Author Interview
Give us an insight into your main character. What do you like best about them?
There are actually three key characters in this story and each new chapter is told from their point of view, however, out if those three, Aiden is the most essential character to the story. He is the one who brings the other two together. He is the fulcrum. What I like most about him is the way he makes you feel every spectrum of emotion along his journey. You don’t just watch his struggle, you accompany him through it. He’s a genuinely good and kind person who was dealt a very distressing situation. Yet, he not only faces that heartache head-on, he rises above it and teaches those around him many lessons along the way.
Which actor/actress would you like to see playing the lead character from The Fire Inside?
Jesse Williams, an actor from Grey’s Anatomy. He looks exactly how I imagine Aiden right down to those haunting eyes.
When writing your novel did you aim for a set amount of words/pages per day?
Let me first say that I’ve been working on this particular book for the past five years. I wrote and rewrote it multiple times because every time I went back and read it, it just didn’t feel ready. I experienced more joy, relief, and even pride, when I finally finished this book more than with any other story I’ve written in the past.
That said, the first draft took me approximately four months to write. At that time in my life I was writing full time so my goal was to write at least twenty minutes per day. With four children, that goal obviously wasn’t met every day, but there were also many instances where twenty minutes easily turned into two to three hours during the day. I also lost a lot of sleep at night trying to get the whole story out, so it was very time consuming.
These days, I’m working full time as a registered nurse, too, so my time for writing has dwindled down quite a lot. I look forward to the day when my writing is more successful and I can devote more time to it again.
Do you write on a typewriter, computer, or longhand?
I write on my laptop only. I can’t begin to imagine writing longhand. Patience is a virtue that continues to elude me, and writing longhand takes quite a bit of it. Do typewriters still exist? Is that a thing?
Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you?
So typically what happens is a scene and the two main characters will come to me, either in a dream, or while I’m driving (random, I know). At that point my brain explodes with ideas and I zone out for an entire day. I mean like completely go comatose. I’m useless for the rest of the day. Then hours later, I snap back and rejoin life determined to write this new story down. From there, the story unfolds around those key scenes. I sit down and start writing. It’s a very organic process. The only regimented tactic I use is a timeline. Making a very basic timeline of events keeps the story linear and helps me avoid continuity issues.
This whole process is what I love the most about writing. That surge of creative energy that flows through me, feeds me.
The Fire Inside
By Michelle Bellon
Genre: Literary Fiction
Aiden had the perfect life. A job he loved, a beautiful son and loving wife. In an instant everything is taken from him and Aiden assumes his life is over. Falling into a deep depression Aiden has all but given up on his job, his friends and himself. But when a mysterious force gives him the power to heal those around him, Aiden is forced to pull himself out of his depression in favor of the greater good. When he meets Ryan, a young woman living on the streets, and Norma, a woman whose marriage is crumbling around her, Aiden acknowledges that maybe his life still has a purpose and his ability to heal maybe more powerful then he may ever imagined.
Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Inside-Michelle-Bellon-ebook/dp/B00ZV1UCNS/
Author Bio:
Michelle Bellon lives in the Pacific Northwest with her four children and boyfriend, Seth. She loves coffee and has an addiction to chapstick. She works at a surgery center as a registered nurse and in her spare time writes novels. She writes in the genres of romance suspense, young adult, women’s fiction, and literary fiction. She has won three literary awards.
Social links:
http://www.michellebellon.com/
https://www.facebook.com/michelle.authorpage
Words, Words, Words 