Hello again, sinners and heretics. This week I have guest author M.L. Spencer stepping into the confessions booth to entertain beg forgiveness from you all. And as an added bonus, her books are currently on sale, so go buy some!
- When I was a kid, I used to use an audio tape recorder to record episodes of Battlestar Galactica and then transcribe them into books, fleshing the dialogue out with my own narrative. Only much later did I realize that Glen A. Larson had already written these books. DOH!
- My first manuscript was Ghostbusters fanfiction.
- When I was a kid, writing was discouraged so I had to hide in the attic to write. I had a coke-bottle alarm tied to string that would make noise when anyone came up the stairs.
- I used to write and smoke in my back yard. I once was on such a roll that I couldn’t stop even during an enormous mountain fire behind my house. I ended up having to go the doctor because my throat was burnt from smoke inhalation because I couldn’t stop writing/smoking to go inside for two days. (I have since quit smoking!)
- I used to collect and scrap book rejection letters from short story submissions and agents. I had quite a collection! I finally decided it was too morbid to keep around and trashed it when I self-published.
- Even though I put myself out there a lot on social media and in my books, I am a very shy and socially awkward person. I used to be bullied incessantly as a kid.
- I have a problem with hair. I love it, and I love it on my characters. Unfortunately, my editor is constantly having to edit hair and hair-related character motions out of my narrative.
- I was a huge fan of Robert Jordan right when WoT first became popular. I would preorder his books then drive at midnight to the nearest Barnes and Noble (about 45 minutes away) to pick them up. I would read them in one day (max two), taking time off work if necessary. I used to attend Darkfriends Socials with similar nerds. We would carry our armloads of hardback Jordans to local pubs where we would discuss such literary enigmas as “Who killed Asmodean?”
These are my confessions. Forgive me, audience!
M.L. Spencer was born in Southern California and grew up on the works of Steven R. Donaldson, Stephen King and Frank Herbert. She wrote her first novel-length manuscript at thirteen.
By day she works as a biology teacher; by night she sweats over a beaten-up keyboard. Her novel Darkmage won the Indie-Reader Discovery Award for Fantasy.
Her favorite authors are Robert Jordan, C.S. Friedman, George R.R. Martin, David Eddings, Patrick Rothfuss, and Terry Goodkind.
