Interview with Chelsie Shakespeare

1) So Chelsie, I was snooping  around your blog and saw you were trying to finish a new novel, Split by January 1, 2012. How is it going ? It's going very well. I'm even more excited about this novel than I was The Pull, but I'm sure that's how it always goes... hopefully each will get better as I gain more experience in this industry. I am going to be on track to finish by January, and then of course I will have to get it published. Who knows how long that will take, it's quite a process.

2) What is you favorite scene in The Pull? Do you remember where you were when you wrote it? Ooooh, good question! My favorite scene is probably the one with the rope swing. Her and Kyler were really easy to write together because their relationship was so effortless and sweet. Thinking back on it, I don't really remember where I wrote any of it specifically. Most of my writing just happens on my couch while my husband studies.

3) Do you plan out your stories or do you just let them flow from your fingers? Both, definitely both. I will have a general a concept for a novel and the rest just flows when I sit down to write. The Pull was definitely MORE planned, while Spit's major plot points happened in the moment as I sat down to write. I like to wait a while (sometimes months) before I go back and read what I wrote... sometimes I don't even really remember writing it. I just get in a zone and go to my happy place.

4) Do you write your rough draft with a pen and paper or do you type it in the document on your computer? It is all typed so I can modify the document as I go, however, when I find myself away from my computer and I get a idea, I jot it down and then type it up when I get home. I really hate the double work so I try to avoid this as much as possible, but it happens.

5) When was your first interest in writing? Are you a big reader? I am a HUGE reader. I love love love to read, and I do remember when the urge to write first struck. I had just devoured the Twilight series and when I put it down I thought, huh, I could do this. If she can do it, I can do it! I had a conversation with my mom over dinner about how I wanted to write a novel about a man and a woman destined to be together from a previous life. From that conversation to now it's been quite a journey.

6) Favorite thing about being an author? I like the idea that something will live on after I'm gone. I've made my tiny little imprint on the world and someone in three hundred years might pick up my novel and read the words I wrote. I really love that idea.

7) So who is your favorite character in your book the Pull ?? Evie, for sure. I put so much of myself into her character. We're very similar and I think that's a comfortable place to write from for your first novel. Write what you know. Parts of my life are in the story almost exactly as they happened. I have a beautiful life and a beautiful marriage so I poured what I know into that novel. It's a very personal love story to me. After getting that under my belt it's fun to write something as evil and crazy as Split has become. Split has taken NOTHING from my life and I am nothing like my characters.  It's entirely my own creation and it's stretched the bounds of where I could go as an author.

8) Your personal opinion, not Evie's, Kyler or Easton?? Ummmmm.. Wow. This is a tough one. I love Kyler a lot, and the point of Kyler was to show that (in my fictional world) you can fall in love with many people, but there is ONE you are meant to be with. They are your other half. Even though you could be happy with many many other men, this one is just for you. So I'm going to have to stick with Easton. But taking the two men OUT of context and sticking them in the real world? I would choose Kyler ;-)

9) So tell us your favorite thing to do besides writing and reading?? I like spending time with my family and friends. They are so supportive and fun. When I'm not writing (which is a very introverted hobby) I like to soak up time with the people I love.

10) So... Do you have a most obsessed fan yet? I have a friend who has been VERY supportive and excited about my work, but I don't think that really counts :-) I haven't had anyone write to tell me they are obsessed, but I hope there's at least someone out there who will follow my work as I progress as an author :-)

11) So ,Shakespeare, does that mean you are related to William Shakespeare?? :) Ha! I wish. My husband is. I married into the name. As far as the genealogy has traced, William Shakespeare is my husband's great great great great forever great uncle.