Bookpleasures.com welcomes as our guest A.C. Greenlee is an award-winning creator of Paranormal Romance, High Fantasy and adventure novels. She is anticipating her latest release entitled Genesis: The Awakening to shortly being released.

Norm: Good day A.C. and thanks for participating in our interview.

How did you get started in writing? What keeps you going and why have you been drawn to paranormal romance and high fantasy?

A.C. Thank you for having me, Norm! I got my start in writing as a teenager writing fan fiction for my favourite television shows. At thirteen I started publishing my work on various fan boards and forums and garnered a small following that I’m lucky followed me throughout my teen angst and still reads my work today.

My characters by far are what keep me going, especially when inspiration is hard to find. I love writing about them, reading about them, listening to them vent while I spill their frustrations on the page; they’re my muses and my most cherished friends.

I was drawn to paranormal romance and high fantasy because of my supernatural taste in the paranormal and occult. Growing up watching Japanese Anime and being exposed to many different ways of thinking also helped expand my imagination and allows me to dream up some pretty wicked and fantastical things.

Norm: What do you consider to be your greatest success or successes so far in your writing career?

A.C. Having a publisher reach out to me to represent my work was absolutely amazing. I am thankful ever single day for Lillium Publishing House and the wonderful family and friends I have made there.

Norm: What has been your greatest challenge (professionally) that you’ve overcome in getting to where you’re at today?

A.C. I would have to say getting over the fear of putting my work out there, of having people from all over the world read—and judge—my work. I’m a relatively shy and quiet person so it was definitely an enormous hurdle I had to jump in order to make my dreams come true.

Norm: What do you think most characterizes your writing? As a follow up, how has your environment/upbringing colored your writing?

A.C. Personally I believe it’s my characters and the personalities I create. I’ve been told that dialogue is my strong point and I can say without a doubt it’s because I feel as if I’m writing conversations between real people word for word. I aim to create characters so realistic that you can’t discern them from real people. I want my readers to walk away with the sense of having gained a new friend.

As for my upbringing, being an only child definitely helped my imagination. When you don’t have siblings to talk to or fight with, your imaginary friends are the next best thing. I just started putting our adventures on paper and, as it turns out, my readers have just as much fun reading them as I do writing about them.

Norm: Do you write more by logic or intuition, or some combination of the two? Summarize your writing process.

A.C. Intuition! If I don’t have a gut feeling about where a story is going, I simply can’t write it. You can follow formulas all day but, in my opinion, you have to just sit back, trust your instincts and let everything flow.

Norm: What did you find most useful in learning to write? What was least useful or most destructive?

A.C. Discovering the ability to silence my inner editor and just write without my perfectionist berating everything I do was definitely helpful.

Norm: What are common mistakes you see aspiring writers make?

A.C. Giving up without a fight. Using not having time or experience as an excuse to give up on their dreams. Nothing is easy about writing. People don’t decide to be novelists to have an easy career; they do it because it’s a passion that is as important as breathing.

Norm: Please tell our readers a little about your latest novel, Genesis: The Awakening?

A.C. Genesis is a paranormal romance adventure surrounding Victoria Bouchard, an evolved human being that can take on the powers and characteristics of supernatural beings, her “boyfriend” Kaizer Dresden who is a Grim Reaper serving out a sentence on earth and the Devil himself who’s aware of Victoria’s abilities and is determined to develop her into the greatest weapon the universe has ever seen.

Norm: What served as the primary inspiration for the book?

A.C. The primary inspiration was the Villisca Axe Murders that took place almost a hundred years ago in Villisca Iowa.

After visiting the Axe Murder House and learning about the horrible murders that took place there, I began to come up with all sorts of supernatural scenarios that simply wouldn’t be ignored. And they eventually evolved into the fantasy adventure epic you know as Genesis.

Norm: What is next for A.C. Greenlee?

A.C. More coffee and video games! As for what’s next in my writing, I’m working on my next major project as we speak. I can’t exactly say what it is yet, but please look forward to it.

Norm: As this interview draws to a close what one question would you have liked me to ask you? Please share your answer.

A.C. I would liked to have talked about my video game addiction and how games like Mortal Kombat, Need for Speed and Tekken influence the action scenes in my work. Let’s just say, being a pro at Street Fighter makes for some extremely interesting fight scenes!

Norm: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions. It's been an absolute pleasure to meet with you and read your work. Good luck with all of your future endeavors.

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