Interview: Maureen McGowan

I'd like to welcome the wonderful Maureen McGowan to the Canada Day Blog Hop! For all of you who may not know who she is, Maureen is the author of the new Twisted Tales Series and a fellow Canadian!

On to the interview!

What inspired you the most to make Cinderella: Ninja Warrior and Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer into "choose your own path" style stories? Do you think they could have worked just as nicely as regular novels?

The publisher, who first approached me with the chance to write this series, already wanted a "choose your own path" style story, so other than agreeing to write the books, it actually wasn't my choice. To be honest, I'm not sure I would have chosen to do it on my own. I was more inspired by the idea of writing fairy tale adaptations that were fast-paced, full of action, and with heroines who stood up for themselves, rather than waiting around to be saved. 

That said, adding the choose your own path element was fun and interesting and challenging. In our daily lives we're often faced with choices where the alternatives aren't right or wrong, just different. Similarly, authors make choices constantly while writing and it was fun to explore different paths for the same characters, and to explore how a character would behave in different situations.

I do think the books would have worked just as nicely as "regular" novels (and they certainly would have been easier to write!) 

 

Will there be more books in the Twisted Tales Series? Any favourite fairy tales you are excited to try twisting (Snow White, Beauty and the Beast)?

I hope there will be more books in the Twisted Tales Series, but I can't announce anything yet. I've got ideas cooked up for the two you mentioned and several others. :)

I see that you have written a short story for an adult book called "Lost and Found"  in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF TIME TRAVEL ROMANCE. Do you find it easier to write for younger or older readers? Which do you prefer more?

I don't find writing for adults easier or harder. But that said, I really do enjoy writing for younger readers and wish I'd tried it earlier in my career. I think younger readers are more open to variety and have fewer set expectations than adults often have. Adult fiction tends to get compartmentalized by genre, (romance, sci-fi, mystery, suspense, horror, literary, chick lit, etc.) and those genre boxes all have a multitude of sub-genre classifications that can be confining and confounding. 

How have bloggers helped in the promotion of your books? Do you think bloggers help sell books?

Book bloggers have been great! I was only vaguely aware of the book blogging community before my books were released and had no idea how vast and connected it was! What a fabulously supportive group of people. These days it's harder than ever to get a book noticed and I think book bloggers can help create word of mouth in a way that wasn't possible before. I do think the blogs can help sell books. I have wondered at times whether the blogs are primarily read by other members of the book blogging community, but even if that were true, book bloggers are all avid readers. And one only has to look at the success of an author like Amanda Hocking to believe in the power of the word-of-mouth generated by book bloggers. 

Now for some fun questions:
Vanilla or chocolate?

Vanilla

Cats or dogs?

Dogs

Vampires or werewovles?

Vampires. Totally. Have you SEEN Eric on True Blood? Damon on The Vampire Diaries? ;)

Printed books or Ebooks?

Both. :) I love me a beautiful hardcover or trade paperback format book, but also LOVE reading on my kindle.

Coffee or tea?

Coffee. Lots of it. Black.

Favourite place you've lived so far?

Menlo Park, California... Close second is Toronto, where I live now.

Favourite place to vacation?

What's a vacation? I have heard this word... 

Favourite character from your novels?

Max from Cinderella: Ninja Warrior and Alex from Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer. 

Favourite day of the week?

Monday, because everything still seems possible. (This was not my favourite day before I became a writer, however.)

Favourite holiday?

Thanksgiving. (I guess I should be saying Canada Day... Ooops!) But I love turkey. And fall leaves. And pumpkin pie...

Thanks again for having me!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Wonderful getting to know you better and looking forward to reading more Twisted Tales!