Interview with fantasy/sci-fi author Sylvia van Bruggen

Fantasy and sci-fi writer Sylvia van Bruggen is on the blog today. She's doing a virtual book tour for her novella MindScreens.


Bio: 
Sylvia van Bruggen is a fantasy/science fiction writer, poet, avid blogger and artist. She is the founder of Playful Creative, a website for creatives who want to work through their mental blocks and who want to learn how to play with their writing. She has self-published a novella, two poetry books, and her poems and short stories have been published in various magazines. She currently writes a fantasy novel, and she works on publishing another poetry book. She lives in the Netherlands with her husband, three cats and several novels in various draft stages.

 

Welcome, Sylvia. Please tell us about your current release.

MindScreens is a fantasy/scifi/romance novella about a student, Jess, at New London University. She is a very gifted healer, can heal anything but death. She is madly in love with her Professor. When he collapses while teaching a class she learns a horrible truth, and her world unravels.

What inspired you to write this book?

I came up with the idea of a MindScreen, that is a device that reads strong thoughts, one cold and early morning. The book was finished that same week.

Excerpt:

"What's the emergency?" An equally snappy voice answered straight away, "Healer Harper, report to Med-Office at the south entrance. Slip and fall, going through scanner now, but judging from the bone sticking out I'd say it's broken." Grade A injury, good thing I hadn't eaten.

"I'm gonna miss class, you have to report me!"

"Not my problem, now scoot along."

I pushed my Jotter into my bag, shouted: "Medical emergency!" and started to run down the hallway. Left, right, down the stairs, swerve around some slobbering kissers, and then down the long corridor to the Med-Office, my voice getting hoarser and hoarser from shouting at people. The curse of being a Grade A Healer, only getting called when there's a big emergency. Better learn how to run fast if you want to save someone's life. 

What exciting story are you working on next?

I am working on the sequel of MindScreens, set two months after the end of the novella :)

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

As a child. I wrote a LOT of poetry and short stories in a lesser degree, because my mind scared the heck out of me :)

I even got published at age 9. Then my teenage years happened and I rejected all my writing, my poetry was childish and I got bad grades on whatever I wrote at school. I only got back to calling myself a writer when life ground to a crushing halt and I found my love of writing again at nanowrimo 2004. I have written ever since :)

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like?  If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I am starting to. I start out early in the morning writing my blog post for the day or for somewhere around the week. I find that writing my blog posts frees up my creativity. I do most of my writing in the mornings, in the afternoons it's keeping up with the blog and editing and pottering about the house :)

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I always have to have something with me to write on, because ideas often come strong and fast :) I have been known to walk mumbling through the house because I had an idea I didn't want to lose and needed to get to the nearest pen and paper to write it down. Sometimes it doesn't make a lot of sense. One night I wrote this on my notepad: the turtle crossed the road quickly. To this day I have no idea what the brilliant idea behind those words was :)

Now I have my smartphone as my constant writing companion :)

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I had a very detailed dream as a child :) I had a house where I wanted to live with all sorts of animals, I even knew what the house was like and dreamed up whole rooms. The most important room was my office, where I could write and paint and create and play :) I still dream of that house today and I know it will become reality some day :)

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

Live your passion. If you want to write, don't let anything keep you from it. If you are completely blocked about your writing, play yourself through it, write something else, paint something, release fear's hold on you and just do it!

Great advice, Sylvia. Thanks for stopping here as you tour your novella.