Our Interview with Theresa Moore!

                         

                                                 Bio

I am an author, illustrator and publisher with an avid interest in science fantasy adventure, history, mythology, and science; and a skeptical interest in pseudoscience and paranormal research. I write in a strong cinematic style with the mission to intellectually stimulate as well as entertain.

My current projects include the Children of The Dragon series of SF/vampire fusion books, a chronicle of the Xosan, vampires from the planet Antellus who were once human but were transformed by a dragon's blood. They are stories of science fiction, fact and fantasy, myth and history, romance, tragedy and triumph; linked together by the theme of the vampire as hero. Books in this series are: Destiny's Forge, To Taste The Dragon's Blood, NAGRASANTI Illustrated Vampire Omnibus, Red Dragon, The Queen's Marksman, A Pirate's Daughter, Truth and The Dragon's Blood, and Written In Blood. I am working on the 9th book Swords of The Dragon's Blood, due to come out soon.

Another project is the Saxon & Hampstead Investigations, Ltd. mystery series.
Valiant Saxon is a repentent jewel thief turned private eye. Laura Hampstead is a seasoned professional investigator. Together they operate an agency specializing in solving the unsolvable and getting to the truth behind the legend. Their cases often take them off the beaten path, and there is an undercurrent of romantic tension between our heroes, making their adventures all the more appealing to an ardent mystery lover. My first casebook is The Mystery of Cranewood Manor. I am working on the second book, The Mystery of The Missing Masterpiece to be published in Fall.

I also write nonfiction on genre related subjects like history, mythology and science. My latest books include A BOOK OF FIVE RINGS: A Practical Guide to Strategy by Miyamoto Musashi, PRINCIPLES OF SELF-PUBLISHING 3rd Edition and The Ten Percent Solution: Simplifying the Tax Code in The New Economy. I am working on five other books; all in varying stages of progress.

                                                Bio provided by author's site

It was our pleasure to get a chance to interview Theresa and learn more about her and how she came to be an author. She is a hard working author who is working on more books to publish as we speak. Get comfortable, grab a warm mug of your favorite beverage and please give a warm welcome to Theresa!

1. What makes for a good hook in your stories? Where does your inspiration come from?
A good hook for my stories is often a question like, "what if?" and "who is?" For example, my second book To Taste The Dragon's Blood asks the question of man's origins and whether the exploration of space is a worthy endeavor, coupled with the idea that aliens may or may not have visited us in the past. What kind of aliens are we likely to encounter, etc. I also explore the basic origins of my aliens the Xosan.

My inpiration comes from the strangest places. Sometimes it is a line of dialogue in a film or television show, or real life experiences. I draw on whatever interests me on any given day, find something compelling in it and then work on analyzing it to see if there is any worth to writing about it. An example is my book Red Dragon , which was inspired by two days spent working as an extra on the film "Rush Hour III". I wanted to write an origin story for one of my characters, and the seeds of the scenes I did formed the basis for the whole book. It includes some exposition about the status of Chinese immigrants into the United States and also the origins of the tongs (crime syndicates). I had to dig down deep into my own memories of 1984 and I placed the setting in San Francisco because that is where the greatest amount of violence and gangland activity was going on at the time.

2. Are you an organized writer? Do you do things like take notes and make lists of characters? Or do you free write and work it out as you go?
 I do a little of both. Generally I start writing free form, and wherever I have to verify something I make a small note somewhere on or near the log jam to research later. I do start with a rough outline but that never means that I have to follow it. Sometimes ideas and details I may have overlooked starting out surface to enrich the landscape of the plot.

3. What is your normal writing day like? Do you write when you are inspired or do you have a schedule?
 No, schedules do not work for me. I write when I can find the time, and if I come up with an idea while multitasking I jot it down in a notebook and save it for later. When I come to the end of a writing session I will sketch out what comes next in a paragraph below the end of the chapter. I do try to at least finish a chapter the same day instead of breaking off wherever, because I am more likely to lose my train of thought and also the flow of the narrative.

4. Who is your favorite author and how did they inspire you to write?
 My two favorites are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Thomas Costain . Doyle inspired me with his amazing and perrenial character Sherlock Holmes and his adventures; and Thomas Costain was famous for writing his nonfiction books about English history in a cinematic style, which I try to emulate. His history was better than the best detective novels these days. Since I am also a frustrated screenwriter I write my books as if I was there. Word pictures, if you will. Both authors taught me how to do that.

5. It’s easy to see that you have a passion for writing but is there any part of it you don’t like?
I don't like the business aspect, a complaint you will hear from just about any other author. It wastes a good deal of writing time for me to have to market and promote my previous works. I also don't like the idea that I must work so hard to craft the best book I can and then have someone knock it as amateur because I am self-published. Had people bothered to ask there have been many enormously famous classical authors who self-published and it disheartens and disappoints me to see people treat us as inferior. It depresses any writer's spirit.

6. Do you make time to read and if you do what are you reading right now?
Right now I am reading "The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle" (biography) by Russell Miller . It is an exciting read, but because I am writing I have to sacrifice a good deal of my reading time to do it. When I was younger I used to read as many as six books a week and I collected some series. The longer it takes for me to write a book the less time I have available. I sometime make up the difference by watching panels and author interviews on C-Span's Book TV on the weekends.

7. I see that you have a few styles of writings, fantasy, instructional and even a simplifying tax codes. Which is your favorite and is there any of your personal life or views in your writings?  Oh, yeah, I prefer to write the fiction. As I noted before, aspects of my personal life dictates what I write about, but for some odd reason people prefer to read my nonfiction. They say fiction sells best but not from where I am sitting. I aim to educate as well as entertain; hence my narrative is filled with snippets of history and factoids about events. I get good reviews, but again my nonfiction sells better than my fiction. True my writing style is somewhat florid but it is my style. I'm not Hemingway or Burgess.

8. Your books have been published with Amazon.com and Kindle Direct Publishing. Does this mean you see the publishing industry headed this way?
I am convinced that ebooks will never overtake printed books. Having said that, I publish ebooks because of market pressures to offer books in whatever format is available to use. I started out working with KDP when it was DTP, then branched out to PubIt and Smashwords. I use one printer for my books and the distribution program enables me to reach many online bookstores. I am not fond of interactive media because it renders the ebook unreadable and I will not encourage the adoption of books as television programs (as opposed to books adapted to television). The kids nowadays are already attention deficient enough.

9. Do you have any online sites where others can read more of your writings?
My books are available from    http://www.theresammoore.com    . I have also published articles on the book pages about my inspirations and observations about their backstories on each book page.

10. Do you have any more stories in the works? What kinds of stories do you plan to write next?
I'm falling behind on the projects I have already started and there are others I plan to add to the list. Some are short stories/novellas. I have to write the next book in my mystery series and I have two books of my vampire series waiting in the wings, along with two nonfiction books I have been tinkering with. I have two other vampire stories unrelated to the series to work on, and I am also thinking of a space trucker adventure, but that is probably not going to be started until 2013.

11. Who would be your first choice to play Alexander Corvina from your book titled "Written in Blood"? 
Oh, gee. It's the fine features and the grey eyes I find difficult to match. At the moment I am using Johnny Depp's face, but a young Jim Caviezel is more his speed. Alexander has been around since 1990 so he's interchangeable from decade to decade. He turned in his mid 20's so he's perrenially jet set.

12. If you could meet anyone from any time who would it be and what would be your first question? 
HG Wells. My first question would be: what do you think the future will really be like?