Featured Author Maree Anderson, Freaks of Greenfield High

YA Beyond is thrilled to have Maree Anderson, author of Freaks of Greenfield High as our first guest blogger for 2012.

When did you realize you wanted to be an author?

I realized I wanted to have a go at writing about a year before my youngest started school—kind of the old last ditch chance to try something like this before I had to go back to work after being a stay-at-home mom.  I realized I wanted to be a serious writer when I finished that very first manuscript—a whopping 150,000 word fantasy—and immediately started writing the sequel. By that stage, I couldn’t not write. It was in my blood. (And giving me sleepless nights!)

And I realized I wanted to be an author, when I joined Romance Writers of New Zealand so that I could enter that first manuscript in the RWNZ Clendon Award for some feedback. To my delight, it finalled. (The Clendon is a full-manuscript contest, and the first round judges are romance readers. There are no genre categories: the top scoring six or seven manuscripts go through to the final.) And reading the comments on the score-sheets made me realize I could do this. Readers loved my story, so that was one major hurdle crossed. So why couldn’t I hone my craft and work toward being a published author—have a job that I loved to bits an beyond? Huge, live-changing moment for me.

What did you do with your first book once you finished writing it?

I didn’t have a clue what to do with it so I saved it in on a floppy disk (yes, it was a few years ago!) and jumped on the internet. Luckily for me, while Googling writing contests I found RWNZ and learned they had an Auckland chapter. I turned up for the first meeting of the year and was overwhelmed by the generosity of the members. I came away having learned everything from the difference between paranormal and fantasy, single title and category, to how to calculate word-count, how to tackle queries and submissions, and where to start submitting. So that was next: researching agents and editors and sending out a bunch of queries. I look back at those first query letters and I just want to cringe. They were terrible! LOL.

How as an author do you keep yourself motivated?

Even before I was published with Red Sage, I used to set myself writing goals, so I was used to writing to deadlines—albeit self-imposed ones. Lately it’s a bit more difficult to stay motivated because I’m brushing off old manuscripts and taking another pass at them, and for me, rewrites don’t feed my picky muse as much as writing something shiny and new does.

Last year was a tough one both personally and professionally, and I only completed one new manuscript, instead of my usual two. I’ve been feeling a bit down and had to remind myself quite sternly that last year I had two books (including my first story in print) released with Red Sage, wrote a YA that placed second in the FTHRW Golden Gateway published division, and rewrote and independently published three novel-length books. So despite a tough year, I still achieved quite a bit!

This year, I intend to set myself some firm deadlines and work toward them. That seemed to work well for me, so I’m going back to it. Plus, I’m going to reward myself as I achieve each deadline. Normally I don’t celebrate my achievements, I just dive into the next project and don’t stop to bask in the glory of having achieved a goal.

Are you a plotter or by the seat of your pants writer?

I used to be a dedicated pantser. For me, plotting a story was in-comprehensible. I couldn’t imagine how people did it or why they would want to torture themselves by doing it. Early on in my writing career I did try once or twice—even to the extent of doing character profiles. But I found the process so boring that I’d quit and dive straight back into writing the story. For me, plotting was really, really painful–like having teeth pulled without benefit of an anesthetic.

Eventually I decided to force myself to learn to outline and plot, because the way I figured, it was a skill I could learn, just like writing blurbs and query letters. I had just outlined my first entire manuscript  (and hated every darn minute of it!) and was about 5000 words into the story, when I got an email from my editor asking if I had anything suitable to submit to Red Sage for their Secrets print anthology. I told her I might have something, and asked her to give me three weeks. I rewrote the beginning (Secrets being erotic romance, my story needed more, ah, erotic stuff *g*) and I wrote an additional25,000 words in the time allotted, and had that story accepted for the Red Sage Secrets 30 anthology. I wouldn’t have been able to meet that deadline if I hadn’t plotted the story first, so that sold me on plotting!

I’m still a pantser at heart, but now I can do either. And I gotta say, I think it’s an excellent idea to be as versatile as possible.

What was the most challenging book you’ve written?

There’ve been a few challenging adult books in my career, but I have to say my first YA, Freaks of Greenfield High was a huge challenge—and not because it was hard to write. More, because even after Freaks did rather well in the US contest circuit, an agent told me she didn’t believe I had a YA voice. I was pretty gutted because I loved writing Freaks. So I gave up on writing YA for the moment, and Freaks languished on my computer for a couple of years while I wrote specifically for Red Sage.

Then, taking a break from erotic romance, I decided to haul Freaks out and take another look at it. It was pretty scary thinking about rewriting a manuscript that had won a writing award and placed 2^nd and 3^rd in other contests. I mean, why muck with something that was obviously working, right? But I figured I had nothing to lose. And to add to the challenge, I decided to change the sex of the main character in Freaks. Jay, my teenage cyborg, was originally male. So I made Jay a female, and explored the dynamic of a teenage cyborg who looked just like a normal teenage girl, having to come to terms with experiencing human emotions for the very first time, and falling in love with a boy.

