Brigid Interviews Herself

Hi, I'm bored and I like interviews. Now, there is no one to interview me so I thought I'd interview myself. That way I can ask myself all the quest
ions that other people usually ask me, plus the questions people never ask me that I want to answer anyway! By the way, I'm REALLLLY high on caffeine right now, which may have influenced this decision. So yeah, now I'm going to ask myself some questions, trying to mostly focus on Walking Shadow and writing. Although there will some random stuff thrown in there. ((Thanks to my Ninja friends for giving me some ideas for extra questions, btw))

Q: Hi there Brigid! How are you?

A: Great. I guess.

Q: Who's your favorite Teletubby?

A: What an odd first question. But anyway. My favorite Teletubby is Tinky Winky, because his name makes me giggle. Also he's gay and carries a purse, which is awesome.

Q: Where do you get ideas?

A: From your MOM. Just kidding. From the Idea Fairy. Psh. Unless your mom IS the Idea Fairy! O_O No, seriously. I don't know where I get my ideas. No writer does, as far as I know. That's the annoying thing about them. You just have to wait for them to come along. Usually they come from something totally random––like a snippet of conversation that I overhear, or a line from a song, or a picture I see, or a magazine article or something. And then it's like BAM! There are suddenly these weird images in front of me and voices talking in my ear. It's like a drug trip, mannnnn. Really, it's kind of a bizarre experience. I think all writers are a bit insane. Creativity is psychologically similar to schizophrenia, you know.

Q: Where did you get the idea for Walking Shadow?

A: The idea for Walking Shadow came from multiple things. It was one of those ideas where it actually started as two ideas, but it turned out that neither of them worked without the other so I put them together. If you're not familiar with the story, there are two main characters: Cassandra and Jason. Originally it was just about Cassandra, and I tried to write it and it failed––mostly because I had no idea who/what she was. I knew that she had weird visions and stuff; at first I thought it was a ghost story. But I knew it was missing something so I put it aside. Later on I had a glimmer of an idea about a boy who kills everything he touches, but I didn't know why. The two ideas merged when I was reading Macbeth in sophomore English class. I read the line "Life is a walking shadow …" and I was like "Oooh, now that would be a great book title!" And with all ideas, there was that inexplicable moment where the whole thing suddenly just worked. The two ideas clicked together and I was like *HAPPY DANCE*. So I wrote the idea down somewhere and I wrote it for NaNoWriMo '09––started it in November, finished in early January. No idea how I managed to write it so fast, it being Junior year and all …

Q: Do you have any wonderful covers you've created for this book?

A: BAHAHAHA. Yeah. Lemme show you. I've made some pretty kick-ass covers using images I don't own … so I guess I can't share those because then someone would find them and be like "OMG I'M SO OFFENDED" and then I'd have to take them down from my blog and burn them and stuff. So, I'll just show you the ones I drew myself. Basically I drew a pretty rose and then I used it to make pretty book covers like THESE:









Q: What authors inspire you?

A: Lots and LOTS of authors! But I'll try to narrow it down.

Markus Zusak (The Book Thief), Patrick Ness (CHAOS WALKING TRILOGY!!!! *I'm a little obsessed*), Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, Kane Chronicles series), Cassandra Clare (Mortal Instruments series), Neal Shusterman (Unwind, the Skinjacker trilogy, Downsiders, The Schwa was Here), Libba Bray (Gemma Doyle trilogy, Going Bovine), Maggie Stiefvater (Wolves of Mercy Falls series, Books of Faerie series) … And probably a bunch of others that I'm forgetting. Woohooo. :)

Q: What music inspires you?

A: *Takes deep breath*

Acceptance, Adele, Blue Foundation, Boys Like Girls, The Cab, Civil Twilight, Cobra Starship, Corinne Bailey Rae, Dashboard Confessional, Daughtry, Death Cab for Cutie, Dido, Elisa, Evanescence, Fall Out Boy, A Fine Frenzy, Five for Fighting, Florence + the Machine, The Fray, Glen Hansard, Goo Goo Dolls, Gratitude, Hey Monday, The Hush Sound, Imogen Heap, Jason Mraz, Kate Voegele, Kelly Clarkson, The Killers, Kings of Leon, KT Tunstall, Lifehouse, Lights, Linkin Park, Marina and the Diamonds, Matchbox 20, Meg & Dia, MGMT, Michelle Branch, Muse, My Chemical Romance, Nelly Furtado, Nickel Creek, Nickelback, Owl City, P!nk, Paramore, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sara Bareilles, The Script, Sia, Snow Patrol, Taking Back Sunday, Third Eye Blind, The Ting Tings, Tokio Hotel, Train, U2, Vanessa Carlton, We Are the Fallen, Within Temptation

*grins* :)

Q: What are you writing right now?

A: Well, I could tell you. … But then I'd have to kill you.

