Tuesday 16 August 2011

Interview With Kristin Stone: Author Of "Edge Of Extinction"



  AUTHOR: Kristen Stone

  BOOK TITLE: Edge of Extinction

  AUTHOR BIO:
Born and raised in London.  Moved to the Midlands at the age of 22 to get married and has lived there ever since.  Always had the urge to write and tried several times during the last 25 years to get published.  Now taking full advantage of new technology to publish, through Night Publishing, ebooks and POD.


  SHORT SYNOPSIS:
Deep in the Amazon rainforest a tribe of people are led by Kianda Mala, a man they consider a god because he has a tail.  They live a simple, easy-going life until a strange sickness strikes the village.  Kianda Mala takes it upon himself to find out what is causing the sickness and his quest leads him out of his home valley into the modern world where he hopes to find help.


  GENRE:
Pass.  This book doesn’t fit easily into any specific genre.  It could be Adventure because it involves seeking out the unknown, the greatest adventure in life.  It could be Fantasy because the main character is a being that could not possibly exist.  It could be Romance because there is a love interest.  The publisher said it was Literary but I do not consider myself that great.  You may differ in your opinion.


  WHERE AVAILABLE/PRICE:
Amazon.com and co.uk for Kindle, and Smashwords.com for other ebook formats.  It will also shortly be available at Amazon.com as a POD.  Amazon prices seem to vary from day to day so would not like to state a price.


  WHY DO YOU WRITE?
Because I love it.  I have always wanted to be a writer from the time I first discovered The Famous Five, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys plus all the other kids books that got me going.  I have always had a vivid imagination and want to share it.


  WHERE DID YOU GET THE IDEA FOR YOUR BOOK?
Believe it or not the idea for Kianda Mala came from a song I heard when a Brownie leader.  It asked the listener what sort of tail they would choose if they could.  Part of the song mentioned a prehensile tail and I started to create Kianda.  Having created him I needed a place for him to live, and having created that I needed a story to tell.  So developed the Edge of Extinction complete with its own people, culture and threat.


  WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER – THE MOST FUN FOR YOU TO WRITE?
In this book it has to be the main character, Kianda Mala.  He is so unique, yet intelligent and thoughtful.  He quickly learns new things but despite being saturated with modern ideas he stays true to his own beliefs and will do anything for ‘his people’.  In creating him I hope I have made this impossible character totally believable.

  WHAT DO YOU THINK SETS YOUR BOOK APART?
I have been told the writing is good, the story original.  I don’t believe either, myself.  The story is different.  It is not like Avatar simply because the main character has a tail.  I have never read Avatar nor seen the film, on purpose.  It is not like Tarzan because it is set in a jungle.  It has none of the current trendy vampires, werewolves or whatever else is in vogue at the moment.  I hope it is simply a good story that people will enjoy.


  HOW MUCH, IF ANY OF THE STORY WAS INSPIRED BY YOUR OWN LIFE EXPERIENCES?
None at all.  All my work, not just this, is entirely fictional.  My life has consisted of working in various offices with absolutely nothing of interest ever happening.  I am the most boring person you could wish to meet.


  DID THE STORY PROCEED AS YOU ORIGINALLY CONCEPTUALIZED IT, OR EVOLVE AS THE WORK PROGRESSED?
It definitely took on a life of its own.  The book now is nothing like my first attempt – a great improvement if I may say so myself. 


  WHO DO YOU USE AS A SOUNDING BOARD FOR YOUR WRITING? 
I worked on my own until I discovered my first on-line publishing group – Authonomy.  I put the story up and was amazed when people started to say it was good.  I also tried Youwriteon where, again, the book received favourable comments.  These groups, however, are very big and there is so much competition to get noticed I left them for a much smaller group.  I joined Night Publishing and the guy in charge, never have been quite sure what his official title is, loved my book so much he offered to get it up on the net for me. Night are a very supportive, smashing bunch of people and I am very happy to be published by them.


  IN WHAT GENRE WOULD YOU BE LEAST & MOST COMFORTABLE WRITING? 
I am not comfortable with being placed in any type of genre.  Whenever ideas come into my head I never think about what box they should be placed in.  Maybe I should, but I don’t work like that.  Ideas come, I write them down and then look to see if they fit anywhere.  If they do, fine.  If they don’t, tough.  Makes life harder for selling but as everything is on line if you can get noticed it shouldn’t matter about genre.  The getting noticed is not easy, however.
 

  WHO ARE YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHORS ?
I haven’t got any favourite authors at the moment.  I can’t remember the last time I sat down and read something that I wasn’t reviewing or editing for someone else.  I got an ebook reader last year and downloaded a great library of great books from the past, none of which I have actually read! I have a long list of new authors to read, too.


  WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR PROSPECTIVE READERS TO KNOW ABOUT YOU OR THIS BOOK?
I suppose I’ll answer the question that confuses some people.  I write under the pen name Kristen Stone, for no particular reason other than I wanted to be Kristen Stone when I was about fourteen and have always thought it would be my pen name.  My real name is Pauline Edwards but Kristen Stone sounds much more romantic and apart from anything else another Pauline Edwards runs a transport company and I am NOT that Pauline Edwards.  What should you call me?  Successful, would be nice.


If you would like to read an excerpt of Edge of Extinction one can be found at:

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