Author Interview: Chelsea Swiggett

Friday, August 13, 2010 |
Chelsea Rae Swiggett

Books:
  • Rae


Chelsea Rae Swiggett is eighteen years old and will soon be heading to college to major in English and immerse herself even further into the world of books and writing. She currently serves on the Ypulse Youth Advisory Board. Visit her blog at http://thepageflipper.blogspot.com/.






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Interview was taken before release of Rae. *

What are your strengths and weaknesses in writing?
I've been told I have kickass metaphors, so I'll list that as my strength. As far as weaknesses go, I think I have a lot of them. I tend to have a niche in my fiction ideas - death. Morbid much? But I love ghost stories and I try to make my ideas a little more unconventional. As far as my physical writing goes, I tend to jump scenes a lot or use too many commas/hyphens. There are many more I could list, but I'll try not to degrade myself too much.

You've been telling a lot of us that your extremely nervous about the release of Rae, if you weren't a blogger yourself, will this level of nervousness decrease? Or it doesn't make a difference? ...Thinking the fact that people you know and people who you talk to will be reading and maybe reviewing a book that YOU wrote. :)
Yeah, it's pretty hectic since I've been a part of the book community for so long. I've met a ton of awesome reviewers and writers and the thought of them reading my writing is nerve-wracking, especially since some of them will be reviewing it. But I've always wanted to be a writer so the anxiousness is just something I have to deal with. It's so worth it.

The cover for Rae is freaking amazing! Any thoughts on it? Did you have any input for this final cover?

Thanks! I love it. I think the art department did a great job - I had pretty much no say in it, actually. It's part of the Louder than Words series, and each book has a specific color theme; mine turned out to be my favorite color, green, so I lucked out. Several friends have told me the cover girl looks like me, which I think is ironic.

Any of the characters in Rae based in real life?
All of them! It's a memoir. :) But I'm writing a fiction book right now and I feel like my friends and family influence a lot of the characteristics of my characters, although I make them each their own person. I can sit and people-watch for hours, like a creeper, and something about someone will stick and end up part of a character.

What's the best advice for all those aspiring authors out there?
Write! Read! Just sit down and start something. And then finish it. Push yourself. The only way you can do something is to start it. It takes a lot of time and effort, but that's what you have to do. And remember that first drafts are supposed to be crappy, so just get everything on the page and edit it all later.
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Thanks so much to Chelsea for stopping by! Check out http://www.louderthanwordsbooks.com/ and her blog at http://thepageflipper.blogspot.com/.

7 comments:

Shooting Stars Mag said...

Nice interview! and her cover really DOES look like her, esp. b/c she rocks the pig tails too sometimes. lol :-)

-Lauren

Deborah Reber said...

I will concur...Chelsea does indeed have kickass metaphors! Great interview :)
XOXO Deborah Reber, editor of Louder Than Words

Lydia said...

always love seeing books written by bloggers - it gives me hope!

fantastic interview =)

Violet said...

Wonderful interview! I look forward to reading Rae, and I love Chelsea's advice to aspiring writers! :)

BURIED IN BOOKS said...

I love author interviews! Every author is so different and every interviewer asks such different questions. But I have read that a good author goes to bed thinking what he wrote that day is great and wakes up thinking it's crap. Wow, published so young. Good things will be coming from her. Thanks for interviewing her. I all aspiring writers have something to learn from other authors/aspiring writers. Heather

Erika Powell said...

how lucky that you got your fav color on your book! great interview

Kristen said...

Great interview! It's so fun to see the bloggers that have been blogging for a while write and publish their first novel. I can't wait to read her book (even though I haven't read any of the other books in the series...) and she seems like an awesome person! :) Congrats on your first book and may you have many more published!

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