Possession Interview

I recently got the chance to interview Annie Oldham the author of ‘Possession’.

1) Why did you start writing?

I write because I love to express myself in words. I’ve always loved to read, and from reading came the desire to create my own stories. And the fun part of this whole author business is that if I want to jump genres, that’s totally fine. I’ve written high fantasy, fantasy, dystopian, and now with Possession, contemporary paranormal.

2) What do you think is most important when writing a book?

Being true to the story. I don’t sacrifice the plot and characters for the sake of sensationalism or easy endings. If you’ve read to the end of The Burn trilogy, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, you should! I’ve had a lot readers tell me either that they 1) hate the ending (it’s so unfair!), 2) love the ending (the only way to end it!), or 3) hate the ending but understand it. To be true to Terra’s journey underwater and on the Burn and what she learned about herself along the way, it was the only ending that appropriately completely her story arc. That doesn’t mean it was easy. But that was the way it had to be.

3) What is your favorite thing to do in your free time?

Read! And spend time with my family. And read when I have a few more minutes. My dream vacation would be finding a quiet spot where I could read without interruptions until I got sick of it.

4) On a less serious note, would you rather speak in riddles or not speak at all?

Ha! Not at all, definitely. I worked as a technical writer for several years, and I’m a big fan of saying what you mean and saying it clearly. There’s definitely a lack of that in the world today.

5) Another would you rather. Would you rather write one story about your life or write a million stories that have nothing to do with you?

I’m a very private person. If you’ve read my blog, you’ll notice it’s mostly book-related, and when I do venture into real life, I’ve never given names to my three children or my husband or many details about my personal life. That’s very intentional. When I write there are tidbits of my real life that sneak in: characters that have attributes from people I’ve known, events that have happened to me but are disguised as plot, and things like that. But it’s always just tidbits. I want to keep my personal life as it belongs–personal.