Thursday, August 30, 2012

More Author Insight: Trunk Novels

 How many trunk novels do you have, and is there one you'd like to revisit?


"Depending on how you count, I have anywhere from three to three-and-a-half. I plan to revisit all of them. They're all good, solid ideas with great characters -- I just wasn't a confident enough writer to pull them off at the time. One of these days, I'll start going through them and fixing them up." - Barry Lyga, author of I Hunt Killers




"I have four. I’m pretty fond of the second. The hero is an unregenerate cad, yes, I know, and he wasn’t even supposed to be the hero. But he outlasted the actual hero. So I really like him." - Huntley Fitzpatrick, author of My Life Next Door



"I have two, and I might revisit one. But the first novel I wrote is only useful as fodder for a Zombie Goat Apocalypse." - C.J. Redwine, author of Defiance.




"I have two. I would like to revisit the first one at some point because it’s a good idea, but it would need a fresh redo and my schedule’s too tight." - Lissa Price, author of Starters. 





"I have three that I haven’t finished. No make that four. Or five. I’d like to finish them all someday." - Janette Rallison (AKA C.J. Hill), author of Erasing Time.


"I wouldn’t say any of my unpublished manuscripts are trunked in the sense that I tried getting them published and it didn’t work out (since I wrote most of them after I’d landed my agent)… But I do have a lot of manuscripts that I’ve written  just for the hell of it and haven’t yet had a chance to either send to my agent or try to get published. Right now, I think I have around…11 unpublished manuscripts sitting around (some of which I’ve even written the sequels to…even though that’s kinda a no-no). In the past year, I haven’t had as much time to work on side projects, thanks to doing final edits on Throne of Glass and writing the TOG novellas. As for what novel I’d like to revisit…well, I’d love the chance to publish my YA fantasy Beauty and the Beast retelling—so…hopefully the publishing gods will smile upon me in the next few years!" - Sarah Maas, author of Throne of Glass




"Before Shadow and Bone, I'd only seriously attempted one other novel, a black comedy  set in early 1900s Los Angeles. I'm going to pull it apart and use some of the research for my next series." - Leigh Bardugo, author of Shadow and Bone



"Two completed ones. There’s one I’d like to revisit. It’s the first thing I ever wrote for kids."  - Kevin Emerson, author of The Lost Code




"I don't have any trunk novels yet, and it's not necessarily a thing I'm hoping to have either, knock on wood! What is the strangest place you've drawn inspiration from? " - Jessi Kirby, author of In Honor




"Hahaha, I couldn’t even count them all. I started trying to write novels while I was still in high school. Most of them never made it past the first draft. They were practice, exercises, not really novels. I have tons of first drafts that never went anywhere. But if you only count books that I thought were strong enough to do multiple drafts of—then I have three or four. I do borrow the best ideas from old projects for my current work." - Jennifer Hubbard, author of Try Not to Breathe.




"None! I’m pretty new to this so I’ve been fortunate enough that my first novel was the only one I wrote without a contract. I do have some proposals of books that I’d like to get back to and write someday." - Elizabeth Eulberg, author of Take a Bow.



"I have a few chapters written for a book I'd like to write eventually, but now wasn't the right time for it. It's based on an urban legend from my neighborhood (Hell's Kitchen, New York)." - Cara Lynn Shultz, author of Spellcaster




Come back Tuesday to find  out the strangest places from which the authors have drawn inspiration.

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