Writers on Wednesday: Michelle Irwin

Welcome to another edition of Writers on Wednesday. This week I am chatting with Queensland based and New Zealand born author, Michelle Irwin ...



Tell me a bit about yourself …

My name is Michelle, I’m from sunny Queensland, although I originally hail from the Land of the Long White Cloud (New Zealand). I’ve been writing on and off for about five years, but have only just made the leap to actually publishing any of my stories.

Tell us about your most recently published book?

My debut novel, Through the Fire, is due on (was published on) 31st October. It’s a paranormal romance about Evie Meyers, a young girl with a unique heritage, and Clay Jacobs, a member of an organisation hell-bent on wiping the Earth clean of non-humans.

As writer, what has been your proudest achievement so far?

Just finding the courage to publish. It is very easy as a writer to become so involved and invested in your characters and world that you don’t want to share for fear of them not being accepted by other people. Even though my stories are not about autobiographical, it’s inevitable that after so many hours working on them they have part of my soul buried inside.

What books or writing projects are you currently working on, if anything?

I have so many projects. When I first signed onto my publisher, it was with the understanding that 
Through the Fire would be part of a series. We discussed it and agreed that it would be best to try to get as much of the story down while we were waiting for edits and everything. So out of eight books total in the twin series, I have seven already written, but they’re at various stages in the editing process. I’m working on the eighth and final book at the moment. 
In addition, I have Happily Evan After, due for release on 13th December, which is undergoing final edits at the moment. There’s another three stories I’m actively working on. I’ve always been a bit of a multi-tasker like that.

Which do you prefer? eBooks or Paper Books? Why?

I am only a very recent convert to eBooks, so much so that I only have a Kindle app and not a Kindle etc itself. I do like the convenience of it. No matter where I go I always have my phone on me, so I always have a book on me.

However, nothing can beat the feeling of holding a proper book in your hand, of the aching arms when you’ve been holding it up for so long, desperate to read just one more page, and the feeling of accomplishment as the pile of pages of your left grows while the pile on the right gets smaller.

Indie Publishing, or Traditional Publishing?

I’m indie publishing. Even though my book is through a publisher, they are a small, indie press. I chose them because of the personal approach they give. Happily Evan After is going to be my first fully self-published book, which I’m excited about, but I definitely do like having the guidance and assistance of a good publisher and editor at my side too. Of course, if a traditional publisher came my way offering me significant advances and a decent marketing budget, I’d be very hard pressed to say no. I just think it’s an exciting time to be an author because this is even an option.

Aside from your own books, of course, what is one book that you feel everybody should read?

If I’m working purely from a “what book have I enjoyed the most and read most often” I would have to say Lord of the Rings. JRR Tolkien’s prose can be a little purple at times, and there are definitely places where he goes into a little too much detail about the small things which don’t really add much to the scene, but it’s just such an epic book that takes the reader on a real adventure.

Finally … is there anything you would like to say to your readers in Adelaide, Australia?

Hi! I actually used to live down that way many, many moons ago. Would love to come back to visit again one day.

Links

Happily Evan After:

http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00NU24LCI

Though the Fire links:

Amazon

https://www.facebook.com/MichelleIrwinAuthor
http://www.michelle-irwin.com/

http://www.twitter.com/writeonshell

Comments

Coming down to size said…
Thank you for having me on your blog :D
3 December 2014 at 23:50
Kathryn White said…
You're most welcome Michelle. I loved your answers :)
4 December 2014 at 19:50
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Peppermint Patty: I Cried and Cried and Cried

Image
Unrequited love is a common theme in the Peanuts Comics and is one that I have previously explored on this blog. We know that Lucy loves Schroeder, Sally loves Linus and Charlie Brown has a crush on the unseen, unnamed and utterly unattainable Little Redhaired Girl. But perhaps the saddest unrequited love stories from the comic is that which ran in late June 1972. It was the series of strips where the usually self-confident Peppermint Patty came face-to-face with the Little Redhaired Girl with the intention of thumping her and then something surprising happened: Here we have a usually self-confident girl, who is funny, unashamedly herself and talented at sports reduced to tears by the realisation of who she is not and never can be. I really feel for her in this series of comic strips. She knows that Charlie Brown can never love her, when he is so hung up over a girl who represents a supposedly ideal feminine beauty. Fortunately Linus, the most spiritual member of the Pean...
Read more

Charlie Brown, Lucy Van Pelt and the Football

Image
One of the longest, and arguably, most infuriating, running gags in Charles Schulz's otherwise brilliant Peanuts comic strip, is where Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown and then pulls it away at the last minute, causing Charlie Brown to fall flat on his back. A typical strip looks like this: Source: Go Comics The gag is one of the darker themes in the strip. It works on the concept that every year, Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown. Every year, Charlie Brown is initially filled with doubt but is eventually pushed on by a kind of optimism that perhaps, this time, Lucy might just let him kick it after all. As a metaphor for life, it is pretty simple. It talks of the moments when we choose to put our trust in people who have let us down only to be taken by surprise when they let us down, again. Lucy is, arguably, one of the crueller characters in the comic. Described as crabby by the other characters, she is often selfish, takes delight in wilfully hu...
Read more

Phrases and Idioms: Tickets on Himself

To have tickets on himself: (Australian slang.) To be conceited or vain. To have an overinflated opinion of oneself.  He's got tickets on himself if he thinks that any woman would fall for that. I was thinking about this particular bit of Australian slang the other day, after my boss said, "He's got tickets on himself," to describe the actions of a particular individual. At the time, I smiled, knowing exactly what the boss meant. Later on, I started to ponder on this unusual phrase and wondered where it might have come from. A search on google helped me find the definition, but that was about all. There are no references to it being used in pop culture or literature (if you find one, let me know,) and at the time of writing this post, Tickets on Himself was not listed on Urban Dictionary. (I tried to add it, but the fuckers rejected my definition. They probably think I have tickets on myself or something for trying to add a relatively common piece of A...
Read more