Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Interview with Gini Koch, author of the Alien series


1. If someone looked at your browsing history right now, what kind of things would we find?



Lots of information on how to poison someone, bullet velocities and bullet calibers, tons of information on the House of Representatives and some on the Senate, maps of the D.C. area, and the sketch for the cover of Alien in the House from my awesome cover artist, Daniel Dos Santos.




2. If you could write about any subject that is near and dear to your heart, what would it be and why?



I write what’s dear to my heart every day. I don’t work on things I don’t like or don’t care about. In the Alien series, my heroine, Kitty, gets to kick butt with a great soundtrack going and hang out with the most gorgeous people on Earth. In my other series I get to go to the far future, the past, the paranormal, the fantastical, and so on. I get to live in the worlds I see in my head AND share them with others. I couldn’t have asked for a better option for what to do every day.




3. Do you have a favorite song, album, or playlist to write to?



I’m incredibly musically driven, and so I have specific bands or songs for specific books or series. There is no “favorite” other than “whichever song or band or album are helping me write the fastest and best right now”.




4. What was the first thing you did after the debut of the first book you wrote?


What I do after the debut of every book, novella, or short story I’ve ever written that’s been published -- worked on the next book.



On the day Touched by an Alien debuted one of our dogs got hella sick and I got to take her to the vet while the hubs cleaned up a massive amount of doggy vomit. A few hours later, a good and thoughtful friend brought a card and a plant by to celebrate. The hubs asked her what we were celebrating. After she bawled him out for forgetting what the hell day it WAS, we COULD have gone out to dinner (because he was ready to do anything to get her and me to forgive him), but said dog was still feeling crappy, so we stayed home. And I worked on another book. Yeah, the writer’s life -- it’s ALL glamour, baby!




5. What is your biggest pet peeve?



OMG, I have so many pet peeves that it’s hard to pick just one or even identify the #1. But one that is for sure in my All Time Top 10 is reviewers giving away spoilers of my books without so much as a warning. I kill myself to have surprises for my readers in everything I write, and to have a reviewer discuss the big reveal before the book’s hit the shelves or is even a month old causes me physical pain.




6. Do you have any guilty pleasures?



I consider the watching of any TV program to be a guilty pleasure because it’s time I could use for writing. So, Castle, Burn Notice, White Collar, Psych, Arrow, and Elementary are my guilty pleasures. (NCIS, The Voice, Dancing with the Stars, and Covert Affairs have moved off this list because, well, something had to go. LOL) Other than that, I don’t do guilt, at all, for anything or any reason.




7. What was your favorite book as a teen?


The Complete Works of O. Henry and the Complete Sherlock Holmes. I read both at least once a year, every year, for my entire teens and early twenty-somethings. (Yes, in case you’re wondering, I’m an incredibly fast reader. To me, a huge “complete collection” counts as “one” book because they can last me more than a few hours or a day.)




8. If an aspiring writer asked for advice what would you tell them?


Patience, professionalism, and perseverance are the three most important qualities you can have and improve upon in this business. And, never give up, never surrender.




Favorite Meal: Sushi



Favorite Drink (alcoholic/non-alcoholic): Nonalcoholic used to be Coca-Cola -- still is, really, but I had to give all sodas up -- so let’s call it Iced Tea. Alcoholic varies, but it’s either reposado tequila on the rocks, or what I call a Chocolate Milk (1 shot Kahlua, 1 shot Bailey’s, half & half, on the rocks).



Sweet or Salty snacks: Sweet, but heading towards salty



All time favorite movie: Disney’s Lady and the Tramp



Best book to movie adaptation: Happily, there are quite a few. For me, it’s Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy and probably the first Harry Potter movie.



Worst book to movie adaptation: Too many to list here, but my first crushing experience with this was when I was young, so I’ll give you The Phantom Tollbooth. And as a young adult, probably Dune (the first one, starring Kyle McLaughlin). After The Phantom Tollbooth I realized what my mother had said was true -- 99.9% of the time, the book is always going to be better.




Author Bio:



Gini Koch lives in Hell’s Orientation Area (aka Phoenix, AZ), works her butt off (sadly, not literally) by day, and writes by night with the rest of the beautiful people. She writes the fast, fresh and funny Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt series for DAW Books, the Necropolis Enforcement Files series, and the Martian Alliance Chronicles series for Musa Publishing. As G.J. Koch she writes the Alexander Outland series. She also writes under a variety of other pen names (including Anita Ensal, Jemma Chase, A.E. Stanton, and J.C. Koch), listens to all kinds of music 24/7, and is a proud comics geek-girl willing to discuss at any time why Wolverine is the best superhero ever (even if Deadpool does get all the best lines). She speaks frequently on what it takes to become a successful author and other aspects of writing and the publishing business. She can be reached through her website at www.ginikoch.com.



Website: www.ginikoch.com

Blog: http://ginikoch.blogspot.com/

Official Fan Site, Alien Collective Virtual HQ: http://aliencollectivehq.com
Twitter: @GiniKoch

Facebook: facebook.com/Gini.Koch

Facebook Fan Page, Hairspray and Rock & Roll: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hairspray-and-Rock-n-Roll-Kicking-Evil-Alien-Butt-since-2010-GINI-KOCH/247377348018

Buy Links, Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=gini+koch&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Agini+koch

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