Author Interview - Aaron O'Donoghue

Hey everyone! I'm going to start posting author interview on my blog, so here's my first one with Aaron O'Donoghue. An aspiring author and member of my street team!

1.      Tell us a little about yourself. What do you enjoy besides writing?

Music, video games, reading, art, a lot of things

2.      What are you working on right now? Tell us a little about it/them.

A series of books called the Saturday Club Adventures (S.C.A. for short) (21 books, 19x120 pages and 2x160 pages), which is about a youth club in Cork, Republic of Ireland, and their adventures and journeys and battle against D.P. (stands for Dark Psychos, the villainous group of the series), plus a number of short stories which are separate to the S.C.A.

3.      How long have you been writing?

Since I was 8.

4.      What are your goals for yourself as a writer?

To get my books published, and have my works studied by English students.

5.      What are some of your favorite authors? Books?

My favourite authors include Roald Dahl, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Georgia Byng (Molly Moon series), Rick Riordan, Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games), Mark O'Halloran (a friend of mine and fellow writer, we reviews each other's works), Justin Richards (Time Runners), and of course Aaron O'Donoghue.

6.      What inspired you to begin writing?

I'm not actually sure, I just had (and still have) a crazy imagination, and wrote stories on the school computer in primary school (the first one I can remember is 'The Amazing Race'), and somehow, my 8-year-old mind knew the word 'trillion', as I remember seeing it appear in that story. But my friend Mark inspired me to write my current series by starting one and he told me, I got excited and wanted to find out more, and wrote a book for the series (as I assumed it was a group project), and then we teamed up, and I decided to start a series of my own.

7.      What advice do you have for other aspiring authors?

I would say: make the plot believable, original, interesting, make 3-dimensional characters: described physically and personality wise, otherwise, your readers will have mental images of stickmen/stickwomen when reading your books, and describe the settings well, but not to the point of boring the reader. And don't put in useless information.

8.      What’s your favorite genre to write?

Action and adventure especially, and a bit of comedy, sci-fi, thriller too.

9.      Do you listen to music while writing? If so, what kind?

Yes, any kind, rock, pop, original tracks (some made by me and my friends using Songify), remixes, instrumentals

Where to find Aaron
Saturday Club Adventures Wiki: http://saturday-club-adventures.wikia.com/wiki/Saturday_Club_Adventures_Wiki
Wattpad - The Ice Globes: http://www.wattpad.com/18349817-the-ice-globes

Fading by Heather Kirchhoff Review

I was recently given an ecopy of this book to review by the author, and I have to say that I enjoyed this story very much.

            This short story tells the life of a young girl who is diagnosed of cancer. If it sounds sad already, just wait because it gets worse. Not only does she battle cancer, but she is told that it will end up killing her, and she doesn’t have much time left. The story follows her relationships with her mother and best friend as she tries to accept her disastrous fate.

            The first thing I loved about this story was the second person narrative. It was unique and different and it gave the story a more personal, and at the same time detached feeling. The story read as someone reading the story to the main character, and at the same time also the reader, and I thought it was executed very well.

            I think it portrays a very emotional topic beautifully and realistically. The characters are relatable and don’t seem stereotyped or fake, which I really appreciate.

            The only thing I wished is that the characters got a little bit more development. Since the story is short, it doesn’t have the time to fully develop the characters much past their surface personalities. The story is really only a snapshot of her life and leaves most of the lives of the characters to the reader’s imagination.

            Still, the story is beautifully written, and I very much enjoyed it.

Check out Fading on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Fading-Heather-Kirchhoff-ebook/dp/B00ROHAAX4/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

~K.M.D.

Big News!

I have some big news I have to announce today. So, if you read this blog you probably know of my novel The Unusual Isles that I self-published on Amazon. Well, I have recently decided to take it off of Amazon in order to fix it up and edit it a bit more. Nothing will be changed in the plot, so the story line will not change. I will be adding in some new scenes for character development, fixing some stylistic elements to it, and fixing any grammar mistakes I find.

            Since I am really invested in The Unusual Isles, I felt that it was only necessary to make it the best that it could be. I want to get a cover made for it as well, as I have recently just realized how important a good cover is for a book. Once the second draft is ready, I will throw a re-release party similar to the actual release party. I’m hoping to get more donations and spread the word about it to a larger audience this time. I’ve recently started a street team that will be helping me with things like promotion.

The sequel is still in the works, as I haven’t had the time to work on it a lot recently, but I still plan on writing it.

            This is just a really short update, but some pretty big news! Stay tuned for information about The Unusual Isles and when it will be re-released! 

~K.M.D.

Update 12

Hey everyone! So I know I’ve been gone for a while. If you missed my last update I stated that I would be taking a break from writing for a little bit. However, I am now here to inform everyone that my break is over, at least mostly over.

