Guest Author Interview - Jaq Hawkins

Today Jag Hawkins joins us for the guest author interview. She's a fellow Clive Barker fan and you can read what she has to say below:

Please introduce yourself, who are you and what do you do?
Hi I'm Jaq. I'm a writer and filmmaker specialising in Fantasy and Steampunk, although I started my writing career with esoteric articles and books.

What first inspired you to start writing?
Learning to write. Seriously, at age 6 I was already working on a first draft autobiography scribbled on pieces of notepaper with a pencil.

You've written quite a few books, do you finf the process get's easier? Or just different?
I would say different. Each project is different from what has been done in the past. Each has its own demands and emotions and a unique flow of events to accommodate within the story.

What do you enjoy most about writing?
The buzz I get after a good session where things start falling into place and I see details about where the story is going that I hadn't anticipated. My characters constantly surprise me.

And the least?
Oh that's easy, editing the typos that Word adds in for me on top of my own mistakes, like the different forms of quotation marks.

Which author would you like work with and why?
Now there's an interesting question. I'm basically a lone worker, but if I was going to collaborate, and assuming we're talking about authors still living, I would choose Clive Barker. He has a wicked imagination when it comes to creating monsters.

What advice would you give new and aspiring autors?
Learn the boring stuff; sentence structure, spelling, correct punctuation and especially manuscript format. Even with standard manuscript format fading as we format our own books, it's all worth mastering if you want your words to be effective.

What are you woking on at the moment?
I promised fans that I would get the final book of my Goblin trilogy done this year, so Power of the Dance is getting first priority. I also have a Literary Fiction project in progress, but I'm not telling much about that as yet.

Tell us about your latest work and how we can find out more.
My most recent release was The Wake of the Dragon: A Steampunk Adventure. It's a comedic adventure story about airship pirates and the opium trade with a most unlikely hero. My primary website is at jaqdhawkins.co.uk. Information about all projects can be found there.
Thanks to Jaq for sharing her time with us, on Froday we welcome Lynne Copeland to the hot seat.