Author Interview: M.A. Abraham

I am so excited to be sharing my interview with M.A. Abraham with you today...sort of...

By "sort of," I mean, it started off as my interview, and then M.A. kinda just took over and absolutely killed it. She has such an amazing imagination and storytelling ability, riveting and humorous at the same time. She is an inspiration and a hoot.

I hope you enjoy getting to know her a bit better too!

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I never do things inside the box, so you know this is going to be different. I took Andi’s questions and threw them into a pile, then raked them up like autumn leaves and the words came out looking like this.

In the beginning, there was a girl what once made up stories to act out as she played with her friends in the yard. There was nothing conventional about her upbringing, so you know the games they played weren’t going to be run of the mill for the time.

Dad was into army surplus when we were growing up and there were always mountains of instructional toys for us to get into trouble with. Clearing throat, let me rephrase this, to allow for hands on experience. Were we actually allowed to play with these items? Well, allowed in a very broad term and we quickly learned the most interesting items were off limits, who knew? No one said we couldn’t examine the interior of the cockpits of the crashed fighter jets dad won in a bid from the military. Sigh. They only stayed in the yard for a couple weeks before they were carted off to a new home. Sniff. They were so much fun. But, mom was afraid we would lock ourselves in because the mechanism still worked to enclose the pilot. This was super cool. The most fun were the rows of barracks boxes dad had piled on the property. They stood 15 feet high and extended down and across the edge of yard. This gave us something to get a good running start going. In between each stack of boxes was a 10 foot break before the next pile began. Now, think about this, you were a kid at once time too… how much fun would you have had racing from one end of the piles to the other and jumping at full tilt from pile to pile. SHHH. Of course we won’t tell the younger Elves about any of this, they will get jealous if they knew.

The answer of when I began to put any of this onto to paper came when I turned 13. One of my newer friends gave me a book to read she had spent the summer writing. Well… I was not a diplomat, I am ashamed now to admit. She challenged me after to write something better. It was the beginning of trouble in the classrooms when it worked out better than I thought possible. I don’t know even to this day how many stories the teachers in different classes confiscated. I could only get away with doing something like this in Lit class. Chemistry class was notorious, but I charmed my stories back from the teacher.

I tried to publish traditionally in the beginning, but only got comments back like, “Lovable characters, interesting storyline but doesn’t fit in a slot well.” So? Neither did I. I continued to write as a hobby after that until a niece found my stash in the back of my closet. She took the one on top and decided something needed to be done about this hobby of mine. In talking to a friend that was breaking away from the traditional styles, she advised me to go indie with my work. This suited the niece very well. We found an editor with impressive degrees and set her to work, only it didn’t turn out as well as it should have… My advice to new writers, make sure you have the proper type of editor, this is extremely important. We made up a cover for the story, and have replaced it since, thank the heavens… another piece of advice, make sure you have a really good graphic artist. Then, when it was supposed to have been done, another piece of advice, make sure you check the work the editor did and don’t leave it to blind trust. Le Sigh , my niece formatted the book and Gabriel was born. Prematurely.

I found out many things by letting Gabriel leave my hands like I did. Don’t trust, make sure you have the right type of help and be prepared to do a lot of publicity. Yes, we live and learn.

I am typing like crazy here and I suddenly feel a light tap on my shoulder and turn my head to see a young Elf standing off the right side of my shoulder., a sigh from the left tells me there is another off to that side too. Busted. They are both frowning, but there are bright twinkles in their eyes. This tells me they have been reading over my shoulders, so much for keeping certain parts of my youth secreted from them. You know they are going to want me to write things like this into some of the stories they will be in at some point. Not happening. I don’t use personal materials kids, sticking out tongue at them. To know more about the youngsters in my stories you would have to read my Christmas releases with them in it. The Elves are little stinkers. The Tantalarians are more civilized, but I think there are plans to change this going on behind my back. We will see if it happens in the future.

When do I write, and all that goes with it? I will do my main draft in ink and follow it up on the computer, editing and changing things as I go. I fit my writing times into any space I can find, doctor appointments, or while waiting for people when they are busy and I am with them. At work I write between customers, when things are slow. I like to write and listen to music. I also do a lot of writing during the night, when I can’t sleep, lately between 3-5 or 6-8AM. Sleep can be overrated anyway, right?

I have experimented with several genres, but gravitate towards Sci-fi/romance and Fantasy/Romance the most often. My thoughts on romance? There is a touch of it in everything, no matter what and it is not only a human characteristic. We tend to take it for granted and abuse it. Then again, this could be a part of our natures. There is a meme that says alie

ns lock their doors as they pass Earth… whoever wrote it up could have a point. Despite all that, I believe there is more good in the world than there is bad, it is just that those that are bad have better publicity agents and get more press than the good.

What am I writing now? A book called ‘Vengeance has a Daughter’. It is also taking longer than usual, so far close to 4 months. I usually can write a rough draft in anywhere from 2-3 months. A short story (novella) in 2-4 weeks. Editing takes a lot longer, but I put each manuscript through 6 different sets of hands. Each process takes time. And still we find errors. Groan. While all this is going on, I have won the title of pen killer of the year somehow. When will the book I am writing now be finished? Shrugging. When the story has been told. It is what I tell aspiring writers when they come to me for advice. A story is never over until the tale has been told. As far as how they will know when they reach this point? Somehow, you just do.

Looking at this interview I realize I have colored outside of all the lines I was given to work with. Well, all I can say is get used to it. It is what I am known best for.

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Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me, M.A., and thank you, readers, for taking the time to get to know us a little better.

Make sure to check out M.A.'s links below and don't forget to grab your copy of "An Elven Love Song" when it releases on Dec. 23, 2019!!!

An Elven Love Song: https://books2read.com/u/4AxZ5A