avalonsmistress.com

I was interviewed for this June’s Kalidosouls Stormwatch, by a very good freind of mine, Joyce Anthony, GO sign up at Joyce Anthony’s KaledioSouls !!), and this is the results of that interview.

Featured Author—Donna “Kai” Wilson

This month’s featured author is a writer, webmistress, game designer, mother, and many fills many other roles. She will soon be releasing several books, which will be announced here when they come out.

Joyce:.Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Kai. You have written such a variety of works, I was wondering f you put yourself in any particular category as a writer?

Kai: Actually, I’ve never really thought about it. I’ve been told by many people that I’m a ‘renaissance woman’ – which means I’m scattered all over the place. So I let people decide where I fit -its better, I
guess, than categorising myself, taking on another label that pigeonholes interest and losing readers because
of it. Or, you could say I’m very indecisive and write as much as I can, and hate being tied down . Its
all perspective, I guess If I were only allowed to write one fiction area and on non fiction area for the
rest of my life though, I think I’d go cross genre for the fiction and mental health for the non fiction.

Joyce: I’ve read your “Twelve Days of Rain” book and have to say it’s one of my favourites. Do you have a
particular favourite of all you’ve written? If so, what stands out about that particular work?
Kai: I haven’t really written enough to decide which book I like. They all touch me in different ways -I’m
proud of them all but there’s lots of stuff that I think ‘wow’ about in separate books. Glass Block has a
special place in my heart because of Elliot -12 Days because I love poetry and I managed to get a chapbook
together. Black Monday cause it says an immense amount about the future, and Souls Road cause…it was fun to
write. I like the writing of the books more than anything else though – I’m far happier building and writing
than editing and releasing

Joyce: Web mistress, writer, game developer, mother and probably a few other roles I’ve forgotten—-where do
you find all the time? Do you have any time management secrets you’d be willing to share with us??

Kai: Make a ten point list of what you want to do. Mark off the stuff you’ve done. If you get them done,
make another ten point list. And so on. If you don’t get through it start again the next day – only carry
over deadline stuff.
I also had to learn how to delegate and to streamline. I run so many sites that I
redirect stuff all over the place I also use a really nifty little reminder system (that I sometimes
forget to switch on) called Cute Reminder and book clients in there AND into Outlook. If none of them are
running, its highly likely that I’m not on the PC, so they won’t get done anyway. And when that happens, I
apologise, meet deadlines and move on. Other than that – I try to balance my ‘fun’ and my ‘responsibility’
quotient, and always try to remember that my life may BE my PC, but not all of my life revolves around it. I
take lots of time off with notepads, pens, crayons sometimes and go out for coffee, or walks, or just to
spend time with my small children and partner. And I’m an insanely addicted gamer. I play both World of
Warcraft and Eve. Downtime is important too. I also role-play and am developing a gaming system to support
that, which combines two of my ‘loves’.

Joyce: What has been the worst piece of advice you’ve ever received regarding your writing? What about the
best?

Kai: The worst? “You can’t write that! Its not decent”. It was to do with myerotica writing -something I
get paid a small fortune for and have made many interesting friends and contacts through. Closely behind that – ’ the editor is ALWAYS right’ – most of the time they are, I’ll grant you that, but its pompous to suggest
that someone that spells something in their language is wrong, and you’re right, just because your spell
checker says so. I’m careful to convert articles to US spelling for a US market, but my stories are written
in British, my ‘mother tongue’ as it were
The best was ‘just get on with it’. Talent is fairly common, and though its an important part of the equation, its not ALL there is to it. Persistence, determination,
humility and of course belief are the rest of the ingredients to a successful writer. The honesty and understanding of rejection to know that you aren’t the next big thing, and the conviction to still stand behind it and choose to go it alone sometimes. You’ve got to know when to ask for help, and when to ignore it
though, and as a writer, its one of the strongest lessons I’ve gotten, outside of the actual craft of writing. I was also told to write every day. Unless I am too sick, I write every day. I’ve written some pretty weird stuff, because I spent most of my time writing in hospital whilst on pain meds. I’ve written whilst sitting in a hospital basement, waiting for test results, and out in sunlight beside my favourite place in the world. So I write every day – and sometimes ALL day!

Joyce: Where is the best place people can find your books?

Kai: I got sick of trying to keep all the URLS straight so every book I’ve written is getting listed at
http://booksbykai.com -failingt hat, if you wanna know what I’m planning next, the best place to check is
http://tippingflamingos.com -which is part of my main blog at http://kaiberie.com – I used to just cross post
everything, but I discovered that I could just make it a category of my main blog instead and save time. You
can grab a free copy of 12 Days of Rain at http://12daysofrain.com in PDF format, and we’re setting up for
special pre orders now for the four books out in the next six months.

Joyce: Do you have any upcoming events you’d like to share with us?

Kai: I’m relaunching several sites in the next couple of weeks – http://writersdiner.com where all of my various syndicated articles are fed to, for easy perusal, along with features from others, and I’m releasing several reports on how to get the most out of Google, adsense and
blogging. We’re launching several fiction sites too -including ‘randombodies’ a site where you can submit
your stories for review and discussion. My books are on staggered release from sometime in September . I’m
also finishing up the final information on my publishing co-op and launch that officially this next month.
The ‘biggie’ for me is coming out on my birthday (November 12th) and is called Pictures in the Dark -the
bipolar’s guide to good mental health. At the end of next month we’re also running a hosting promotion for
writers (http://thewritershost.com) to celebrate our third anniversary as a host, along with scripting
similar to the writersdiner site – and we’re running some masterclasses on site maintenance and design at
http://kaiberworks.com . again, the best way to keep up with me is my main blog, Insanity is contagious, at
http://kaiberie.com

Joyce: Fifty years from now, what would you like people to say about Donna “Kai” Wilson?

Kai: Wow, she wrote lots of good stuff. Actually, I don’t mind, as long as my name is remembered in a
positive way. Whether its ‘she formed a good community,’ or ‘she helped (this writer) with their career’ or
‘wow, isn’t she amazing’. As long as its for a good reason, I’m happy.