Getting To Know You....Part Six

Today we are interviewing Erin Millar.

FF: How long have you been writing?

I wrote my first story when I was seven, for a reading group project in first grade. I had always loved reading and making up stories before then, but I think that's when I realized that it was also fun to write them down. It was really all downhill from there

FF: What genre do you write in?

Typically young adult, but I've also written some things that could probably classify more as literary or commercial fiction. Regardless, my protagonists tend to be teenagers. The project I'm working on currently is a young adult dystopian

FF: Tell us a little bit about your story in the anthology.

It's very nerdy. It's set at an all-encompassing fandom convention in the middle of summer. The story is told from a girl named Beth's point of view. She doesn't really want to be there, but was forced to go by her friends, because they've always gone. And then she meets this guy who's volunteering for the convention and isn't nearly as comfortable with his nerdiness as she is

I got the idea due to the fact that I'm on the staff for an online-based nonprofit social activism group called the Harry Potter Alliance. There was a convention in Florida this summer that most of the staff went to, but I wasn't able to make it. Listening to everyone talk about their plans and excitement about it got me thinking about conventions and general nerdiness. This is what happens when I embrace my own nerdiness more than I usually do

FF: Are you currently working on a novel?

I am. It's a young adult dystopian. I'm currently revising it to get it ready to send out to agents. I'm also writing the first draft of another installment of the project I'm revising. I'm trying to focus more on the revisions, though, but I've always found that I do better if I have at least one thing to just write a first draft of. First drafts require far less energy than revisions

FF: Best/worst advice you’ve received?

The best advice I've received is to keep going. Of course there are a lot of times when you just want to stop, or give up, or move on to that shinier idea, but you'll never getting anything accomplished if you don't try to focus. The worst advice I've received...I don't know if I've ever gotten strickly bad writing advice. I guess the worst advice would be that taking my writing so seriously is a waste of time. But it's not like I listen to anyone who tells me that kind of stuff anyway

FF: Any other information you want your readers to know?

Let's see...I have a BA in Creative Writing from Ohio Northern University and have lived in Columbus my entire life, excepting the time I spent at college. I work a boring day job in order to pay for my nerdy habits. Because I really am a nerd--I mean, I've read Harry Potter a ridiculous number of times and have way too much Potter paraphernalia. I'm on the volunteer staff of the Harry Potter Alliance, which is great fun, and I write freelance theatre articles and reviews for the Columbus, OH edition of Examiner.com. I'm also an Irish dancer and I play handbells in the choir at my church. You can find me on Twitter @ErinLMillar.