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?
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.
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.
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?
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!
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.
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.
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*)
