Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Writer Wednesday: Theresa Snyder

When you’re an indie writer, one of the wonderful things is the people you meet from around the world. The funny thing is that sometimes you connect with someone lightly and it isn’t until time passes that you get to know them better and appreciate their work. I had connected with Theresa in numerous social media platforms quite a time before we connected more and talked more. Though I had seen the talent and was able to enjoy her free audiobook and her writing, my appreciation for her wit and spark for life has increased the more I get to know her because behind the constant writer is a remarkably kind human; one who inspires me to bite down and write more. When I saw her body of work I was blown away and naturally felt the urge to see if she’d like to answer a few questions... and she did :D 


1. Prolific seems like an understatement where you are concerned. Tell us a bit about what books you have released.

Currently, I write in four genres, Sci-fi, Fantasy, Paranormal, and Memoirs. I have only been published since May of 2013, but I have been writing since 1990. 


The Star Travelers (sci-fi) was my first series. It was written for YA to Adult. I wrote one a year between 1990 and 1995. They are character-driven stories. I am not a scientist, so they’re not high-tech. However, I always loved ‘buddy’ books and films when I was growing up. The Star Travelers is about the adventures of a human and an alien who become friends in spite of their differences. There are six books in the series with another coming out in 2016.

The Farloft Chronicles is my fantasy series. They were originally written for my nine year old nephew, but adults on the internet have found Farloft irresistible. Farloft is my very old, very wise dragon muse. He simply will not leave me alone. He whispers these stories into my ear as I sleep making me dream fantastical things. He is quite popular on social media. He actually tweets on my account the last Friday of each month. There are six books in his series, plus a children’s storybook/coloring book, and two ‘collection’ volumes if you want them in a ‘tote-able’ form for an adult to read. 

The Shifting books of the Twin Cities Series are paranormal. This series would be for Mature YA to Adult. The Twin Cities series is a group of writers who write in the same setting with some cross over characters, but we also have our own favorites. The setting is The Realms, a parallel world where everything humans think are paranormal, mystical or fanciful actually live. My main characters are a shape-shifter who shifts from human to wolf, a group of humans and a fire demon. The story is told through the shape-shifters eyes as a wolf. There are three Shifting books in the series currently and two more in the works for release in 2016.

My memoir is my personal story about inheriting my elderly parents. It is not as weird as you might think. There are a lot of baby boomers who are stepping up to take care of our parents during their elder years. But, this is not a ‘downer’ book. It is really quite funny and based on a four year series of weekly articles I wrote for the local newspaper.


2. How long have you been writing and when did the fascination with dragons begin? 


I really can’t remember a time I didn’t write. I have always kept a journal and when I was younger and we used snail-mail I had over thirty-five pen pals who I corresponded with on a monthly basis. But as far as writing books, other than the one I wrote in middle-school with a friend during recesses one year, I have been writing books since 1990.

As to my fascination with dragons, I didn’t find Farloft, he found me. In 1996 my nephew was having difficulty with the concept of ownership. He wasn’t stealing. A lot of the time he was giving his own things away, like a new winter coat. His mom would have to retrieve the coat. He didn’t seem to listen to his parents, me or his grandparents, and I began to wonder who he would listen to? Then Farloft showed up. Who wouldn’t listen to a wise, old dragon? James did.


3. I saw a magnificent teapot on your G+ page the other day. Do you collect these or any other articles for that matter?


I didn’t set out to collect teapots, but they seem to gravitate to me. My mother thought any problem could be solved over a cup of tea with a long talk, so I naturally have a love of tea. From there, I inherited her collection of cups and saucers and some teapots as well. I love to throw tea parties. From there it just kept expanding and now I do have a collection of teapot and cups and saucers.


4. You also offer editing services. Tell us a bit more about that and what experience you have editing and who have you worked with.

When I first hopped on social media in May of 2013, I was amazed at how many fine indie authors there were. I really had no idea about that community. They all seemed to be struggling to be heard. I wondered what I could do to help and decided the best thing to do would be to read and review their work. 

From there I started getting requests to beta read other author’s work before they published it. I have a knack for catching mistakes. I was raised by a librarian and a school teacher, plus I spent seven years in law as a legal assistant. Most authors read what they ‘think’ they wrote (including me). So, I would not only beta read as requested, but I would mark up the copies and send back the corrections to the authors. They were all very thankful and some even said I caught things their editors had missed.

