Author Interview: Claire Banschbach

Today, as part of the blog tour, we have an interview with Claire Banschbach!
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Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?

I feel like it happens rarely that I’ll find a book that just completely captures me and hits that bittersweet spot where you’re just so immersed in the story and simultaneously wishing it was all real but knowing it’s not. Scorpio Races by Maggie Steifvater was that for me the first time I read it.

What is your favorite childhood book/fairy tale?

We had a St George and the Dragon book (by Margaret Hodges) with the story adapted from Edmund Spencer’s The Faerie Queene. It was my favorite book because A) dragons, B) knights on epic quests, and C) amazing illustrations. It’s still a favorite to this day!

What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

I feel like I’m a fairly boring writer! :D I will say that I’ve never cried while writing an emotional scene or character death. I usually like trying to wring emotion from words, so I’m always oddly eager to get those scenes to see if I can get them out on paper like they’re playing in my head. (I’m a monster, it’s fine.)

What was/is your favorite part, and your least favorite part, of the publishing journey? 

My favorite part is usually the drafting process, where I’m discovering the story and the characters and being surprised by the twists and turns the story takes! Least favorite part is all the prep work to get everything set up and ready to go and then be brave enough to let your book baby out into the world. It’s one thing to just talk about it, but having people actually read it is something else! 😉

What do you hope your readers take away from this book?  

That it’s okay to be scared, but to try your best anyway. Change is scary, but you come out better for it. That everyone has something amazing about them. You just need to find your own magic.

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There's also a rafflecopter giveaway for an ebook and swag pack! Also, see here for the rest of the tour schedule.

Author Bio

Claire M. Banschbach is a native Texan and would make an excellent hobbit if she wasn’t so tall. She’s an overall dork, pizza addict, and fangirl. When not writing fantasy stories packed full of adventure and snark, she works as a pediatric Physical Therapist where she happily embraces the fact that she never actually has to grow up.

She writes New Adult/Adult fantasy as C.M. Banschbach.

Find her online at:

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Author Interview: Hazel West

A note: I've been having some problems with Blogger lately, in regards to font (mostly changing mid-post, and I can't find anything in the HTML that could be causing it) and images (being super big or super small), so if anything looks wonky, it's because I haven't figured out how to fix it yet. -_-

This month, donate any amount or subscribe to Hazel through her Ko-Fi account and get an exclusive sneak peek of the next book in the Concerto universe, Requiem in Red!
Also check out this Rafflecopter giveaway!

For now, here's an interview with Hazel!

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1. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

I’m not really sure it did change my overall process. I think I’ve always written stories for myself first which is what I would advise all aspiring writers to do. Whether people want like what I write or not doesn’t really worry me. If people enjoy my books, that makes me happy, but if they don’t that’s okay too. I guess if anything, it has made me more conscious of editing by writing, haha.

2. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?

I actually tend to read a lot of under-appreciated books because I kind of have an allergy to things that are super popular. Two that come to mind are the Knight and Rogue series by Hilari Bell and The Secret Journeys of Jack London by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon. Both of which are very good, but people hardly know they exist.

3. What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

This can change depending on the book. Like, with Concerto, the conception to finished first draft was about three and a half months. I wrote this one really quickly. Typically, I will spend about a month researching and outlining a book, which I still did for this one pretty much, though this was one of those books that I wasn’t entirely sure what sort of research I would need so ended up doing a lot of it during the writing process. If I’m doing a historical novel, I will typically start gathering information and spending a couple months immersing myself in the time period and stuff. I feel like I always end up researching the most random things, especially for books like this.

4. Since you write a lot of alter-earth/fantasy-history (futuristic in this case), what would you say are the ethics of writing about historical figures?

Well, I have written historical figures into several of my books. I feel like as long as you keep them true to what we know about them, then I don’t personally have a problem with changing up the storyline a little bit. There’s been some really good alternate history stories. Like, I kind of liked Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith because I think he did a great job of keeping Lincoln in character. NOT a fan of revisionist history. There’s a difference between good historical fiction and revisionist history. Revisionist history is when you for some reason change a figure’s ethnicity to prove some sort of point. Like a certain story about a founding father with a musical inclination. Then you have historical fiction, like Peaky Blinders, where the historical person gets killed off so the original main character can rise to power. I don’t really have a problem with this as it’s still fiction. (Sorry about the long answer! XD)

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Author Bio

I'm an Indie writer, book lover, coffee connoisseur and history buff and folklorist. On a normal day you'll either find me reading, writing or on Goodreads talking to other writers. Author of On a Foreign Field, The Modern Tales of Na Fianna series and others.

Find her online at:
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