Please Welcome Sandra Giles!
Hi Sandra and welcome aboard the Short Story Group interview train!
First, You didn’t send me any pictures. 🙂 I’ve been telling just about everyone that, but I went back and forth on your email and didn’t find any.
So tell me, how did you get involved with the short story group?
I happened across a thread advertising the group over on the amazon forums and thought it sounded like a good idea, especially as the group aims to help so many different charities.
How many of the short story books do you have a story in and which ones?
At the moment I have only contributed to Love is in the Air. I have been intending to send stories to be added to the older collections but as I am the queen of procrastination it hasn’t happened just yet. I really must remedy that!
Can you give us one sentence describing each story, (If you have more than one) so we know a little bit about them? (Your stories)
Liquidising Love features a romantic remedy to a lonely heart, throwing two unlikely people together and sparking the start of confusion and infusion.
If the short story group puts out another collection, will you submit a story again?
I would love to answer with a solid yes, though it has been a fair few months since I’ve written anything new and really haven’t found the time for it. If given enough time and inspiration, I’ll happily contribute to a new collaboration.
Okay, now for the hard part.
Tell us about your writing habits. Do you write every day?
I wish! No, I am very much out of writing at the moment. When I’m in the zone, so to speak, I find it hard to tear myself away, and will definitely write every day. Now, however, I can’t get back to it as I know that it will be too hard to tear myself away, and I’m just too busy. A lot of the reason for that is the wonderful man in my life, who I’d rather spend time with than any of my fictional men. (Sorry guys!) My writing tends to happen in spurts. I’ll focus on a project or two for a while, rarely leaving my laptop or notepad whilst in the right frame of mind and then finding myself straying from one project to the next for a while until settling into something new. It’s lucky I don’t tend to have deadlines as they would never be met. I write fast once focused, but it doesn’t happen very often!
How long have you been writing?
I’m not entirely sure, but it must be something like five or six years. Saying that, this year and the first year don’t really count, and most of my stuff was produced within two years. Strangely enough this was while I was at my last job. Most people would find it distracting to work in a courtroom and find the time to write, but it seems that I just found it inspiring. Go figure!
How many books do you have out?
I have three full novels out, which are Plead Insanity
There are then my short stories found in Super Olympic Shorts
and contributions to anthologies such as Pick ‘N’ Mix and Indie Bites.
In total I actually have about twelve novels, but I’ve yet to release the majority of them. Everything is part of my series, Collision Of Worlds.
Do you have a favorite one that you have written? Why?
I don’t have a favourite novel, but I do have a favourite narrator. The series weaves between five different narrators, all with different…uh…abilities, and I have a soft spot for Sebastian. They all have their good and bad points, but he’s the one I’d want to win in a fight between all my narrators. Unfortunately I doubt he’d be able to beat the immortal Jared, but I’m still rooting for him.
What’s next for you? Are you working on another book? Tell us a little about it.
I believe that the last time I was writing I was focused on Aled’s next novel, but the next to be released will actually be his first book. That and the next instalment of Jared’s world. I’ve been planning a double release for some time and it just hasn’t happened yet. Just to give a taste of what these will entail, I have a synopsis for each.
This is the one for Proving Negatives, which focuses on Jared.
The realms of sleep is a curious place. Anyone can do anything when there, and yet what they do is entirely out of their control. Sometimes it’s hard to differentiate between what is real and what is not. Jared can relate to that. His dreams aren’t as normal as they once were. He finds his imagination is working overtime to produce things of a most disturbing nature, but it’s when the dreams start fitting in with real life that he starts to truly worry. People are dying at his hands. But they are just dreams, right? He certainly hopes so.
This latest novel from Jared has him completely out of his depths. He’s fighting with an unknown entity, one that he can’t help but think is actually him. It’s enough to drive anyone to drastic measures, but what can a vampire do to help? The only way to remove the threat would be to remove himself, but that’s not possible. Not when you’re immortal.
The following is for A Lost Fantasy, narrated by Aled.
If Aled has learned anything through being a doctor, it’s that every patient is worth his time, no matter what ails them. Young or old, intelligent or dim-witted, he knows that everyone is important. It’s all very well in theory, but give him an attractive young lady in need of help and he acts just like any other guy on the planet. He becomes obsessive, so much so that he transfers her into a private room and visits her more than entirely normal. She’s in a coma, so the effort is truly pointless. In falling for this damsel in distress, he has bought himself a one-way ticket into a world he struggles to come to terms with. She’s wanted, and not just by him. Vampires are out to get her. She’s too dangerous to them, even in her fragile state, and so they turn up at his place of work and take her from the human world. Despite her being the newly undead, Aled takes her home. What is his reward? She attacks him, abandons him in his time of need, and then quite-literally throws him to the wolves. And that’s only the start. The story doesn’t truly begin until after these strange going-ons, and nor does Aled’s true life. In discovering the secrets of this new world, he finds his place and, through it, his family. The old saying goes that you never know what you have until it’s gone, but for Aled he doesn’t truly know what he is missing out on until it falls into his life. He’ll do anything to keep his new family intact, even face off with entities that are bigger, stronger, and less mortal than him. Does he have what it takes to survive?
What do you do to relax when you aren’t writing?
I tend to think of writing as the thing I do to relax, which is why I haven’t been doing much of it lately. Aside from writing I love listening to music and attending concerts, taking advantage of my unlimited cinema card and, as with most people, eloping to another country and leaving the rain behind. The last doesn’t happen often enough! I do a lot of this stuff with the two people who mean the most to me, Sonya and Aron. Both are actually writers themselves, though they specialise in poetry. I know it’s probably a bit cheeky to add their links to this, but I’m going to anyway…
Sonya can be found here
And Aron here
Cheeky is good sometimes and I stopped by and liked both of their facebook pages.
Any other creative pastimes? Crafts, gardening, art, etc.?
Not really. I have been known to create book covers, which I guess can fall under the heading of ‘graphic design’, but I never think of it as a creating pastime as I am very technical about it. It’s those asking for covers who are creative. I just do what they tell me!
Sandra, Thank you for your lovely interview! And to my readers; Find and follow Sandra at her Blog Facebook & Twitter
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