So, when I was fumbling around, trying to find something additional I could do besides write to help me out once I retired, several of those authors I helped suggested I put together a proofreading/editing service. You can read their testimonials on my site.

I have read a lot of really imaginative storylines and clever books, but some of them just needed a second pair of eyes to make them sparkle. I hope to assist my fellow indie authors to make their work shine.



5. When you write, what parts of you come out in what you write?

This is an interesting question. I think I have lived long enough, traveled extensively enough, met so many wonderful people, and done such a wide variety of things that I have gleaned some wisdom. I hope I pass some of that on in my writing. I also hope that a bit of my personality shows in the humor in each one of my books. I can’t imagine a book without some comic relief. 


6. You are a dragon doctor and one dragon has come down with Scalian flu. What are the symptoms of this devastating virus and please share with us the home remedy you can mix to help them feel better?


Scalian flu can be a very serious ailment if left untreated. The flu is brought on by a deficiency in the dragon’s diet. Luckily, it can be counter-acted quite easily with a formidable quantity of chocolate. Farloft has never suffered from this ailment having a dragon sized appetite for chocolate, but I have heard of dragons in the back country without access to an unlimited supply of chocolate who experienced scale discoloration and flaking due to Scalian flu.

It has been discovered by Enlightened Dragonologists that prior to humans manufacturing of chocolate, dragons who lived in countries where coco plants grew, traded the beans to dragons living further away from the source. As time passed, a family of shape-shifters in Belgium found the niche market of chocolate for Dragons quite profitable. They have become well known among the dragon population for their delicious chocolate concoctions. The chocolate recipes are passed down from parent to child and the trick for magical delivery of the product to the various dragon clans is a well guarded secret.


7. What have been your favorite reactions to your work?


I had a young lady of about thirteen read the first sci-fi book in The Star Traveler series and she told me she cried when the two main characters became separated and one became ill. I thought that was so cool, because she was so involved with the characters that she ached for them. 

I told another young man that the sci-fi were my first books and that he could see me grow as an author if he read all six. I said that I really felt I found my ‘writer’s voice’ by book three. After reading them all he said, ‘if you found your voice in book three, you learned to sing by book six.’ I was happy to hear he thought I continued to improve.


I liked what someone said about the paranormal books, that they were ‘like a breath of fresh air in a genre gone stale.’ I really think they are different from any other paranormal in the genre today and I just love crawling into a wolf’s skin and seeing the world through his eyes.


8. You are having a tea in your favorite teashop and you suddenly notice a new door you’d never seen. It’s open and like a good adventurer, you step in to see what’s up. Inside, there is a heptagonal room with a spell book open. What spell is on the page and what happens when you read it out loud?


The spell read:
Take a sip of soothing tea,
Jump on my back, come fly with me.
Delightful adventures come from worlds afar,
Close your eyes and there you are.
I am old and very wise,
See the world through my eyes.


I took a sip of the tea which magically appeared in a lovely, gold rimmed cup with dragons wrapped around it.

Promptly, upon swallowing the tea, Farloft appeared before me. He had to stoop a bit in order to fit without bumping his head and he did a slick maneuver to catch a vase, which he smacked with his wing, before it hit the floor. 


Catastrophe avoided, he extended a wing and I climbed on board. 

In the blink of a dragon’s golden eye we were out of the room and drifting over a spacious landscape filled with herds of centaurs and frolicking satyr. A Pegasus passed us by and I knew without a doubt that we were in The Realms.

We spent the rest of the day sailing lazily from world to world with a stop for tea with the fairies, and a very kind wizard who conjured up a lovely raspberry trifle. 


Farloft thought it might be fun to stop off and visit Cody, the shape-shifter, at his food cart. He, in turn, invited us home to have dinner with Azur, the fire demon and Simone. Of course, we were sworn to silence regarding Cody and Scar, the wolf, being one and the same. 


We finished off the day sharing a round of mead with Jake and Arr on board the Calpernia in a distant corner of the Neptune Galaxy to the right of Rigil Four.


It was a delightful day and could not have been possible without the conjuring spell and Farloft’s uncanny ability to fold time and space.



