MEET OUR AUTHORS-SUE MYDLIAK

Stacey and Sue Mydliak did one outstanding interview! Sue is quite the lady; not only is she an author, but she is an artist as well. She will be doing a lot of cover art for my upcoming novel. Here is the interview!

  Interview Questions- Sue Mydliak

1   When did you start taking your writing seriously?  After the Harry Potter Movie came out I started to write my own fantasy novel, Seoids of Lordania.  It’s about three girls, whose birthdays all fall on the same day, who are given a ring on their 16^th birthday that enhances their individual powers.  They also find out that in a book, written long ago, that it was proclaimed that these three were to be born and would save their land from the creature that is taking it away.  I’ve never finished it.    It was after that I had read Twilight that I’d try my hand at writing a paranormal story.

2  What’s the first thing you had published?   It was a Flash Fiction called “The Clearing”.  It was published in Mississippi Crow Magazine.

3  Do you have any certain rituals or things that help you get into your “Zen” for writing?  Before I start, I go online and log into Pandora (online radio) and set it for songs related to Enya style music and start typing.

4   You have a short story collection, Tortured Minds, available through Angelic Knight Press. Tell us a bit about it.  Tortured Minds is 13 of my best Short Horror Stories.   They’re a different kind of Horror though.  They’re not graphic or really scary, what they do is take the reader through what seems like an ordinary story, but toward the end, you may notice a change coming and then when you least expect it, it gets you!

5  What appeals to you the most about the short story form?  They are easy to write.  In fact I can write them at any time, even at work! 

6 Have you always been a fan of the horror genre?   No.  I love fantasy, like Harry Potter.  I got hooked on the books really quick.  What is your favorite book and movie?  Actually I have many, but my all-time favorite movie was Avatar.  My son took me to see it at the Omni-Max Theater for my birthday and I fell in love with it.  As for my favorite book, I have many, so this will be hard to pin-point just one, but I’d have to say, Twilight.  I don’t like the movies, but the books were great.  I never had a book that made me feel everything Bella was going through, especially in New Moon.  That was so hard for me to read, emotional wise, because it reminded me of a time that was similar to what she was going through, so it was like reliving the whole thing over again.

7 Who are some authors you admire?  I absolutely love Charlaine Harris, who writes the Sookie Stackhouse, Southern Vampire series.  Her books are the ones that Trueblood, the HBO series, is about.   My Southern Shorts are in her style and seem to be well liked by those who have read them.

8 What appealed to you about working with Angelic Knight Press?  I was having a difficult time with another publisher and didn’t want to go through them.   I saw on Facebook that Blaze McRob had announced submissions for AKP Anthology, Satan’s Toybox: Demonic Dolls and thought, “Why not?”  So I wrote a short story called, “The Mattel Nightmare,” which is a takeoff of the movie The Stepford Wives using Barbie and Ken main characters.

9 What is the best piece of writing advice you ever received?  To keep writing!  Actually it was more of a trial and error for me and a lot of going back to the basic principles of English.  I really hated English when I was going to school, because I was never really good at it.

1 0Any tips for new authors?  A few, if a publisher emails asking if you would like to submit your work to them, BEFORE they have even seen your stuff…don’t.  You have to be smart and do your research, and look on the Writer’s Beware site to make sure they are not on their list.  I can’t stress enough the researching on agents, publishers, because I and my author friends (some) have gotten screwed over.  Another thing, if your gut is telling you that it’s not comfortable with a certain publisher…listen to it and move on.  Also, find a writing website that you can join up, that’s how I got my big start.  You meet a lot of people in your situation who are just starting out or who have been published and can help answer any questions you might have.  Writer’s Digest is an awesome magazine and about once a year will come out with an issue that has over 100 websites for authors, from publishing companies, to agents or to just writing sites, but all of them are good and helpful.

Sue Mydliak was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. Writing was not her favorite thing to do; her hobby was drawing, which has grown through the years and many of her pieces have been published and sold. 

You can see her published art in Mississippi Crow Magazine, http://mississippicrow.wordpress.com/ and at the Lockport Street Gallery, http://www.lockportstreetgallery.com/SueMidlock.htm. 

Her writing took off with her first piece, a flash fiction, “The Clearing”. This was published in Mississippi Crow Magazine, Issue 7, and she has had several other flash fiction and poetry published with them.

She just recently had her first novel, Birthright, published by Visionary Press and is also the Artistic Director for them, designing book covers.

Blog:   http://theunbeatenheart.blogspot.com/

Facebook Author Page:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Birthright-Where-paranormal-romance-knows-no-boundaries/137358989656423

Twitter:   http://twitter.com/suemidlock

See all the great things you just learned about Sue Mydliak. Read her tales. You will enjoy them immensely.


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