Holly Schofield’s stories have appeared in many publications including Lightspeed, AE, and Unlikely Story.
1. How long have you been writing and what got you started?
Long enough to know better but not long enough to smarten up. *Grin* I’ve been writing short stories for about five years, now. It’s a lot of fun.
2. What is the best piece of advice you have for new writers?
The standard advice holds: Read everything you can, inside and outside of your chosen genre(s).
3. What is your favorite type of fiction and who are your favorite authors?
I’m very partial to science fiction with a character arc. My favorites range from Tiptree to Le Guin to Willis to Bujold and uncountable others.
4. How do you measure success when it comes to your writing?
I compare my current skillset to yesterday’s. Like most crafts, writing really is an endless learning curve.
5. Are you an outliner or discovery writer? Or somewhere in between?
I definitely work out the resolution, and a brief road map of how to get there, before I start to draft the story.
6. Have you attended any conferences or writing retreats? What was the experience like and do you have any to recommend?
If you are interesting in written science fiction, I’d recommend Readercon in Boston and When Words Collide in Alberta, Canada. Both are focused on learning the writing craft.
7. How do you deal with rejections?
Not as well as I’d like to. 🙂
8. Were you taught anything about creative writing in high school or college that just didn’t work for you?
“Write what you know” is, of course, endlessly misinterpreted. If everyone listened to the literal meaning, we’d have no fiction at all.
9. What book(s) are you reading right now?
The pile of books on my bedside table would reach the ceiling if they weren’t all composed of pixels.
10. Is there anything you’d like to plug? Feel free to share a link.
You can follow my website at hollyschofield.wordpress.com and be notified when a new story is out. You can also find a full bibliography of my published works there — and some of them are free to read! A list of most of my publications is also on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Holly-Schofield/e/B00JNBBYW0/ . Thanks!
