Interview by Angie Taylor

Welcome, Sarah Noffke, to BOD’s author spotlight interview. I’m so excited to feature you on the BOD blog and to share a little bit about you with our members.

Thanks so much for the interview. I’m constantly praising the BOD group. There isn’t a group of readers and authors who are more fun or supportive of each other. I’m super grateful to have found BOD.

To start off, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m a NA and YA author of ten books spanning four different series. I write dystopian, fantasy, and sci-fi. During the day I’m a college professor, teaching online business and writing courses. Most of my students don’t know that I spend my nights creating stories about imaginary characters with serious problems.

That is so fun. You sound like my kind of teacher. So, how did you become a writer?

I guess I was born a writer. I can’t imagine a reality where I didn’t write. For most of my childhood I sat in a tree and crafted poetry and stories. In college I wrote more really awful poetry. Only after I finished my masters did I turn my attention to writing novels. I used to have a professional job where I sat in meetings. It was a great job, with a ton of upward mobility. However, I felt stuck. I would go to the library every single day feeling like I was looking for something. I remember closing my eyes and running my fingers over the spines of the books and then stopping randomly. You see, I thought the universe would put the right book under my fingertips. It was only later that I realized that I wouldn’t find the book I was looking for in that library. I wouldn’t find it anywhere because it hadn’t been written yet. Once I wrote my first novel, Awoken, that searching feeling went away. I’ve never felt lost since then.

Awesome. And now you’ve written ten books in less than two years. What’s your secret to such an amazing creative streak?

Thank you! I feel super blessed to have so many stories in me. I think it’s partially that I crafted a book universe that really lends to some fantastic potential. All of my books are about a race of people known as Dream Travelers. They can go anywhere using their dreams. There’s many laws and time travel is a real possibility, although dangerous. And every Dream Traveler has a psychic power like telekinesis, telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. Anyway, having different series inside the same universe has given me lots of possibilities. And the books share characters.

Also, I’m dedicated to this occupation. I make myself write every single day no matter what. I go to the gym religiously and I always write on the treadmill. Finding a strategy like this has really helped my production. I only get one opportunity to make this author thing work. I don’t want to fail, so I’ve pushed myself to produce.

I love and admire your dedication. Now tell us a little bit about Suspended, the first in The Vagabond Circus series. What can you tell us about this paranormal dystopian world?

Suspended is about a circus unlike any other. There’s no clowns or animals at Vagabond Circus, only freaks. The troupe is run by the extremely lovable Dr. Dave Raydon who recruits only lost and lonely Dream Travelers to perform in his circus. The thing that makes this circus so special is that there isn’t any smoke and mirrors. Everything the audience witnesses is absolutely real because the performers all have a unique super power. The jugglers are telekinetic, the acrobats can levitate or have super strength, and the magician produces real illusions. However, even though this circus is loved by its patrons, it’s still financially falling to pieces. To try and save his circus, the ringmaster recruits a mysterious new acrobat. And that’s when events start happening that threaten the very safety of the performer’s lives.

One major theme I see in Suspended is the taking advantage of the vulnerable, giving them a false sense of security, and then using them for one’s own personal gain. Can you tell us more how this theme is central to Suspended?

The strong prey on the weak. It happens in politics, families, communities, and throughout history. I used this theme to really add the dystopian feel to the novel and the series overall. I think that it’s a timeless theme that can really be revisited on multiple levels. For me, the most loved protagonists are the ones who have to claw their way up from low places, and they starts with taking off the blinders. In Suspended we meet characters who first have to realize they are being suppressed before they can bolster the strength to fight against their oppressors. And even then they find themselves at a serious disadvantage because conditioning is a powerful tool.

Cool. I’ve really enjoyed Suspended. It’s fun to learn more about it. Now, I’d love to learn more about you. Can you share what your favorite book was as a child and what your favorite book is as an adult?

I was a really hardcore gymnast as a kid. Not only that but I also didn’t read a ton of fiction. I was the atypical kid who read self-help, poetry, and autobiographies. Yep, that’s right. Is it any wonder that I now write YA? It’s like I’ve reversed things. Anyway, I read Bela Karolyi’s autobiography as a kid, Feel No Fear, and it has always stayed with me. He’s the Romanian coach who took Nadia Komanich, Mary Lou Retton and Kim Zmeskal to stardom at the Olympics. His message is in the title and how I try to lead my career. Feel no fear. Put yourself out there. Throw yourself into a backflip. Find out how you land and get up and do it over and over again until you’ve reached your goals.

Favorite book as an adult is undoubtedly The Great Gatsby. It’s the book that started my love affair with literature…and Fitzgerald.

What a solid great reading background! It’s apparent from your book output that you are influenced daily by your experiences. Now on to something less serious. You magically find a $100.00 bill in your box of cereal. First off, what kind of cereal are you eating, and in what frivolous way would you spend the money? (Key word: Frivolous!)

