Transcendence (13 page)

The most amazing part of publishing the
Transcend Time Saga has been connecting with the fans. It was hard
for me when
Remembrance
kept getting rejected by editors,
and I went through a long period of time when I believed the book
would never be seen by anyone except me, my family, and friends.
Now I have fans all over the world. Writing and publishing is a
hard career, and it’s easy to feel defeated and wonder why you’re
working for hours on end without a guaranteed payoff. But every
time a fan emails me, tweets at me, writes on my Facebook wall, or
leaves a positive review for one of my books, I’m reminded WHY I’m
doing this—because it’s my purpose and passion in life to share the
stories I create with the world. Writing has become so important to
my identity that I wouldn’t know who I was without it. From the
bottom of my heart—thank you for your support. It means everything
to me.

http://www.dorinewhite.blogspot.com

Dorine: How did writing
Timeless
compare to
Remembrance
?

Michelle:
Timeless
was much more
challenging to write than
Remembrance
, because there are
more paranormal elements in the story, along with time travel. I
had to make sure the paranormal elements were explained to the
reader in a way that made sense, and I had to do a lot of research
to make the scenes in Regency Era, England accurate. There were so
many facts I had to learn about the time period—the clothes they
wore, the hygiene products they had available, etiquette rules, how
people addressed each other, and even the times they ate their
meals (and how the meals were served) are so different from modern
times! The research was the most challenging, but I’m happy with
how the scenes in the past ended up.

Dorine: You have an amazing online presence-
Can you tell me what it is like to promote your own work and do so
well? What were the biggest things that helped you?

Michelle: Thank you! The biggest trick to
“social media” is just to have FUN with it! I love talking with
people through Twitter and Facebook, and I think it comes across in
my tweets and status updates. If an author is only using social
media to promote their work, it can be obvious to fans. I like
sharing random things about what’s going on in my life, and I
always reply back to people when they tweet at me or write on my
Facebook. As for promoting my books, book bloggers have been so
helpful by reviewing Remembrance and helping to spread the word.
It’s been great meeting so many bloggers, because we all have one
major thing in common—a love for books!

Dorine: Did you always want to be a
writer?

Michelle: I’ve always created stories in my
mind and have enjoyed writing, but I didn’t consider writing as a
possible profession until mid-way through college because I wasn’t
sure if I could complete a novel, or if anyone would be interested
in my ideas. Then I took an Intro to Creative Writing class when I
was a junior in college. I turned in the first chapter of
Remembrance
for a homework assignment, and my teacher and
classmates loved it and encouraged me to write more. The positive
feedback meant so much to me, and I decided that I would never know
if I could complete a novel if I didn’t try. By the end of my
junior year of college, I had finished the first draft of
Remembrance
!

Dorine: What books influenced you the most
as a child?

Michelle: My favorite book series’ when I was
younger were the
Narnia
series and
Harry Potter
. As
for a book influencing me,
Twilight
by Stephenie Meyer had a
huge impact on my life. I read
Twilight
when I was 18 years
old, and Bella’s character inspired me to make positive changes in
my life. Many books I was reading at that age involved teens who
were partying, drinking, etc. Reading about a girl like Bella, who
was happy being who she was without craving popularity, encouraged
me to be more comfortable embracing that side of my personality.
Twilight
changed my life, and led me on a path to become a
better person.

Dorine: What are your future writing
plans?

Michelle: I’ve written two other books aside
from the books in the Transcend Time Saga. Both of them are starts
of different series’—one is a fun, contemporary YA, and the other
is a YA urban fantasy involving witchcraft and Greek mythology. I’m
pursuing the traditional publishing route for the contemporary YA,
and my agent has that book out on submission to publishing houses.
I’m crossing my fingers every day for good news!

Dorine: Any advice for aspiring writers?

Michelle: The biggest piece of advice I have
if you’re writing a novel is to make sure you have a solid writing
schedule before you start drafting. While writing
Remembrance
, I wrote 1,000 words every weekday, in between
my afternoon classes. If you don’t have a routine and daily word
count goal, completing a draft will be difficult. Writing is not a
sprint—it’s a marathon. Slow and steady will get you to the end.
It’s amazing how much progress you will make if you discipline
yourself to write a little bit every day!

1) I love singing—especially Broadway
showtunes!
I have a mediocre voice though, so I was always in
the chorus in school plays. (The high point of my theatre career
was when I got the part of Pinocchio at a local theatre group when
I was ten. It was downhill from there.) If you want to hear me
sing, I have an old video on YouTube (
www.youtube.com/michellemadow
)
of me singing "On My Own" from Les Miserables. But as I warned you,
my voice was never “the best,” or good enough to get me a lead part
in high school.

2) I was in a pre-professional dance
program for ten years.
Dance was a HUGE part of my life until
my senior year of high school. I did ballet, jazz, modern, hip-hop,
and some tap. When I was in seventh grade I performed with the
Russian Ballet in “The Nutcracker”—I had the part of one of the
little mice! (When the Russian Ballet tours the country, they cast
the children’s roles separately in each city.) I eventually stopped
dance in my senior year, because my program wanted me to rehearse
until 10:30 PM on Friday nights. I realized I wasn’t going to be a
professional dancer, and that I preferred to have a social
life.

