Ninja Spotlight #4: Aldrea Alien

Hey everybody, it’s spotlight dance time! Say hello to Aldrea Alien, and her blog, Tharandrian Thoughts.

What is your favorite book – you have to pick just one!

Just one? That’s mean. You’re mean. *pout* Fine then, I’ll stick to your meanie ‘one book’ rule and say Dragonflight. It was the first book on the slippery slope to sci-fi/fantasy love.

How much schooling have you gone through?

Depends on what you define as ‘schooling’. See, I bailed high school. To be fair, I did get my school certs (in everything but English, go figure). So technically I finished my base level exams. But there was so much negative going on in my life that I had to make a clean break of things before I shut down completely. When it comes to writing, I was a self-taught person. Starting at the age of twelve and going right in at the deep end by writing a huge novel that is now 187k long, set on a far-off planet with all but four characters being non-human.

Who’s the best character you’ve ever written and why?

Vengeance! No, no. I’m not looking for it, that’s his name. Okay, it’s actually Koral, but he’s been Veng for so long that the name comes to me faster. He’s been with me from the beginning, morphing from this hard-core, vicious beast to a lizardman with a knack for coming under the gods’ attention.

I’ve been writing for fifteen years, starting with my mammoth novel and progressing to smaller works. I can no longer recall what it was like when my head wasn’t filled with plots and dialogue that weren’t my own. Since my introduction to the sci-fi/fantasy world, my book collection has the ability to take up one wall of our house. Twice. I still don’t know how that happened.

One day, I may be able to say I’m published. Today is not one of those days.

Here’s hoping for someday, Aldrea! Thanks for doing my interview!