Diego Marano, UK Manager for Kobo Writing Life interviews Chele Cooke, author of Dead & Buryd. Diego is joined by KWL Director Mark Lefebvre.

The trio discuss the following:

Chele’s start of writing when she moved, at the age of 14, to San Francisco, where she began writing fan fiction in the Harry Potter universe
How Chele’s degree in creative writing opened her up to different types and styles of fiction
The effect of being short-listed for the Wicked Young Writers Award (http://www.wickedyoungwriters.com/)
Some mistakes made early in a writing career and how that helps a writer to learn
Chele’s previous challenge of piles of unfinished manuscripts and HOW she overcame that during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month – November) by investing some time in outlining rather than just sitting down and writing without planning
OUTLINING was the key to Chele’s success in completing a novel
Chele’s plans to write the sequel to Dead & Buryd during NaNoWriMo this year (and the fact that Kobo Writing Life is a proud sponsor of NaNaWriMo 2013)
How being new in self-publishing is like being the new kid in school
The full story of how Chele & Mark met at London Book Fair, with zombies in the park, spontaneous hugs with strangers and Kobo Writing Life swag
One of Chele’s favourite characters in Dead & Buryd and how she looked forward to writing scenes involving this character
Embracing the challenge of killing off main characters and killing off the words in one’s first draft
How Chele wrote 21,000 words in three days (again, thanks to the aforementioned outline)
Chele’s book launch on October 5^th at Big Green Book Shop (show up for a chance to win a Kobo eReader courtesy of Kobo Writing Life)

After the interview Mark talks about the importance of personal relationships and networking for a writer’s success. He calls out attending workshops, conferences and other in person events in order to make important connections. You never know when that connection you made might lead to a beautiful thing. Mark also talks about why looking for what you can do to help other writers is a great long term strategy for success.

LINKS/RESOURCES

Chele Cooke’s website

Chele Cooke on Twitter

Chele's Pinterest page for Dead & Buryd

Chele's Facebook Page

Dead & Buryd on Kobo