Author AshleyRose Sullivan Interview and Amazon Gift Card Contest LIVE Here!

BBB: What is the strangest thing you ever did to research something for a story?
ARS: While writing a book about a kid who uses stage magic to cope with his parents’ split, I learned how to perform a magic trick called, “The Finger Chopper.”
BBB: What character was the toughest for you to get onto the page, and why? How did you finally crack it?
ARS: The Echo. He’s a bad guy in Awesome Jones. A lot of the time, baddies don’t have a great reason for doing the things they do. That was the case with The Echo. His motivation just wasn’t there. I spent a lot of time working on his story. Pages and pages of notes went into it and I only ended up using as much as I felt necessary. But, I understood him. I understood what he wanted, why he was doing what he did. That’s what worked in the end. The motivation.
BBB: Have you ever had second thoughts or regrets after killing off a main character?
ARS: No. At least, not yet. I never kill anyone willy-nilly. If a character dies, it’s because I feel that it’s right for the novel, for the greater story, for the protagonist’s personal arc.
BBB: How do you keep track of your world building?
ARS: World building is pretty much my favorite thing. It’s something that comes naturally to me and I have a tendency to want to sit around and draw floor plans and create character histories rather than actually put words on a page. Keeping track isn’t something that I worry too much about. As long as I’m immersed in the novel, I essentially live in that world. Most of my dreams are still “set” in Arc City, where Awesome Jones lives. That being said, I usually keep up with notes about the world in a notebook (more on that in a bit) and I also use Pinterest. I pin anything that reminds me of the book, anything that might be helpful later, anything that reminds me of a certain character. I keep different boards for each of my novels and I’ve pinned everything from recipes for fish soup to portraits of Queen Victoria and album covers from 1976.
BBB: Please tell us more about Awesome Jones and the storyline that drives it.
ARS: Awesome Jones is a completely regular guy in a world full of super heroes. All he’s ever wanted is to be like them. Then, he meets an amazing girl and falls in love and forgets about wanting to wear a cape and save the day. Everything’s going along fine until a dangerous threat emerges from the shadows and throws Awesome’s life into turmoil.
BBB: Is this a stand alone or series? How many more books will there be in this series?
ARS: Awesome Jones is the first book in a trilogy. Though, I have a couple of short stories from his world so there may also be a collection at some point.
BBB: What sets Awesome Jones apart from other books in the same genre?
ARS: Two things. Form, first. Awesome Jones is essentially a comic book in prose. I’m an artist and provided a few “panels” throughout the novel–details from Awesome’s life like photographs and newspaper articles–and the book is formatted with comic book layouts in mind. Second, Awesome Jones, while it does have action and superhero battles, is about the personal, everyday lives of the people in this world. They go to work, cook dinner, fall in love, and go about their day while heroes and villains tear apart the world around them.
BBB: What types of creatures/characters can readers expect in your world?
ARS: Super-powered humans inhabit Arc City and the rest of the world. There are generations of these people both in the ground and walking around. They have abilities ranging from flight and super strength to telepathy and light manipulation. They act as heroes and villains and lots of things in between. Additionally, there’s a lot of super-science going on in the background–people who made their own way in a super-powered world. There’s also a hint of magic.
BBB: Did you do any kind of research to determine the details of your characters lives / lifestyles?
ARS: With Awesome Jones, I wanted to write something that came purely from my love of superheroes, fairy tales, and mythology. I didn’t want to be influenced by anything else and only wanted to draw from my personal experiences. To that end, I avoided comic books and even novels while I was writing the first draft. It was a really strange experience for me. Everything I’ve written since then (including the second Awesome Jones book which I’m writing now) has been very research intensive. With Silver Tongue, I read a lot of books from that time period and also got a book about the manners, food, clothes, etc. of that era. With my current work-in-progress, the second Awesome Jones I’m reading a lot of Bronze Age comics and pulp novels.
BBB: Are you a plotser or a pantser? or a Planster (a combo of both)
ARS: A planster. For every novel I write, I buy a medium-sized, spiral-bound notebook. I feel like all of my novels are born in these things. I write pages and pages of notes. This includes character and world details, plot ideas, sketches, floor plans, snippets of dialogue etc. Sometimes I wind up with apparently random words and phrases that I can’t decipher later. After I feel like I have enough, I start outlining. I spend a few weeks on the outline and I try to get all the major twists and turns figured out in this stage. I don’t like plot surprises because I don’t like rewriting. That being said, I don’t try to outline every single detail or every scene. I like the excitement and spontaneity that comes with writing off the cuff. Basically, I just try to find a good balance.
BBB: What’s the best thing that anyone said to you when you were in a writing low spot?
ARS: “Don’t freak out.” and “Write it when it’s time to write it.” Awesome Jones was a book seven years in the making. I put it up and got it back out several times. I re-wrote sections. I completely stripped out certain characters and added new ones. My husband and best friend (both writers) just kept telling me not to freak out to come back to it when I was ready. Over the years, between the edits and rewrites of Awesome Jones, I wrote three other novels, several short stories, a short comic, and a daily blog. I learned that sometimes you just have to be ok with letting go of something and knowing that you can always come back to it later. It’ll still be there. And you’ll be a better writer than you were when you put it away.
BBB: Do you set a daily word count goal, time limit goal, or just go with the flow?
ARS: I work from home and I work all day. I break for meals and to do whatever real life stuff I have to do like buy groceries and go to the gym. Otherwise, when I’m working on a novel, I write from the time I get up until I can’t write anymore. Occasionally that means I stop at noon. Mostly, though, it means that I stop about an hour before I go to bed. I try to allow myself time to drink tea, knit, and watch TV between work and bed. Otherwise I have a hard time winding down.
BBB: What’s coming up for you for the rest of 2014?
ARS: Awesome Jones is my debut novel so I’m really excited about my upcoming readings, reviews, and interviews. Otherwise, I have an alternate-history fantasy novel hitting shelves in the fall–Silver Tongue–which is about a three best friends from the Nouvelle France attempting to track a group of murderers up the Mississippi and into New Britannia. It blends characters out of the classic horror/SciFi/fantasy canon with YA tropes like friendship, loyalty, and the hazards of falling in and out of love. It was great fun to write and I’m really looking forward to its release.
BBB: What was the BEST book you read in 2013?
ARS: In 2013 I went on this crazy Brit Lit binge and read a ton of novels I should’ve read in high school but didn’t. My favorites were Bleak House and Pride and Prejudice.

