Indie Author Week - Heidi Loney

~ Welcome to the Indie Author Spotlight! ~

Since Little Hyuts is all about supporting the indie author community, 

I have created this week long event to showcase 14 independent authors in 7 days! Each has been handpicked by yours truly, and I am sure you will enjoy every one of their books! New authors, interviews and giveaways will be featured every day, so keep checking back to see who's in the SPOTLIGHT!

It's Monday! And were starting the week off right with some good dystopian YA! I'm pleased to welcome self-published author, Heidi Loney to the spotlight! *Don't forget to enter her giveaway at the bottom of the post*

Heidi Loney is a Toronto based Young Adult Author. Her new dystopian novel, Ravenous (Ancestry, Book 1), will be available June 1st in Kobo and Kindle e-book format. Heidi also plans to release her satirical YA novel, Love and Cola Wars this September. Currently, she is writing Ancestor (Ancestry, Book2) to be released in 2014. Before becoming a novelist, Heidi studied theatre and worked for 15 years as a costumer in many of Toronto’s theatres. Heidi’s other passion is politics, and you can find her tongue-in-cheek posts on Toronto city politics blog, leftwingpinko! Heidi lives in the city with her husband Jack and two (mostly) darling children.

Hello Heidi! Can you tell us your main inspiration behind your novel? Be it person, book(s), random occurrence, etc... 

I was in the middle of writing another thriller, when the idea for my story Ravenous came to me while I was having a shower. For some reason I get a lot of great ideas that way! The question I asked myself is, what would happen if the government made it illegal to be fat? Sure, it’s far-fetched, but then I read that some employers in Japan weigh and measure their employees every month, and if the employee gets above a certain limit, they are sent for some sort of counselling.

Was self-publishing your first choice? What was the most nerve wracking part of the process? 

Self-publishing was definitely not my first choice. I tried some other things first, like entering some short story competitions and sending queries to literary agents and book publishers for my novel Ravenous. When the rejections came pouring in, I knew that things did not look good for me going the traditional route. 

There were a few issues really. One, is that the dystopian genre is highly saturated, and many agents don’t want to take on this genre at the moment, because the trend in the next few years could die out. Secondly, I am a debut author with no publishing credentials and a small platform, which does not bode well for me. Thirdly, while many agents thought the story was a good idea, it was not strong enough in their mind. But I took everything they said and reworked my draft until it was best as I thought it could be for self-publishing. 

I think the most nerve wracking part of the process was how everyone would perceive my novel. When you self-publish, you really have no idea what the public will think of your work. I’ve learned not to take the criticism too personally and take the feedback and use it for my future writing. 

As a self-published author, did you choose to edit your novel yourself? What was the biggest change you made to the story and/or characters? 

I definitely had help along the way. I had a story coach help me with the plot, which is completely different now from my original draft and I had a copy editor help me with proofreading and line editing. I also got feedback from Beta Readers and a few more objective eyes. The biggest change in the story is that I made Chef into a major character, where he was originally just a minor character, which is so funny because he is now my favourite in the book!

Do you have any unusual writing habits that aide your process and/or character development? 

I drink a lot of coffee, does that count? 

Well, I’m a mother of two young children, so I have to work around them for now. It makes it a little difficult to do spontaneous writing. One thing that helps me is I write down plot ideas in a little note book whenever something pops into my head. The other thing is I sometimes imagine my characters being played by someone famous or base them on someone in my own life. For instance, I imagine Chef being Bruce Willis. Kinda bad ass but also a real sweetie inside.

Before we get to the last question, I want everyone to know a little about your debut YA dystopian, RAVENOUS!

Overpopulation throttles the world’s food supply. In 2050, the government of the Americas introduces the Food Crisis Act—new measures that create a system for growing and rationing food.

Calla Ryan is pretty much your average teen, except for enduring hunger every day of her life. One morning, new sensors at her high school determine that she exceeds the weight limit of the State, and they send her north to a “fat camp” or re-education centre.

Calla begins to realize the centre holds many secrets. Her counsellor dies mysteriously, and new shipments of recruits are the picture of health. Finally, Calla becomes a guinea pig for a dangerous lab experiment.

On the outside, a virus that began overseas has now made its way to the Americas with deadly consequences.

Calla must run from her captors, escaping to the far north with help from the facility’s chef and fellow inmates Billy and Madge. And to complicate things, the infected are very hungry.

You definitely have my interest peaked! Is there one passage or scene from your novel that you are most fond of? If so, include the excerpt below! 

That’s such a hard one! I guess one of my favourite scenes is when Calla and Billy manage to find a moment to have fun, since the rest of the novel is so intense. Here is a small excerpt:

        " The harvest goes as planned as we extract thousands of corn stalks, beans and squash. We strip the ears of corn from the stalks, peel back the husks, and dry them in the sun. We separate the beans from the vines, dry them in the sun, and store the squash in a cold cellar on the property. This process involves the entire village and takes many days. The good mood resonates in the village, despite the unknown outside our perimeter.
          At the end of a long week, everyone in the village attends a dinner at the community centre, followed by a dance. The men and women clean up and wear their best clothes. Marnie lends us a couple of pretty dresses from her youth. I cinch the waist in with a sash and put some wild roses from Marnie’s garden in my hair.
          The women of the community and Chef prepare the feast. The unattached women of the village have taken special notice of him. I suppose he is handsome for a man of his age. He’s tall and strong and neatly kept. I always thought that Chef was cold as ice, but as I get to know him better, I realize that he’s a real softie underneath. Of course, he’s also a lean, mean, killing machine. What’s not to love? 
             There’s an assortment of old and new dishes: succotash, three sisters’ soup, and Iroquois soup with haddock and wild mushrooms; grilled elk, venison and cranberries, and venison stew. The main dishes are accompanied by baked squash, grilled corn on the cob, cornbread and corn pudding, and wild rice pudding. I try not to “pig out” but everything tastes so yummy that I have to have a little sample of everything. Everything except the mushroom soup. By the end of the meal, I am stuffed. It’s the first time in my life I have ever felt this way, the feeling of being so full that I can’t move. Billy is in the same boat. He suggests we go for a walk before the dance starts.
               With the business of the harvest, we don’t have much time together. He takes my hand as we stroll through the village. The village is tranquil with everyone assembled at the centre. Billy looks very handsome in his dress-up duds borrowed from Caleb

“That was an amazing meal,” I say to break the ice.
Billy turns to me and smiles.
“What?” I say with some embarrassment.
“You’ve changed.”
“I have?”
“For the better.” 

             He kisses me before I have a chance to respond. It’s so deep and intense, the kiss he gives me. I feel a tingling feeling down in my core.

“I love you,” he whispers in my ear.
I smile at him. “Let’s get back. I want to be the first to dance with you, before all the other girls in the village get a hold of you.” 

            We walk back to the recreation centre, arm in arm. "

Thanks so much for sharing this with us Heidi! Readers, if you want to grab your own copy of Ravenous it is available through AMAZON and CREATESPACE. And please, don't forget to visit the author on her WEBSITE, GOODREADS and TWITTER!