Title: Terra Nova Book 1
Author: MtG
Publisher: Friesen Press
ISBN: 1525572008
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 444
Reviewed by: Aaron Washington
Author Interview with MtG
Today we are talking to MtG, author of Terra Nova Book 1.
HBR: Did you ever experience writer’s block when writing ‘Terra Nova Book 1’, and how many times did it happen? I don’t really get writer’s block but I do get ‘the pits of procrastination’. Those are the times when I will think of absolutely anything else to do rather than sit and write. I have to threaten myself into writing during those times. It’s like I’m talking to a small child inside my own head. I’ll say things like “I don’t get any chocolate until I write one chapter”.
HBR: If Evangeline was not a fictional character, is she someone you would comfortably hang out with? I wouldn’t mind hanging out with Evangeline but I think the person I’d really love to hang out with would be her best friend Val and the vampire Josepine. I think that’s why I made them close to her so that I could vicariously hang out with them through Evangeline.
HBR: What was the most challenging phase when writing this book? The beginning. When the story came to my mind it was actually from the point where Evangeline and Cynthia are already in Terra Nova. I could see everything that was happening and could hear every conversation from that point. But I had no clue how they got to that point. It took me a long time to figure out how and why Evangeline ended up in Terra Nova.
HBR: Is writing something that you have been doing since you were a child or did you discover your literary skills as an adult? My educational and professional background is an odd combination of science, education and business. I have always been a good professional writer in terms of government proposals and doctorate research papers. What I didn’t know was weather I could write well creatively.
I’ve always had a huge imagination. I can come up with an entire movie plot while staring at people in a management meeting – which I’ve done more than once. It was about putting down on paper what I’ve always seen in my mind. I tried on and off for a number of years and then finally wrote the entire first draft of Terra Nova. When I re-read it I could see that it had potential but definitely needed a ton of work. So I googled writing conferences, flew over to one in the UK, then took a 4th year University writing class in my spare time and then came back to Terra Nova, ripped it apart and rewrote it.
HBR: Would you mind Terra Nova being turned into a movie? Of course not. It would be fascinating to see how someone else visualizes what I wrote.
HBR: How would you deal with critics or parties that would disapprove of your work? I think that by the time you’ve published your book -whether you went the traditional publishing route or the indie self-publishing one – you’ve already dealt with a ton of rejection. Plus, I believe that if everyone loves what you say then it means you’ve never said anything that hasn’t been said before. For me, the difficult part is trying to figure out which criticism to let go and which to learn from. For example, even when you give your book to editors, you notice that two equally qualified editors can have completely opposite opinions on a chapter or section – one will say it’s the best part of the book and the other will tell you to trash it. So you often sit there trying to figure out how to distinguish personal preferences from universally useful points. You don’t want to be pompous and blow off criticism that can truly help you improve but at the same time you don’t want to accept every individual opinion as the absolute truth.
HBR: Do you read a lot and what are your favorite genres? Yes, I love reading. For the most part I jump back and forth between literary and classic novels and fantasy (both adult and YA).
HBR: Do you have any advice for writers who are thinking of writing books but they are doubting their skills? Probably nothing that hasn’t been said before.
I’d say that once you write your very first, entire book draft, give it to someone whose intelligence you trust and who also has the guts to be honest with you. I know lots of people who will tell me that whatever I scribble down is pure brilliance but that’s not helpful to me knowing whether I actually wrote something with potential. My husband is one of the most honest people I know and he is also a very literary person, so I trust what he tells me in terms of my writing. He was the first one that read my initial Terra Nova scribbles and he said “I despise YA movies and books and I despise vampire junk even more. You’ve basically made me read everything I hate and…I didn’t’ like it, but I hated it less than most of the YA stuff that’s already out there. So, go for it.” Coming from him, that encouragement meant more than 100 friends telling me I’m brilliant.