Today, I have a special treat for you all. Andi King, author of the now completed--and once Top Faved--Vella series "Enemy Mine" has volunteered to be my next tribute. She's been kind enough to answer a few questions about herself and her writing. Be on the lookout for another one of my now famous reviews of her serial, Enemy Mine. It will be dropping on Thursday.
You can read her story by clicking here.
Andi has become an ally of mine in the Vella community, so please take the time to give her Vella a chance if you happen to be hunting for something new to read. Now, without further hesitation, let's meet our guest.
1. Tell the world a little bit about who you are. Open format. This can be about where you’re from, your favorite food or place to vacation, how old you were when you had your first kiss, or even what your pet peeves are. You’re a writer. Take it away.
I was born with a gaping hole in the roof of my mouth and had to have several surgeries to correct it. It took years for me to learn how to speak properly without slurring my Ls, Ns, and Rs. As a result, I didn’t talk much. But I read, oh, how I read. As a teenager, it was how people defined me. I was a bookworm. Shy. Quiet. Awkward, and always with a book in front of my face.
Reading is powerful. It taught me so much, often without me even realizing it. Although I didn’t talk often, I would often astound people with my vocabulary when I did. But I still didn’t like talking much, so I wrote. Writing gave me a voice I didn’t otherwise have.
When I was twenty years old, I took a creative writing course at a local college. This was in the early 1990s when writing wasn't cool yet. I remember the teacher did a double take when I walked through the door, because I was the youngest in the room by at least twenty years. Yeah, I felt a little out of place.
But I've always known writing was my thing, even as a teenager, and even when I was teased for it. I grew up reading Judy Blume, Carolyn Keene, and historical romance novels from my mom's bookcase. When I wasn't reading, I was busy filling college-ruled notebooks with vibrantly horrible, melodramatic romances. The best parts were when teenaged me tried to write about sex.
2. We all know writing is a marathon where many stories don’t make it across the finish line. Tell us about the story you were writing when you stopped and thought to yourself “Hey, I like this and kind of want other people to validate my soul.”
Fifth grade. Mrs. Atkins. And her assignment to write and illustrate a children’s story. It was when Herm the Germ was born. He was a little green guy with antennae on his head, and he liked hanging out in A&W Root Beer and Pepsi cans. Not only was the storyline compelling—Herm got a kid sick enough to send to the hospital—but it gave me a chance to show off my drawing skills, too.
I still remember the shock and pleasure I felt at Mrs. Atkins’ admiration. She was a no-nonsense kind of teacher, not exactly quick to praise. Not at all the type to draw a smiley face at the top of any of my assignments. So a compliment coming from her was like being blinded by sudden sunlight. And if what I did could elicit that kind of reaction from her, it made me think that maybe the little green man I’d created was my hidden super power.
For years afterward, I drew different versions of Herm on whatever was at hand at the time. My diary had him peeking over the date of entry, the gas bill Mom had to pay showed him choking down by the balance due, and my English assignment showed him scowling and pointing at dangling participles. He even peeked at people through his fingers on bathroom stalls.
It took a few years before I realigned my priority from drawing to writing. Drawing was safer. Sharing actual words and thoughts took a kind of bravery I had to grow into.
3. Why do you think it is so hard for writers to showcase their work to people they know, yet they crave the unsolicited opinions of strangers?
For me, it’s all about the sex scenes. I don’t care if Jane Doe reads about Darren going down
on Anna, but Mom, Grandma and Aunt Jessie? Kill. Me. Now.
Plus, there’s that niggling sense that those who love me the most only want to appease me. Because of course, they’re going to tell me only good things, right? As much as I’d like to believe them, can I really? I don’t know.
So a stranger who has nothing to win or lose by reading what I write holds merit. Throw me into the water. It’s honest, my fight to sink or swim.
4. When did you start fabricating the life events and thoughts of individuals in your head?
Oh, probably the third grade. Jeff. He was red haired with freckles and brown eyes, and I had
the biggest crush on him. I used to rewrite our daily interactions in my head at night. Most of the time, I made stuff up. Like how the two of us were in a space program being shot up to the moon. Or, how I’d wow him with one of my dance routines. Or, how the two of us got lost on a school outing to the museum, and somehow got locked inside overnight.
In real life, I was a typical girl with more hair than good common sense, but I was always going on an adventure in my mind.
