Author Interview
with Karen Wiesner
Interviewer: Lida Quillen
1. Does your creativity express itself in ways other than writing?
Actually, when I was a teenager, I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to be a writer, an artist, a dancer or a singer. I was skilled in all of these areas, but my love for writing became bigger than my love for the other areas. Though I still love to draw (I designed the logo for my Wounded Warrior and Gypsy Road Series, as well as the cover of my new nonfiction ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING Q&A) and sing, I seriously doubt I'll ever go back to dancing.
2. Do you feel you were creative, even as a child?
Always. My favorite memories of my childhood were of creating--songs,
stories, plays. I played Barbie Dolls and paperdolls long past the time
of public acceptance 3. Could you share with the story behind the story? In other words, how
did your writing lead you to your first book?
The first real story I worked on helping develop was something my sister (children's author Linda Derkez http://karenwiesner.hypermart.net/linda.htm) and I came up with the
summer we lived in Oklahoma. I think I was 12-years-old. Across the
street from where we were camped was an old, trashed trailer that we loved
to explore. There was broken glass everywhere and pictures that inspired
in us the need to know what had happened there. I'm sure nothing really
happened there, but our imaginations came up with some pretty gruesome,
intriguing things! Though it was my sister who did the actual writing for
THE RINGMASTER thriller series, I came up with the title and we worked
together on brainstorming for it. That's what led to many summers of the
two of us writing together. My desire to be a writer started there and has
never really waned.
4. How did you prepare for the creation of your first book? How much
research was necessary?
The early writing I did as a teenager (I'd written
almost a dozen stories, in addition to countless poems, by the time I was
16) required no research. I just wrote and wrote and wrote, and most of
it was pretty awful. I hated to see a story end, so, when I finally had
to let it go, I'd have a stack of at least a thousand pages.
Nevertheless, the groundwork was set. Some of those early characters have
survived (the nine main characters in the Wounded Warriors Series were the
characters from these early books, along the four key characters in the Gypsy
Road Series) and come into their own at last. Now I do whatever research
is required, whether it's book research or interviewing someone in a
specific profession or with expertise. I try to do my research first,
before I begin outlining, because I like to put everything into my outline
where it should be. I like to start my outlining with a complete
understanding of what I'm talking about in those research areas so my
characters can approach those things from the same place as I do.
5. What kind of reaction do people have to your fiction writing?
The ones most writers expect, both unfortunately and fortuantely. Awe,
disbelief, curiosity, the misassumption that I'm rich, that I basically do
nothing but sit on my butt all day, that I should get a "real" job. I've
gotten scorn from some people, as if I'm conceited. 90% of the people who
hear that I'm a writer feel that they have to tell me about some friend or
relative they know who's also a writer--I don't understand that
compulsion. I've also gotten respect in places I never would have
expected it for the work I do. My fans are extremely loyal. They trust
me to give them a solid story that they can lose themselves in. They also
bless me by calling and e-mailing my publishers, begging for my next
offering.
6. Do you find anything difficult in the writing process, and if so what?
My biggest problem is stopping. I'm very compulsive about my writing.
When I'm into a story, that's all I want to do. It sounds terrible, but
I'd like to be left alone for two weeks straight when I start a book. I'd
write with little or no sleep, food, or interruptions. But I know that's
not good for me, let alone my family, so I'm extremely disciplined, very
goal-oriented with my writing habits. The only thing I can't control is
my mind, which goes to my current or other projects compulsively at all
times of the day.
7. Do you currently have any writing projects?
My most recent releases are:
-ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING The Definitive Guide {The Most Complete Resource to
Non-Subsidy E-Publishing}, 2003 Edition by Karen S. Wiesner -WEAVE YOUR
WEB {The Promotional Companion to ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING The Definitive
Guide} by Karen S. Wiesner -ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING Q&A (the award-winning
compilation of Karen's Inkspot column) by Karen S. Wiesner All published
by Hard Shell Word Factory -TAKING RESPONSIBILITY BUILDS TRUST (Book 1: Making Good Choices Series) by Karen Sue Wiesner,
Illustrations by Robert Beers, an interactive children's picture book
published by Writers Exchange E-Publishing.
