Featured Interview With M.L. Little
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Hi! Thank you for having me on your website. I have never lived anywhere but Alabama, but within Alabama I grew up moving a lot and have lived in quite a few different places. I wouldn’t have wanted to spend my whole childhood in one house. It would have been a lot less interesting. I have owned four dogs in my life. The dog in my author headshots passed away three weeks after the photos were taken. I currently live with a clinically insane poodle.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I think it really began when I was six, at which point I could read chapter books by myself. Before that, I loved books but I don’t really remember it. But by the time I reach six and beyond I can remember hundreds of books that I read. I began writing when I was nine.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I read a little bit (or a lot) of absolutely everything. I don’t have a favorite genre. If I bond with the characters or if the plot keeps me reading, I will like the book. I am easy to please. Because I am easy to please, I am easily inspired. Marcus Zusak left an enormous imprint on my writing. I am influenced by fantasy writers who break traditional molds. As a recent example, I am impressed by Neil Gaiman’s and Melissa Albert’s ability to write pure creepiness that you can’t put down.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
I am shy and hate talking about myself (terrible traits for an author), so let me give you the blurb from my publisher.
“After Gabriel Draven smuggles home the Stone of the Seven Realms, his fear of facing consequences launches him and his oddball family on a rollicking run for their lives across the world they only thought they knew. As his journey takes him out of his realm and into another, Gabriel discovers that the deepest mystery lies at the heart of his own family, and he must do whatever it takes to find his way back home.
Strong and unapologetic, full of vivid, well-timed simile and lilting rhythm, bright with humor, at times bursting into a depth of pure simplistic beauty, THE BOOK OF SECRETS looks beyond the typical medieval swords-and-sorcery and, instead, introduces mystical creatures, absurd new worlds, and, at its heart, a hymn of praise to the complicated bond of siblinghood.”
I don’t know exactly how long I spent writing The Book of Secrets from scratch, but it occurred over several months beginning in the summer of 2017. For awhile it had a happy home on Wattpad, where I met some great people. I never, ever planned to do anything else with it. Then my friend Verity Buchanan had her book accepted by a traditional publisher, and it made me brave enough to try. I took the book down from Wattpad for hefty rewrites, submitted to 35 agencies and publishing houses, and the rest is history.
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M.L. Little’s Website