Welcome
to my blog today, Maria. I had to laugh when I read that you told your mother
you were really an alien from another planet.
I find it so fascinating that you originate from Sweden and now write
books in English. I'd like to learn more about this. How and when did you learn
English?
Hi June, thank
you for having me here! Swedish people
learn English in school. I started learning when I was nine. We're generally
taught British English though, and I have problems with the American spelling.
I want to use s instead of z in many words, and I put u in the middle of words,
like colour, labour, harbour... In
southern Europe, they overdub American movies and TV-shows, but we don't do
that, so we at least get to hear the language from TV and in movie theaters.
Swedish has three letters more than English - å, ä, ö - and I always fail
simple questions like, "How many letters does the alphabet have?" I
say 29 every time.
Anyone
who writes in their second language can certainly be excused for a small
mistake like that. I'm impressed. Was it difficult to transition to a second
language?
It would have been
with any other language - I tried learning German and Spanish in school, but I
was never good at it. I've worked a lot with people from other countries and
relied on English to be able to communicate with them. I read books in English,
listened to music, and so on. It's still a little weird to rely solely on a
foreign language, but if I'd moved to say Germany, my brain would have been
tying a knot on itself. I admire people who come to a country with no knowledge
of the language at all and have to learn everything from scratch.
How did you meet your husband Mike? Did you
experience a culture shock when you moved to the United States?
That's a funny
story. Back in 2007, I started role playing with people from all around the
world on Myspace. It's kind of... writing stories together. I made really good
friends all over the world - England, Australia, Canada, Norway... Mike was
playing with a few characters, and we started talking. We hit it off, and after
a while, we decided I should come over and meet him. I always wanted to go to
Florida, so I thought, "Why not." People back home thought I was
crazy and would be murdered for sure, and I said, "I got my passport,
cellphone, and credit card. If this doesn't go well, I'll just rent a car and
have a week's great vacation on my own." Evidently, it went well. I went
back to see him a few more times before I finally plunged in and move over the
Atlantic. It was a cultural shock at first - things here are very different
from home. Society as a whole is so different, values, food... I've lived here
since late 2008, and I still don't think I'm completely adjusted.
Tell me about your journey to publication.
I've always
been writing. Even back home, I'd write stories and optimistically submit them
to different publishers. It didn't get me far, but I tried. Once I settled in
here, in Florida, I got a little more time on my hands and could write more
seriously. I sent out manuscripts to many agents and publishers during 2010,
and finally decided to self-publish something, more for fun than anything.
Then, my good friend Christy told me I should at least try to get an agent. I
googled, and eventually sent "Kidnapped" to Desert Breeze Publishing.
I didn't expect much to come from it, and when I got an answer that contained the
actual words, I almost fell off my chair. It's very exciting to have someone
else believe in one's material!
Describe your typical day including your
writing schedule.
I currently go
to school full time, seeking a Bachelor's degree in business management, and I
have a part time job too, so my days can be pretty hectic. As much as possible,
I try to plan so I don't have to physically go anywhere in the morning. I like
to mosey out with the dogs, have a cup of coffee, and check my e-mail, Facebook
and such. Then, I generally do homework or go to school, hurry home to take the
doggies out again, and go to work. In the evenings, Mike watches TV, and I
write or edit until bedtime. Saturday and Sunday, same thing, but exchange the
school and work for work around the house, hahaha! I'm very asocial right now,
but it's okay, I won't be doing all these things forever. :-)
How do you get to know your characters?
That is a good
question. I enjoy writing movie scripts, and when I work on one of those I sit
down and write a background story of each character. It can be silly little
things, like if they were good in school, who their best friends were when they
grew up, and pranks they played on other people. When I write novels I think
about many of the same things, but I don't write it down.
Tell
me a about Kidnapped. Where did you get your ideas from to write the novel?
Kidnapped is a
science fiction romance. It's about Patricia, who is on her way home late one
evening, and is abducted by mistake. The poor girl wakes up in a spaceship on
its way out of our solar system, and she has very little choice but to go along
with everything that happens. It's not a good situation; space is sort of big,
and even if she could escape and find someone equipped with a ship and the will
to help her home, she doesn't know where Earth is. I actually wrote the first
draft for Kidnapped as a teenager, and forgot about it for decades.
Give
us a short excerpt.
Travis hunched down in front of her,
and watched her pale face thoughtfully. "You're space sick."
Patricia knew agreeing would be the
safest thing to do, but she couldn't stop herself. She shouted, "No! I
can't be space sick because I'm not in space, because that's crazy! I rolled
with my car and I'm just unconscious. Leave me alone."
The man ignored her and reached out
with his ungloved hand, plunging her into a fit of panic. She scrambled to get
away from him, but there was nowhere to go. "Sit still. If I wanted to
hurt you, you'd be dead now."
His words didn't soothe her; she was
still convinced he wanted to kill her, that he'd just snap her neck, and she so
wanted to live a little longer. Earlier in her life she had wasted time
recklessly, and now every minute seemed precious.
Her expression must have amused him
because a shadow of a smile tugged at his lips. It didn't quite reach his eyes,
but it was the first emotion she'd seen on his face, and it made her feel
better.
Maybe he was human after all. She
stopped fighting when he pressed a finger against her skin, explaining to her
frightened glance, "Pressure point. This should make you feel
better."
Where
can your readers find you on the web?
Website:
http://www.hammarblad.com
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/mariahammarblad
Blog:
http://www.scifiromance.info
Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/mariahammarblad
I also have a
book trailer for Kidnapped: http://youtu.be/GDmhI7c69iM
Thank you so
much for having me, June!
Maria,
it's been a pleasure.
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