After I finished the rewrite, the next challenge was to believe in the story enough to refuse to let it languish on my computer for another couple of years. I published it in September last year, and also decided to put it up a chapter a week on Wattpad, just to see if I really was missing the YA mark entirely and couldn’t write YA to save myself. I was approached by the Wattpad team in December because they loved the story, thought it wasn’t getting enough exposure, and decided to feature it. As at the time of writing this, Freaks Of Greenfield High has had over 88,000 reads, and I have fans begging for a sequel. So I’m totally thrilled I took a chance and 1) published Freaks myself, 2) put it on Wattpad. If I hadn’t, I’d never have discovered that I do have a voice that appeals to young adult readers after all J

If you have children/teens tell us how they impact your YA writing?

I have two teens—a boy and a girl. My daughter was an avid reader from the get-go, so I would read YAs and pass them on to her. Now we fight over who gets to read what first. We’re both avid readers of paranormals but I’m not so keen on her love of horrors. She can have those all to herself with my blessing! My son took a bit more work to get interested in books, but he’s finally seen the light… when I haul him away from the computer, that is *g*.

I’ve run my YA manuscripts past both my kids to check that the characters and situations are authentic. My kids are my critique partners, if you will. But living in New Zealand, and writing for the US market, means that I can’t just tap into everything my kids do and say, and take how they react to situations as gospel. Growing up in New Zealand is a very different experience to growing up in the US. For example, if I used Kiwi teen slang, US probably readers wouldn’t get it at all. Plus our education system is very different, too. So I have to rely a lot on internet research, and absorb the cultural differences through reading loads of YA and watching loads of teen-oriented US TV—hardly a hardship *g*.

If you could meet one author who would it be?

Rachel Caine, because I love both her adult paranormal romances and her young adult Morganville Vampires series to bits and beyond. She’d have to carry the conversation, though. I’d be too busy having a total fan-girl moment and SQUEEEEEing to form actual words.

Thanks heaps for having me here on YA Beyond—it’s been beyond awesome!

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FREAKS OF GREENFIELD HIGH:

When a teenage cyborg is forced to hide out at a small-town high school, the unthinkable happens: she falls in love.

Jay’s a cyborg who looks just like normal teenage girl. She’s super-strong, super-smart, and she can even appear to grow and age like a human. When a covert organization intent on using Jay as a weapon comes after her, she needs to find a place where she can blend in. Greenfield High seems perfect… except that the boys all think she’s totally hot and keep hitting on her, and she has no clue how to handle the attention. Who knew high school could be so perilous?

To add to her confusion she’s evolving – experiencing human emotions for the first time. And when she encounters ex-jock-turned-outcast Tyler, he sends her
logical brain into a spin. She’s just starting to get the hang of this girlfriend/boyfriend thing when her pursuers track her down. Now’s sooo not the time for a cyborg to fall in love and get all emotional!

(Winner of the Maryland Romance Writers “Reveal Your Inner Vixen” contest, YA category)

To read an excerpt and reviews, and for full buy links, please visit: http://www.FreaksofGreenfieldHigh.com

To find out more about Maree and her books, please visit the Books page of her
website: http://www.mareeanderson.com/books

Buy Freaks of Greenfield High at:
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/87631
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Freaks-of-Greenfield-High-ebook/dp/B005M9TC3K/
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/freaks-of-greenfield-high-maree-anderson/1105858308?ean=2940011513923
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/freaks-of-greenfield-high/id467562443?mt=11
Sony: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/maree-anderson/freaks-of-greenfield-high/_/R-400000000000000516209
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BIO:

Maree’s an award-winning romance author who loooves chocolate—yeah, she’s pretty much a cliché She’s also a Kiwi–a New Zealander–and she lives in Auckland, with a long-suffering husband and two teenagers who put up with her camping out in her office and forgetting to cook them dinner. She has two strange goldfish, and one slightly neurotic cat who’s, 1) obsessed with food, and 2) famous. (She’s had a book written about her, and she featured on the cover.) While Maree’s waiting to become as famous as her cat, she writes stories about teenage cyborgs, cursed crystal warriors, aliens who ride lightning, demons, and blind seers… among other things.

You can find Maree lurking in all kinds of places:
Website/blog: http://www.mareeanderson.com
Facebook author page: http://www.facebook.com/MareeAndersonAuthor
Facebook Freaks page: http:// www.facebook.com/MareeAndersonFreaksofGreenfieldHigh
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MareeAnderson
Google +:https://plus.google.com/u/0/107315750508997094229/posts
Writers Gone Wild: http://www.writersgonewild.blogspot.com