Tween the Weekends Author Interview!

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This author interview is with Charity Bradford

Welcome Charity thanks for talking to us today and letting us have a little insight into you and your books.

Q: Tell us about your books, Magic Wakes and Stellar Cloud.

The Magic Wakes is a mix of light science fiction, fantasy, and adventure with a touch of romance. Talia continually dreams of the invasion of her planet and her death at the hands of a species of half human half dragons. As the nightmares increase in frequency, she knows the annihilation of her world is drawing near. On her planet Sendek, magic is dead and science rules, forcing Talia to keep another secret, one that could cost her everything if it were known. Now, in order to save her planet, Talia must awaken the powers within her and rely at last on the magic that is her true inheritance.

Stellar Cloud is a collection of short stories. A soldier struggles with the emptiness left behind by amnesia until he learns he is more than the world would have him remember. The earth is desolate, and only one ship of humans remains. An assassin plays god, dealing out justice and mercy as he sees fit. Explore the outer reaches of the imagination through these and other short stories. From brainwashed clones to winged aliens of destruction, the stories in Stellar Cloud will pull in any lover of science fiction and fantasy.

Q: What’s your genre and why did you choose it?

I’ve always loved science fiction and fantasy so when I started writing I naturally drifted that way. The ability to lose myself in fictional worlds makes me happy, and I hope to share that with others.

Q: What’s the biggest obstacle you faced with your writing journey?

Time. It’s hard to balance the time needed to write with everything else in my life. My muse rarely shows up at convenient times and sometimes I fear my family suffered for it. Now I’m trying harder to keep a better balance.

Q: Where do you get your ideas and inspiration from?

Most of my ideas come from crazy dreams. The others come from everyday events around me. I’m always asking, “what if...”

Q: Who or what are your influences?

This is a hard one. I believe that all my life experiences, as well as every book I’ve ever read, combine to influence my imagination and thus my writing. Growing up I read a lot of the classic science fiction authors—Asimov, Bova, Card, Nivens, Nagata...

Q: Are you self-published, legacy or a combination?

The Magic Wakes was with a small publisher, but I self-published Stellar Wakes. It has been interesting to see how things work on both of those fronts.

Q: What was the hardest part of your self-pub / publishing journey?

I have a list for this one!

• I didn’t realize how important it would be for me to learn to be patient with myself.
• Allowing myself to write horrible first drafts so I have something to revise.
• Learning that not every idea is worth a full length novel.
• Learning to trust my instincts in spite of what others were saying.

Q: What format are your books available in?

The Magic Wakes is available in print and for Kindle. Stellar Cloud is currently just kindle, but I’m working on the print formatting now.

Q: How many books have you published so far?

These are the only two so far.

Q: What things did you outsource, if any at all?

With Stellar Cloud I was lucky enough to have my brother-in-law do the cover art. He did an AMAZING job! I did everything else.

Q: What’s the best bit of advice you received when starting out?

We’ve all heard it—write what you know. I took this to mean write about the emotions and internal conflicts that I understand. Obviously I’ve never drank the sunsrise to heal myself, but I love sitting in my back yard with the sun warming my face. It offers a little emotional medicine to my soul. I took that and ran with it in The Magic Wakes.

Q: What advice would you offer to the future Authors out there?

Don’t give up! Put in the time to get better and better, learn to use criticism to your advantage, and keep dreaming.

Q: What’s next for you? Any projects in the pipeline for us to look forward to?

I’m nearing the end of a YA Fantasy as well as digging into the sequel for The Magic Wakes.

Q: Give us one of your favourite quotes……………….

“It's easy to believe in magic when you're young. Anything you couldn't explain was magic then. It didn't matter if it was science or a fairy tale. Electricity and elves were both infinitely mysterious and equally possible - elves probably more so.” 
― Charles de Lint

Q: And finally tell us something random about yourself to make us chuckle………………………….

This one is hard! I don’t think I do many funny things, but I do a lot of stupid things. Because my head is so full of other worlds and strange characters, I often have a hard time paying attention to the real world. One time I placed a pot of chilli on top of my car while loading my kids to go to a church pot luck. I forgot about that chilli until I pulled onto the street and it went flying across the road. Another time we were at a neighbourhood picnic and I left my husband and baby sitting on a blanket to run inside for a minute. When I came back I sat down and snuggled up really close to who/what should have been my husband. Unfortunately, my hubby had gotten up as well and a neighbour had sat down with his baby. So embarrassing! I couldn’t look at the poor man for a week!

Click the Links below to purchase the books, or learn more about Charity.

Blog-- http://charitywrites.blogspot.com/

Website-- http://charitybradford.com/

Twitter-- https://twitter.com/charitybradford

Facebook-- https://www.facebook.com/CharityBradford.SendekSaga

Amazon Author Page-- http://www.amazon.com/Charity-Bradford/e/B00FA3QRKO/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1382031964&sr=8-1

Goodreads Page-- https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6542670.Charity_Bradford

Book Trailer-- http://charitybradford.com/books-2/the-magic-wakes-book-trailer/

Read the First Chapter of The Magic Wakes for free-- http://charitybradford.com/books-2/original-first-chapter/