{"id":43,"date":"2015-02-08T16:08:04","date_gmt":"2015-02-08T16:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karenharristully.com\/?page_id=43"},"modified":"2018-02-21T19:43:38","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T19:43:38","slug":"faqs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.karenharristully.com\/?page_id=43","title":{"rendered":"FAQs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A: <\/strong>I mostly write YA sci-fi so far. I\u2019ve also written a couple of short YA horror stories influenced by the \u201crules\u201d of teen horror movies, and a little fantasy.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n

A: <\/strong>I have these ideas in my head that have to come out! \ud83d\ude09 Plus, writing anything and assuming that anyone but my mother will want to read it takes a certain amount of ego. So I\u2019ve got that going for me.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n

A:<\/strong> LOL! I love this question, because it always comes from someone who never reads YA. I guess it\u2019s because my brain never really grew up \u2013 at least not entirely. Yes, I\u2019m over 30 \u2013 gasp! \u2013 and I enjoy stories for teens. They may be violent and have horrible and dramatic things happening, but I know it won\u2019t be as graphic as adult novels can be. And I like a happy ending, eventually. Plus, I find YA novels more exciting and fantastical, while adult novels tend to be more rooted in reality \u2013 boo reality! Someone famous said (I don\u2019t remember who, unfortunately) \u201cIf you have a story that adults won\u2019t believe, write it for children.\u201d I say write it for teens. They can handle almost the same subject matter, and their brains are still open to imagination.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n

A: <\/strong>Late. Later than most authors I talk with anyway. For years the only thing I wrote were papers for school. I was about 25 when I started writing my own fiction. Why? It\u2019s probably clich\u00e9, but I was inspired, like a lot of people, by Harry Potter. I wanted to write like that. Later I learned that I didn\u2019t really. I wanted to write female driven action, my own way. I thought about stories that I loved, including HP, and found it disturbing how most sci-fi, action, and thrillers are dominated by a majority of male characters. Less than a third of characters with speaking parts are women. Crowd scenes in movies are only 17% female and we don\u2019t notice. This discrepancy is important. Women make up half of the people in this world and we\u2019re teaching ourselves and worse, our kids, to see 17% as half. On the plus side, I\u2019m excited about all the new novels coming out that feature strong, diverse, female leads. This is still nowhere near half. We need more.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/geena-davis-two-easy-steps-664573<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/soraya-chemaly\/20-mustknow-facts-about-g_b_5869564.html<\/p>\n

http:\/\/seejane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GDIGM_Gender_Stereotypes.pdf<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n

A: <\/strong>The world! But if I have to pick literary influences, then Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Pride and Prejudice, The Princess Bride, Trixie Belden. And I wanted an answer to all the male dominated action and science fiction, where women and girls just seemed like stereotypical extras thrown in who needed saving constantly. I wanted Buttercup to take up a sword and save herself, and for her to not be the only main female character in her story! I wanted more Hermiones, McGonagalls, and Belatrix\u2019s, so that women were even with the number of main male characters, good and bad. And I wanted to explore the real magic of science, as best I could imagine it in the future.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n

A: In my still-newbie-writer opinion, I think it takes a lot of practice, perseverance, and drive to Finish the Story! I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve gotten better since I started writing, but I don\u2019t know that I\u2019ll ever be as good as I want to be. It also takes a willingness to work hard at my own self-promotion, which does not come naturally.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n

A:<\/strong> I\u2019ve learned that there are a number of different paths. If you\u2019re going for traditional, big five publishing, then you need to find an agent first. This is tough, but the big five don\u2019t take unagented manuscripts. A contract with a big publisher comes with an increasingly small advance, professional editing, layout, cover, and supposedly marketing. However new authors especially need to do more and more of their own promotion. Big publishers just aren\u2019t putting much money into marketing new, unproven authors. For all of that, they now own your book for your lifetime plus 70 years :P.<\/p>\n

On the other side, there\u2019s self-publishing where you have to do and pay for everything yourself, but get to keep a higher percentage of the profit, keep control and ownership of your work.<\/p>\n

In between (the way I\u2019m going) are small and medium publishers. Many will take unagented manuscripts, so you can skip the gatekeeper. True, I pay more of the upfront costs, like I hired my own editor, but other professional services will be paid as a percentage of profits. I was super lucky to become a part of Blue Zephyr Press, where I keep ownership and control of my own work!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n

A: <\/strong>Editing myself and writing succinctly. Short stories are really hard for me to keep short! Also, I cannot see what\u2019s working and what\u2019s not in my own stuff. Writing groups, I have three! are essential to telling me what just doesn\u2019t make sense and suggesting good tweaks.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":27,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-43","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karenharristully.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karenharristully.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karenharristully.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karenharristully.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karenharristully.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.karenharristully.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68,"href":"https:\/\/www.karenharristully.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43\/revisions\/68"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karenharristully.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karenharristully.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}