Sandra Ulbrich Almazan: Speculative Fiction Author: BRoP Interview with Rebecca Hamilton

Monday, March 05, 2012

BRoP Interview with Rebecca Hamilton

If it's Monday, it must be time for another "progressive interview" with the Blog Ring of Power, or BRoP. Today's guest is Rebecca Hamilton, and she's going to share her writing life with us.

What is your writing process? Do you follow a regular routine? Do you use pen and paper or computer? Work at home or at the library/Starbucks, etc.

I work at home. I write at night and edit during the day. I am not always writing, but only because I don’t have the time, otherwise I would write every night.

How do you balance writing with other aspects of your life?

I actually have a schedule, which I suck at keeping because I’m not the schedule type (though I’m the type to wish I was!). But without a schedule, I’d never get almost everything done. (I will never get everything done.)

What has been the most surprising reaction to something you’ve written?

When people compare me to famous authors, tell me my book is their favorite, and most especially when people say that they love the romance in my book. I wonder if they read the same book I wrote or are just trying to be nice, even if they are sometimes complete strangers.

What is the strongest criticism you’ve ever received as an author? The best compliment?

This is hard to say. Everything is just opinion, so I take it all as that. I don’t agree with most compliments and I find that most criticism comes from a difference in tastes. I definitely get more criticism from other writers than readers themselves, and I know I’m guilty of the same. I have a theory about that….

Other than your family, what has been your greatest source of support?

RP KRAUL.

How do you deal with rejection and/or negative reviews?

Depends on what the review says. If it says something useful, I learn from it. If I don’t think it’s useful, I get a second opinion (in private) from someone I trust to be honest with me. I might be missing something that I SHOULD pay attention to. Or I might be worrying about something that I don’t need to. I think in the end we have to accept that our books won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. And that sometimes people will read and review our books when out books really weren’t there cup of tea to begin with. It’d be like me reviewing sci-fi. I have my right to an opinion, but likely my review wouldn’t be fair to the author or to potential readers because I’m nearly BOUND to NOT like the book. Which is why I just don’t pick those books up. :) But I know not everyone is me and sometimes someone is going to pick up my book also bound not to like it. So you accept that, take what you can from the review, and move on. Also, I’ve watched some other books on Amazon and noticed that when you move up the charts, you simply get detractors. You have to realize that while not all negative reviews are from jealous writers, some are, and that’s part of the game.

Sorry for the long reply, but I think this is one of those things us authors think a lot about … probably more than we should.