It’s a boring granola something or another. Low in sugar, high in vitamins. This is why I skip breakfast. What’s the point? But if there was a potential to find money, different story.

So I’m not really high maintenance. Shopping makes me want to punch myself. Really I’m a gal who if I had the extra money for frivolous things I’d throw it away on experiences. I’d love to go parasailing, hot air ballooning or even take a flying trapeze class.

That’s perfect. You’re experiences are probably why you have so many stories in you.
So, let’s say you’ve been locked in a bank vault Twilight Zone style, so you finally have time to read! Your glasses are fine (whew!) so what’s the first book you crack open?

Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven King, the final installment in The Raven Cycle. That author makes me avoid responsibility like crazy when I’m reading her books.
I love books that do that!

So, if you followed the career path you chose for yourself in high school, what would you be doing for a living now?

I would be a psychologist. Gosh, that would have made for a whole different lifestyle. You can’t drink on the job when you’re a therapist. At least I think that it’s frowned upon. But writers, we can do whatever we want…and usually do.

But, hey! Look at all the psychology going on in your books. I bet that’s not a coincidence. Next. For one day, time travel is a reality—which fits right along with your books—and you can visit any famous deceased author you want. Who do you pick?

No question. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Zelda can’t be there. My plan won’t work if she is.
Haha! Too funny.
​
What’s your favorite motivational quote and why is it your favorite?

Hard to pick just one.

“Whatever we think about and thank about, we bring about.”
John Demartini

Ooh, I’ve never heard that one. I love it. Okay, one last question. If you could sum up your best marketing advice for new writers in only four words, what would it be?

Believe in your books!

That’s perfect advice. It even made me teary eyed as I think about my own writing. Thank you so much, Sarah, for spending time with all of us at BOD and for sharing your talents. I’m excited for everyone at BOD to get to know you better.

Thank you so much for having me. Love my BOD family. Can’t do what I do without you all.

Sarah Noffke writes YA and NA sci-fi fantasy and is the author of the Lucidites, Reverians, Ren and Vagabond Circus series. She holds a Masters of Management and teaches college business courses. Most of her students have no idea that she toils away her hours crafting fictional characters. Noffke’s books are top rated and best-sellers on Kindle. Currently, she has eight novels published and a new series scheduled for release early Spring 2016. Her books are available in paperback, audio and in Spanish and Italian.

To stay up to date with Sarah please subscribe to her newsletter: http://www.sarahnoffke.com/connect/

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Interview by Carrie Avery Moriarty

Welcome, Allyssa Painter, to BOD’s author spotlight. I am pleased to be interviewing you about your two book series, The Timekeeper Duo.

Thank you, Carrie. I am excited to be here and to see what questions you have.

I see in your bio that you are currently in college, studying to be an elementary school and special education teacher. I have to say this hits close to my heart, as my sister is a teacher. Have you always wanted to be a teacher?

No, I haven’t. I always knew I wanted to work with kids, but I went through several ideas before I landed on teaching. For many of my elementary and middle school years, I wanted to be various types of pediatric doctors. I also briefly considered social work, and still think I would do well with it if I didn’t teach. When I hit high school, I knew I didn’t want to be any type of doctor, and that I wanted to work with special needs kids. For a year or two, I wanted to be an Applied Behavior Analysis therapist for children with special needs, especially those with autism. Then I finally realized I wanted to teach somewhere around the end of my sophomore year or the beginning of my junior year. Now I am glad I chose it. Teaching is my passion and always has been. I just hadn’t really noticed it.

​Your book focuses on a time after the near destruction of Earth at the hands of humans. Did you have to do a lot of research to get facts to use in how this might come about?

Yes and no. I knew it was a possibility the way I wrote it because of the environmental issues we have had in the last few decades. I grew up hearing a lot about it in school so the idea wasn’t that far-fetched in my head. Where the research came in was when I actually got into details, like exactly what Pittsburgh would look like fiftyish years after the rain stopped (seen in the second book). As twisted as this sounds, I had to research what the acid would do to bodies left over and what would be left by the time Sage and Iris arrived there, as well as what the city would look like. It wasn’t as easy as it sounds either, because when you research the effects of acid on the body, you get acid drugs like LSD. So it took some digging and consulting with family members who know more than me about earth science and medicine and such to figure it all out.

The concept of a Timekeeper, angels (both those who have fallen and those who have not), demons, pacifists, and extremists is a very complex collection. How did you decide what types of characteristics were needed to tell your story?

