Interview with Fiction Writer Alyson Miers

First thing’s first: where can our readers find you and your work?
I have a blog at www.alysonmiers.com. I’m on Twitter, on Goodreads, and I have an author page on Facebook. My books are available at Amazon, B&N and Smashwords. Everything can be found from my website.

Do you have a favorite character in Suicide is for Mortals? If yes, why?
I honestly can’t pick a favorite. I love to write in both Scanlon’s and Miranda’s voices, and I have high hopes for Meliana and Clarice.

What’s your writing process?
My process is pragmatic and unglamorous. I write while commuting on the Metro, while at lunch break, and at home after dinner. I write on an iPad, a laptop and with pen on paper. I use Scrivener on my laptop, Notebooks on the iPad, and my Dropbox account ties the two together. Figuring out a process is a process unto itself, and part of the struggle is accepting that I’ll probably never have that perfect system worked out.

Do you have advice for the aspiring writers out there?
Get out there and have experiences. Travel, meet new people, see places and do things that make you uncomfortable. If you don’t already know a foreign language, try learning one. Then you’ll have plenty of things to write about.

Can you speak to the reality of being a self publisher in a growing self-publish market?
The market is still figuring itself out, and so am I. Everyone has advice for everyone else, and the way I respond to that barrage is mostly to focus on writing the best book I possibly can.

Not to spoil anything, but there’s a pretty strong set up for book two. Can you talk about that?
How do you feel if you’ve been seen as just another ordinary person all your life, and someone comes along and tells you that now you have to be exceptional, just as your mostly-ordinary life is getting to where you want it to be? And what happens if that someone isn’t taking no for an answer, and isn’t interested in letting you be exceptional on your own terms?

Write for Secular Woman!

Calling all writers! Secular Woman is starting a new writing focused project aimed at bringing our readership the latest in news and opinions of interest to secular women.

We are looking for writers interested in writing on social justice issues and other topics relevant to secular women. We are particularly committed to attracting writers with a broad array of experiences who can write with authority on issues affecting minorities, so we are exceptionally interested in queer, trans, WOC, and/or disabled writers. Writers will need to commit to producing one article every two weeks.

Writers with Secular Woman will have the flexibility to write about issues that they care about and the opportunity to pitch any story for publication. While we can’t offer paid compensation at this time our platform will give writers the opportunity to reach a wide audience; additionally we will be working on ways to provide monetary compensation.

To apply email Elsa Roberts a writing sample (a link to a blog post or other published piece of writing) and a few lines explaining why you’d like to write for Secular Woman.