Larry Kollar is a writer and friend of mine from Georgia. Not only
does he write some great fantasy, having had wonderful success with his
Accidental Sorcerers series, but along with P.J. Kaiser and myself, he's one of the three guiding lights of Tuesday Serial, a site that curates and promotes serial fiction. Larry's got a new book out (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YBDHQKE) and I'm happy to give him an opportunity to introduce it to you and to talk about his writing.
"Tell us about your book."
Beyond the Sea of Storms is the sixth Accidental Sorcerers story. Chronologically, it picks up shortly after Book 5,
Lost in Nightwalk.
By now, our heroes have been away from home for almost two years, and
it's starting to wear on Sura. Mik, meanwhile, has issues stemming from
the debacle in Nightwalk and his near-death. The presence of the Deep
Forest, the ancient home of the Unfallen, has a calming effect on Mik…
but when Sura hatches a plan to walk through it to get back home, they
find the Forest has other plans!
"Do you have a specific writing style?"
Yes,
it's one that all the writing advice sites say is w0RnG. I tend to edit
as I write. After a few attempts at breaking the habit, I gave up and
rolled with it. It does make for less rewriting and lighter
editing, so I get the time back one way or the other. My first drafts
still suck, but they suck less.
"Name one entity that you feel supported you, aside from family members. A writer's community? A social network? A mentor?"
I
don't think I would be where I am now without the #FridayFlash
community on Twitter. I met so many of my best Twitter friends, and a
lot of my writer friends, that way.
"Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?"
You
mean besides getting time to write? I may be a little too prone to
letting inspiration drive me. It's so easy to get distracted these days,
and if I'm not feeling the writing vibe, I'm not going to get many
words down that day.
"Who designed the cover art?"
As
always, Angela Kulig. She's done a wonderful job of finding the right
artwork for each book, and they do a great job of connecting the books
together.
"Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?"
The
most important thing I learned is that I'm still prone to
procrastination. I should have been doing this a month ago, getting all
the things done, but I didn't. Now I'm behind the eight-ball once again
on the next thing. :-P
"Your
doctors inform you that you have developed a life-threatening allergy to
ketchup (any and all brands), and can never have it again. Not on
fries, not on burgers, not at all. How do you feel?"
Wife
has a similar allergy to shellfish, so I know what that's like
second-hand. I'd probably be OK with BBQ sauce—if not the red stuff, the
yellow mustard-based stuff that's popular in South Carolina. I don't
much live for ketchup, although I would have to start remembering to
tell the guys behind the fast-food counters about it… that would be the
hard part.
"What's next for Larry Kollar?"
Several
things! First, we're working on getting the Accidental Sorcerers series
into print. I'm bundling the books in threes for the paperback release
to get them up to a reasonable size. I've got conversion scripts to
transform the eBooks into typesetter markup, and a set of expert fonts
to use. There's some hand-fiddling to do, but they're going to look tons
better than something dumped straight out of Word.
After
that, it's Book 7. I'm about 15% of the way done, but don't yet have a
title. I'm also drafting up the third part of my serial
Blink, and getting ready to post it on
writeon.amazon.com.
Thanks for giving me a soapbox!
Larry Kollar lives in
north Georgia, surrounded by kudzu, trees, and in-laws. His day job involves
writing user manuals—some of which may have been fiction, but not by intent. He
has had short fictional works published in the Hogglepot Journal, the Were-Traveler, and the
anthology Best of Friday Flash, Vol. 2. Longer works include his first
novel, White Pickups, and the popular Accidental Sorcerers
series.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.