Interview with Crystal Appleton
Published 2014-04-09.
When did you first start writing?
I started really writing when I was ten years old, but I never really got brave enough to finish a story and try to publish it until now.
What motivated you to become an indie author?
The fact that Smashwords exists motivated me to become an indie author, I don't have to worry about getting shot down or have my manuscript return to me like a horror victim bleeding red ink.
What do your fans mean to you?
They are everything. I still have faith and confidence in myself that no matter what i'll keep on going no matter what. Even so I love my fans support and feed back and whenever I go to Conventions I give them 110% of my attention, they are why i'm here.
What are you working on next?
Book two. Screaming Like Demons. I'm also working with my four best friends to make both a Podcast and a magazine. Then setting up for the next conventions, comic con's etc.
Who are your favorite authors?
Way to many to list them all but to throw out a few is Laurrel K. Hamilton. Stephen King. Dean Koontz, Darren Shan, Jim Butcher, J.R.R. Tolkien, R.A. Salvatore, etc.
What is your writing process?
I map everything out with outlines like bullet points. Then believe it or not I sit down, usually in my favorite Pajamas, ipod in my ears, caffine to the right and belt out the first draft in one sitting. Then I spend the next two days with revisions then a day on the cover. My friends, fans and ipod playlists are my muses.
Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?
The headless ghost from Goosebumps by R.L. Stine, it was something that was simple, yet I couldn't put it down for a second and after that I gobbled up any of R.L. Stine's books I could find, then started writing my own snippets of short stories.
How do you approach cover design?
I usually draw them by hand before scanning them in and coloring them digitally, but first off I worry about writing my book first and from the story think of what I would want to see as a reader that might draw me in, make me curious and maybe hint at what might be involved in the story.
What is your e-reading device of choice?
My Kindle, that thing goes with me everywhere! It's my library, my calculator, my TV on the go, my gaming corner for breaks and my digital portfolio.
What is the greatest joy of writing for you?
I get to put what's in my head on paper. That's right paper, I write all my books and first drafts by hand before I type them up. It lets me be as ridiculous as I want to be before I expand or tone it down with the revision.
Smashwords Interviews are created by the profiled author or publisher.
Books by This Author
Tuesday's Doomsday
by Crystal Appleton
World ending by natural disaster? Nah. Not unless you consider legends of the past taking a bite out of the world. That is what happened December Twenty-fourth Twenty-Thirteen. Now twenty years later Detective Emmery Hale must solve cases of the Paranormal, but this case can be worse then deadly, it might really turn out to be hell in Los Angeles.
