Any fans of thrillers here? Angela’s The Child Riddler just hit the shelves last month, and you absolutely want to check it out! And while you wait for your copy to arrive, learn some more about Angela. About how a good teacher can change your life & fire up your passion, and about the power of the right word choices.
Of course, you can also follow Angela on twitter!
Have you always known you wanted to be a writer? How old were you when you wrote your first story?
I wanted to write since my early teens. Not necessarily to be an author of a novel, but just write—poems, essays, short stories. And I did! The thought of crafting something structured like a book didn’t come to me until much later in life.
I had a teacher in grammar school who introduced me to writing. I had a real bad childhood, my life was falling apart, and I was failing grammar school. I think I was eleven or twelve. I was going to have to repeat that year. The teacher, an angel, offered me a deal. If I did book reports, she’d give me extra credit for them and maybe then I wouldn’t fail. So I started reading books and writing essays. What a marvelous discovery! I found something I loved to do—and it gave me an escape from my depressing life. And I didn’t fail, I passed onto the next grade!
Reading opened up a radiant vista full of endless opportunities to me. It also showed me other people suffered like I did and I wasn’t alone. I learned how others handled their adversity. I was transported to new places. I enjoyed writing about all these lessons and discoveries.
Writing, I think, is sharing with others the world you find fascinating. Magic happens when you are able to make the images in your mind’s eyes come alive for others through the written word. I find, too, that writing focuses me. It’s a great mental exercise. Every keystroke, or written letter, is an internalized thought coming to life.
A teacher and authors saved my life. From the moment I started writing those book reports, my life did a 360 in a positive direction. It’s grim thinking about what might have happened to me if that one compassionate teacher hadn’t opened up that world to me.
What are your favourite genres to read and write, and are there any genres or tropes you wouldn’t write?
I’m pretty much a thriller/suspense/mystery reader. From time to time I read biographies and autobiographies of people who have been political leaders, or successful in their fields. I have always been intrigued by what motivates people to make the decisions they do.
I can’t think of any genre or trope I wouldn’t write. My short stories (which I haven’t worked to get published yet, but will one day) are science fiction/fantasy. My poems are romantic. I guess it’s pretty likely I’ll never write a historical novel. I love history and learning from it, but my muse and vision is forward looking as to what the future holds.
When you close your eyes and imagine an apple, what do you see? An actual apple, a sketch of one, a blackness? Do you think that impacts your writing process?
I see a bright red apple fully shaped. I have a vivid imagination and the images I mentally see are like they are on a New York City’s Times Square jumbotron in full glorious color. Yes, it definitely impacts my writing process. I think having a vivid imagination makes visualization and detail easier for me to describe. But on the down side, I can get too drawn into my imagery and go too far describing it, because I find it so alive and exciting. I have to do a lot of self-editing and cutting.
When you’re building your world, what do you focus on? How do you try to make it come to life?
With my vivid imagination, I always seem to have a vision in my mind’s eye of the particular scene that I want to write about. I focus on that mental scene until I get it descriptively written the way I want. I will jot it down and then flesh it out. I write the colors that I’m seeing, the smells that I’m inhaling, the sounds I’m hearing, and the movement going on. I spend a huge amount of time on word choice. I think word choice has significant power in bringing a scene to life. The right words are the reader’s catalyst to seeing what you see at moment. What shade is the color? Is the smell spicy or bland? Is the air musty or fresh? I also stick photos on a cork board and look at them as I write. Photos help me with atmosphere, textures, space, color, etc. In the first chapter of The Child Riddler, Zoe the protagonist, is in the Prague Castle. While I had been to the Prague Castle, I still had a lot of photos of the castle stuck on boards around me to keep me in the scene.
What projects are you currently working on? Can you share any details yet?
I’m working on a sequel to The Child Riddler. I wish I could share more, but it’s too early in the process. I can tell you the plot includes deeper character development for Zoe which excites me.
I was a pantser with The Child Riddler, but with this second book I outlined a plot and I think that is the way to go in the future. I feel being a plotter frees me to better concentrate on my fleshing out my characters and will make the whole process move faster, because I know where I’m going and what needs to be done to build it. I think with thrillers that’s important. Because I didn’t outline The Child Riddler, I had to go back numerous times to fix plot holes. I also had a lot of cutting to do. While it was fun being an organic writer as I just let my imagination loose, it ended up being a frustrating and messy process when it came to structure. However, I’m grateful I learned to unleash and trust my muse on the first book. That’s a great lesson.
Three songs you would put in your book’s soundtrack?
For The Child Riddler, they would be:
Eden by Sara Brightman for early in the book when Zoe struggles with her fear of commitment. I think deep down she feels seduced by her love for Isabel. Zoe wants to be the one in control so she uncomfortable that love took her over.
Crazy by Seal when Zoe is in her spy/assassin persona “WildCat” and in physical fights for her life.
Once in a Lifetime by Sara Brightman when Zoe and Isabel make love. When Zoe is in Isabel’s arms, this is the only time that she feels totally secure.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Angela Greenman is an internationally recognized communications professional. Her career has spanned the spectrum from community relations in Chicago to US and world governments’ public communications on nuclear power.
Ms. Greenman holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communications with Honors from Roosevelt University in Chicago. She also received advanced training in the Executive Media Relations program of the Chicago Police Department, and studied at the U.S. NRC’s Technical Training Center.
She has traveled the world (21 countries and counting), sailed the turquoise Caribbean waters, and now her imagination is devising plots in the exciting places she has explored for her new chapter as an author.
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