5. What makes a story good?
An immediate problem, complicated by compelling characters whose personalities or desires, good intentions, and/or goals, are in direct conflict with each other. Or, give me a good and gloomy dystopian world like The Hunger Games. Or, throw me back to the dawn of modern humans like Clan of the Cave Bear.
Take me by surprise, make me good and angry, then make me cry.
6. What genres and types of endings are you partial to?
Romance is my favorite, followed by Young Adult and Thriller. But I’ll read most anything if it comes with a character I can connect with and care about. Oh, and don’t forget a good ending—I prefer that so I don’t feel like slitting my wrists at the end. And don’t leave anything open-ended for me, tie it up in a bow. I might eventually forgive a writer for making me cry at an ending if the story was good enough.
7. Give your take on the publishing industry vs indie publishing and why you’ve chosen the specific routes you have for your various works.
I didn’t publish on Kindle Vella to make my name or fortune, and I don’t plan on pursuing the publishing industry. I gave Vella a try on a whim. Writing is a hobby. A big one since childhood, granted, but I’d have to hit it unexpectedly big in order to make more money than I do at my day job. I’m an Indiana girl working for a California-based company, making a commensurate wage. I’d have to increase my writing output significantly in order to make a career out of it.
And I’m the type who sweats blood over every word.
I plan to publish my current story with KDP as an eBook and paperback, and we’ll see how that goes.
8. Have you ever written something that has made you laugh/cry? What was it, why did it make you laugh/cry, and where can other people find it?
The things that routinely make me laugh or cry the most are when I share anecdotes on Facebook about my own life or memories.
Like that one time I traveled home from Los Angeles during the holidays and ended up missing three flights. Or the time I had to go pee in a public restroom and got locked on the other side of the door. Or the time I forgot my purse at the bank, lost my keys in the refrigerator, or forgot what day it was and so didn't go to work that one Monday.
Or, like how after I got divorced, when I moved from Indiana to Los Angeles . . . and was too crippled by culture shock and fear to go anywhere on my own. (All my courage had been spent on the move itself.) Hoo boy, it took a long time for me to grow a pair.
Maybe I should consider non-fiction writing.
9. Tell us about the worst experience you ever had with a peer in the writing industry. Is the situation resolved or ongoing? Why?
In the early 2000s, I used to run a small online writer’s critique group focused on in-depth critiques. There were eight of us. One of the group’s members is a successful, traditionally published urban fantasy writer today. However, I often didn’t “get” their writing, and they didn’t get mine. The critique group was successful in part because we were fantasy, sci-fi and romance writers, and so feedback was sometimes left-of-center, or an unanticipated bullseye hit that hurt.
Let’s just say the two of us often wound up with darts in our rears.
10. Give us all your thoughts on Kindle Unlimited/Vella. Why did you choose this route for your stories? Do you think opening up Kindle Vella to an international audience will hurt your Vellas or help them? Do you wish there were more long-form serial publishers available to you? Do you see it as its own thing or just an avenue to cultivate stories before going to the traditional self-publishing route?
Making Kindle Vella available internationally can only increase readership and visibility. Vella is losing out on not including the rest of the world at this point. And once Vella finally comes up with its own searchable platform, rather than relying on Amazon’s, the sky’s the limit. They could do much better at advertising hidden gems.
I sure wish Kindle Vella had a writer’s litmus test, though.
For me, Vella is a way to make some extra money. At this point, I’m not interested in exploring other similar platforms, where I’d have to do more marketing to a different audience. One is more than enough.
11. Give us a rundown of your Books and Vellas that you would like others to read.
There’s just the one at the moment: ENEMY MINE.
I have others in various stages of completion, but I’m a slow writer with a one-track mind. I’m currently toying with the idea of working on my Greek mythology romance.
12. What five Books or Vellas, not your own, do you think readers should check out?
In no order whatsoever:
Emblems of Diamonds and Dust by AJ Igoe (Vella) Horsemen of a Different Color by Gentry Lee Burke (Vella) Endless Summer Nights by Faye Byrd (Vella) Earth’s Children Series by Jean Auel The Windflower by Tom and Sharon Curtis
13. No one ends on 13 questions. They’re too scared. We’re going to tempt fate. Why do you write?
I write to be heard. To pay homage to my mother, to kick the butts of bad guys and gals, and to make sure the girl gets the guy in the end. And because it fulfills my soul like nothing else has.
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