Monday, October 27, 2014

Top Five Conversation with an Author Mom



Hi, my name is Quin (with one ‘n’) Collier. I am Crystal Collier's 14-year old son, and if you know her, then you should know that I act like it, too. I also love cheese, love to read everything I can get my hands on, and love to write. Of course, if you know my mom, you also know her unique personality. Given that I am her son, we have had many strange and sometimes rather ridiculous conversations about books.

Top Five Conversations with My Author Mom

#5. Books we Both Disliked

Naturally, Mom and I share opinions on multiple YA series. Whether it be the latter books of Harry Potter, the sparkly vampires in Twilight, or predictable endings to books everywhere, there's always been something to talk about that seems perpendicular to the development of the rest of the characters/plot.

#4. Lame (or unnecessary) Superhero Powers

One day, a book idea came up, and everyone in the family started listing off lame superhero powers that could be incorporated into the book. Such ideas included being able to see through eyelids, 3-inch high levitation, being able to create smells, and any other flabbergastedly ideas that came to our heads.

#3. Amazingly Aggravating Alliterations

Imagine that your brother or sister is doing a test on words with "port" in them. Then, your mother says ''An importer imports portable important ports.'' Then you counter with ''An importer imports portable important portable ports through a portal.'' The sentence eventually become so extensive and ridiculous that I lose track of the words. The end result is something like: ''A port porter ported importing portals ports...wait a minute.''

#2. Redundant Redundancy

A conversation about redundancy led to a discussion about redundant statements, statements such as ''justified justice,'' ''sorrowful sadness,'' and my favorite, ''supercalifragilisticexpialidociousic supercalifragilisticexpialidociousosity.'' Eventually I was just saying the same word twice, and became ''boringly bored.''

#1. My Own Story Ideas

Having an author mother my whole life has inspired me to write my own stories from a young age. I have come up with strange and sometimes impossibly impractical plots ever since the age of five, and Mom has never pointed out their contingencies or poor development, only supported me along the way. I haven't published any of my own books, but I currently cheer on hers.

In conclusion, conversations with an author aren't boring. Unless they are non-fiction authors, but even then a conversation with them probably wouldn't be boring. So in other words, go buy Soulless!

   

The blog tour is making some awesome stops today:


Suzi Retzlaff at Literary Engineer goes in depth about my research process

Cortney Pearson presents a kick-trash character, Mae

VoilaFury at Homeless Chronicles in Tampa interviews Sarah, a recently turned-Soulless character you don't want to miss 

And be sure to enter the 
Rafflecopter
for your chance to win some amazing prizes!


And now it's time to go. The pony is leading the way and you know why his eyes are so big? He's headed for HAPPINESS. (Aka, the rest of the tour.) Get your fix.


Have you had any super interesting conversation with an author? Other creative people? 

61 comments:

  1. Why do I get the feeling there are never ANY boring conversations at your house? ;) So nice to meet Quin, and I bet he one day is an author too, just like his mama!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, the only boring conversations I've had at home are about Normal Distribution. :)

      Delete
  2. Awesome you and your mom discuss books. My daughter and I do too. And not surprised you love cheese like your mom. Good luck with your writing, Quinn.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! And yes, I do love cheese, even if I don't eat it as much as Mom.

      Delete
  3. Quin, I believe you must be an awesome son. Mom, I bet you're proud. Good job!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That was a quintessentially Quintistic interview! I love the "Ability to see through your eyelids" superpower -- you could stare at people without them knowing!

    Authors aren't boring -- well, at least not to other authors. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Two of my favorite words. I agree, authors aren't boring--at least, I haven't met a boring author yet!

      Delete
  5. Wonderful post! Quin, I imagine you are destined for great things, just like your mother! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your kind words! Whether I'll ever write anything nearly as amazing as Moonless and Soulless, only time will tell. I'm guessing no.

      Delete
  6. Good stuff, young Quin. I like your watch.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! The watch is Alarm Chrono, and it has served me well. I just need to figure out how to disable the alarm :)

      Delete
  7. So nice to meet Quin!! Something tells me I'll be reading his book someday, too! :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a great kid. You just made me miss my daughter so much. We've had conversations about books that had us both laughing so hard we cried. Teenagers are such fun people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Until they find out that they don't know everything, they are fun people. At least that's my opinion :)

      Delete
  9. Hi Quin - you take me back to the crazy days with my younger brothers .. the youngest was always dreaming up crazy idea ... xray eyes, magnetic passes etc etc ... I can imagine you having those delicious conversations with your mother .. mouth full spluttering splatters of cheeses various ...

    That's great you'll be following on your mother and her authorship - you might be able to ghost write for her - or she could do it for you??!! Congratulations and go for it ... Hilary

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a fantastic post! My grown kids and I still quote obscure lines from picture books to each other.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds fun! I quote Helen Keller all the time! (It's kind of quiet, though :)

      Delete
  11. Great post, Quin. Your mother's books sound fabulous.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They most definitely are. I missed my favorite show (Doctor Who that being) reading Soulless!

