Interview with E.K Henry!!

Whoo Hoo!!! One of my favorite authors is someone I get to interview! AMAZING!!!

Q1.When did you start writing? And when did you become an author? · I have always had an interest for writing. I wrote poetry growing up. I first started writing fiction on May 5, 2010. I finished one book by the end of 2010 and one novella by early 2011, and trunked them. For those of you who don’t know, that means I threw it in a desk, never to see the light of day again. I finished Freak by mid 2011. · After Freak was written, edited multiple times, and sent to many beta readers, I spent months trying to find a literary agent. I had quite a few that told me they loved Freak, but that they couldn’t sell it at the current time. Publisher’s weren’t really buying vampire books anymore, even though there was still a huge audience for the genre. I was devastated for a long time. I kept thinking, “How could someone love my book and still not take me on as a client?” · After much consideration and encouragement from people who’ve read Freak, I decided to self-publish it. This in its self presented its own set of challenges. · I am glad that I made the choice though because it has been an amazing experience so far. I have had so many people purchase my book and then contact to tell me that they enjoyed reading it. To me, that is the best feeling in the world.

Q2. When was your first book released? · May 2012

Q3. Do you have more books that you have written? · I do have more books that I have written, but they have not been published. Since writing Freak I have been working on several novellas and a sequel to Freak.

Q4. When you were younger did you like to write? · I did but not as much as I loved to read. When I was younger, I loved writing poetry, but it wasn’t until a fews ago that I started writing fiction.

Q5. Is there a certain thing you do before writing your books? · Before I ever start writing a book, I like to jot down all of my ideas and then build an outline. Sometimes I follow the outline pretty well, other times my characters take the story into their own hands and take a different direction than I had planned. · I don’t have a set ritual when it comes to writing. Sometimes, I listen to music. Sometimes I drink coffee to get my muse to surface. I am not strict on my ritual, but I do prefer to write outdoors.

Q6. How long did it take you to write a book? · Well, the first draft took me about ½ a year to write. Editing and revisions took about another ½ a year.

Q7.How many books have you read? And did you like to read when you were younger? · I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many books I’ve read. I did like to read when I was younger. I used to read just about anything I could get my hands on. Stephen King was my idol growing up.

Q8.Do you have another author or person or even place who/that gives you inspiration? · I have to say Stephen King has always been my inspiration. I have spent more hours than I can count lost in his twisted tales. I’d love to do a remake of Misery one day · Another author who has influenced me and actually inspired me to write a book was Stephenie Meyer. What influenced me was that she was just a normal person who woke up with a dream and decided to pursue it. I’m not saying that she’s the only author who did this, but I discovered this about her at a point in my life when it made a big impact. I was trying to figure out what I really wanted to do with my life. When I read an interview she did, it got me thinking. If she could do it, why can’t I. I sat down that night and started writing. I haven’t stopped since. I owe her so much for influencing me in such a big way.

Q9. Do you write everyday? · I always make an attempt to. It might just be 200 words during my lunch break, but those 200 words add up.

Q10. How did you get your book published? Freak is self published. See question #1 for details on why I went this route. Thanks so much!!! :)