Johanna Rae (Author): Interview with Aaron Speca!

1. Have you always had a passion for writing?

Patricia: A Passion? No, I wouldn't say a passion but I have always enjoyed writing for my own amusement. I have a disability - dyslexia - that kept me from writing for anyone else to see. It wasn't until I gathered up the courage to join a roleplaying group and they liked what I wrote, misspelled words and all.

Aaron: I hadn’t written anything creative in over twenty years, until I joined the same roleplaying group as Patricia just to see what it was all about. We started writing together in that group, and I discovered that I really enjoyed crafting stories and backstories.

2. Does what you read influence what you write and what are some of your favourite authors/books?

Patricia: What I read? Yes, the first real series I ever read was the Hardy Boys by Franklin W. Dixon. Also Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid - all gift's from my Granny, Mrs Mary Josephine Yost, better known to all her friends as Jocie; but I didn't really start reading for enjoyment until about ten years ago when a friend at work gave me a copy of Night Embrace by Sherrilyn Kenyon and I fell deeply and madly in love with the main character Talon. I was hooked!!

Aaron: I read voraciously as a kid and teen, and what I read most then was science fiction, especially continuations of Star Trek and Star Wars. I’ve always been partial to series more so than standalone books. I don’t have a lot of time to read, but I too read Night Embrace, and I really enjoyed Sunny and Talon’s story. I’ve now read a good number of the Dark Hunter series, and also much of the Sookie Stackhouse series. All of these books and many movies I’ve seen have influenced our stories in some way; how could they not?

3. What are your biggest inspirations?

Aaron: I am constantly inspired by the people I write with, which sometimes makes me wonder if I could ever write something by myself. But I wouldn’t trade the collaboration I do with Patricia and the others for anything.

Patricia: My writing partner for one *grins* Aaron is an amazing writing partner always supporting me. My sister Ms Linda Johns who told me that there was nothing I couldn't do if I put my mind to it. Last but not least the other writers whom I am blessed to write with in my group.

4. Do you have a technique in how you choose characters and/or locational settings?

Patricia: Well I only have one character and she chose me a long time ago. As for settings well we started off this adventure on an island in the caribbean. But I think Aaron has many many adventures planned for these two. We will just have to see where Trish and Rudy leads us.

Aaron: She’s right about that. These two characters have many adventures in store for them, whether they remember them all or not. Characters I think choose us, they form in our head and clamor for attention until you give it to them.

5. Do you listen to music while you are creating your masterpieces?

Aaron: It depends. More often, a song I hear doing something else completely fits a certain situation and gives me a direction to go when I get back to writing.

Patricia: Actually because of my disability I need silence, to many distractions and I get lost, so I turn everything off and let my mind fill up with the scene before me.

6. What do you do to stay motivated and avoid writer’s block?

Patricia: Wow that's a hard one, we all hit that wall when you look at the page and go....~hmmm~ but if I'm really stuck I bounce ideas off Aaron. I take a shower. Or go for a drive. Any one of those places and it's quiet Trish will start babbling at me.

Aaron: We have a FB page where we post ideas to each other. Sometimes I’ll grab a picture and just write some kind of stand-alone paragraph totally unrelated to anything we are doing. Just to jar some brain cells loose.

7. How has becoming a published author (independent or traditional) changed your perspective on life and is it everything you expected it to be? (If you are not published yet – what changes do you foresee?)

Patricia: *Grins* I'm too new at this to it to have made much of a change in my life, other than my sister's bragging to all her friends.

Aaron: Anything is possible if you just take a chance.

8. What are your biggest challenges as an author?

Aaron: Time is the great enemy. Full time job and three kids makes it very hard to find minutes to string together to write, and I don’t write very well fifteen minutes at a time. The other big challenge is the marketing piece, and again it’s time that fights against that as well. In today’s publishing would, you need to market yourself more than ever before.

Patricia: I hate to admit it but these types of things. I'm not very good with the interviews.

9. Do you have any pets?

Aaron: We have one crazy Boston terrier named Minnie, and a very old black cat named Velvet.

Patricia: Yes I have one very large, house cat his name is Bailey, thanks to Aaron.

Aaron: She means the name, not the cat *laughs*

10. What hobbies do you have outside of reading and writing?

Patricia: I love yard sales and poking around in old historical homes and luncheons with my friends. You can't be from the South and not enjoy either of those activities.

Aaron: I watch football, and play poker when I can. I also love watching movies. And we both still do roleplay writing, which is how all this got started.

11. Where is the most exciting/memorable place you have been in the world?

Aaron: Wow, that’s a tough one. I’d have to say it’s between Hawaii and Sicily. Sicily was very interesting because of the history there. It has been alternately “owned” by so many different cultures, and you can see it in the architecture.

Patricia: I would have to say hands down Korea. I was there with the military. I was amazed by the fact that even though we were in a rural part of the country, I never saw a dirty child or trash anywhere. The times when we were in town I was like any other tourist gawking and laughing to myself that I was a giant in this country {I'm only 5'6"}

12. Tell us about your latest work in progress or most recent published work…

Patricia: I'll let Aaron take this one.

Aaron: Well, as I said, I like series, and we have a lot of stories with our two main characters in many different situations and even different worlds and points in history. All of these stories have started to come together in my mind into one grand narrative. The two short stories we’ve already published, “Tears of the Mermaid” and “Heart of the Mermaid”, both sailor-mermaid adventure-romances, have become just a small part of this story. These have been expanded into the novel we are currently working on, but again, that novel is just the first. Right now we have ideas for at least eight novels as part of the series we call “The Realmwalker Prophecy”. If you want to keep up with news on this series, you can follow me on Twitter (@aaronspeca) and follow the hash-tag #realmwalker. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Patricia and I can be followed here: Facebook Twitter ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rudy and Trish are the main characters in our two published short stories in the "Evernight: Romance in a World of Darkness" anthologies. You can get to know them as well as get 23 other great stories!

Here's where you can find them: