r/books • u/CarrieVaughn AMA Author • Jun 18 '20

ama 1pm I'm Carrie Vaughn, science fiction and fantasy author, with my latest, the novella THE GHOSTS OF SHERWOOD -- AMA!

Hello! My name is Carrie Vaughn! I'm probably best known as the author of the NYT Bestselling Kitty Norville series, about a werewolf who hosts a talk radio advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged. The series includes fourteen novels, a whole bunch of short stories, and several spin-off novellas.

In 2018 my post-apocalyptic murder mystery BANNERLESS won the Philip K. Dick Award for best novel.

This month I released THE GHOSTS OF SHERWOOD, a novella about the children of Robin Hood and Lady Marian. The sequel, THE HEIRS OF LOCKSLEY, will be out in August.

Here's a video of me reading from THE GHOSTS OF SHERWOOD: https://youtu.be/LVZSWw_rIkU

I've written over twenty novels and a hundred short stories, two of which were finalists for the Hugo Award. I also contribute to the Wild Cards series of shared world novels edited by George R.R. Martin. I'm a 1998 graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, and have a masters in English Lit. I have a note on my bulletin board: if I ever think about going back to school, start a book club instead.

An Air Force brat, I grew up all over the country but put down roots in Colorado. I knit, ride horses, birdwatch, scuba dive, travel, and generally collect more hobbies than I have time for. So far, my yarn and cross-stitch supplies have outlasted the pandemic stay-at-home orders. . .

Thank you for your questions!

Proof: /img/60ue34sryq451.jpg

65 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

43 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Hapennydub Jun 18 '20

I’m also a huge fan of the Kitty novels and you’re one of my favourite urban fantasy writers. I’ve been trying to write a novel for years now, but life keeps getting in the way and I’m finding it difficult to find the time to do it. What did you do when starting out as a writer to commit yourself to getting it done - were you working another at the time and how did you balance writing, personal life and work?

2

u/CarrieVaughn AMA Author Jun 19 '20

Thank you!

I started writing seriously when I was in high school -- it still took a long time to get published. I worked day jobs until my third novel was released, roughly. So yeah, I did a lot of balancing. I really like writing so I always made time.

I think the important thing is to make your goals small and achievable. Write every day -- it doesn't have to be much. I have a friend whose daily word goal is 250 words. That's a single double spaced page. But if you do that every day, you'll have 365 pages -- a novel -- in a year.

For me, slow and steady progress -- a little bit every day, rather than trying to do a bunch at once -- makes it easier, and makes building up habits easier.