Here is the interview I had with author Michelle Irwin :)
IN-DEPTH AUTHOR INTERVIEW – WITH MICHELLE IRWIN
Name: Michelle Irwin
Age: 32
Where are you from? I live in Queensland, Australia, but I’m from New Zealand originally.
A little about yourself `ie your education Family life etc: I’ve always been a huge reader, but I have very eclectic reading tastes. I live with my husband, daughter, and two cats. My formal training is in accounting and I work in a bookkeeping/management accounting role.
Lilian: Tell us your latest news?
Michelle Irwin: Wow latest news, there is so much! I’ve had Besieged by Rain just released, I have two new releases coming up in the new few months: All Amity Allows (Fall for You Book #2) and Rise from Ash (Daughter of Fire book #2).
As well as that, I’ve found a new genre that I’m really enjoying writing—Steampunk. I’ve got a three book series planned that I’m really excited for.
Lilian: When and why did you begin writing?
Michelle Irwin: My very first written project outside of school was a ‘choose your adventure’ book I wrote when I was in my tweens. I wrote angsty teenage poetry constantly in high school, it was my way of coping with what the world threw at me. I was quite an introverted person (was, hahaha, still am!), and poetry and drama were the two ways I could bust out of that shell.
Lilian: When did you first consider yourself a writer?
Michelle Irwin: There are so many times that I’ve gone, okay now that has happened I am really a writer. The first time was when I was in a crit group, then it was the first time I published something online—fanfiction, but it was still published for consumption by others, then it was when I had a first draft of a story with original characters, then it was when I had a publishing contract . . . there are a hundred more opportunities for me to think, yep, now I’ve finally made it, I’m finally a writer.
Lilian: How did you come up with the title?
Michelle Irwin: Besieged by Rain was a hard book to title. I’ve had books which the title came first and everything else fell into place after that (BbR’s companion Through the Fire was like that) but when it came to naming Clay’s books, there was so much to consider. There had to be a link to Evie’s stories, but they also had to stand apart. In the end, I looked at the events of the story. The Rain are such a big influence on Clay, and not always in a good way, that they had to feature in the title.
Lilian: What inspired you to write your first book?
Michelle Irwin: My first official book was Through the Fire. I wrote that after penning almost 1 million words on fanfiction in a number of different fandoms. Basically, it came down to my own characters starting to make too much noise for me to ignore any longer. The biggest single inspiration back then was a song by the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus called “Cat and Mouse.” Of course, the possibly novella length YA story that the song inspired in my mind is very different from the four novel NA story that my characters delivered.
Lilian: Do you have a specific writing style?
Michelle Irwin: If you speak to my pre-reader/beta she would probably say yes. I think I could give her a list of forty paragraphs written by me and thirty-nine other people and she’d be able to pick which was mine. For people slightly less obsessed, I would say it’s less specific. I have some stories in first person, some in third. I have rom-coms and angst-fests. The one specific thing for me is drama. Even after all this time, I love good angsty drama.
Lilian: Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
IN-DEPTH AUTHOR INTERVIEW – WITH MICHELLE IRWIN
Name: Michelle Irwin
Age: 32
Where are you from? I live in Queensland, Australia, but I’m from New Zealand originally.
A little about yourself `ie your education Family life etc: I’ve always been a huge reader, but I have very eclectic reading tastes. I live with my husband, daughter, and two cats. My formal training is in accounting and I work in a bookkeeping/management accounting role.
Lilian: Tell us your latest news?
Michelle Irwin: Wow latest news, there is so much! I’ve had Besieged by Rain just released, I have two new releases coming up in the new few months: All Amity Allows (Fall for You Book #2) and Rise from Ash (Daughter of Fire book #2).
As well as that, I’ve found a new genre that I’m really enjoying writing—Steampunk. I’ve got a three book series planned that I’m really excited for.
Lilian: When and why did you begin writing?
Michelle Irwin: My very first written project outside of school was a ‘choose your adventure’ book I wrote when I was in my tweens. I wrote angsty teenage poetry constantly in high school, it was my way of coping with what the world threw at me. I was quite an introverted person (was, hahaha, still am!), and poetry and drama were the two ways I could bust out of that shell.
Lilian: When did you first consider yourself a writer?
Michelle Irwin: There are so many times that I’ve gone, okay now that has happened I am really a writer. The first time was when I was in a crit group, then it was the first time I published something online—fanfiction, but it was still published for consumption by others, then it was when I had a first draft of a story with original characters, then it was when I had a publishing contract . . . there are a hundred more opportunities for me to think, yep, now I’ve finally made it, I’m finally a writer.
Lilian: How did you come up with the title?
Michelle Irwin: Besieged by Rain was a hard book to title. I’ve had books which the title came first and everything else fell into place after that (BbR’s companion Through the Fire was like that) but when it came to naming Clay’s books, there was so much to consider. There had to be a link to Evie’s stories, but they also had to stand apart. In the end, I looked at the events of the story. The Rain are such a big influence on Clay, and not always in a good way, that they had to feature in the title.
Lilian: What inspired you to write your first book?
Michelle Irwin: My first official book was Through the Fire. I wrote that after penning almost 1 million words on fanfiction in a number of different fandoms. Basically, it came down to my own characters starting to make too much noise for me to ignore any longer. The biggest single inspiration back then was a song by the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus called “Cat and Mouse.” Of course, the possibly novella length YA story that the song inspired in my mind is very different from the four novel NA story that my characters delivered.
Lilian: Do you have a specific writing style?
Michelle Irwin: If you speak to my pre-reader/beta she would probably say yes. I think I could give her a list of forty paragraphs written by me and thirty-nine other people and she’d be able to pick which was mine. For people slightly less obsessed, I would say it’s less specific. I have some stories in first person, some in third. I have rom-coms and angst-fests. The one specific thing for me is drama. Even after all this time, I love good angsty drama.
Lilian: Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?