Yesterday, I had the opportunity to interview mlareau...or the penname by which she goes-Mona Lareau. It was an absolute delight to interview her and her responses had me cracking a smile more than once. So without further ado...here is her interview!
1. What made you decide to rejoin wattpad?
Any particular feature that grabbed your attention? Well, I just got bored of the usual stare at Facebook, stare at google, stare at hotmail routine and decided to try and revisit other sites. I came onto Wattpad, thankfully could remember my password, and was intrigued by the changes. The layout changed quite a lot. I think the thing that really kept me on was the covers, because the books never used to have covers, and then I thought that my old stories probably looked weird without them so I wanted to make some for them.
2. What inspires you to write your stories?
Anything and everything, really. Inspiration comes from so many places - other books, snatches of conversation you hear on the train, daydreams, normal dreams. I guess I just write what I would like to read, and there were two sides of me that never seemed to gel. The side that was reading The Hobbit at six years old, and the side that was still playing Barbies and dress up at twelve. I like to try and combine the two in my writing.
3. Any particular genre that you prefer to write?
Fantasy. I don't know why, but any ideas that come to me seem to be fantasy. It's such a broad genre you can do literally anything.
4. Which one of your stories would you recommend to everyone out there to take a look at?
Probably The Hunt, because that's my personal favourite. Funnily enough the first one I posted after coming back was Sunset, and no one reads that one, but I had bits of chapters stuffed in my drawers from The Hunt which I had kept revisiting over about a year.
5. Favorite genre to read?
Fantasy again. I was reading fantasy before I knew it was fantasy, you knows Harry Potter and all that. I do like human dramas too, though, family affairs. Written Coronation Street.
6. Favorite author?
I'm going to go with Anne Rice or LJ Smith, both do vamps I know, but they're also really inspirational people too.
7. What piece of advise would you give to any new writers out there?
I wouldn't ever give anyone writing advice, but I would give motivational advice. Even though I'm the laziest cow you ever saw, but it's easy to give advice when laying on your chaise longue eating grapes. Keep going, and don't get sidetracked!
8. What made you decide to choose a pseudonym?
Anonymity, mainly. I haven't showed my work to anyone I know personally, except like one friend who searched my work on google after I asked for her opinion between two different covers I was considering. But what are friends for? Yeah, I didn't think it was for that either but I guess I never got the memo lol.
9. Favorite color?
Green or red. Or pink, or maybe orange. And I do look good in yellow.
10. If you were to end up stranded on an island (with all the necessary survival items) which book would you absolutely have to end up taking with you?
Robinson Crusoe or Lord of the Flies might be useful in a what-to-do and what-not-to-do kind of way, plus I've never read either of them so they might combat boredom. Realistically, though, it might have to be an Anne Rice, because I just love her books so much.
11. Favorite song?
It changes so much! But right now I keep listening to Diamonds by Rihanna a lot.
12. Which is more fun being the villain or being the hero?
Villain haha. I feel like The Empress when writing The Hunt, because I'm pushing poor Beauty into all these places I know she doesn't want to go and being one step ahead of her the entire time. The Empress is definitely having a lot more fun than her right now.
13. Which would you prefer for a date...a tall,dark, and handsome vampire or a sizzling, manly, bad boy human?
Mmm, vampire! Obviously I would have been missing out on an entire world by not knowing about the existence of vampires, so I'm sure that he could show me a far better time than just some guy, no matter how macho he is! And I'm assuming a long existence would produce better conversation than manly grunts haha.
So, dear fellow readers and fans there you have it. A wonderful interview with mlareau and I suggest now that we all know her better that you go check out the her book... The Hunt and show your appreciation by commenting or voting.