3) I was in a sorority for my first three
years of college.
I didn’t plan on doing recruitment, but one
of my close friends talked me into attending a “sorority open
house,” where I ended up receiving a bid to join the sorority. I
didn’t have many friends in the beginning of college, so I decided
to join because it would help me branch out. I’m glad I did,
because I met my three closest friends in that sorority, and they
are still my best friends today. I’m not good at following
arbitrary rules though (I question every rule and need to
understand WHY it’s in place if I’m going to follow it) so I got in
“trouble” with the sorority a lot. I wrote Remembrance when I was a
junior, and after signing with an agent in the summer between my
junior and senior year of college, I decided to drop out of the
sorority in my senior year so I could focus more on my writing.

4) I’ve broken both my ankles—luckily at
separate times!
The first time was in fourth grade. I was
playing a make-believe game with a friend that involved
fake-flying. I decided to jump out of a tree. Bad decision. The
second time was in sixth grade. I was excited for the end of the
school day, and ran to my mom’s car when she arrived to pick me up.
I randomly decided to do a ballet leap on the way there, but the
ground was icy, and I didn’t land right. Another bad decision.

5) I cannot draw.
Seriously … my
drawing/painting skills are pathetic. I can barely make a stick
figure. Something doesn’t compute right when I try to draw an
image. I’m so bad that I can’t even play the game “Draw Something”
because I get so frustrated! Part of the reason I made Lizzie an
artist in Remembrance is because it’s a skill I highly admire,
since I have no concept of how to do it myself.

6) I wish I’d taken writing seriously at a
younger age.
I never considered writing novels as a serious
possibility until I was a junior in college. I wish I could go back
in time and tell my fifteen year old self to stop caring about
dance so much (since dance was always a short term goal of mine),
and to think more long-term and start writing novels in high
school. To those of you who are in high school and are already
taking writing seriously, I give you major props. I wish I had been
more like you when I was your age.

7) I tried to play guitar for years, but
was never any good.
It’s sad, but true. You see, my dad and
brother both play guitar. They’re not experts, but they’re good
enough so they can play songs and entertain people. I wanted to be
able to do that so badly, so I got a guitar and started playing
when I was in tenth grade. I had trouble with strumming at first,
but I figured I would improve with practice. After two years of
practice, my strumming was still terrible, so I set aside guitar.
Then I picked it back up when I was a junior in college. I
practiced almost every day when I was a junior and senior, but
remained awful at strumming. I could only manage to strum a song
right if I focused very hard on it, but then I couldn’t sing along.
Even then, the strumming wasn’t that great. Eventually, I realized
I just wasn’t naturally talented at guitar, and set it aside
again.

8) I was obsessed with Star Wars in fourth
grade.
I watched the movies multiple times, and started a Star
Wars action figure collection (that I still have today). I have a
Millennium Falcon for them and everything! In fourth grade I
brought my action figures to school, and insisted my friends do the
same, so we could create make believe stories set in the Star Wars
universe and have our action figures act them out. (Luckily, I went
to a very small school then—I had 12 kids in my grade—and I somehow
managed to make Star Wars cool, so no one thought I was a total
loser.) I can’t imagine what people would have thought of me if I
were in public school!

9) I don’t like most cold or room
temperature foods.
I have this (kind of weird) thing about hot
food. I pretty much ONLY eat food that’s hot. I don’t like cereal
for breakfast, and I definitely don’t understand the appeal of
sushi for dinner. (Cold AND uncooked?! Gross.) I’ll occasionally
have a room temperature food as snack (it happens rarely, though).
But I never feel satisfied from a meal unless it’s hot.

10) Discovering that I wanted to take
writing seriously made me grow as a person more than I had ever
thought possible.
In high school and the first two years of
college, I worried about what people thought of me. I’ve never been
naturally “cool,” but I wanted to be part of that crowd so badly
that I tried too hard, which resulted in them not liking me. Then I
discovered writing in the beginning of my junior year of college,
and suddenly what people thought of me wasn’t important anymore. I
realized there was no point in trying to be “cool” when there were
tons of other awesome people out there who I had more in common
with, anyway, and I had more fun hanging out with. I stopped caring
about what others thought of me, and learned to be happy and proud
of who I actually am. That realization led to me being happier in
those last two years of college than I was in the first two years
of college and high school combined—and because I was more
confident, I ended up with an awesome group of friends!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the
blog tour: Jennie, Molli, Margie, Kathryn, Dorine, Emma, Stephanie,
Susan, Michelle, Becky, Jenna, Bonnie, JoAnne, Tiffany, Amanda,
Vitoria, Alexa, Kayleigh, Hannah, Erika, Annabelle, Emily, Tess,
and Carla.

In the fall of 2008, Michelle saw Taylor
Swift’s “Love Story” music video for the first time. She thought up
a story to go along with the video, and wrote the first chapter as
a homework assignment for class. Her classmates and teacher loved
it so much that they wanted to know what happened next, so Michelle
continued writing, and that story eventually became
Remembrance
, the first novel in the Transcend Time Saga.
She’s so happy to be able to share this series with you, and hopes
you enjoy reading it as much as she loved writing it!

Check out her website,
www.michellemadow.com
,
to add her on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and her many other social
networking sites.

Michelle lives in Florida, and is hard at
work writing more novels for young adults.