reveal their real face, or they aren’t sure how it would work, they’re busy, or some other excuse.  Two authors I did actually get on video were Missy Martine and Mary Quast.  I had met them at a Reader/Writer event hosted by author Lori Foster.  I asked if they would mind talking a bit about their books while I filmed them and I could then post the video on YouTube.  Both were happy for the promotion and let me take video of them.  Mary’s video has had 138 views so far and Missy’s video currently has 56 views.  This is from three years ago and I’m sure video interviews would be much more popular now.  The world has become so much more digital now.  I’ll definitely get with you about trying a video interview!

Have you ever held a book signing for one of your books?  You know, one of those things where you sit at a table and no one looks at your books.  But the bitch at the next table has everyone over there all looking at her stupid books about some summer/fall romance crap that’s just a bunch of stupid fluff!  Your book is so much better but none of the air heads in the room seem to care!  All they want is to look at the bitch’s book!  Why won’t they come over here!  If they would just read my stuff, I know they would like it!  I hate sitting here all by myself!  It’s so damned hot in here! 

 I actually had a signing at RAGT14. I was completely surprised and shocked because no one had told me it I would be doing it. It was quite embarrassing, but I did my best. I honestly wasn't upset by how many people were visiting other authors. I knew who they were all mostly there to see and not many people had ever heard of me. However, I won't lie. I did sit there smiling while dreaming I'd be one of those lucky authors someday. But no one would have ever guessed the many other things that were going through my mind that day.

 Uh…sorry, I got a bit carried away there.  *chuckle*  That hasn’t ever happened to me.  Has it happened to you?

We all get carried away sometimes :)

Yes, that actually was my attempt at humor.  In a way it stems from a bit of truth.  Three years ago when I went to the Lori Foster event I met quite a few other authors and it was nice…I guess.  I did make a few friends there.  And I always get asked each year if I’m going back to the next Lori Foster event.  Sadly I have to say no.  To me it was just 300 babbling women in one room all trying to talk about their books at the same time. 

 What is the longest thing you’ve written so far?  My longest would be a novel called Frigate November.  Originally it was around 120,000 words long.  I recently edited it and rewrote a few parts and now it’s 124,392 words.  So have you considered writing something that long?

Wicked By Nature was around 70,000 and with edits/revisions, it should be longer. I've often considered writing much longer stories. Up until a few weeks ago, I felt boxed in with deadlines and such, so my writing went into a tailspin. Now, I have ideas running rampant and driving me insane. Hopefully, I'll get my cozy mystery finished soon and then, I'll have a longer story to tell.

Authors always laugh and joke about putting people they don’t like in their books and then killing them off.  Have you ever based any characters in your writing on anyone you know, good or bad?  You don’t have to name any names. 

 Would someone as sweet and innocent as lil ol' me do that? 

Remember that phrase "Two can keep a secret"?

Of course I have. One particular I killed a few times—just to be sure.

It's excellent and cheap therapy. Wouldn't you agree?

Thank you so much for having me over, Robert! This has been so much fun. Hopefully, you'll stop by my place soon and I can ask you the tough questions.

I can be honest in saying I’ve never done that.  You won’t make it into one of my books as a character unless I like you at least a little bit.  I killed off a couple people in my book Las Vegas Investigator and I’m sure people will try and guess who those characters represent, but in reality they were just characters not based on anyone. 

Well thank you again Madison for participating in one of my screwball interviews!  It was a pleasure having you and hopefully we actually can hook up for a video interview soon.  (I do have a few evil plans for this.  *chuckle*)