1. How did you discover Solstice Publishing?
I submitted a manuscript to them last year, Dead in the Water, and they agreed to publish that book. So naturally, when I finished Conspiracy of Ravens, I submitted it to them as well and they also agreed to publish it.
- Where did your inspiration come from for this book? Was there a character that just had to be heard? Was there an event that inspired you to start writing?
I was sitting in the car with my elder daughter, waiting for the younger one to get out of school, and we were talking about the different names for groups of animals. For example, a group of buzzards is called a wake. I was looking them up on my phone and found a whole list of them. I already knew a group of crows was called a murder but I was surprised by a few of them. Conspiracy of ravens just kind of stuck with me and lo, a seed was planted.
- Does your background (in terms of job, family, geographic location, etc.) play into your writing? What kind of research went into your story?
For this story, I had to research prisons (not part of my family or background) and serial killers (not a norm in my family, I assure you). In fact, this book is different from anything else that I’ve written in that it’s not set in the Pacific Northwest and does not involve teenagers or kids as main characters.
- Describe the genres in which you write (paranormal, contemporary, westerns, etc.) If write in more than one genre or area (poetry, non-fiction), do you have a different process when you’re writing different kinds of fiction or non-fiction?
I write in several genres, but I’m published mainly in the paranormal/horror/thriller genre. I write romance, kid’s books, poetry, non-fiction, literary fiction, sci-fi…I have a lot of different writer’s hats. My process is always the same: I write whatever the voices tell me to write (kidding, kind of). It just sort of happens. I don’t really set out to write anything. I just open up a pad of paper or my laptop and stuff happens.
- What is your mind set or process as you sit down to write? Do you have a playlist going? Do you need complete silence? Are you a 6 am writer or an 11 pm writer?
I write whenever the mood strikes me. Which is most all the time. I can write with the television on or off, in public while my daughter is swimming, or in the middle of the night when everyone else is asleep. That’s my favorite time, but I don’t have a mind set or process, a playlist or a specific time.
- How do you balance writing with work and/or personal life?
That can be harder. I work part time, so I have to write in the afternoons during the school year. That limits me because I don’t always become inspired when I have time, so I started writing before bed too since I started writing long hand. Lugging the laptop to bed is a pain, but a notebook is much more portable and allows me to write whenever I have a free moment between juggling home and work.
- Do you have any other projects you’re working on?
I’m working on a children’s picture book with an illustrator, a kid’s chapter book, a few romance novels, the sequel to my first book, the sequel to my third book, another paranormal horror thing with werewolves, a historical fiction thing about Beethoven, another historical fiction thing about the Impressionist painters (Monet, Van Goghe, etc.), and several other projects in various stages of completion.
- Any words of advice for aspiring writers?
Write everything down. Everything. No matter how trivial it seems. You’ll use it later. And don’t give up. After a few hundred rejections, you’ll finally make it and it will feel like a million bucks.
- Social media: Tell us where readers can find you (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, website)mermaidsandmayhem.blogspot.com
www.Facebook.com/chrystalwrites
Twitter @ TheChrystalShip
Goodreads: Chrystal Vaughan/Author
Also on Pinterest, Google +, Link’d In, and Tumblr
10. Book links: Tell us where to find your books!
http://www.amazon.com/Chrystal-Vaughan/e/B00FUMF80U/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1406588048&sr=8-1
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/chrystal-vaughan?store=allproducts&keyword=chrystal+vaughan
http://solsticepublishing.com/dead-in-the-water/
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/460742
