Meghan: Hi, Mandi and Matt. Welcome to my blog. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Mandi & Matt Hart: We started our writing career shortly after we got married and found out that we both had a passion for writing. We are currently working on our first novel and expecting our first child.
Meghan: What are five things most people don’t know about you?
Mandi & Matt Hart: 1) We like to be creative in all areas including art and music, 2) We enjoy collecting eclectic and unique things, 3) We started practicing for our son to come by reading each other bed time stories, 4) We have a joint journal where we write letters to each other, 5) We live in a haunted house.
Meghan: What is the first book you remember reading?
Mandi & Matt Hart: Mandi- Black Beauty, Matt- Old Yeller
Meghan: What are you reading now?
Mandi & Matt Hart: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Pete’s Dragon: The Lost Years.
Meghan: What’s a book you really enjoyed that others wouldn’t expect you to have liked?
Mandi & Matt Hart: The Odyssey
Meghan: What made you decide you want to write? When did you begin writing?
Mandi & Matt Hart: Matt did poetry in high school and after winning a few poetry contests, he got bitten by the bug. Mandi has been writing since high school and has enjoyed it, but was too shy and afraid to let anyone read her work. After we got married, Matt read some of Mandi’s work and really enjoyed it and revealed he had been looking for a partner to help bring his ideas to life. We combined our talents and are now working on our first novel.
Meghan: Do you have a special place you like to write?
Mandi & Matt Hart: In the bedroom side by side.
Meghan: Do you have any quirks or processes that you go through when you write?
Mandi & Matt Hart: We hand write everything first before transcribing and editing on a computer.
Meghan: Is there anything about writing you find most challenging?
Mandi & Matt Hart: Keeping the pace of the story while still providing descriptions and information while also keeping the excitement going.
Meghan: What’s the most satisfying thing you’ve written so far?
Mandi & Matt Hart: This novel we are working on right now.
Meghan: What books have most inspired you? Who are some authors that have inspired your writing style?
Mandi & Matt Hart: The Ashes Series by William Johnstone, It by Stephen King, and House of Leaves. Hunter H. Thompson, Douglas Adams, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, and William Johnstone.
Meghan: What do you think makes a good story?
Mandi & Matt Hart: A plot that draws you in and keeps your attention and relatable characters.
Meghan: What does it take for you to love a character? How do you utilize that when creating your characters?
Mandi & Matt Hart: If we can create a character that makes the reader feel as if they are going through the trials and story with them then that is a character that we love. We create real and relatable characters.
Meghan: Which, of all your characters, do you think is the most like you?
Mandi & Matt Hart: Matt is most like Dillon in our novel.
Meghan: Are you turned off by a bad cover? To what degree were you involved in creating your book covers?
Mandi & Matt Hart: We are turned off by a bad cover and plan to be 100% involved in creating our own book covers.
Meghan: What have you learned creating your books?
Mandi & Matt Hart: We have learned team work and how to describe details of characters and places more thoroughly.
Meghan: What has been the hardest scene for you to write so far?
Mandi & Matt Hart: The first informational scene. It was a difficult balance to not lose the momentum of the story while still providing background information at the start.
Meghan: What makes your book different from others out there in this genre?
Mandi & Matt Hart: We hope to take a realistic unbiased viewpoint on the situation at hand and showing the reality of situations, backed up by research, and not having political opinions inserted in.
Meghan: How important is the book title, how hard is it to choose the best one, and how did you choose yours (of course, with no spoilers)?
Mandi & Matt Hart: The book title is extremely important and is one of the most difficult things to choose. Matt came up with our book title after a conversation with a friend about the novel.
Meghan: What makes you feel more fulfilled: Writing a novel or writing a short story?
Mandi & Matt Hart: Writing a novel makes us feel more fulfilled. We feel to best engage readers and bring them into our stories world that we need a novel concept instead of a short story concept.
Meghan: Tell us a little bit about your book, your target audience, and what you would like readers to take away from your stories.
Mandi & Matt Hart: We are writing a book about survival in a country that has been occupied by enemy forces and the importance of relying on those around us. Our target audience is people who are preppers, survivalists, and those who love military or over coming all obstacles stories. When faced with an undefeatable enemy and staggering odds against you, you still go all in head first and never give is what we would like readers to take away from our stories.
Meghan: Can you tell us about some of the deleted scenes/stuff that got left out of your work?
Mandi & Matt Hart: We first started our story at the end and tried to accomplish a story after the events unfolded but the story did not want to be told that way. We gave the story the power to tell itself and ended up starting from the beginning and allowing our readers to live through it through our character’s eyes.
Meghan: What is in your “trunk”?
Mandi & Matt Hart: Yes we do. We have a horror story that we have started and still work on when the muse decides to strike.
Meghan: What can we expect from you in the future?
Mandi & Matt Hart: We are also currently working on an action adventure story that takes place during the Vietnam War.
Meghan: Where can we find you?
Mandi & Matt Hart: Facebook ** Email
Meghan: Do you have any closing words for your fans or anything you’d like to say that we didn’t get to cover in this interview?
Mandi & Matt Hart: We look forward to getting our book out into the public’s hands soon and truly hope that you enjoy. Drop us a line any time. We look forward to getting to know our fans and creating adventures together!
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