This is kind of a hard question to answer because I don’t write like most other authors. I do not write an outline and say, “Okay, this happens, then this, then we meet her, etc.” I am one of those authors who just sits down and writes whatever comes to my head. I write a lot of it in my head before I start, and every now and then I’ll go against the natural flow of the story and say, “I think I need to have this,” but for the most part, the story just writes itself and I transcribe it. So I didn’t decide that I needed all these diverse groups. They just appeared in the story. The only thing I really planned at all was the Timekeeper and the Shunned, which came from a discussion with my high school sociology class. One day while we were waiting on the bell to ring, we had a short discussion about what it would be like to know exactly when you will die and how each of your decisions affected that, and whether it would be a good thing. It got me thinking, and it led to this series. To pull this off, I knew I needed an evil group that led to everyone knowing everything (the Shunned), and someone who wanted to change it (Iris) as well as the person who controlled time before the Shunned (the Timekeeper). So I did kind of decide on those. But even after I did, they took on a life of their own.

The main character, Iris, is a Timekeeper with special powers, which she uses in her quest to end the tyranny of the Shunned. While she has a very specific and rare parentage that she inherited her powers from, do you feel that average humans have the potential to possess something within them that could give them an edge in certain situations?

Yes and no. In the book, the average human could also have powers. It was simply rarer. Plus, there was a short time a year when everyone got to have powers. In real life, though, I think we know there’s probably not going to be people who can heal others, bend time, control the earth or water, or see the future. I do, however, believe that everyone has specific talents or characteristics that make them thrive in different situations. For example, my husband is great with people. He handles them so well. I, on the other hand, hate social interaction and tend to hide behind him. This makes him well equipped to handle a situation where a lot of people get out of control or something, maybe even a hostage situation. I could never do that. But I have other talents he does not. I think we all have something that can give us an edge in specific situations, and I think it is different for each of us. I just don’t think any of us can fly or do something else superhuman.

Iris and her team are often found in battle with those who want to keep them from their desired result. You did a great job of describing the fight scenes. Do you have any training in any sort of combat (martial arts, self-defense, etc.)?

Thank you. Not really, no, but I do read a lot of fantasy books with fight scenes, and I have several military family members who occasionally describe fight scenes to me. Mainly, though, I just pictured it all in my head and thought about what it would look like. If I had questions, I’d ask my husband, who is in the Navy and has several brothers who are very good in martial arts and self-defense. I also occasionally had help from a good friend of mine and fellow author, Jennifer Anne Davis. She is also a YA author who writes a lot of fantasy with fight scenes, and her kids are in martial arts, so through reading her books, discussing her kids’ competitions and her fight scenes, and occasionally asking about a specific technique, I was able to gain more information to make them seem more realistic.

​Do you find you identify with the main character, Iris, or do you feel you connect more with another character in your story?

I feel that every writer pours a little bit of themselves into each character. I don’t identify with any one character more than another, because I am like each of them in different ways. I definitely identify with Iris’s stubbornness, though. Ask anyone to describe me and I guarantee you’ll hear that word. Sara is very loyal, especially to Iris, because Iris is her family, and I would like to think that is something that is very similar to me. Sage is steadfast. He has his morals and his own thoughts, and he follows them no matter what, even if others don’t agree with them. In some ways, I am like that, though I do often wish I were more like him in that department. Zander is protective over his family, and Cassian is a good friend. Guinevere is judgmental and not all that friendly when it comes to people she feels are a threat, and unfortunately, I believe I am like that too. All of my character’s either have a piece of me, or a piece of a person I admire and wish I could be more like. I wish I could be more easygoing, like Silas, or open and childlike, like Delilah. So no, I don’t think I identify the most with Iris, but I do identify with her, as I do all the other characters.

Now that you’ve put out this series, what is your next project?

Realistically? To graduate. Haha. But as far as writing is concerned, I am working on a new series (I think it’s going to be a trilogy). It is a YA fantasy series (not quite dystopian, though there are dystopian themes, sorry guys.) I can’t tell you much about it yet, because I have no idea when it will be finished or if I will self-publish it or try to publish it traditionally. I am set to graduate in December, so this year is very hard and very big for me in my real-life, so I am focusing more on it than I am on writing. Don’t worry, though. I am writing and hope to have more news for you about this series sometime later this year. So keep checking for that. For now, I can tell you that I am about 2/3 through the first book of the series, and that the series is tentatively titled, The Valtina Chronicles. I can’t wait until I can share more with you.

I am so pleased to have gotten the chance to interview you, and can’t wait for the BOD family to dive into your world within the pages of The Timekeeper Duo.

Aww, thank you so much! It was a pleasure to speak with you today and I look forward to doing it again soon!

ABOUT ALLYSSA

Allyssa Painter is the author of the Timekeeper Duo. She graduated from Sissonville High School and attends Concord University for elementary and special education. She dreams of becoming an elementary teacher and continuing to touch the world around her through the novels she writes. In her free time, she enjoys reading fantastical adventures, spending time with her family, and capturing the world around her in photography and writing.

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