JK.

Um, I'm writing four things at the moment. One is a short story sci-fi/dystopia/romance thing that I'm writing for a collection of Ninja-Writer stories. I'll post updates on that. Other than that … I'm writing Unraveling, which a realistic fic that is basically a teenage girl ranting about her hatred for her ex-best friend and remembering everything that led to them becoming ex-friends. I'm also writing Rage, which is a fantasy-dystopia retelling of Beauty & the Beast. And lastly I'm writing Sky-Fall, which is this epic sci-fi thing about people fighting each other with giant robots! I'm sorry, I'm terrible at describing my own stories. Heh heh.

Q: What book are you reading right now?

A: Runaway by Meg Cabot. :) heehee

Q: How do you choose character names?

A: Behindthename.com <-- best thing ever Anyway, answering the question. It varies. Sometimes I want them to mean something or be an allusion to something. Like Cassandra can see the future and the mythological Cassandra was a prophet. Sometimes I like the names to mean something in an ironic way; like how Jason means "healer" (or something to do with healing) and my character Jason kills everything he touches. A lot of the time I just choose names randomly though. The right name always "clicks", like it was meant to be. :)

Q: Who's your favorite character that you've created?

A: MAXWELL COLLINS. He's a superheroooo!!! (according to Acacia) He's the main character of Edge and Jump … and the third book, Crash, which I have not yet written. I, uh, don't know what much else to say about him. He has superpowers and he's adorable and he kicks ass.

Q: How do you get titles for your books?

A: Heh, I have no idea. The only one I really chose was the title for Walking Shadow, since I got it right out of the Macbeth quote. The rest of them were either really obvious or they just occurred to me and seemed to fit.

Q: What's the funniest typo you've ever made?

A: One time I was trying to write "I sense danger", and I had written "I sense d-" when my sister ran into the room and said "We're having doughnuts for breakfast!" And I looked down and saw that I had written "I sense doughnuts."

Q: What is your computer named?

A: Frederick the Second. He is descended from Frederick the First, who is a ninja.

Q: What do you think makes a good book?

A: It depends. Good and distinctive writing is a plus, characters that are both realistic and believable, unique world-building if it's a sci-fi/fantasy, showing instead of telling, etc. I like books that are either really original, or a book that takes a clichéd idea and makes it unique somehow. My favorite books are ones that can be terrifying and/or depressing in some parts and hilarious in others. Because life isn't just funny or just depressing, ya know?

Q: What is the purpose of Walking Shadow?

A: To be rejected by every literary agent known to mankind. Just kidding. Umm not exactly sure. I never sit down to write a book with a certain "purpose" in mind. Themes seem to write themselves into my books and I'm like "Okay … cool." I think the message in Walking Shadow is that it's hard to tell what's real and what's not. There's this whole thing where the Underworld is a state of mind, where believing in it is what gives it its power. It's like, is believing something what makes it real? I don't know how to explain it very well, but that's the basic idea.

Q: When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

A: I always liked reading/writing. I used to make books with crayons when I was, like, five years old. I think I was about eight or nine when I first got the idea in my head of writing a novel, a book with CHAPTERS. OOH. Although I found that I could never get past page five or so, so I switched to short stories and kept writing those until I was about eleven. At that point my fourth grade teacher (who was pretty much the most awesome teacher ever) was putting together a writing club and I joined, since I had never shared my stories with anyone. I remember one of the first writing clubs I was reading one of my stories out loud and this other teacher walked in and was like, "What book are you reading?" And I was like, "Mine … ?" Heehee. That was when it first really occurred to be that I could be an AUTHOR, and I realized that, not only did I love writing, but I was purty good at it too. I started writing my first novel when I was twelve, and I've been writing novels ever since then.

Q: How do you react to negative reviews?

A: Psh. I don't get negative reviews. Just kidding. Well, they are pretty rare though. It depends. If there's actually something useful/constructive in the negativity, then I'll take it. Sometimes people point out things in my writing that I didn't notice before, so it's useful. If it's just like "I don't like this. I don't know why, I just don't." Then it's like … Alrighty then, that doesn't really help me so there's nothing I can do.

Q: Do you have a specific writing style?

A: I dunno. I think it changes, depending on what fits the story. I try to keep it concise, not a lot of description. But my characters think/analyze a lot, and there's a lot of dialogue. I love dialogue. Dialogue and inner monologue are my true loves. I try to be funny sometimes, although my humor's usually dark humor. Mostly my books are serious-ish.

Q: Have you ever been abducted by aliens?

A: Only twice.

Q: Will you survive the zombie apocalypse?

A: Unfortunately, no. I can't run very fast, my fighting skills are so-so, and my brain is extra-delicious because it's so rich with knowledge.

So yeah, I'm done here for now. Hopefully everyone learned something about me. Now I should get around to interviewing people besides myself. :)