      Delete
  12. Fantastic post. I would love to hear about who like what and who disliked what with Harry and twilight. Maybe you two could review a YA book together as a post now and then :D Matt @ JC's Book Haven.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Easy: Rowling Killed Dumbledore, and Myers made Edward sparkle. :)

      Delete
  13. Well, Quin, I loved your post! My mother and I always talked books and writing when I was still lucky enough to have her, and she always supported me in my writing too. Good luck with yours ~ You'll get there!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much! Sometimes I fall into so many plot holes that I'm not sure myself. :)

      Delete
  14. You both are so supportive of each other!
    The ability to create any smell might actually be a cool power. One smell could clear a room you know.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That would be an AWESOME Power! If I had that, the faint aura of cookies would follow me everywhere.

      Delete
  15. Nice to meet you Quin :) Sounds like you guys have a great relationship!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have an awesome relationship with my entire family. Being at home with nothing to do for 4 hours straight helps. :)

      Delete
  16. Love this. :-) I'm afraid I'm guilty of the Amazingly Aggravating Alliterations.

    So cool that you and your mom can discuss YA. I have a few years before I can chat about those with my kids.

    I must say, I'm not sure there is such thing as a bad super power. (Except the eyelid thing...what's that all about?)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Well, that could be a great power! What if someone tried to assassinate you in your sleep?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But... Would you be able to sleep with see-through eyelids?

      Delete
  18. I think it's cool to have the ability to create new smells but I see the point that it's nothing compared to other superhero powers, it's not even really a superpower. Number 2 and 3 were funny! Thank you so much for sharing!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Quin, you are absolutely fantastical. What a teen! I homeschool too, and know your mom pretty well. She's cool too. Loved this post. You need to visit here more often. Hmm. I love the sense of smell superpower. Imagine what you could do with that. WOW!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Quin is a fantastic name! Love it! Sounds like you have great conversations at home. Also wonderful you share the love of reading and writing, too.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Quin, you are awesome and so is your mom. I have her book on my Kindle and will be reading it soon.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Best author plug ever! Have you seen Mystery Men?

    ReplyDelete
  23. I'm not quite published as an author yet - I've had a few stories and features published, that's all - but my kids do say they find me interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Levitating 3 inches off the ground... That is actually a cool idea. You might not think so, but imagine all the shoes that would never wear out. And no one would notice that you weren't touching the ground. Well, maybe some would, but most people are oblivious to things that don't immediately impact them.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Hi Quin! So great that you share common interests with your mom. :)

    ReplyDelete
  26. What a fun conversation. I bet life around your house is never dull..

    ReplyDelete
  27. Gotta watch those redundant redundancies. Good thing I have an editor to catch all mine.

    ReplyDelete
  28. "flabbergastedly" - A+ on the word creation! I'm sure you & your mom will go on to have many, many more outrageous literarary conversations.

    Congrats on the new release, Crystal!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Wish I could sit at your dinner table! Congratulations!

    ReplyDelete
  30. This post reminded me of me and my mom. :)

    ReplyDelete
  31. I think you should publish a book, Quin. Maybe it could be a horror story about a mom who is a writer. That's what my kids would write about. Uh, what's that over your eyes in the first picture? Is your mom making you pretend you're blind so you'll have empathy for blind people? It won't work, because blind people don't see darkness.

    Love,
    Janie

    ReplyDelete
  32. Quinn has quite the vocal for a 14 year old, and my editor keeps telling me to dumb down my writing for young adults...duh?! I predict another author in the family!

    ReplyDelete
  33. What a nice post! And I'm sure that your stories will be published someday too, Quin, and it's great that your mother encourages you to read and write. When I was fourteen I had to hide in my closet or under my covers when I was reading novels; my parents said I should spend my free time reading my school textbooks instead.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Ha, ha! Love this! ^_^
    Never a dull moment when you're talking to a writer indeed! So lucky to have two writers in the house!!

    By the way, I would totally NOT want to be able to see through my eyelids. Kind of defeats the purpose of closing my eyes. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  35. Hi Crystal! Adorable adorable adorable. Love that son of yours and he sounds like one proud dude to have a mother like you. Love those superpowers! Hope the tour goes well.

    Denise:)

    ReplyDelete
  36. Congratulations, how proud you must be of Quin! My son did read my book, but so far no family member has read book 2. Very few in my family read - makes me sad!

    Keep on writing Quin - you never know when one of those ideas will turn into your first book!

    ReplyDelete
  37. That post rocked! I agree about lame super powers. In fact, I'm sure I've created a few before. LOL!

    Quin your Mom is an inspiration just like you! :)

    ReplyDelete
  38. Awwwwww...loved hearing these creative ideas! Thanks so much for stopping by!

    ReplyDelete
  39. Really cute post! I was lukewarm about those "Books we both Disliked" books too.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Great post! Quin, I'm glad you have such wonderful conversations with your mom! My younger daughter and I used to read the same kind of books, but we diverged with Divergent -- which I absolutely could not get into.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Great post Quin - sounds like you have a lot of fun at your house - especially liked the word play.

    ReplyDelete
  42. My dad and I used to have craking eggstended egg based puns. We'd yolk around for hours ... you get the idea.

    ReplyDelete
  43. If I could create smells, I would totally bomb my husband with all of the horrid smells he's bombarded me with over the years. :)

    ReplyDelete
  44. Loved the zeal. I grew up in a house like this and when I became a Mom myself made sure to encourage my kids to explore their own creativity. It makes for interesting dinner conversations.

    ReplyDelete

Hit me with your cheese!