Our interview this week is with author Karina Kantas. 

Hi Karina, welcome to Aside from Writing, can you tell us a little about yourself and your writing history?

Hey everyone. Well I’m Karina Kantas I’m from the Midlands, UK but I now live on a small village (full of old people) on a tiny island in Greece. I have had numerous publications including non fiction, poetry, prose, film and book reviews, short fiction and of course novels.

 

You’ve written a number of books – how do you come up with the ideas for them?

Most of my ideas come from dreams I’ve had, and my warped imagination.

 

What do you consider to be the biggest influences on your writing?

There are two. Rock music, especially tunes from my favourite band, Iron Maiden. No matter what I’m working on, I’ll always have one of their albums playing in the background. The second is the author S.E.Hinton. She inspired me to become an author, and her book the Outsiders influenced my first novel, In Times of Violence.

 

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Yes, since I was in high school. But I never tried to get published until I moved to Greece.

 

What are your favourite things about being an author?

Reading the great reviews and chatting to my readers. To know your book is getting read is such an awesome feeling, but to then be able to get feedback from those that have loved them, to me, it’s one of the best feelings in the world.

 

And the most challenging aspects?

I have to promote and market my own books. This can be very time consuming. Oh, and you gain weight. Seriously, you’re at the computer everyday and you just forget to move. The weight just piles on.

 

What’s coming up next for you? Are you working on something at the moment?

My latest novel, Road Rage is being passed around to literary agents (fingers crossed.) And I’m currently 70% the way through the first draft of Broken Chains. It’s a MI5 thriller.

 

Some random questions:

If you could be any character from any book – who would it be and why?

Do you know how many books are out there? Okay… umm let me think. I’d be Sookie Stackhouse. She has two gorgeous vampires fighting over as well as a sexy werewolf. She’s very strong minded, opinionated and knows what she wants. Plus she’s got her own magical powers and she’s a fairy, which is cool.

 

Favourite fictional world – where would you live?

It would have to be Rivendell, From Lord of the Rings. I’d love to live with the elves. They have such a calming influence and their world is magical and elegant.

 

Best super-evil book baddie?

The Devil. He pops up in many books and has too many disguises. Nothing is more evil than the Devil.

————————-

Thank-you for taking time to talk to us today! Bonnie’s review of Karina’s novella Stone Cold will be posted on Aside from Writing next Tuesday, so check back with us then to read that. 

————————–

Facebook

Twitter   @KarinaKantas