Author Interview: A.M. Harte

While I’m busy with NaNoWriMo, I’m happy to host A.M. Harte on her virtual blog tour, promoting Above Ground. Enjoy:

1. You mention Above Ground is the first in a new dark fantasy series. How many books do you expect the series to run?

In my mind, the main series has always been a trilogy. The second book will be called Between Worlds; as for the third, the title’s as yet undecided. But I do have a rough outline of what is going to happen in all three books.

I do also intend on writing side novellas set in the same universe. I have two of these planned, but who knows? I could write more.

2. You’ve crafted this novel over the course of more than three years. When did you know you were ready to let it go?

I still don’t! I knew it would be hard to let go of something I’ve worked on for so long, so I just forced myself to set a publication deadline and worked towards it. Otherwise I’d spend far too long tinkering away.

3. What inspired the story?

A number of things. A nightmare provided the original spark of an idea. My imagination inspired the first couple of chapters. My sister inspired me to continue writing, and my webfiction readers inspired me to finish. It’s been a collaborative effort!

4. Do you still write your own webfics?

At the moment, no. I do intend to serialize the sequel to Above Ground when I start writing it, but I don’t have a timeline yet. I can only handle one project at a time!

5. You stay busy with editing, podcasting, and qazyfiction. What’s your favorite thing to do in dealing with all these various forms of words?

Definitely writing. It’s my first love, and what got me into all the rest. Editing is a (pleasurable) job and podcasting is hilarious silliness, but writing will always come first.

6. What inspired you to start indiebookreviewer.wordpress.com?

When I first started hunting for book reviewers to review my zombie anthology Hungry For You, I quickly realized how much of a job it was to check each individual site and verify if they accepted not only just my genre, but also small press or indie works. Then I figured that if a list of indie reviewers would be useful for me, it would be useful for other authors as well, so I put it online.

7. What would you consider success with your first novel release?

Success is such a hard thing to quantify. From a numbers point of view, it’d be great to match (or exceed!) Hungry For You’s sales. From a qualitative perspective, it’s all about the reviews and audience reaction. I guess I’ll have a better idea of what success means to me in a few months’ time.

8. Which countries’ chocolates have you not yet eaten?

Haha! I’m actually right at this moment nibbling on my first Ukrainian chocolate. It tastes fairly similar to Polish chocolate, from what I can tell.

Unfortunately there are still innumerable countries whose chocolate I haven’t sampled. I’ve tried chocolate from all of Western Europe, North America, Argentina, Japan…. Eventually I aim to get around to each country.

9. What is your favorite genre, and the best examples of books in that genre in your opinion?

Ooh, tough question. I read quite widely; my favorite genre depends on my mood. I guess I most prefer speculative fiction, whether science fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism….

10. Your day job is in publishing; do you aspire to being able to quit that some day, or is that just another reflection of your obsession with words?

Well, I work in financial publishing, which isn’t quite the same as fiction! One day it would be amazing to be a full-time author, but I know that is fairly unlikely to happen. Besides, I like all aspects of publishing, so since I have to have a day job to pay the bills, there’s no other industry I’d rather work in.

11. Author’s Choice: What question did I miss that I should have asked?

What superpower would I like to have?

The answer is most definitely shape-shifting.

From Nov 1st to 30th, there’s a blog tour with prizes up for grabs. Don’t miss out! Sign up for the Facebook or Goodreads event!

Above Ground by A.M. Harte

The first glimpse of sun may be her last.

When Lilith Gray goes above ground for the first time, she hardly expects to stay there — much less be trapped on the surface with no way home.

Hunted by trackers and threatened by the infected, Lilith is on the run, desperate to return underground. Her only hope for survival lies with a taciturn werewolf with a dark agenda of his own.

Lilith’s old carefree life has been reduced to one choice:

Adapt. Or die trying.