            I think one of the reason I got so discouraged from writing was because I began comparing myself to other authors. Ones who work on five books at a time,  get signed to a publishing company, have their own editing services, make their own covers, have their own websites, and still manage everyday life. It was when I finally realized that I couldn’t compare myself to them that I decided I wanted to get back into writing.

            I love writing, and I don’t want to stop doing it. However, I am not able to put as much time into it as some other indie writers. I am a full time college student who also works twenty hours a week. If that isn’t enough, there’s also other things I want to spend time doing which include going to practice for my acapella group, spending time improving my drawing skills (I’ve gotten really into art recently), playing games on my 3DS, and of course writing. I can’t devote 100% of my time to writing. In reality I can probably only manage to focus about 8% or less of my time on my writing. But I’m ok with that for now.

            Being a writer involves so much more than just simply writing books. It’s almost like a second career where you have to market yourself and make connections, and keep updating your blog which I know I don’t do enough. They’re all thing I’m willing to do, but probably not to the extent of most other authors.

            For the time being, I’m going to stick to only one or two projects at a time. It takes me a long time to actually finish a novel because sometimes when I sit down to write, I only get a couple hundred words out, but that’s ok. I don’t need to rush anything. I would rather put out work that I’m proud of in three years than some crap I rushed through in three months.

            I will be informing everyone of what my new projects are in the near future, so stay tuned, because I promise I will be around a little more often.

~K.M.D.

Ghost Writing: Zoella and Girl Online

Everything stated in this post in of my personal opinion.

Ghost writing has been a topic that I’ve heard a lot about in recent events. Many famous Youtube celebrities are writing and publishing books, and ghost writing is something that is becoming controversial. One of the more recent events surround a Youtube Zoella and the publication of her book named Girl Online.

            To quickly define ghost writing, it is when a particular client hires a writer to write a book for them, while the ghost writer receives no credit, and the client receiving all of the credit and revenue, although some ghost writers can negotiate a small amount of the profit from the book. It’s most commonly used among celebrities and other to write autobiographies, but although it is sometimes used in fiction.  

            Ghost writing is usually a high paid job, and as I writer I understand why people do ghostwrite. You get paid for doing something you love, and even though you don’t end up with the credit for the final piece, you usually get paid enough money for the job that it really doesn’t matter. If I got the opportunity to be a ghost writer I would probably take it. When it comes to autobiographies, usually not much harm is done. A person wants to tell the story of their life, but doesn’t know who to write it down on paper. So they hire a professional writer to write it for them.

            Ghost writing with fiction is where I have bigger problems. Being a writer is a profession that I think most people take very lightly. Most people don’t understand that being a writer is more than just having an idea for an amazing story; anyone can do that. Being a writer is not only creating the story, but being able to portray it though characters readers will fall in love it, knowing how to portray the story through words in an intriguing way, knowing your way around formatting, grammar, and punctuation, putting time into marketing, looking for agents and a publisher, and being able to push through writers block and times when you feel uninspired. Being a writer isn’t something you just decide over night. It’s something that takes years of dedication from making that first decision to sit down and write a book to the end product when it ends up on bookshelves everywhere. Being a writer is a craft that takes years of practice to perfect, and success will come with much hard work and determination.

            When I first heard Zoella was going to write a book, and a fiction on at that, there was no doubt in my mind that she was going to use a ghost writer. It’s something that celebrities do. They think that writing a book is just another big accomplishment they can add to their resume, and most likely underestimate the hard work that actually needed to go into it.

            It was stated that Zoella had “help” from a editor and publishing team while writing her book, which mostly likely meant a ghost writer. However, I think that many of her fans didn’t know what ghost writing was, or how often it’s used in society. Most of her fans were quick to defend her and throw criticism at those who dared to say that she didn’t write her own book, when in reality, it was probably true. Is anything wrong with using a ghost writer? No, and it’s also completely legal. I think her fans just wanted to believe that Zoella was extremely talented and could do anything she wanted. However, not everyone had the talent to be an amazing writer, and certainly not everyone has to talent to write a bestselling book over the course of one or two years.

            Zoella most likely made the decision to write the book to help her with her personal image. It’s a big accomplishment to post around the internet, and it draws people’s attention and will likely bring in views.  Being a fan of Zoella myself, I don’t discredit any of her talent, and I love her Youtube videos. However, I just find something unsettling about those who use a ghost writer for a fiction book and then take all of the credit for themselves. Seeing Zoella on a book tour and going around signing copies of a book she very likely didn’t write just bothers me. People don’t hire people to paint a picture for them and then call the painting their own, so why should writing be any different?

            I just think that most people think having a good idea the only think you need in order to write a book, but the art of writing goes much deeper than that, and I feel that people who use ghost writers almost don’t respect the art of writing.

            These are just my personal opinions on this topic. Please leave any personal opinions on ghost writing in the comments!

~K.M.D.