Author Interview with Rhonda Parrish

May 23, 2013

Author Interview with Rhonda Parrish

I’m happy to host an interview today with Rhonda Parrish, the author of fantasy novel “Aphanasian Stories”. It’s a fantasy collection of three short stories, and each of them sounds very intriguing. Enjoy the interview!

1) When did you know you wanted to become an author?

As cliche as it is, I think I’ve wanted to be a writer since I knew what one was. I remember, as a very young kid (3 or 4) sitting in my Mom’s living room learning how to read with Hooked on Phonics (or something similar) and falling in love with reading. Since I was always making stories up in my head, it seemed like the perfect next step for me to want to start putting them on paper.

2) What inspired you to write the “Aphanasian Stories”?

I always find this a very tricky question to answer. My inspiration always comes from so many places and they just kind of merge into a big ole inspiration stew in my brain. After much simmering and stirring sometimes I can ladle a story out. Wow, that’s a bad analogy LOL

Sister Margaret was largely inspired by a writing prompt at NaNoLJers (http://nanoljers.livejournal.com/) and also by Sin City (which I’d just watched for the first time and fallen in love with) and the other two stories sort of sprang from it. I wanted to keep exploring the characters from Sister Margaret and one thing led to another, led to another…

But at the same time, Lost and Found also drew inspiration from an image prompt I’d seen at a writing community and that pre-dated Sister Margaret so…

I guess the short answer is, I don’t know.

3) What is the most challenging part about writing?

The first draft. I struggle with first drafts, with getting my butt in the chair (or pen on the paper if I’m writing it long hand) and pulling the words out.

4) Which part about writing do you enjoy the most?

When I connect with readers. When someone reads one of my stories and says ‘That made me cry’ or ‘That made me think’ or ‘I liked that’. That is what I treasure above all.

5) How long did it take you to write “Aphanasian Stories” from start to finish?

Ahh another trick question 🙂 Aphanasian Stories isn’t one novel, it’s three separate tales written at three different times so… I don’t know. Not really. Sister Margaret took me a day or two, A Love Story was part of a NaNoWriMo novel so it took less than a month. Lost and Found was part of the same NaNoWriMo novel but required so many complete rewrites before I was happy with it that I think it took me at least a year. Not counting revisions once I had workable first drafts on each of them.

6) Which character did you like the most?

Ahh that’s a tough call but I think Teyat. No, Shadow. Or Bayne. Uh… no, definitely Teyat. I think. Maybe.

7) What are your writing goals for 2013?

I have a pretty long blog post about this here –> http://www.rhondaparrish.com/goals-for-2013 but the short version is I’m doing ‘Write 1 Sub 1’ (http://www.rhondaparrish.com/goals-for-2013) which challenges me to write at least one story/scene/poem a week and submit it. That is keeping me pretty busy. I’m also editing an anthology for Wolfsinger Publications called Metastasis that is very important to me.

8) What is your editing process like?

Long. Partly because I am a perfectionist but mostly because I love editing. I usually let a first draft of anything sit for a week (or three) and then come back re-read it and do an initial edit, then depending on how confident I feel about my objectivity toward the piece I’ll either let it rest and edit it again, send it on to a trusted critique partner or start submitting it to publishers.

9) Are you working on something right now? If so, can you tell us more about it?

Always 😉

I’m going to be self-publishing a collection of zombie poetry in the coming months, and I’m also super engaged with the Metastasis anthology. Metastasis is a collection of speculative stories and poetry all with the theme of cancer and we’ll be donating at least 50% of our revenues to help fight cancer which is huge to me. I’m currently still accepting submissions, you can get the details at my blog –> http://www.rhondaparrish.com/

Thank you so much for having me 🙂

Thanks for answering my questions, Rhonda!

About Aphansian Stories

Title: Aphanasian Stories

Author: Rhonda Parrish

Genre: Fantasy Short Story Collection

Three of Rhonda Parrish’s beloved Aphanasian stories brought together in one collection for the first time!

A Love Story: Z’thandra, a swamp elf living with the Reptar, discovers a human near the village. When she falls in love with him, she faces the most difficult choice of her life, a decision that will affect the Reptar for generations.

Lost and Found: Xavier, the escaped subject of a madman’s experiments, and Colby, a young lady on a mission to save her brother, must combine their efforts to elude capture and recover the magical artifact that will save Colby’s brother before it’s too late.

Sister Margaret: A vampire hunter and a half-incubus swordsman are hired by a priestess to kill the undead pimp that is extorting, torturing and murdering vulnerable girls.

Author Bio

When she isn’t procrastinating or gaming Rhonda writes fantasy, YA and horror. She also maintains a blog at http://www.rhondaparrish.com and loves sushi.