Upcoming releases are:
What I'm working on currently:
8. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Find out more about me by visiting my homepage at
www.karenwiesner.com. I enthusiastically welcome letters from
fans. Write to me at kwiesner@cuttingedge.net or by writing to PO Box 118,
Black River Falls, WI 54615. Send your snail mail address to receive a
free excerpt disk. If you would like to receive my free e-mail
newsletter, Karen's Quill, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KarensQuill
or send a blank message to KarensQuill-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Author Bio
Karen Wiesner, named a "leading romance writer" by The Writer Magazine, is
the award-winning author of the Gypsy Road Series, the Angelfire Trilogy,
Dare to Love Series as well as the newest, Wounded Warriors Series, from
Hard Shell Word Factory . Her fiction novels from
Hard Shell have been nominated for Romantic Times' 1999 Reviewer's Choice
Award, the Frankfurt Award and multiple EPPIE's. Karen's first
paranormal, SWEET DREAMS (originally published by Avid Press, LLC), which
was a Reviewers' Top Pick for 2000, received a coveted 4 ½ star Top Pick
review from Romantic Times Magazine and was a finalist for the prestigious
2001 Daphne du Maurier Award.
Karen also writes mysteries with award-winning author Chris Spindler of
Auenwald, Germany. The first book in the Falcon's Bend Series, DEGREES OF
SEPARATION, is tentatively slated for a January 2004 publication date by
Quiet Storm Publishing www.quietstormpublishing.com in hardcover format.
Follow the link to Karen and Chris's mystery website from
www.christinespindler.com for more details.
Karen is also the author of ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING The Definitive Guide
{The Most Complete Reference to Non-Subsidy E-Publishing}, a best-selling,
Frankfurt nominated writer's reference. The Guide was a finalist for the
2000 EPPIE and won the 2001 EPPIE for Best Non-fiction. It was excerpted
in the 2001 Writers Digest Novel & Short Story Market and made the 2001
Inscriptions' Books of the Year list. eBooks N' Bytes chose the Guide to
be their first winner of the eBooks N' Bytes Award of Excellence for
Epublishing Book of the Year (2002). The Guide was also a finalist in the
2002 Indie Awards. The 2003 edition is published by Hard Shell Word
Factory in two volumes. Karen's award-winning
compilation of her Inkspot column, ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING Q&A, is also
published by Hard Shell.
Karen's first book of poetry was released in October 2001. SOUL BLEEDS The
Dark Poetry and Other Wanderings of K.S. Wiesner finaled in the 2002
EPPIE's and is available from Atlantic Bridge Publishing.
Karen also writes children's books under the pen name Karen Sue Wiesner
for Writer's Exchange E-Publishing. In
addition to TAKING RESPONSIBILITY BUILDS TRUST and CODY KNOWS, upcoming
releases include: THE TREE OF LIFE (Hard Christian Questions Series for
Children), as well as more books in the Making Good Choices Series and
CODY KNOWS II.
Karen has won the Inscriptions Engraver Award for best on-line columnist
two years in a row, the Year 2000 for eXcellence in E-publishing Award:
E-author from ebookadvisor, was a two time recipient of the E-Pub
Ambassador Award, and was a recipient of The Simply Charming Award for
outstanding promotion of e-books. She was also nominated for the 2000
EPIC Florence Moyer Service Award.
Currently, Karen has also completed the first book-NO ORDINARY LOVE-in a
new mainstream action/adventure series, the Incognito Series.
For more information about Karen and her work, visit her web site
Copyright © 2001 Karen Wiesner.
Read an article by Karen:
-CODY KNOWS (children's picture book, illustrated by Candace Hardy, to be
published by Writer's Exchange, Early 2003) -SWEET DREAMS (the re-issue of
my paranormal romance with a new cover painted by my husband, to be
re-published by Hard Shell, Mid 2003) -WAITING FOR AN ECLIPSE, Book 2 of
the Wounded Warriors Series (to be published by Hard Shell, Mid to Late
2003) -TAKING CARE OF YOUR THINGS (Book 2: Making Good Choices Series,
Writers Exchange, Late 2003)
-MIRROR MIRROR, Book 3 of the Wounded Warriors Series
-selling the Falcon's Bend Series, a series of mysteries, with
award-winning author Christine Spindler. DEGREES OF SEPARATION and TEARS
ON STONE, the first two books in the series, are completed. Visit our
mystery website at http://www.angelfire.com/super2/spindler/efalcon1.html.
-selling the first book (NO ORDINARY LOVE) in my new mainstream
action/adventure series, the Incognito Series.
http://karenwiesner.hypermart.net.
"SF/F and Epublishing: An Out-of-this-World Match"