Aspiring Authors Spotlight Questions for March featuring Julie Clauser
Hello everyone! ^_^ I hope you’re liking my blog tour! Have had so much support these past week and over 700 giveaway entries! 0.o That’s INSANE!!! You guys are the best! We still have one more stop to look at and you can go to any of the websites to read my guest post, interviews, and such on Paper Crane’s Events page. My Behind-the-Scenes video for the tour is up there as well. 🙂
Now, to introduce a very special lady, my March Aspiring Author, Mrs. Julie Clauser. I have been friends with Julie since high school and her and my husband were in the same class. I admire Julie for having such inner (and outer) strength, doing anything for her friends without a second thought and not being scared to be herself and like what she likes; it took me a little while to learn this lesson. She is humorous, loyal, passionate, brave, funny, and creative. She is a role model to me and I was so happy when she came to me all excited and told me she started a story. Of coarse I had to have her on here. Without further ado, let me happily introduce a dog lover, an artist, an otaku, and an amazing friend, my girl, Mrs. Julie Clauser! ^_^ BTW: She made the AMAZING Disney and Pokémon Book signing posters for me. 🙂 She is currently working on a lasin board for Miles’ Li Cardcaptor Sakura outfit. 🙂
1. When you wake up in the morning, how do you see life?
I could say that life is sunshine, happiness, and love but that would be merely a half truth. There is always an opposite of everything. There is sunshine and darkness, happiness and sadness, love and hate. Life is all of these and so much more. It is what a person chooses to make of it and how they live each moment of each day.
2. How did writing find its way into your life?
Ever since I can remember my dad has always loved reading and writing so I had been exposed to both from a young age. It wasn’t until my junior year that I really started writing though. My dad died near the end of my junior year of High School and in memory of him I wrote a short story for one of my English Comp. classes. I suppose his death opened my mind to worlds beyond my reality.
3. What does writing do for you?
Writing allows me to escape from reality. For a while I get to soar through the clouds on a dragon’s back instead of stressing over bills. It is a freedom that I can grant myself and anyone that chooses to read my work.
4. What sort of genre or type of writing do you do?
I mostly write stories of fantasy, action, adventure, and love. Sometimes horror and history may find its way into my writings. It all really depends on when and where an idea might hit me.
5. Do events in your life or people you know affect your writing?
Yes, most definitely. I pull personal experiences into my stories constantly. Places I have seen, people I know, all end up forming the basis for the lands I create and the people that inhabit it. I can’t really see myself ever writing anything with my imagination alone. To me it takes both real events and the depths of my own mind to write.
6. What are you currently working on or what was the last thing you wrote?
Currently I am working on a story I have called Clorana.
7. Can you tell us a little about it and its inspiration?
I don’t want to give too much away but I will say that there are dragons, witches, secrets to be revealed, and a surprise that most will not see coming. As for my inspiration, that came from a variety of people. My mom, Ruth Ann Niemann, and three of my best friends, William Crites, Crystil Skaggs, and Logan Camden. Each of them has inspired various parts in the world of Clorana and in the characters that inhabit that world.
8. What are your goals for the future?
I would love to get Clorana published. That is one of my major goals currently. I would also love to eventually get the short prequel stories, The Black Witch’s Diary and The White Witch’s Diary, published as well.
9. What are your interests or hobbies?
I love to read, write, and work on various types of art such as paintings, sketches, and wood burnings. I also love anime and video games.
10. If you could be a superhero, what are your powers and how would you use them to help the world?
I would have hydrokinetic and animal shape shifting abilities. I can’t honestly say I’d completely use these abilities to help the world. I am the type of person that would question if the world deserves to be saved. I would question if I would even be accepted for what I am or if people would try to imprison me out of fear or a sense of misguided need to experiment on me. I’d like to think that I’d at least try to help people despite the potential fear and hate that most would inevitably thrust toward me as an unknown and potentially dangerous being.
11. What advice would you give people who want to write?
I would tell them to draw from reality as often as they would their own imaginations. To interpret things differently then people around them because they never know what they might discover. Last I would say to always keep your mind open to new thoughts, new possibilities, and new experiences because any one of them could be your inspiration for a story that could be life changing.
12. If you could be remembered for one thing or thought, what would it be?
I think I would be remembered for my brutally honest views. I can be a harsh person when I’m asked my opinion but I am also a very loyal person to the ones that have earned it.
Example of work:
“A pact made in a moment of sorrow brought about the destruction of everything she set out to save.” These words spoken by the White Witch so long ago seemed to ring through Kyrie’s mind as she carefully made her way through the Dark Forest. She knew she didn’t have any choice but to seek out the Dragons. They may be the key to finding out whom or what she was as much as they were vital to stopping the spread of darkness the Black Witch was causing. She found herself missing Valen’s sarcastic and cruel comments more then she cared to admit and the darkness that seemed to surround her didn’t help her feel any less alone. The crunch of leaves beside her drew her eyes toward the Clydesdale sized white wolf by her side. Vahloke followed closely as his ears flicked every few seconds in anticipation and worry. She would find the Dragon’s no matter what the cost to her own life. She had to!”
Short Bio on Author:
My name is Julie Clauser. I’m 25 years old and was born on April 1, 1988 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I spent most of my life living in Missouri with my mom, dad, and Brother John. Ever since I was three years old I have loved art in many different forms. Writing is one of those forms. On February 26, 2004 my dad died from bone cancer and I was devastated. That same year I went through a period of guilt that led to self inflicted cutting. With help from my mom and the youth leader from the church I was attending at the time I stopped cutting. The following year, my senior year, I wrote a short story for one of my English Composition classes that was my own representation of what I felt and went through after my dad’s death. I was hurting but I was also inspired by everything that had happened. I am still living in Farmington, Missouri and got married on March 25, 2012 to Matthew Clauser. I work at Country Mart at the Customer Service desk and on the side, for the last two years; have been working on my book Clorana.