Thank you to A.M. Griffin, author of the soon to be released The Guicai Talisman, for answering a few questions about herself and her writing. 🙂

What books have influenced your life most? I would say the books that have influenced me the most are the books where after I finished reading it, I felt as though I could write a story too. Not every book had that type of impact on me. I love regency, but after I read them I don’t feel like I can do that too (lol). But the paranormal and sci-fi books give me that warm and tingling feeling of, “the story doesn’t have to end here” or “what about different worlds?”.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor? I can’t really say. I have a lot of awesome writer friends and friends that I can reach out for help anytime I want. But as for the first writer who reached out to me and gave me some much needed advice and help me out, that would be the lovely Cynthia Sax. She had the same publisher as me and out of nowhere she emailed me. It felt like someone had thrown me a lifeline in the middle of a storm and I took it and held on tight. Authors are a great group of people and I’m lucky enough to have found friends in them.

If you could be any character from any book, who would you be? Hands down I would be Babylonia Jones from my newest release The Guicai Talisman from my new series The Undercity Chronicles of Babylonia Jones, P.I. She’s kick-ass, smart, funny, pretty and has a totally wicked life. She’s half-paranormal and half-human and because of that she doesn’t fit in either world; human or paranormal, but she’s desperately trying to find her way. I like that she’s honest and most of all true to herself. Oh, and she also has some cool friends; Melia is a Vampire and Demarcus is a Demi-God. I could totally hang out with them.

When did you first consider yourself a writer? When my first book was published I knew that there was no turning back. I was official.

What inspired you to write your first book? I kept having the same scene repeat in my head, this woman fighting aliens during an alien invasion. I would night dream and day dream about her. I knew the only way to get it to stop was to get her story out. So while I was in my night class I began writing Dangerously Mine. It felt good to get Eva’s story down and completed. That was the first story that I’d ever finished and it felt damn good.

Do you have a specific writing style? I’m a hybrid; pantser and plotter. I’ll write off the cuff, putting down whatever comes to mind, but it never fails, toward the middle of my story I have to plot the rest of the book. It’s usually toward the middle of the story where I have to rein my characters in and get back on plot.

Do you have a regular writing routine? NOPE.

What’s the BEST writing advice you ever received? Cynthia Sax gave me a ton of writing advice that I still remember and find useful today, but the best is to not engage reviewers who have left a bad review of a book. Just thank them and move on. It can be very gut wrenching to get a bad review, but I have to understand that it’s one person’s perspective and that not every book is meant for every reader. I thank the reviewer regardless if it was a good or bad review because they have taken the time to read my story.

Want to find out more about A.M. and her books check out the links below.

Social Media Links:

http://www.amgriffinbooks.com

http://www.facebook.com/amgriffinbooks

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