Welcome to our Writers Wednesday Spotlight! Each week we will be highlighting a different geeky writer we think you might like to check out. For this week’s spotlight, we are excited to introduce you to Misty Massey!
Her book “Kestrel’s Dance” will be released in late 2018! Her most recent book “Mad Kestrel” was released February 12, 2018.
You can purchase “Mad Kestrel” here.
About Misty Massey
(in her own words)
Misty Massey is the author of Mad Kestrel, a rollicking adventure of magic on the high seas, Kestrel’s Voyages, a collection of short stories featuring those rambunctious pirates, and the upcoming Kestrel’s Dance. She is a co-editor of The Weird Wild West and Lawless Lands: Tales of the Weird Frontier, and was a founding member of Magical Words. Her short fiction has appeared in many anthologies and she’s working on a series of Shadow Council novellas for Falstaff Press featuring the famous gunslinger Doc Holliday. When she’s not writing, Misty studies and performs Middle Eastern dance and will, on occasion, surprise everyone with a batch of home-baked snickerdoodles. She’s a sucker for good sushi, African coffee, SC Gamecock football, and the darkest rum she can find.
About “”Mad Kestrel”…
In a world where infants with magical powers are torn from their parents to be raised exclusively by the mysterious and powerful Danisoba, Kestrel has managed to keep her abilities concealed—and herself free. She hid when they killed her parents, lived as a street urchin in back alleys, and then served as a young tavern maid before escaping to sea, where magic is canceled by water. Now an adult and quartermaster of a pirate ship, Kestrel loves the freedom of living on the seas. But her way of life could end if anyone on board learns her closely guarded secret—that she has magical control over the wind.
One day a black ship appears, and her life changes. Its captain is a handsome rogue of whom Kestrel is strangely, constantly aware. When Kestrel’s captain is led into a trap and is arrested, Kestrel gathers her crew and sets sail in relentless pursuit.
5 Questions with . . . Misty
- When did you first realize you were interested in becoming an author? What drives you to write?
I always wrote stories to entertain myself. In fact, I still have four handwritten pages of a truly awful Wild, Wild West story I wrote when I was nine. (It was fanfic before there was a name for it, and no, I won’t show you. It’s bad.) I started submitting stories to small-print magazines in my twenties, and even sold a few. But I never really felt like I was an author until I met Faith Hunter, who convinced me to try writing a novel. I did, and it sold, so it looks like she was right.
Creating worlds out of nothing but my imagination is wonderful fun, and I’d rather do this all day than anything else. Being able to contribute to the support of my family with my writing is a big reason, of course, but it’s nice to have a job that entertains me, too. - How would you describe your style or genre of writing to a potential fan?
I usually tell people I write fantasy, because getting into the nuances of subgenres can be confusing to people who aren’t in the business. To be more specific, I’m currently writing pirate adventure-fantasy, weird western, and getting ready to dabble in science fiction for an anthology that invited me to be an anchor author. - What are you currently working on? What are you working on next?
Right now, I’m revising “Kestrel’s Dance” the sequel to my first novel, for a late 2018 release. I’m writing the first in a series of four weird western novellas for Falstaff Books, featuring Doc Holliday, brought back from his eternal rest to dispense magical justice. I’m beginning that science fiction story I mentioned before for the upcoming Temporally Deactivated anthology for Zombies Need Brains press (which is Kickstarting right now, if you want to get in on the fun! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/543968884/portals-temporal-deactivation-and-alternate-peace?ref=3v1y6s&token=bc233b48) When I finish some of those projects, I have a half-completed weird western novel I’d like to get back to, and a good idea for a third Kestrel novel.
In between my own projects, I work as an editor for LoreSeekers Press and for Falstaff Books, so there’s slush-reading and editing for other people, too.It never really ends.
- What existing book do you wish you had written and why?
I don’t know that I wish I’d written any of his books, but sometimes I wish I wrote like Tim Powers. He’s my very favorite author, and the things he comes up with always blow me away. I want to someday make another reader feel with my work the way Tim makes me feel with his. I hope that makes sense! - What is one piece of advice you would give to a budding writer?
Finish. That may sound obvious, but hear me out. At the beginning of a story it’s all so exciting. You’re typing away, almost faster than you can think, because this is the best story ever and it’s going to make you famous and people are going to love it. But somewhere in the middle things start slowing down. You’re not sure where you meant to go anymore, your characters seem trapped and the next good idea is whispering in your ear. It’s tempting to drop the first story for the second. Don’t do it. Finish that first story. The next idea will be there when you’re done.