What is your name and wattpad username?

☆ uschibear

Tell us a little bit about yourself

☆ "I grow flowering indoor plants. Clivia, orchids, African violets grace the tables, floor and hanging baskets around me. I'm an amateur radio operator and led a communications hub during the 2013 floods in Calgary, Alberta Canada. I've lived here all my life.

I'm an avid knitter, crochet almost as much, and enjoy putting together my own patterns for blankets and sweaters. I use the time doing needlework crafts to work out the next chapters when writer's block sneaks in. I have 29 titles which are completed and in progress. Wattpad is my beta site, where the rawest of my first drafts live. Once they are in better shape, they go over to Inkitt.com where I am @knottyknitter .

Writing is my escape. Writing tells the stories which have been in my head since I was a child. I have only begun to seriously tell them in the last four years after I retired from a 41-year career at Calgary Transit. I was the 25th woman they hired way back in 1978. I wrote my first novel, Prophecy's Promise when I was 30, to prove to myself that it could be done. Before was the second one and is in the final polishing stage before self-publishing. "

What are you currently writing?

☆ Yesterday, The Last Promise, and Christmas Stockings

Describe the [book/series] in 10 words or less for people who are just learning about it.

☆ The Earth flipped ninety degrees. Now what?

Who are your main characters and why are they worth reading about?

☆ "Alicia Stroman is a genius who earned a double doctorate before she was twenty-one. She has a daughter born from a bad decision after her dissertation defense. She's a zoologist who came to Alaska to study polar bears but finds herself fighting to survive.

Chayton Stargazer is an astrophysicist. He was born in Alaska to a Cherokee father and an Inuit mother. He's a practical survivalist, having grown up on a remote homestead north of Anchorage. His respect for nature is bred into him and he will fight to defend his family and friends without a second thought. As we find out, he will do what is right without thought of the consequences. "

Describe your writing process. Do you outline, plot and plan, or is your writing more organic

☆ I'm as organic as it gets. I start with a general major plot point and then generate character sketches. Very detailed character sketches.

Tell us what you enjoy most about writing [insert your genre].

☆ I love urban fantasy/realistic magic. Yesterday is the fourth book in a series.

Do you identify with your main character or did you create a character that is your opposite?
☆ My characters are nothing like me, other than a basic sense of kindness which underlies everything they do. My villains can be my opposite though.

What advice do you have for beginner writers?

☆ Keep on keeping on. Persistence is most important. Next get yourself a good online grammar service. Remember most of them are for business writing, but the basics of good grammar are the same.

To date, what is your favorite (or most difficult) chapter you have ever written? what inspired you to write your current book?

☆ The hardest chapter happened when I had to let a pregnant mother die. She was the leader of a group of seven girls who were kidnapped over twenty years earlier. A heroine who found a way to finally get them found. Maggie brought me to tears when I realized she would give her life to save her unborn son.

Do you plan your work or start without a written plan?

☆ I'm a total pantser. No written plan ever.

What inspired you to write?

☆ Both of my current wip's are the next book in a series. The stories for the characters in them are not finished. Last Promise is the final book in the Promises series, and Yesterday is only the 4th in the Quade series. Ninety Degrees Out is a stand alone, I think. If enough people want a second book, I'll think about it.

Your book has been made into a film, which actors are playing the main characters?

☆ I am so out of touch with the movie industry it's pathetic. I have no idea.

How can book clubs and writing communities help writers improve?

☆ One of the best ways to help is discussion groups with a targeted subject. Plot development, character development, and world building are the three most important major skills writers have issues with.

Which book clubs or writing communities are you part of?

☆ Coalition Community, Adult Fiction Book Club, White Tigress Book Club, The Monthly Society, and Shut Up and Write.

What are the most important things to remember when writing?
☆ Just write. Editing exists for a good reason. It doesn't matter what kind of disaster you think you have written; it can be polished later. Getting the words on paper, or onto your word processing screen, is the whole point. I'm lucky, my technical abilities are up to snuff, now after a lifetime of learning. Think about it. How do you think I got here? I wrote, and I still write something every day. From poetry to flash fiction, to short stories, novellas and novels, they all started with the first word, your readers see. So just write.

Thank you very much for taking time to do this interview today. We wish you well with your work and hope you have a fun time in Shut Up and Write