Interview with Tialla Rising

Tialla, welcome to Homeschool Authors! Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Hello!  Thanks for having me.  I’m a seventeen-year-old homeschool graduate.  I published my book November of 2012, after working on it for four years.  I live with my family in the mountains of Arizona, and I strive to glorify the Lord in everything I do!  I love music, watching movies, fellowshipping with friends, and occasionally doing techie things like web and short video design.  I obviously love reading and writing as well; my favorite moments usually find me with my nose in a book, iced coffee in my hand, and a storm outside my window!

 If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?

 I would definitely go to Italy.  I love everything Italian, in fact, I even playfully call myself Italian. Their food is incredible, their culture is intriguing, the Italian landscape is beautiful, and much more! Most of the food I cook is Italian; I would love to learn the Italian language, and my dream is to visit Italy – namely, Venice.  Also, Italians can rock an accent like nobody’s business. Just saying. :)

The homeschooling experience is different for everyone. What do you feel made your experience unique?

My parents gave me the opportunity to choose my curriculum every year.  I know that this is very rare for homeschoolers, and I can understand why. Most parents just choose the curriculum and many students don’t know what they’re doing until the first day of school. However, my parents involved me in the choosing process every year. They’d give me a list of different curriculum I could choose from for a certain subject. For example, for math I could choose from Saxon, Math-U-See, or Abeka. They would explain the pros and cons of each, and then let me choose which I wanted to do. In that way, I was still receiving the core subjects required, but I had a say in what was chosen.  It definitely made me feel very involved in my schoolwork, and made the learning process a lot more fun!

How has being homeschooled affected your writing?

I am very certain that if I hadn’t been homeschooled, I wouldn’t have a published book today.  Homeschooling helped give me the discipline necessary to write, edit, and publish a book. I was able to add writing to my school schedule, which definitely helped in consistent writing habits.  My mom was able to count my writing as part of my English. Not only that, but the mere fact of being home allowed me to adjust my schedule to write for example, at ten o’clock in the morning, if I had a sudden epiphany for my book, I could stop the rest of my school and pull out my laptop to write.  I could always finish up my school later on in the day.

What caused you to start writing?

I’ve been writing since I was about eleven. A friend of mine and I were collaborating on stories. I’m not exactly sure how we decided to start writing stories, but it was fun exchanging our imaginings through email and encouraging each other we were always making up new worlds. During the next two years, our email exchanges slowed, but when I turned thirteen, I began writing Holding the Future Hostage with the serious intent to publish it.

What inspired Holding the Future Hostage?

I had a certain photo as my laptop wallpaper.  This photo is now at the very back of my book, dubbed as The Stone Megalith. It pictures a huge rock formation in the center of a lake, surrounded by trees and other rocks. It is absolutely striking in color, and I was enchanted by it. One night, I was just looking at it, and I imagined a girl swimming in the water around it, and then diving underneath. I thought of a really great sentence, pulled up Microsoft Word, and typed it in. I was intrigued by it, and just kept writing. The plot formed as I wrote, and I’m still amazed that it turned out to be the story it is without any beforehand planning.

Where can people get it?

It is available on Amazon, the CreateSpace e-Store, Kindle, my website (www.therubyvial.com), directly from me, Barnes and Noble.com, the Google bookstore, and virtually everywhere you can think of on the internet. A simple Google search will bring up SEVERAL websites that sell copies of it.

Who will enjoy it?

Everyone.  I wrote it with the mindset to target young adults, but people of all ages have enjoyed it. I’ve had eight-years-old to eighty-year-olds and everyone in between tell me how much they love it.

How can readers connect with you?

 Readers can find me on my website, my blog, Facebook, Google Plus, YouTube, Goodreads, and of course through email! My email is: therubyvial@commspeed.net.

Do you have any final thoughts?

 I just want to encourage all young writers to follow their style. It’s very tempting to look at your (successful) favorite author, and try to copy their style after all, the author succeeded that way (and you like it!). I believe that is where most writers get stuck (I have personally been there myself).

You need to have FUN while writing. If you have a blast while writing, odds are other people will enjoy what you have written. You need to find what kind of style works for you, and go with it. It may not be the metaphor-filled, third-person, intricately-carved style that you love of your author. That’s alright your style will work so much better than trying to copy theirs. There isn’t any harm in taking note from your favorite authors in fact, I encourage you to do so just don’t try to conform to their style if it neglects your own. Also, have fun! If you don’t have fun while writing, it isn’t worth it. You’re supposed to have fun while crafting your story. There are tough parts, of course, but in the end, it should still bring a smile no, a grin to your face.

Thanks again for having me!

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