Author Interview with Kelly Martin!

Kelly Martin is one of my good friends at Astraea Press. Her books are AWESOME, and she has held my hand and helped me figure things out while I released Feudlings. She's on a one day blog tour and she's stopping at mine! Check her out :)

What inspires your writing?

I like to think God inspires it. Definitely life. I want to write clean fiction for young adults, and people of all ages honestly. I want to write good stories that draw you in with characters readers can relate to.

Can you briefly tell us your journey to publication?

It took 11 months from first word written on the computer screen to publication. CROSSING THE DEEP was a 2011 Nanowrimo. I had 59,000 words finished when November ended. That draft was horrible… HORRIBLE. At least it had good bones to it. Thanks to the encouragement of my sister, I re-wrote it… and re-wrote it…. And re-wrote it. By March I started sending it to agents. By June, I had about given up. I learned from Absolute Write that some publishers don’t require you to have an agent. I submitted to a few of them. A week later, I had 2 offers! I decided on Astraea Press. CROSSING THE DEEP came out in October J My second novel with Astraea Press, SAINT SLOAN, came out Feb. 28^th. AND I have a third AP book, B.I.G. is BEAUTIFUL coming out September 3rd, 2013.

What is your favorite/worst part of the writing/publishing process?

My favorite part is learning the stories of the characters. I LOVE it when backstories come together in ways I never imagined (of course, I say I planned it all along ;) )

The worst part is marketing. I love talking to people about my books, but it’s hard to ‘market’. I’d just like to talk to people and hope they buy my books.

What has been your most memorable experience as a published author?

Going to the store with my kids and someone stopping me because they had read my book. That was pretty special.

So tell us a little about your book. What prompted this story?

I had this idea after watching an episode of The O.C. It’s not a fan fiction or anything, but the idea kind of germinated from it. Two brothers, one girl and a horrible incident between them. The TV show went a totally different way than my book, actually. Still, I wanted a story with a triangle between a girl and brothers. It was definitely fun to write.

Which character do you relate to the most and why?

Ray. Most people are Team Aaron, but I’m all about Ray. He’s the quiet, shy type. Actually, he was the hardest character to write. Aaron was the easiest. He was so fun!

Which character did you find most difficult to craft and why?

Ray. I had to totally re-do Ray because as a quiet loner, he didn’t talk much. Which is okay when you watching a movie. Not so much when you are writing a novel.

What advice would you give aspiring authors?

Don’t give up. Just because it doesn’t happen right away, doesn’t mean it won’t happen. And above all else, pray and write. Don’t go more than a day without writing something.

BIO:

~Kelly Martin is a best selling author of young adult fiction. She has two books: Grace Award nominee CROSSING THE DEEP and Amazon Best selling in Teen/Religion SAINT SLOAN. She has several short stories published and loves to write ‘twitter fiction’ when she’s bored. Kelly loves God, is addicted to chocolate, and would rather write than sleep. You can find her on twitter (she tweets a lot) @martieKay

SAINT SLOAN BUY LINKS:

 AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/Saint-Sloan-ebook/dp/B00BMQ9E9O/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1

BARNES AND NOBLE: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/saint-sloan-kelly-martin/1114723748?ean=2940016377308

 SMASHWORDS: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/290677

 ASTRAEA PRESS: http://www.astraeapress.com/#!/~/product/category=662245&id=20839143

 KOBO: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Saint-Sloan/book-wNrqosRRB0i2jU9ym34izg/page1.html?s=4Xoj6XizzUOFvTfhOsZ87Q&r=1