I had the pleasure and honor to interview author Carlie Cullen, whose new book
Heart Search:Lost has its launch today. As a fellow author, I thought it would be fun to pick Carlie's brain about the internal aspects of writing.
CC: Hi Joan, thank you so much for
inviting me here today.
JH: Thanks for joining me. Let's just jump right in with the fun stuff. I read on your bio that you were writing stories before you
reached double digits. Can you tell us what your first story was about?
CC: Oh goodness, that’s going back a
few years. I’ve really got to delve into the memory banks for that one!
[Laughs]. Ok, I’ve found it and removed the dust and cobwebs.
It was a fairy tale. A princess
had unknowingly upset a wicked witch who started putting evil spells on people
in the castle. The princess managed to escape and sought the help of a good
fairy. She offered her life in return for the fairy reversing the spells and
stopping the wicked witch. The fairy agreed, reversed the spells and imprisoned
the witch where she could do no more damage. But she didn’t take the life of
the princess on the basis that as she was willing to sacrifice herself for
other people, she deserved to live.
JH:Awww, that is a really sweet story. Who would you say most
influenced your writing style?
CC: When I first began writing, it
was undoubtedly Hans Christian Andersen. It was reading his stories and those
of The Brothers Grimm which fostered my love of fantasy.
Although I’ve always loved
fantasy, as a teenager and young adult I decided to broaden my horizons and read
books from other genres. It taught me there were other ways to tell stories,
different elements to draw on and I believe I’ve taken a little something I
learned from each of the authors.
My biggest influencers are the
following. For world-building, it could be no one but the incomparable J R R
Tolkien (although I do think he tended to over-describe in places). For
emotion, I learnt a great deal from Virginia Andrews. For tale weaving or
storytelling, I found Jeffrey Archer and Sidney Sheldon had a great deal to
offer. Finally for suspense and unexpected twists, it would have to be Dean
Koontz and Stephen King.
I’d like to think I’ve taken
what I’ve learnt from each of those amazing authors and applied my own style to
it.
JH:In your short story, A Rift in Thyme, (love the play on
words) the topic is a muse. Do you have a muse? If so can you describe him or
her for us?
CC: Yes, I do have a Muse and part
of A Rift in Thyme was actually based on true events.
My Muse is called Catherine (I’m
not sure if she spells it with a C or K though) and she lived in the 16th
century. She has an oval face, hazel eyes, pale lips and is quite pretty. Her
hair is dark brown and hangs in ringlet-type curls down to her knees. She wears
a long jade green velvet dress typical of the times and an unusual amulet hangs
around her neck.
She was an herbalist and healer.
It’s not clear who accused her of witchcraft in her village, but she was
ambushed in the woods one day when she was picking herbs and was murdered,
driven through by a sword.
I’m told she was drawn to me by
my inner strength, purity of spirit, willingness to help others, my writing
ability and imagination.
JH:I know that you are a writer of fantasy. Is there another
genre that you would like to try? If you did write in another genre, would you
continue to use Carlie Cullen or would you use a different pen name?
CC: I’m sometimes drawn toward
horror (I read quite a few horror books in my teenage years), but it’s more the
paranormal-type horror I liked not the slasher-horror. The idea of mindless
violence for the sake of it doesn’t appeal at all. The paranormal has always
held a fascination for me so, at some point I might try writing a paranormal
horror. I’m also quite fascinated by Steampunk, which is something else I’d be
interested in exploring.
I don’t think I would write
under a pen name if I published a book in a different genre. I believe by
keeping my own name, it would show my versatility as a writer.
JH:As a writer I find there are characters I love and
characters that I am not so fond of. Is there a character in Heart Search: Lost you found you were
not so fond of?
CC: Actually, yes. Although she was fun to write and I enjoyed
every minute of creating her, I didn’t like Dayna. She was such a bitch, who
took great delight in bullying a weaker member of her coven, and showed no
remorse for it. When she was severely chastised for her actions she blamed her
victim for the trouble she was in and was completely in denial, unable or
unwilling to accept she’d brought it all down on her own head.
JH:You are both a writer and an editor. Is there anything that
you have learned through your time as editor that has helped you in your own
writing?
CC: Absolutely. It’s taught me to
watch for duplications of words in the same sentences or close together in
paragraphs. Also the over-use of the word ‘that’ is something I’ve become
extremely aware of; if I find myself typing it, I stop immediately (or as soon
as I finished the sentence) and self-edit, even though I know I shouldn’t.
Another thing it’s taught me is to look at how I begin sentences and not having
two or three consecutive sentences beginning with the same word.
There’s also been a down side to
being an editor as well as a writer, although I’m over it now.
After I’d done a particularly long
edit and went back to my own work, I found I was self-editing almost every
sentence I wrote and as a result my writing didn’t flow as well as normal – I
couldn’t get myself back to the ‘stream of consciousness’ writing where I
allowed the story to write itself. I’ve learned a valuable lesson there and
besides, when I told my editor, Maria, what was happening, I got quite a
telling off for trying to do her job. She reminded me who the editor was where
my work was concerned and encouraged me to just allow the words to flow and let
her worry about the editing. Maria told me it was my job to tell the story and
hers to do the polishing.
JH:Has there ever been an idea for a book, short story or movie
that you have watched or read and thought, “Dang, why didn’t I think of that?”
If so, what was it?
CC: Yes and no. There was one movie
I watched (and ending up buying) where I thought “I could have written that!” ’The
Craft’ was about four teenagers experimenting with witchcraft. One of them was
a natural witch, a gift she’d inherited from her mother while the other three
were powerless in comparison. Once they joined together, things began to happen.
One girl went power crazy and allowed it to go to her head, eventually turning
against the girl with the real power. Unsurprisingly the natural witch won the
battle in the end and the power crazy girl ended up in a straightjacket.
As witchcraft is another area
which fascinates me, and I have some witchy books planned for the future, The
Craft was definitely something I could see myself writing, but I never actually
thought, “Dang, why didn’t I think of that?”
Thanks so much for the great
interview, Joan – I really enjoyed myself!
Once again I would like to thank Carlie for taking the time out of her schedule to share her thoughts with us. Best of luck on the new book!
Carlie is having a give away! Go to the address below and enter for your chance to win.
Carlie M A Cullen was born in London. She
grew up in Hertfordshire where she first discovered her love of books and
writing. She has been an administrator and marketer all her working life and is
also a professional teacher of Ballroom and Latin American dancing.
Carlie has always written in some form or
another, but Heart Search: Lost is her first novel. This is being launched 8th
October 2012 through Myrddin Publishing Group and work has started on book two:
Heart Search: Found. She writes mainly in the Fantasy/Paranormal Romance genres
for YA, New Adult and Adult.
She is also a professional editor and holds the reins of a writing
group called Writebulb. Their first anthology was published September 2012.
Carlie currently lives in Essex, UK with
her daughter.
