An Interview With Miranda Stork

“A Knife And A Quill” brings you L. Vera interviewing Miranda Stork, writer of the book Conner.

L. Vera: Miranda Stork, welcome to “A Knife and A Quill”.

Miranda Stork: It’s great to be here. You decorate it yourself?

L. Vera: I sure did and I wanted to add, “Hey you’re using the same theme as us on your blog, WTF?”

Miranda Stork: Clearly great minds think alike! That or we both clicked on the theme in the same drunken haze last week…I know I did.

L. Vera: Let’s go with great drunken minds. We do plan on doing more renovating if we raise enough money. Till then we’ll share it. 🙂 So, tell me about how’s it like to write the way you do? Is there any crazy rituals?

Miranda Stork: Writing has always been like breathing for me from a young age, so I don’t really see any way I write as especially weird, although I’m sure others would disagree. I always blast really loud music (generally Nightwish) into my eardrums as I type, it seems to help me concentrate, and I always need at least the TV on in the background. For some weird reason I can’t write if it’s completely silent, so I like to have some kind of white noise behind everything. I also like to people-watch, which helps with my writing; I just stare at people if I’m out and make up little character stories for them. Most of those people then make their way in some form into my novels. So yes, if I’m staring at you on the train, I am watching you, and yes, you just grew another head. And possibly fur. I also don’t really have a plan when I start writing my novels. I have a basic idea of the beginning, middle, and characters, and like to let it flow from there, clipping and tidying it up at the end.

L. Vera: Your book Conner, seems very interesting in that wierd, unusual way. Tell us more about it.

Miranda Stork: Basically it is a story about the classic things in novels; love between the doomed couple, the evil villain trying his hardest to take all the attention in the book, and the overall fight for humanity. You know, the usual everyday things. The main character, Erin, has a new patient who claims to be a werewolf, and finds herself believing him more and more as the story progresses. Soon someone is after them, as Conner has annoyed a few people in the past, and they flee to Ireland, leaving a lot of corpses behind them in one form or another. The story concludes as Erin begins to realise more about herself, and Conner tries to save her from herself. The idea for Conner came from a random passing thought several years ago about a journalist or psychologist if they were proven wrong about their patient, the fact he turned into a werewolf simply came later, as I love horror and the paranormal. A friend wrote a terrible first chapter for a story on a community writing site (storywrite.com), and challenged me to do better. That was the catalyst for beginning Conner. Basically it began with playing more of the idea that the psychologist might get sucked into the patient’s stories, after I heard at college in Psychology class that they had to see another psychologist themselves every two years or so. As the story continued, it seemed natural somehow that there would be more about Erin (the psychologist), and she would of course be more involved in this strange tale than she first thought, so bringing in more of the darker elements to the story. On top of all this, I am a romantic at heart, so somewhere I had to include a little of the dark side coaxing the heroine (or hero) over, a little ‘Beauty and the Beast’ like.

L. Vera: The cover art is amazing. Who can you credit for that?

Miranda Stork: Well, the trees in the background are a lovely stock photo from Gettyimages, simply recoloured, but the hunky-looking dude in the loincloth is actually my own digital painting work, using a photograph as a reference. Then I slot it all together somehow using Photoshop. As well as masquerading as an author, I like to fit in a little bit of oil painting and digital painting on the side. I’m one of those people who always thinks I can do everything better, so I attempt to learn a bit of everything. It’s at least cheaper, even if it’s a bit hit and miss.

L. Vera: Where else could we find your work?

Miranda Stork: You can try my Amazon Page, Barnes and Noble, and my Goodreads page to spot all the places my book is dotted about. I hear it’s also somewhere about in those old-fashioned things we call bookstores, apparently printed on sheets of paper, not a digital device! I also have my website, where I regularly put up little snippets of stories. If you want to check out my artwork, I have a Saatchionline page.

L. Vera: And in the future, what will we see from you?

Miranda Stork: Well, I have the sequel to Conner coming out in the Autumn this year; ‘Erin’. And in Spring 2013 my first book of a new series comes out, ‘Vigilante of Shadows; Scarlet Rain #1’ It’s a series where humanity has been pushed down by a superior race, and of course our favourite assorted werewolves, demons, and vampires get to fight against them. I promise it’s not as corny as it sounds! I’m also always playing about with other genres and I would love to do a novel that was a take on modern society, a bit like a modern-day ‘Charles Dickens’ style, at some point in the future.

L. Vera: One last thought, Vampires or Werewolves?

Miranda Stork: Oh, oh….*wrings hands together* You really did leave the hardest question till last. I guess…both? Werewolves as long as they don’t leave hair on the sofa, and vampires as long as they don’t bloody sparkle! But if I had to choose, it would be werewolves, as so little has been done with them in literature compared to vampires.

L. Vera: Find Miranda Stork on Amazon and on her Blog. Miranda it was nice having you here. If you could end this interview in three words what would they be?

Miranda Stork: Loved. This. Interview. ;D

L. Vera: We loved having you.

Conner can be found on Ebook and in Paperback.

Send interview request to Luis_Vera05@yahoo.com

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