Krystal Wade is a mother of three who works fifty miles from home and writes in her “spare time”. Her debut novel, Wilde’s Fire, is available now with Curiosity Quills Press.

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SFFWRTCHT: When did you decide to start writing? How did you begin?
Krystal Wade: I started writing when I was in 3rd grade. Baby sitter novels, short stories, poems . . . whatever I could dream up, I wrote. But I didn’t decide to seriously write a novel until last year.
SFFWRTCHT: Did you study writing in school? How did you learn your craft?
Krystal Wade: English was one of my favorite classes, but I didn’t take any creative writing courses or anything like that. Most of my knowledge came from experience. I sat down, wrote a rough draft, found two amazing critique partners, then tore my book up 10 times!
SFFWRTCHT: How long did you write until your first sale? What was that?
Krystal Wade: From birth of the novel until first sale? That was one year and two months. Wilde’s Fire is my debut.
SFFWRTCHT: What aspect of Wilde’s Fire came first? Characters? Plot? Setting?
Krystal Wade: Kate is a character I’ve had in my head since I was a kid. She used to be the baby sitter. When it came to writing Wilde’s Fire, it was easy to choose her name again. But the story started with an image of a girl in a dense, green forest, reaching out her finger to touch something shimmering. That was all I had. Everything was built from that moment. Not quite how it happened in the book, but that’s where “it all” started.
SFFWRTCHT: What sort of pre-writing did you do for Wilde’s Fire? Did you outline?
Krystal Wade: I don’t pre-write or outline. I’ve tried that, but my characters end up taking control and all that work turns out to be for nothing.

SFFWRTCHT: What’s your writing time look like? Planned time? Grab it when you can?
Krystal Wade: I write whenever I can. Breaks, lunches, at T-ball games, at dance classes, in the middle of the night when everyone else is asleep. Being a mother of three means I have to make “spare time”.
SFFWRTCHT: Do you use any special software or music playlist?
Krystal Wade: I constantly stream Pandora. Music MUST be playing while I write.
SFFWRTCHT: How do you deal with writer’s block?
Krystal Wade: Just keep writing. Even if it’s only one-hundred words a day. Write a little bit every day. Also, block usually comes when I’m extremely tired. So sometimes I make sure to catch up on my sleep.
SFFWRTCHT: What role do beta readers play, if any, in your process as a professional author?
Krystal Wade: I used 7 beta readers for Wilde’s Fire. Since this was my first book, I felt I needed more “eyes” on it. Now I use one beta reader and two critique partners. They mean the world to me. Every author should have “people”.
SFFWRTCHT: What advice would you give an up and coming writer?
Krystal Wade: Don’t let a tough critique get you down. Get used to the negativity and use it to your advantage.
SFFWRTCHT: Are you involved with cons and fandom? Cosplay?
Krystal Wade: No.
SFFWRTCHT: Where did your love of specfic and fantasy in particular begin?
Krystal Wade: That’s a great question. I just love made up worlds full of made up things. I live in reality; therefore, I don’t want to read about realistic things. I want to escape. I read and write to achieve that. Save the realistic problems for everyone else, and give me incredibly deep, imaginative reads.

SFFWRTCHT: Who were some of your favorite authors/books growing up?
Krystal Wade: I loved poetry, so anything by Shel Silverstein. I also love Tolkien and Lewis.
SFFWRTCHT: How do you define horror? Would you place Darkness Falls as more of a horror or a romance?
Krystal Wade: Wilde’s Fire is a dark fantasy more than anything. The book does have strong romantic elements, but the plot revolves around good vs. evil, Light vs. Darkness, etc. I wouldn’t describe it as horror at all. I think the closest thing to Horror I’ve ever read was Stephen King’s Christine, and I’ve seen plenty of horror movies, the Darkness Falls trilogy doesn’t fall into that.
SFFWRTCHT: What future projects are you working on that we can look forward to?
Krystal Wade: After I finish the Darkness Falls trilogy, I’ll be working furiously to finish a currently untitled book where the main character is named after one of my children. Each of my kids will have a novel with “them” in it. They are very excited!
I have teasers from one of those stories on my blog.
To read our review of Wilde’s Fire, click here.
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Michelle Ristuccia writes short fiction of all speculative fiction genres in between chasing her toddler from tree to tree. The shorter the work, the better, because 200 words looks very long on her cellphone and that keypad is very, very small. You can find out more about her rabid love of Star Trek, podcasting, and raising future geeklings at her blog, wakingdreamsblog.blogspot.com