Natalie Wright - Drawn to Stories About the Future and the Paranormal

Natalie Wright - Drawn to Stories About the Future and the Paranormal
author of the day

Natalie Wright has always been fascinated with stories about the future, aliens in ancient cultures and the paranormal. This is evident in her work and thanks to her vivid imagination, coupled with a gift for writing, her books have won multiple awards. Today, Wright chats with us about her latest book in the H.A.L.F. series, The Makers, how the stories about grey aliens inspired her and how she keeps the relationships in her books real.

Please give us a short introduction to H.A.L.F.: The Makers

In The Deep Beneath (H.A.L.F. #1), readers learned of a secret, black budget project to create alien-human hybrids from the DNA recovered from alien bodies found in the Roswell crash. Readers met Tex (aka H.A.L.F. #9) and rooted for him to escape the clutches of Commander Sturgis.

In The Makers, Tex, Erika and Ian are off to another world. But right away, readers will wonder if the Greys are liberating them or taking them to someplace worse than Commanders Sturgis’ underground dungeon. In The Makers, readers will also meet another, wholly new alien species I’ve created, the M’Uktah. They’re headed our way from across the galaxy. And with all parties working frantically to deal with the mess created by the Greys, no one’s paying attention to the even greater threat on its way to a neighborhood near you!

What is it that appeals to you about speculative fiction?

Ever since I was a child, I have been drawn most to stories about the future and the paranormal. My favorite book was A Wrinkle in Time and my favorite shows were Star Trek and The Twilight Zone. It’s little wonder then that when I began writing, my stories also are speculative in nature. I enjoy exploring the human experience but through a fantasy or future tech lens.

What inspired you to come up with a different approach to the story of “the Greys"?

I’m a HUGE X-Files fan and have watched far too many episodes of Ancient Aliens! I’m fascinated by the fact that in every culture around the world - both now and in the past - when people say they saw an alien, more often than not it looked like what we have come to know as the Greys. When I conceived of the idea for the H.A.L.F. (Human Alien Life Form) series, I knew I wanted to center it around the well-known Roswell incident and the mythology that has arisen around that event. But I asked questions like why are the Greys a grey color? Why are the heads so large, the bodies so small and spindly? Where are they from? What vulnerabilities do they have? The series answers these questions and more!

This book is a follow-up to The Deep Beneath.  How does it tie in with the previous book?

The Deep Beneath ends on a cliffhanger and Book 2, The Makers, picks up exactly where The Deep Beneath leaves off. Each book in the series has its own beginning, middle and end (and an arc for each main character), but the series is really one long story so each book continues from the last.

The Deep Beneath is a multi-award winning book, Did you fear suffering from second novel syndrome when writing The Makers?

Yes and no. Yes because I have fear with each novel I write! I’m working on my sixth now and every single time I think “I can’t do this!”, especially at the beginning. But no because I began working on The Makers before The Deep Beneath had won any awards (there’s generally a significant lag between when the book is written before publication and then further lag before awards take place).

Your characters, Erika, Ian and Tex, are very relatable and their friendship keeps evolving.  Were you inspired by any real life people or relationships?

My characters are not based on any specific people or events in my life. They are all an amalgamation of all the people I’ve known and experiences I’ve had. When developing characters, my goal is to make them feel real. And in real life, friendships and love relationships aren’t easy and perfect all the time. People fight. They get scared or angry and lash out at their friends or lovers. Sometimes we are at our worst with the people we care about the most. True love - real friendships - are the ones that are tested over and over again and remain intact. My hope is to capture that in my writing - the diamond love that’s been created by the pressure of life. Which character did you find the most challenging to create?

Tex and Alecto are the most challenging. They are both hybrids created from human and alien DNA. But they are not exactly alike (Alecto, being younger and more manipulation of her DNA to create a more “alien” being than Tex). In developing these characters, it’s important to have them be distinct - both from each other and from the human characters. At the same time, they need to be relatable to the reader. Many people love Tex - he’s their favorite character in the series. I think that he appeals to people because while he has power beyond what any of us will ever know, he’s also strangely vulnerable. Everyone seems to want a piece of him. Tex just wants to be with Erika and experience life as a normal human teenager!

You write real page-turners. What is your secret to keeping readers hooked until the very end and excited about the next book?

Hooking a reader to turn the page at the end of a chapter and to keep reading is a lot more difficult than it looks! Sometimes the hook at the end of the chapter comes easily. Other times I have to go back and revise to ensure that the chapter doesn’t end “flat”. In addition to making sure that each chapter ends with the “hook,” I also try to keep my descriptions tight. That means I re-work descriptions, taking what may have been a whole paragraph in the first draft and revising, revising, revising until it may be one or two sentences. Tightly written descriptions, showing not telling and end-of-chapter hooks I think all add up to a page-turning read.

How long on average does it take you to write a book? Do you tend to aim for a set amount of words per day?

In general, it takes about 12-15 months for me to produce a book. Because I write speculative fiction with lots of world building and research, I generally spend 3-6 months on development. Once I start writing, I write most days and can write 3000-5000 words a day. Once writing begins and I’m in the flow, I can get a first draft done in about 3 months (first draft will be 100,000-150,000 words). Then the real work begins! I rewrite, cut, revise, repeat, send to my content editor, get it back and cry ;-) then revise more. This process is generally 4-6 months.

I’m not fast. I need time to allow things to percolate. Time has a way of showing a writer the flaws in their first draft.

What are you working on now?  When can we expect to see the next book in the series?

I’m currently working on book 3 of the H.A.L.F. series (working title is The Deorum). The next H.A.L.F. book will be released next year, but there is not a firm publication date at this time. The story is demanding a LOT more world building and character creation than I anticipated (but I can’t tell you why ;-)!

Where can our readers find more of your work or interact with you?

People can see more about my books including book trailers, excerpts and my latest ramblings on my website/blog: http://www.nataliewrightauthor.com. I interact with readers daily on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/NatalieWright_ and on Facebook: http://facebook.com/NatalieWright.Author

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