Author Interview: Heather McCorkle

Heather McCorkle is a young adult fantasy author. Helping other writers and supporting fabulous authors is one of her passions. When she's not writing or surfing her social networking sites, she can be found on the slopes, hiking trails, or on horseback. As a native Oregonian, she enjoys the outdoors almost as much as the worlds she creates on the pages.

No need to travel to the Great Northwest though, you can find her on her blog four days a week: http://heathermccorkle.blogspot.com/, on her critique partners blog: http://critiquesisterscorner.blogspot.com/ on Wednesdays, and Monday night's on Twitter where she co-moderates the #WritersRoad chat with her good friend TS Tate.

Here is a blurb about her new release The Secret of Spruce Knoll:

Following the tragic death of her parents, Eren Donovan moves to Spruce Knoll to live with her aunt. Little does Eren know the entire town of Spruce Knoll is filled with “channelers”—a magical group of people who immigrated to the small Colorado town when they were driven out of their own lands.

Channelers are tied to the fate of the world. As the world slowly dies, so do they—and they alone have the power to stop the destruction of Earth. Now, Eren learns she not only lives among them, but she is one. When she meets local boy Aiden, his charm convinces her that being a Channeler may not be all bad.

1) How did you develop an interest in writing? When I was a kid I didn't like how a lot of stories ended and I thought there weren't enough stories with strong girl main characters in them. I figured the best way to solve that was to write my own. 

2) I see you are working on another MS? I'm working on another Channeler novel, the sequel to The Secret of Spruce Knoll which debuted last month. It doesn't have a title yet but it picks up where Spruce Knoll left off. The idea for the series hit me when I was reading an article about species extinction and the disappearing rain forests. 

3) What music, places, and people inspire you? I love to listen to music when I write. What kind depends on my characters and the story. While writing the Channeler series I listened to a lot of Avril Lavigne and Allison Iraheta. I love to travel so just about any place inspires me.

4) Are you part of a critique group or writer's guild? Absolutely! I think critique groups are integral to an author's success. My group can be found at http://critiquesisterscorner.blogspot.com/

5) Have you ever attended a writer's conference? Several actually. Conferences are a great way to keep up with what's going on in the industry and to meet new people and learn. 

6) When working on your current MS did you complete an outline first or did you just start writing? I used to be a pantster, just start writing, but after an instructor forced me to write an outline on a novel I had already written I realized how outlining exposes holes in the story. Now I always outline first, though it's a loose, organic outline that I allow myself to deviate from. It saves me a ton of time in the editing process. 

7) What is your writing process like? When I'm working on a novel I write five days a week, around 1,000 words a day. I'll write whenever and wherever I can, carrying a notebook and pencil with me to make it easier. 

8) Would you care to share your opening paragraph (hook) with us? The bus flew like a rollercoaster through the wooded landscape, flinging Eren toward a new, unwanted life. All too soon it pulled into the bus station of a tiny town on the outskirts of nowhere Colorado. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she and an aunt she’d never met were going to have to drive another hundred miles into nowhere to find the town of Spruce Knoll.