Thursday 25 October 2018

Interview With an Author - Number 6 - Lindsey S. Frantz

Author Bio
Lindsey S. Frantz was born and raised in Appalachia and earned her MFA from Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University. 

Her stories and poems have previously appeared in numerous literary journals, including Main Street Rag's Villains Anthology, Ruminate Magazine, and Emerge Literary Journal.


Author name: My full name is Lindsey Stockton Frantz, so I publish under Lindsey S. Frantz. 
I had a few pieces published in literary journals before I got married, and those were published under the name Lindsey Stockton. 

Are you a traditionally published/indie/hybrid author?
My publications have been kind of all over, so I suppose I’m a hybrid author. 
I have one short story published in an indie anthology (From Now On: The Last Words Anthology), one novel published by a traditional small press (The Upworld by Line by Lion Publications), and a handful of short stories and poems published by literary journals. 
You can check out other books published by Line by Lion at www.linebylion.com!

What was the last book you released?
The Upworld is my debut novel! It was released by Line by Lion Publications in August of 2017, and holding it in my hands for the first time was most definitely the best moment of my writing career! 

The Upworld: It has been many generations since the Vitium War. In the ruins of what was once Appalachia, the population has split into three groups—upworlders who live in sparse, walled off cities, albino cave dwellers, and a group of savage nomads called the Wylden. Then there’s Erilyn—a telekinetic 17-year-old girl who can see auras and hear thoughts. For three years she’s lived a quiet, calm life in the woods with Luna, her albino serval cat, until the day Finn—an upworld boy from Sunnybrook—stumbles, injured, into her clearing, chased by Wylden hunters. Erilyn’s once calm life is turned upside down as she guardedly travels with Finn back to Sunnybrook. There she must confront both the secrets of her past—the cave dwellers she ran from as a child and the bittersweet memories she daily tries to forget—and Morrigan, the girl who broke Finn’s heart and who’s harboring her own a dangerous secret.


How long have you been writing? 
I remember “writing” my first story (dictating to my dad) when I was about five. Together, he and I made a little book about a golden pony that lived on top of a hill. 

I have loved books since I was a toddler, so my parents weren’t that surprised when I started coming up with stories. 

But I suppose I seriously started writing, really trying to put stories together, when I was maybe thirteen or so. My uncle let me borrow Dragonseye, a book by Anne McCaffrey, and I just fell in love with this world she’d created around telepathic dragons and deadly silver thread. So I sat at my family’s desktop and started writing a story that was heavily based on hers. It was terrible, but it’s where I started, and I haven’t stopped since! 

I’m 33 now, so I guess that means I’ve been writing for 20 years, which just seems unbelievable to me. 

What is the most challenging thing about writing for you?
I actually just had a conversation about this yesterday! 
My local library invited me to be a speaker at their Know-It-All Festival this past weekend and I talked about my writing process and gave some general advice to new writers. In that conversation I admitted that the hardest part about writing for me is actually making myself do the writing itself. 

I spend a lot of time thinking, brainstorming, planning, questioning, taking notes, and just figuring things out in my head, but when I sit down to write I start to get nervous that I won’t get it right! 

So, the hardest part for me is making myself just write straight through (without revising as I go). 
If I stop to revise, I’ll never finish, so I make myself write (with breaks, obviously) straight through a book or story or poem, and only when I’ve typed the last word do I let myself go back and revise, but I digress. 

It’s the act of writing—of putting all those ideas I’ve mulled over and shaped and reshaped in my head and in my notes 1,000 times on paper—that’s the most challenging for me.

And what is the best thing about writing?  
In retrospect, the best thing about writing is the writing process (but as I said above, it’s also the most challenging). 
Oddly enough, I really enjoy revision. I like to compare the writing process to baking a cake. You have to make sure all the ingredients are there, you have to make sure it’s baked for the proper time, and after it’s done, you have to let it sit for a while. 
But revision is like decorating the cake! If you mess up, you just scrape the icing off and try again. Revision is the fun part, because there’s so much less pressure. You can try things and sit with a single sentence or phrase or even word for hours if you want, because the bulk of the work, the hardest part (the writing), is done!

Where is your favourite writing spot?
It’s so important to have a space that’s all yours to write in. 

My favourite, right now, is in my kitchen (a space that I’ll no longer be able to use, because we are planning to move in the next few months). My kitchen has bright yellow walls and big windows that look out over our backyard, and a stream and field behind that. It’s just my calm writing space. 

And if I’m not home, there are two local coffee shops—Purdy’s Coffee Co. and Berea Coffee & Tea—that I love to go sit in, maybe with headphones, and some kind of hot drink to work. But honestly, I get the most done if I’m in my kitchen. Here’s hoping our new house, when we find one, has a spot like my lovely yellow kitchen.









What do you do during times of self-doubt or (goodness forbid) if “writer’s block” strikes? 
I get writer’s block a lot. I
 think it stems from my constant worry that what I’m writing isn’t “right” as I’m writing it. 
For years, when that feeling would hit, I would just close my laptop or put away my notebook and walk away, hoping it would clear up. But that took too long, so eventually, after some good advice from a writer I admire so very much, I just started making myself write, no matter what. 

If writer’s block hits, I just write through it. A lot of times, I have to end up trashing those parts, but writing through it lets me push past it and get back into my groove.

What is the most frivolous thing you’ve purchased with your royalties?
Well, my husband and I have two toddlers and a mortgage, so royalties just go into the bank with our pay checks, but I do let myself do a little “extra” spending, and we may go to a coffee shop for lattes or live large and eat out (with toddlers, this means going to McDonald’s) instead of eating at home. 
So nothing very exciting. Maybe one day we’ll be able to take a vacation with my royalties or something!

What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
Just write. 
It’s why I write through my writer’s block, and it’s why I don’t stop to revise. 
The advice came from an amazing writer and teacher, who later became my friend, and it’s stuck with me through the end of my undergraduate degree, through my master’s of fine arts degree, and beyond, into my more serious writing life. 
So, whenever I feel stuck, or unmotivated, or even just like I need a pick me up, I just write.

Do you prefer tea/coffee/hot chocolate?
I mean, I like all of them! But my favourite would have to be coffee. 
I drink a lot of coffee. It started in college. 
I was reading Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan/Hollows series in my very first apartment, and the protagonist, Rachel, drank a lot of coffee. A lot. So I thought, “I need to drink coffee, too!” 
So the next time I visited my parents, I asked to borrow their old coffee pot. It started with cups that were half coffee, half flavoured creamer, but like Rachel Morgan and her roommate Ivy, I drank coffee every time I sat down with those books. 

Now, fifteen years later, I drink coffee all throughout the day (sans creamer, most of the time) just because I love it. But I’m also quite partial to a lovely chai tea latte. Purdy’s Coffee Co. makes the best I’ve ever had. It’s like Christmas in a cup!

Is there anything you’d like to add…?  
I love to write, and read other writer’s work, and talk about writing, so I’d love it if people would contact me to chat after reading this interview! 
I love making writer and reader friends! And if you want, visit my website and sign up for my newsletter! Everyone who signs up receives a free Kindle copy of my short story “Erilyn’s Awakening,” which is the prequel to my novel!


*You can follow Lindsey S. Frantz on:

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