Author Interview: LM Preston + CONTEST

LM Preston sci-fi novel debut, Explorer X-Alpha, was recently released earlier this month! She's here at Stop, Drop, and Read! for an author interview. Scroll down to the bottom of the interview and you will have the chance to win the novel for yourself!

If you want to learn more about LM Preston or her books, check out at www.lmpreston.com.

Firstly, what inspired you to write Explorer X-Alpha?

It all started on a long car trip to Florida . My husband, kids and I were on our way to my ‘ Happy Place ’. Ok, I’ll admit it. I am still a big kid. I love to play, and imagine.

Anyway, while on this long drive, my husband turns to me and says, “You should write a book. You loved to write when we were younger and you haven’t written since.”

I thought about what his said and replied,” Well, I did try to write that one book, but it was boring and didn’t keep my interest.”

Then he told me,” You should write science fiction. You like it, and you work in the IT field. That way you have no boundaries, you create your own.”

When it came to creating the future in your novel, did you already have an idea of what kind of world you wanted? Or did you create it along the way as you wrote it?

World building is my favorite part of writing sci-fi. I usually spend a few weeks cutting and pasting aspects of the world I am creating on construction paper, and in a file I put all the pictures that I grab from the internet to describe this new world. As I write, I make changes on the fly while I get caught up in the experience of that new world.

What do you find is the easiest part in writing? And the hardest?

For me the easiest part is writing. I tend to write obsessively until the story is dumped out of my head. I also enjoy editing because I feel like an artist chipping away at stone to fine tune every aspect of my story. Each time I do it, the story improves and I grow as a writer.

The hardest part of writing is creating an outline.

What kind of stories or genres do you still have yet to try out?

I would like to write a horror or mystery novel.

Do you have any authors that you were influenced by?

I love Dean Koontz, James Patterson, Dave Meadows, and James Campbell.

Do you have any novels you are working on at the moment or will be releasing soon? If so, can you please give us a brief summary about them?

The Pack releases this August. It's an adventurous upper YA novel about a blind vigilante who sets out to save her brother and the missing kids on Mars (check out the book trailer @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_u2eq_RDgk) . Explorer X - Beta comes out next year. I just finished writing Bandits which is an upper YA novel about a boy named Daniel's quest to find his father's killer and treasure.

Lastly, give us an interesting fact about yourself that not many know of!

I love, love, love karoke. Every chance I get I sing on stage. Now, at the moment I am on stage - I feel like a star. Too bad I can't hold a tune.

~~~

Now that you have learned more about LM, you can win a copy of Explorer X-Alpha (including poster and magnet)!

To enter: (Please have everything in one comment in the post)
+1 comment
+2 new follower through Google Friend Connect
+3 old follower through Google Friend Connect
+2 add Stop, Drop, and Read! to your blog list (link)
+2 for every time you link the contest (link)

This contest is open to international. Contest will end on March 31/10.