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Please give a warm welcome to Sarah Bromley, debut author of A MURDER OF MAGPIES! She’s stopping by today for a How I Write feature. Check my awesome Q & A with Sarah below!
About Sarah Bromley
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Sarah Bromley lives near St. Louis with her husband, three children, and two dogs. She likes the quiet hours of morning when she can drink coffee in peace, stare into the woods behind her house, and wonder what monsters live there. When she’s not writing or wrangling small children, she can be found volunteering at a stable for disabled riders.
Are you a planner (outline, etc.) or do you “pants” it?
I “pants” it for the first fifty pages of any given project so that the character’s voice develops undisturbed, and after those fifty pages, I look at the threads that are laid out and figure out where they weave together into a cohesive story.
Do you write daily or sporadically when you’re inspired?
I write daily. It’s a discipline, and it’s a job. You don’t decide you simply won’t go to work one day because you don’t feel like it. Now this doesn’t mean I put down new words each day. Some writing days are nothing but revision or plotting, but I actively work on my writing every single day.
What inspired you to want to become a writer?
There was never a time I didn’t make up stories. I had a devastating head injury as a child and had to spend the summer in the dark with only my imagination, which is how Writer Sarah came to be. She hung around ever since. When I was about thirteen, I wrote my first novel length work and around fifteen, I knew this was what I wanted to do for a job someday.
What time of day do you find you write best? Or you enjoy more?
I am a morning writer before the rest of the house is awake. I had three young children, so the rest of my day is usually doing things for them or the household, so I’m pretty protective of my morning time. I also try to grab some words while my youngest is in preschool some mornings. Usually by one o’ clock, my brain’s fried.
What tool(s) do you use to write? Microsoft Word, Pages, Scrivener, typewriter, pen and paper, and/or napkins/toilet paper?
I write in Scrivener as much as I can, but I also keep a journal and pens with me. I had lots of mad scribbles that could be anything from dialogue to a character’s appearance. I have a dry erase board on my office wall where I keep track of my daily word goal.
How do you stay motivated?
Staying motivated isn’t usually a problem for me, but staying on task is. I have too many ideas and not always enough self-restraint not to have a dalliance with other stories than my current work-in-progress. My crit partners are very good at reining me in, and we frequently hop online to word war together.
What resources do you recommend for new writers?
ON WRITING by Stephen King is a great craft book. If you’re looking at communities, I recommend hanging out at Absolute Write Water Cooler or QueryTracker’s forum. Both places are invaluable resources.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received for writing?
Only you can tell your story. You have got to listen to your gut. Criticism and direction are wonderful things when they resonate with you, but if you are being given advice about your story that you think compromises its integrity or doesn’t seem right, odds are it probably isn’t right.
What aspect of writing is most challenging for you? Easiest?
I hate first drafts. They’re clunky and tedious and take so much time. I just want to burn through it and get the story out the way I see it in my head. I much, much prefer revision where the words are already down and all I have to do is make them pretty.
What do you use as inspiration while writing? (Music, pictures, etc.)
I’m very visual, so I have Pinterest boards that I will look at. I’m also very music-oriented, but I can’t listen to music while writing. So I listen to my playlists while in the car or doing housework. During writing itself, I listen to this audio file I have howling winds because they’re a kind of wind noise that blocks out distraction and yet quite inspirational, too.
A MURDER OF MAGPIES 
by Sarah Bromley
October 28, 2014 | Month9Books
Winter in Black Orchard, Wisconsin, is long and dark, and sixteen-year-old Vayda Silver prays the snow will keep the truth and secrecy of the last two years buried. Hiding from the past with her father and twin brother, Vayda knows the rules: never return to the town of her mother’s murder, and never work a Mind Game where someone might see.
No one can know the toll emotions take on Vayda, how emotion becomes energy in her hands, or how she can’t control the destruction she causes. But it’s not long before her powers can no longer be contained. The truth is dangerously close to being exposed, placing Vayda and her family at risk.
Until someone quiets the chaos inside her.
Unwanted. That’s all Ward Ravenscroft has ever been. To cope, he numbs the pain of rejection by denying himself emotions of any kind. Yet Vayda stirs something in him. He can’t explain the hold she has on him–inspiring him with both hope and fear. He claims not to scare easily, except he doesn’t know what her powers can do. Yet.
Just as Vayda and Ward draw closer, she finds the past isn’t so easily buried. And when it follows the Silvers to Black Orchard, it has murder in mind.
Thank you for visiting, Sarah! Readers, check out more How I Write features by clicking the image below!
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