Author Bio:
Greta Burroughs loves to read. No matter where she is, there is always a book close at hand. Her love of reading began at an early age and blossomed over time to include many different genres, her favorite now being fantasy.
As a preschool and elementary school teacher, Greta tried to instill the joy of reading in the children she worked with. Books were an important part of her classroom and story time was the highlight of the day.
It has been a while since Greta was in a classroom, but she gained a lot of experience reading to children of various ages and remembers what they enjoyed listening to. She tries to incorporate this knowledge into her work as an author, and believes it makes her a better writer of books for children and young adults.
Greta now resides in SC with her husband, Robert, and four dogs.
For more information on Greta’s books, visit http://booksbygretaburroughs.weebly.com/
What inspires you to write?
As a teacher, books were a very important part of our daily routine. I worked with developmentally disabled preschoolers and picture books opened up an avenue to get them to talk. That grew into making our own little books and my desire to some day publish a book of my own. That dream was put on hold but not forgotten. Years later, I had the opportunity to fulfill that dream and the inspiration from my days as a teacher keeps me going. I get ideas for my children’s stories from everyday life and shape those ideas into stories I think young children can relate to.
Tell us about your writing process.
I am a seat-of-the-pants writer. I generally have a spark of an idea in the back of my mind but when I sit at the computer, I let the story write itself. That leads to some interesting twists and turns, especially in my middle grade/young adult books. I reread parts of the book and wonder where those words came from – definitely not from me!
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
My characters are the real authors of my books. I picture them in my mind and write the dialog as I visualize them talking. I don’t really converse with any of the characters, but collectively, they work together to help me “see” the story taking place. If I don’t follow their lead, I pay for it by having to delete and rewrite it the right way!
Who are your favorite authors?
I have read many books that have kept me awake or prevented me from doing household chores. Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey, David Eddings, Isaac Asimov are a few of the well-known authors. Lately, I’ve been reading mostly Indie authors who captivate my imagination – Dannye Williamsen, Nicole Storey, Donna Dillon, Robert DeBurgh, Yvonne Hertzberger, K.D. Emerson, Tamy Burns, Leland Dirks – to name a few.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
My first experience publishing was before I discovered self-publishing. I accumulated a nice collection of rejection letters which lead to trying one of the you-pay-for-it publishers. It wasn’t a bad experience, but not what it was cracked up to be and extremely expensive.
When I discovered Smashwords, KDP, and Createspace, my publishing experience improved immensely. Not only for the dollars saved, but for the freedom to create a manuscript as I wanted it to look and read. Plus the frustration of trying to do things “their” way disappeared.
As I gained experience as a writer and learned some valuable lessons from fellow authors, the ability to correct mistakes and rewrite parts of the manuscript was another bonus gained by being an Indie author. Added to that, the pride I feel when holding a print copy of my book that I made myself is priceless.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
Books will never disappear. The method of reading them may be changing from print to electronic, but the joy of reading will remain a constant. The future of book publishing may start leaning more towards the Indie side of the scale but that is an advantage for the readers. The prices are more reasonable and the variety and availability of new authors makes reading more attractive. The Big Six may suffer, but everyone else benefits.
What genres do you write?
children’s, middle grade/young adult, nonfiction memoir
What formats are your books in?
eBook, Print
Website(s)
Greta Burroughs Home Page Link
Link To Greta Burroughs Page On Amazon
Link to Author Page on Smashwords
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