My Love for Books: Questions & Answers with Keira Michelle Telford

Do you plan to publish more books?

Plenty! The next book will be SILVER: Lex Talionis. It’s the eighth book in The SILVER Series, and also the first book in The Outlier Trilogy. Additionally, I’m working on the second book in The Prisonworld Trilogy, The Procuress, as well as a new series of (erotic) paranormal romance novelettes, The Nightside Stories.

Tell us about your new book? What’s it about and why did you write it?

In an over-populated, post-apocalyptic city on the brink of internal collapse, Silver is a banished Hunter with a grudge. Accused of crimes she didn't commit, branded a traitor and left for dead, she's spent the last six years struggling to survive in a prison district filled with murderers, thieves and rapists. Biding her time, reluctantly earning a living for herself as an executioner, she finally seizes an opportunity for redemption when a prolific serial killer evades capture.

I didn’t intend to write dystopian SF, it just sort of happened. I thought I was writing an adventure romance … then I realized, hey, there are monsters (Chimera) everywhere, and the world ended three hundred years ago … umm … holy crap, this is science fiction!

Do you have any tips on how writers can relax?

Get a couple of guinea pigs.

What contributes to making a writer successful?

Tenacity.

How often do you write? And when do you write?

I write every day, from 3pm to about 5am most days. Sometimes I lose track of time, and don’t stop writing until I see the sun come up. Those are the best days.

Do you have an organized process or tips for writing well? Do you have a writing schedule?

I don’t have much of a schedule, except that I like to crank out about 10,000 words a week. As long as I keep doing that, I stay in a rhythm and can turn out a first draft in about two-and-a-half months. Unless migraines and insomnia get in the way :(

Sometimes it’s so hard to keep at it - What keeps you going?

My love for the people in my head. As long as I keep writing about them, they live on. I get to flirt with them, fall in love with them, and protect them, over and over and over again. Plus, if I didn’t give all the people in my head a chance to speak, I’d have to be heavily medicated.

What do you hope people will take away from your writing? How will your words make them feel?

If I’ve provoked any feelings at all – whether I’ve repulsed you or aroused you – then I’ve done my job.

What’s your next project?

SILVER: Lex Talionis (Outlier Trilogy #1, SILVER Series #8). Be prepared: worlds are colliding ... well, they’re brushing against one another very gently. Ella ‘Silver’ Cross meets Carmen Wild from The Prisonworld Trilogy.

Last book you purchased? Tell us about it.

I bought Bones in Her Pocket by Kathy Reichs. It’s her first novelette ebook, and it was okay. I liked the first two thirds of it, then it ended with something completely random which seemingly had no real connection to the rest of the book. I felt like she was using the book as a way to promote her views about the cruelty of puppy mills. Which is fine. Puppy mills are cruel and should be shut down. But if you’re writing a book, at least weave your message into the storyline Don’t just throw it on top and expect it to blend.

Can you share a little of your current work with us?

Turning her attention back to the bookstore, she runs her eyes over the window display: a selection of highly sought after Old World books, recovered from the remains of prior human civilization.

The bell on the door tinkles as she opens it … then plummets to the floor at her feet with a somewhat disenchanting thud. Alex hears the noise and enters the storefront through a door at the back, his nose buried deep inside an Old World reference book.

He has salt-and-pepper hair now, although it shows no signs of receding. With practice, he’s cultivated the notion of ‘permanently windswept’ into something truly dramatic, and his rough charm wears it well.

Unshaven, he verges on scruffy but hangs on to carelessly handsome. Beneath casual, understated clothes, he hides the still well-maintained physique of a Hunter.

Today, with a pair of reading glasses perched on his nose, he looks unassuming and average. To the untrained eye, that is.

Not to Silver’s eye.

Stomach flip.

Silver tries to hold back a small smile when she sees him, her heart suddenly realizing that six years is an awfully long no time at all. After all, what the mind tries to conceal beneath business and needs and the innumerous complications of life, the heart is able to reignite with a single glance.

The thumping in her chest is so hard it hurts, and she feels dizzy with adrenalin.

At first, he doesn’t even look up from his book. “Can I help you?”

He turns the page, expecting a standard response, but Silver remains silent. Too struck by him to speak, the words get stuck in her throat, so tight she can’t even swallow. Finally, he closes the book with a sharp snap, takes off his reading glasses and looks up.

Realization.

“Holy cow …” He stumbles back a few paces.

“Moo,” Silver smiles.