…And my series of interviews continues. I’ve come to the conclusion that the nearly-published anthology Avast, Ye Airships! contains stories by some of the most enthralling authors writing steampunk today.
Today I’d like you to meet Wynelda Ann Deaver. Her website, Wynword’s Weblog, is subtitled “Life, Love, Kids, and Being a Little Nuts.” I didn’t find much evidence of her being nuts, but the other three topics really define her site. They also permeate the answers to my interview questions, which she answered with clarity and brevity:
Poseidon’s Scribe: When and why did you begin writing fiction?
Wynelda Ann Deaver: I started writing fiction in the fifth grade. I think it was mostly me wanting to be someone else—be the heroine for once.
P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of writing for you?
W.D.: Ideas are easy. But computers come with internet now, and there’s Facebook, and blogs, and email… Not to mention being a single parent. It’s not that I don’t have the time. It’s that time management is very hard for me.
P.S.: How did you become interested in writing in your primary genre?
W.D.: Piers Anthony’s Xanth series. I read my first one in the fourth grade. My mom read romance, so she flipped through it, saw the “Adult Conspiracy” and knew it would be ok for me. I was hooked.
P.S.: Where do you get the ideas for your stories?
W.D.: Everywhere. Sometimes you just have to take your view and twist it.
P.S.: Your short story, “Steampunk Garden,” is set to appear in the upcoming anthology Avast, Ye Airships! 
What was the inspiration for it?
W.D.: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett was one of the books that I adored growing up. I still do. So I took it and… twisted it. Made it into a new story.
P.S.: What other authors influenced your writing?
W.D.: Mercedes Lackey, Eloisa James, Julia Quinn, Anne Bishop, Elizabeth Haydon.
P.S.: Recently your book The Golden Apple and Other Stories was published. Please tell us a little about it.
W.D.: The Golden Apple and Other Stories
is something I’m really proud of. There are three retellings of fairytales and two personal myths in it. One of the fairytales, “The Golden Apple,” is one my sister used to tell her daughters and me while we were in the car.
P.S.: From your website it’s clear your son has been diagnosed with Dyspraxia. My heart goes out to you. How have your efforts to cope with his condition influenced your writing?
W.D.: My son is a huge part of my life, and in his first five or six years so was his dyspraxia. Dyspraxia is a neurological condition that affects motor skills, memory, speech, balance, emotional health… a lot. When he was younger, I didn’t write very much— too busy with him and getting him up to at least near where he needs to be. Now that he’s older, it’s easier to write. He has friends. He can ride a bike with no training wheels (it took five months, but he stuck with it!). He doesn’t need me quite as much. But I’m finding him popping up in my fiction now: in the urban fantasy, there’s a wee little toddler who has dyspraxic symptoms. In The Golden Apple, there’s a personal myth with a mother and son in a candy garden. This started with a story between my son and I… I just twisted it really hard!
P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?
W.D.: I am currently working on an urban fantasy. A witch, a vampire and a siren are best friends…
Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer aspiring writers?
Wynelda Ann Deaver: Just write. And read. Read a lot, but write more. You also have to make the decision— are you writing for love or money? Personally, I have to write the stories I do, whether or not they find a home. My hard drive is full of stories that haven’t found a home yet. I might send them out again. Or self-publish since that’s now readily available in the e-book market. I wrote them for me, the original audience. And sometimes that’s enough.
Thank you, Wynelda, for captivating my readers with your answers today. I wish you many sales. Follow her on Twitter and like her on Facebook.
Poseidon’s Scribe