A Blue Million Books: Mia Hoddell Answers Eight questions with Amy

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Mia Hoddell Answers Eight questions with Amy

I’m happy to be talking with Mia Hoddell, author of The Sheol and The Flawless, books 1 and 2 of The Wanderer Trilogy. Both books are paranormal novels with an element of romance and are available on Kindle, Lulu, and Smashwords.

Book blurb for The Sheol - the first book in The Wanderer Trilogy:
Being a trained killer, Kala can handle most things the world throws at her. However, when she murders her fiancé, Kala's life is thrown into chaos. Forced to leave everything behind, she runs from city to city, in fear of her psychotic boss who is seeking her death. If that wasn't enough, she also has to cope with the re-appearance of her dead fiancé who is struggling to keep a hold on his sanity as he strives for revenge.

Book blurb for The Flawless – the second book in The Wanderer Trilogy:
A battle is going to arise soon; The Sheol and The Flawless will come together, but only one can survive to continue their manipulation of humankind. The Wanderers have to decide whether to summon the courage to fight so they can save themselves from eternal unrest or whether they like being lost, immortal souls. Nachtmahr is upgrading his Sturmmen to create more ruthless and efficient killers due to interference from The Sheol, while Kala is becoming darker; her rage consuming her as she strives to fulfill her own personal mission...kill Nachtmahr.

Watch the book trailer for The Sheol:

Now we know about Mia’s books. So...let’s talk with Mia.

Hello, Mia. Thanks for being here on A Blue Million Books with us today. Tell me how you created this trilogy.

For The Sheol, I was listening to a song that I found on YouTube, and the lyrics created the image of a woman standing on the edge of a cliff at sunset, so I just began writing what was in my head. I had already written a short story about lost souls in WW1 and have always been interested in the paranormal genre, so I kind of developed the idea of soldiers coming back to life and created The Wanderers, (souls that can not move on to the next life.) From there I spent time planning where the story was going, and it snowballed until I ended up planning the trilogy.

Follow up question--not part of the eight! I have to ask--what was the song on YouTube?

It was SomewhereNowhere by Cinephile.

How do you name your characters? You have some interesting names.

Because The Wanderer Trilogy books are dark paranormal romances, I wanted names that had a dark meaning. I started searching for names with the meaning of ‘dark’ or ‘evil’ and came across the name Kala, which meant “darkness is one country.” I don’t know why, but then Chris just seemed to fit. I had more trouble looking for names for the bad guy though. I wrote the whole book with him just being a blank line, then regretted it when I had to go back and edit it all. My German GCSE came in handy for once though, as I was flicking through an old textbook when I came across Nachtmahr (meaning nightmare), which seemed perfect. I am very picky with character names, and if I have any doubts, no matter how small, I won’t use that name, I get sort of a hunch when the name fits.

I'm a firm believer that some characters name themselves. I’m always interested to know what other authors are reading. Who are your favorite authors?

Wow, that’s hard! I read too many books to pick just one, I can read one to two books a day when in the right mood, so it’s needless to say I own a lot of books. If you forced me to pick one I would probably have to say Julia Golding, as if I hadn’t found her book I probably wouldn’t have started reading or writing as neither interested me up until that point. I also love Derek Landy’s work, as he is a humorous author. I’ll stop there, before I get carried away…

Reviews go with the territory of publishing a book. How do you handle criticism of your work?

Obviously it’s not nice to read negative comments about something I spent so many months working on, but as long as it’s constructive it can only help right? Criticism makes me want to improve my work even more, as I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and so as long as it’s constructive I don’t mind. If it’s not, then oh well, that person is entitled to their opinion. I don’t dwell on negative reviews; it just comes with the job.

Do you have a routine for writing? Do you work better at night, in the afternoon, or in the morning?

My routine varies as I have to fit my writing around boring things like college work. I mean, who wants to do that when the worlds I create in my head are so much more interesting to live in? When I don’t have college or any other work to do, I prefer to write early in the morning and late at night when it is most peaceful. Luckily, I have an iPod so I am constantly writing on the go through a notepad app, which helps a lot with my changing schedule.

I love that app! I think it’s a must for writers. Do you ever get writer’s block?

I don’t so much get writer’s block, it’s more of a feeling of whether I really want to write that day. Sometimes I find I’m just not in the mood to think, so I’ll either go for a run to clear my head or do photography for a bit. Even when I’m in that mood I will always work on something to do with my writing, whether that is my blog, marketing or designing though.

You’re from the UK. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

After living in England and having to put up with the bad weather all my life, I will go anywhere there is sun, heat and a beach. I would love to go back to the Bahamas one day, as when I visited on holiday I just fell in love with the place.

And now for question number eight. What are you working on now?

I’m currently working on the third book in The Wanderer Trilogy called The Hunted, and it should hopefully be out early next year. I’m also planning a special edition of the trilogy with an added prequel about Kala and Chris’s previous life. As well as this, I have also started a new series called ‘The Elementals,’ and I’m about halfway through writing the first book Summer Demon. The books are romance novels with paranormal aspects, and I have already planned the sequel Winter Angel. More of my future projects can be found on my blog, as I have about five ideas I wish to develop at the moment.

You are a busy girl! Thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Best of luck to you with all of your projects. Please come back and talk to us when The Hunted is published.

About Mia:
Mia is a new author from the UK. She is currently writing The Wanderer Trilogy. Besides writing, her interests are reading, sports, reviewing, listening to music, and the Arts.