Guest Post: Pararnormal Author, Marissa Farrar

Writing from Reality

 Marissa Farrar

As authors, we’re often told to ‘write what we know’. Of course, if we’re paranormal, fantasy or sci-fi authors, writing what we know isn’t always that easy. Not many of us—if any—have had real life experience of the paranormal and I can probably make a pretty good bet that not a single sci-fi author I know of has any kind of space travel experience.

So how do these types of authors keep it real in their fiction?

 Just because the setting is in some mystical country, or the characters all happen to be half-fairy, doesn’t mean the author still can’t draw on some personal experience in order to give the characters life and three dimensions. Perhaps you’re the victim of a broken home, something that affected you later in life? Maybe you or someone close to you has suffered with a debilitating disease – you could use the emotions and strengths needed to deal with that.

Of course not everything has to be negative or angst-ridden. If you’re writing romance, you could look back at the time when you first met your other half and try to draw on how you first felt when you met him or her. Or if writing Young Adult fiction, focus on how it felt to be a teenager yourself (never an easy time).

One of the biggest influences in my writing has to be my love of travel and the number of different countries I’ve been to and places I’ve lived in. I’ve lived in London, Australia and Spain, and I spent a couple of years of my life backpacking around Europe and then later, South East Asia.

It was during this time backpacking in Thailand and Cambodia that the idea for my latest novel, The Dark Road, came to me.

 While much of this book is fiction, some of it is based on my real-life experiences. From the cold behavior of the Cambodian officials at the border, to the lack of decent roads, to the old tin-can of a bus we were made to ride in hour after hour—all of these things were true.

 I experienced the same terrifying lightning storm my characters witness, the sensation of total isolation, and even the driver and his young assistant stopping at regular intervals to check beneath the bus (for what, to this day I have no clue!). But the idea for The Dark Road hit me, when, as the lightning storm continued around us, I was sure I saw something running alongside the bus.

 As for the rest of the story, well you, the reader, will have to decide which is fact and which is fiction.

                                             BIO                                            

Marissa Farrar is a multi-published horror and paranormal author. She was born in Devon, England, loves to travel and has lived in both Australia and Spain. She now resides in Devon with her husband, two children, a crazy Spanish rescue dog and four hens. She has a degree in Zoology, but her true love has always been writing.

Her dark take on a vampire romance, Alone, was first published in 2009 and has now been re-launched as book one in the ‘Serenity’ series. The second book in the series, Buried, is now available to buy. The third title, Captured, will be published March 2012. She is also the author of the horror novel, The Dark Road, and two short story collections.

Her short stories have also been accepted for a number of anthologies including, Their Dark Masters, Red Skies Press, Masters of Horror: Damned If You Don’t, Triskaideka Books; and 2013: The Aftermath, Pill Hill Press.

If you want to know more about Marissa, then please visit her website at
www.marissa-farrar.blogspot.com.

You can also find her at her facebook page, www.facebook.com/marissa.farrar.author or follow her on twitter @marissafarrar.

She loves to hear from readers and can be emailed at marissafarrar@hotmail.co.uk.

 
Thank you so much, Marissa!

Next Week:
Keira Kroft Author and Senior Editor of Hellfire Publishing