10 Quick Things About AshleyRose

Favorite Food? Sandwiches.

Favorite Color? Green.

Favorite Movie or TV Show of all Time? Amelie. Buckaroo Banzai. Star Trek (All of them) Everything Miyazaki.

Favorite Drink? Milk. I drink a gallon a week by myself.

Favorite Book? Slaughterhouse Five. The Princess Bride. Bleak House. Broca’s Brain.

Favorite Season? Autumn.

Favorite Online Hangout? (think FB, Twitter, Goodreads) Pinterest.

Favorite Animal? Fox.

Favorite Band or Musician? Josh Ritter. David Bowie.

Mode of Travel? (Trains, Planes or Automobiles) I love road trips but I’m desperate to take a train up the California coast.

Favorite Vacation Destination?

I’ve never actually been “on vacation” anywhere. I’d really like to visit Tokyo.
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About AshleyRose Sullivan

Author Bio:

Born and raised in Appalachia, AshleyRose Sullivan has a BS in Anthropology and an MFA in Creative Writing. She lives, writes and paints in Los Angeles with her husband and their many imaginary friends.
AshleyRose has moved 35 times. She’s been the oldest, the youngest, the middle and the only child. She has worked as a taxidermist’s assistant, a milkmaid, and a story time lady. She’s a power-lifter, a left-handed artist, and a right-handed knitter. Her library is organized by color.

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