Please help me welcome Author Nadiyah Abdul-Khaliq to my blog today!
Bio:
Nadiyah Abdul-Khaliq was born in Kansas City, MO in the winter of 1981. Since that day she has kept herself busy daydreaming and occasionally remembering to write those dreams down. This failure at procrastination has led to the completion of four books, 500 5-Minute Writing Exercises, Color in the Dark, and two books in the urban fantasy series The Demon Cleaner (Demons of the Guilded [book #1], and Blood of the Hunted [book #2]). She’s on Facebook, Twitter, Google +. and has a blog where she helps promote other authors. Say, Hello, anytime.
Author Interview:
What is your name? Do you use a pen name (if so, why?)?: My name is Nadiyah Abdul-Khaliq. I do not use a pen name. However, I do use my middle name because I like it more than my first name.
What type of genre do you write?: Paranormal. Urban fantasy. Thriller. I’m kind of all over the spectrum. I’ll write whatever comes to me.
What genre to you personally read?: I favor fantasy of any kind and for any age group as well as romance of just about any kind. But I’ll read almost anything.
Tell me about your latest?: It’s called, “Demons of the Guilded.” It’s the first book in the “Demon Cleaner” series. Heroine Lillas Mehkinnan is a demon hunter living in fictional Guild City, Louisiana. The story tells events before and after the execution of twin vampires who are friends of Lillas. The central of these events is the meeting of the demon hunter and demon lord, a first in the history of the non-human world.
The entire series is placed in a world where vampires have been exposed to humans and now the two are trying to co-exist (some are anyway). However, the humans don’t know that vampires aren’t the only non-human species as they’ve not exposed themselves. The ankhil are a soup of species everything from weres of many kinds to telepaths, everything. Some are deformed. Some not. They’re really a mixed bag. One of Lillas’s best friends is an ankhil with the ability to manipulate matter.
Also among the non-humans are the himmels. They are incredibly powerful shape-shifting time travelers. They are now near extinction, but when they thrived, they were often the peacekeepers between the vampires and ankhil as the two have been in various forms of war for eons.
What sparked your passion for books and the art of a good story?: My mother. I grew up in a house with several shelves of different types of books. Encyclopedias, dictionaries, anatomy, philosophy, fiction. All kinds of things. We were always reading something. She used to have us do reports and everything. At first, I hated the reports, but because I could pick the book, it made doing them a little less painful.
Is there a particular book that changed or affected your life in a big way?: I wouldn’t say a particular book. But I did have a fondness for stories of missing people (Amelia Earhart, Ambrose Bierce, people missing in the Bermuda Triangle, etc.) and Edgar Allen Poe was a huge influence on me. I’ve read everything he’s written (as far as I know).
Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp?: There may be, but I wouldn’t say. Too many times I’ve had readers tell me things about my work, messages that they found, patterns, whatever else, that I didn’t see myself. I really enjoy that. Whether I agree with the reader’s analysis or not, it opens up a discussion and a chance for me as the writer to see the work differently.
What challenges have you faced in your writing career?: Right now, it’s the marketing. As a relatively new and unknown self-published author all of the responsibility for the marketing and advertising falls square on my shoulders. Also, you know, being a writer, particularly a novelist or poet, is a very solitary profession. And trying to build a relationship with other writers and build a community has been a struggle for me as well.
Who is your author idol?: My two biggest are Edgar Allen Poe and J. K. Rowling. Poe was a phenomenal writer of poetry, short stories, and essays. All of which I write, but I’m still honing my skills. I’ve only seen the Harry Potter movies, however, Rowling is inspirational to me because of the wealth she’s made from writing books. Most writers have to use a combination of books, movie deals, etc. She did it just from writing books. And all of the good she’s done in the world since. The amount of philanthropy work she does is amazing. She is the epitome of someone who’s made a living doing what she loves, and has remained true to herself, her roots, and gives back to those who helped make her the success that she is.
Do you see yourself in any of your characters?: All of them. Well, most of them. But even the villains, that’s my greed, selfishness, and heartlessness. Lillas and I share many character traits (stubborn, a tendency to seem aloof, and an almost unshakable focus when it comes to goals), but I think she’s a bit cooler than I am.
Do you feel like your dream has come true or is there much more to do?: Oh, there’s much more. There’s so much more. So many projects I have on my task list, not all of which I’ve even started. I’m not even close to the completion of the, Demon Cleaner, series. I have ideas for stage and screen. People I want to work with. I have a long way to go before I feel I’ve reached my dreams.
What does your workspace look like?: It changes. Sometimes I work at my desk, other times on my bed. I work at the library. Typically, I’m surrounded by pens of varying colors and notebooks. I do most of my writing by hand then type it. There’s always music or a movie in the background. It helps me focus.
Have you ever had a day when you just wanted to quit?: Yes. And I did. Many times. For most of the time I lived in San Diego, I wasn’t writing the way I should have been. I had one good year out of the three. And it was near the year I left the city and returned to Kansas City.
Nothing was working out for me. My story wasn’t going as well I wanted. I tried to start a writer’s club. That didn’t work out. And I love my friends, (I’m still in touch with many from that time), but they’re not active writers. I had no peers, no challenge, no encouragement and it effected my creativity. I felt I was recycling my old ideas. So, that period of time hard. There were others before that, the result of random emotional dramas, but this was the most recent.
What do you do when you’re not writing?: Think about writing. Plotlines. Characters. No matter what I’m doing, playing video games, sightseeing, there’s always a story going on.
What are the most important attributes to remaining sane as a writer?: The only way to stay sane as a writer is to write. Granted, it doesn’t always work, but it’s the best we’re going to get. In my experience, we all have something we’re supposed to do. If we’re not doing that, we’re miserable. A writer has to write. A robin has to sing. A fish must swim. Your art is not something you can get away from. Attempting to do so does a lot more harm than good.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?: Write. Write and hang around other writers who are going where you want to go. Other authors are not your competition. They are your companions. They are your mentors. They are your students. We must write and travel with peers of like mind.
After this book, what is next?: The next book. Book two, Blood of the Hunted, is already written. I wrote the books back to back so I didn’t take time to do the advertising for book one. My hope is that the advertising for book one will lead readers to book two and I can focus on writing book three, which I’ll begin next year.
Your blog?: nadiyahak.wordpress.com
Other websites?: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nadiyahak2
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nadiyahak
Where can your book be found?: Smashwords. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/111739