9. You are commissioned to design a garden as a tribute to your stories. Take us through a tour of that garden.


My theme garden would have many rooms each based on a genre I write.
The garden would be dominated by a huge glass domed conservatory built as an Imagining Chamber like the ones aboard the Mother Ships in my sci-fi series. The chamber would be voice activated. Merely state which garden you would like to experience and you would be instantly standing in it, from the universally renowned Muldvaian Sunset Shores, where you could witness the magenta and lunar blue sunsets over the crystalline beaches of the Endless Sea, to the Stellar Pyrotechnic Display viewed nightly from the tree tops of the Baobobo Hanging Gardens of Magness.


To the East of the conservatory would be the fantasy garden. Farloft would assist me in the design of this. It would have to be large, and relatively open, in order to accommodate landing dragons of all sizes. There would be topiaries of dragons festooned with twinkle lights. A large ever-bearing apple tree would dominate the center of the garden. Farloft loves apples. A deep cascading stream would end in a large pool for wading and washing off sticky apple-juiced paws.


To the West of the conservatory would be the tribute to The Realms and my paranormal series. The center of this garden would be dominated by a huge eighty-five foot tall weeping willow tree. Under it would be a stone, life-sized statue of the vampire willow-gate keeper, Remy, and Scar, my shape-shifter in his wolf form. There would be a bit of whimsy here for those who took the time to bend down and read the inscription at the base of the statue. It would be a quote from some ‘sage advice’ Remy gave Scar (while in his human form as Cody) upon his declaration of his intention to date the human, Simone. It would read, “Don’t Shift during sex.” 


The rest of this room would resemble an English style, slightly gothic, garden with several smaller rooms consisting of a knot garden, an herb garden (for Azur, the Fire demon’s healing herbs), and a maze for Simone and Scar, in his wolf form, to play. The maze would have to be built on a large scale, since dragons love puzzles and no doubt would wander over to investigate. No one wants to see a dragon stuck between hedges. They tend to burn their way out when frustrated and that just would not be good for the hedge. 


The final room would be one that actually, currently exists in my garden. You pass under a wisteria arbor and into the Moroccan Room. This is my writing and reading room, added onto the house a few years back. Its walls are glass and open to the rest of the garden. I often envision myself, and my mother, spending hours there drinking tea and chatting as we did in my vignettes in my memoirs. It is a jewel toned oasis with beaded curtains, lush pillows, and an overabundance of frou-frou.


10. Lastly, let us know where we can find you and what we can find there.

My Website: www.TheresaSnyderAuthor.com

Literally everything is available on my site.

· All my social links

· Main blog with a continuous running free serialized story which I post to each Saturday

· Under each cover on the right-hand side you will find a link to a site with a synopsis of the series, sample chapters of each book and links to all the platforms for purchasing under the headers

Affordable Proofreading & Editing Service: http://affordableproofedit.blogspot.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheresaSnyder19

Facebook – General Page: https://www.facebook.com/theresa.snyder.14

Facebook – Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/booksbytheresasnyder/

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+TheresaSnyderAuthor/posts

Moroccan Room Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qFQL6-Yf-c

Society of Enlighted Dragonologists: http://www.dragonologists.com/

· Cheri Matthynssens and I founded this site to promote dragons as more than man eating machines, they are creatures who love, laugh and feel, just like us.

2015 Vacation Photos with Farloft: http://farloftsrhetoric.blogspot.com/2015/05/international-vacation-with-theresa.html

· Farloft loves taking ‘selfies’ and on our whirlwind ten day tour of the world this past summer he took a lot of us. We sent postcards home with the results.


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My thanks to Theresa for the wonderful in depth answers and for showing the value of true kindness . In addition, she took the prompt I sent and weaved a fun little tale I'll be sharing soon, so Stay Tuned and read on.

Prompt: We are coworkers in a drab office and suddenly a magic bomb explodes and transforms the office into a magical maze. It’s up to you and me to escape the dangers of the maze and save the office.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for inviting me to your special corner of the world. I really enjoying our chat. *hugs*

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    Replies
    1. It was beyond fun and I look fwd to sharing your prompt in the new week. Always nice to chat it with fantastic and fun people. Big hug and my best to you.

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