Author 20 Questions with Natalie Colburn
To celebrate the recent release of her new book, A Call for Blood, indie author Natalie Colburn answers 20 Questions, Author Edition.
1) Describe the A Call for Blood in 10 words or less for people just learning about it.
Dystopian Fantasy with siblings, magic, royalty, and slow burn romance.2) Does writing energise or exhaust you?
One hundred percent writing energises me. That’s why I do it. I love getting the worlds and story ideas out of my head and onto paper. I always feel more accomplished after I finish a good writing session. However, the business and publishing side of “writing” can be exhausting if I over work myself or try to rush the process.
3) Describe your writing process for A Call for Blood. Did you outline, plot, and plan, or was it more organic?
Before I began seriously writing A Call for Blood in June of 2023, the entire book was simply different chunks of random scenes scattered throughout my Google Drive. I had different variations of the same scene or scenes with completely irrelevant subplots and characters. Anything I’d written had been completely ‘pantsed,’ written in the spur of the moment, directly from my mind. However, once I committed to writing a complete draft, that’s when I sat down and began to write out a simple chapter-by-chapter outline. I hand wrote it in one of my notebooks, loosely following it until I hit the final chapter.
4) How did you select the names of your characters?
This is such a funny question because on all of my other WIPs my characters names are all meticulously chosen and nearly all have super relevant meanings. But for A Call For Blood, I don’t even know where some of the names came from. I just know that Keith and Camille have always been their names and anything other than that feels wrong. Amaia, Aubrey, and Ryden are the same way, they could have no other name. Miles is the only one who I played around with other names for, but nothing else felt right.
5) Do you identify with your main character, or did you create a character that is your opposite?
In A Call For Blood there are two main POV’s, one from Keith and the other from Camille. I consider both of them to be 'main characters’ and they each have little parts of me in them. I’m probably most like Keith. I like to be included and value loyalty above a lot of other things. Also, I’m a wee bit impatient (maybe more than a wee bit). Camille, on the other hand, is less like me. I think we both share our overthinking tendencies which result in us over analysing nearly every situation, which can be handy but also can be really stressful.
6) What do you do when a new idea jumps out at you while you’re still working on a book? Do you chase the idea or do you finish your current project first?
Oh goodness, this is something I really need to get better at! I am notorious for having a new idea and wanting to dive right into it. For a while, I was pursuing every idea I had and had way too many projects going on at the same time. As of now, I’ve tried to condense my ideas to a Google Keep page on my phone, writing down various quotes or plot points underneath the original story idea. Although, I still am definitely chasing too many new ideas and keeping everything balanced out in my brain gets a little overwhelming sometimes. Because of that, The Crowning Games gets most of my attention but I let myself randomly pursue my other ideas occasionally, just to give my mind a break.
7) Who is your favourite author? What is it that you like about them?
This is such a hard question. My go-to answer is always Rick Riordian. He’s an awesome author who writes such compelling characters and storylines. I’ve never not loved one of his books. Percy Jackson is also the series I grew up reading and, while I had read things before, it was probably the series that began my real love for reading, so there will always be nostalgia there. However, Kayla Ann, another fellow self-published author, has really been such an inspiration to me. Not only is her book absolutely incredible, but she’s such a warm, loving, and kind person and never afraid to share what she’s learned through the process and help with any questions I have.
8) How long did it take you to write A Call for Blood?
If I want to sound impressive, I say five months. I only began seriously writing this story in June of 2023 and sent my manuscript to Beta Readers in November of 2023. However, the very first document I ever created for A Call For Blood was in November of 2019, and I definitely have been brainstorming and growing the series idea since then. Which made it easy for me to know where I was going with the story when I finally decided to commit to writing it.
9) What research did you conduct for A Call for Blood, and did you uncover anything surprising or fascinating?
One of the things I really researched as extensively as I could was temperature. (Mini spoilers ahead.) For Camille’s gift, controlling the temperature of things, I needed to figure out what she could realistically do. Could she start fires or freeze things over? Or can she only manipulate how things feel because fires need more than heat? For example, for a fire to start, you need oxygen and fuel as well as heat. So only if there’s enough fuel and oxygen could she create a fire. However, there’s a cool scene in A Call For Blood where she’s able to extinguish a flame, albeit for a short amount of time, because she can remove the heat, something necessary for the flame to exist.
10) How do you balance writing with other aspects of your life, such as work, family or school?
This is a crazy question. I honestly don’t know myself sometimes. While drafting and editing A Call For Blood, I was a full-time, in person college student. For a little while I was also working an online job through my school, from my college dorm room. I was still hanging out with friends and going to events while also visiting family. It was definitely crazy. Now, this fall, I’ve begun a nearly full-time job in the public school system, while also continuing my college degree as a full-time online student. I definitely have a lot going on. But I think the most important thing to me is still making time to do the things that I enjoy. Writing is one of those things and I make it a priority. I wake up thirty minutes earlier in the mornings to give myself time to work on my writing. While I was in-person at college, I would make use of in between class times to either be brainstorming or writing. I think the key to balancing writing amidst everything else, is honestly, loving what I’m doing. If I didn’t love writing as much as I do, I think I would likely struggle making time for it. This is also why I try to do everything I can to not burn myself out with my writing, giving myself necessary breaks or switching between projects if I feel myself growing tired of it.
11) What’s the best way you have marketed your books?
I don’t know if my marketing techniques could really be considered the ‘best’ but, I try! Instagram is my main form of marketing, although I’ve recently joined Threads and created a newsletter, so hopefully will be also utilising those. For me, with my Instagram content, I try to post things that I enjoy making and focus on creating genuine connections with other authors and potential readers. Marketing is something I definitely need to put more time and effort into and am trying to learn how to do better. So far, I’m winging it in that department. We’ll see how it goes.
12) What surprised you about your Kickstarter Campaign?
Honestly, I was surprised by how well it went! I wasn’t expecting to get anyone from the Kickstart community to back and assumed I would only get support from a handful of Instagram followers and maybe a couple family members. It was really cool to get to see A Call For Blood reach completely unique readers that never would have been reached without Kickstarter.
13) What does literary success look like to you?
Every time I get to sit down and write on my latest draft and make progress, I consider that a success. Getting to hold my own books, that I wrote, in my hands is success. Seeing pictures of my book with other people is a success. I celebrate even the little things because no matter how small the achievement, it is still an achievement. However, if you’re asking about overall literary success, meaning that I’ve hit my peak or accomplished what I set out to do with publishing, I would say that would mean earning a profit on my books. Publishing costs are no small thing and while it’s something I love to do, being able to become a full-time author would be absolutely amazing.
14) Can you share a behind-the-scenes anecdote or interesting fact about the creation of A Call for Blood?
So one of the most challenging parts of this book was actually the title. The series has always been called ‘The Crowning Games’ in my mind (except for the part of its life when it was ‘The Transformation Series’ because I wanted to sound different from The Hunger Games) but none of the books ever had a title. The first one I chose was ‘Tinder’. Keep in mind, this was middle school me and I did not realise that Tinder was in fact a dating app. It then became 'The Kindling’ until I finally gave up the whole starting fire theme and chose an accurate, genre fitting title.
15) How many unpublished and half-finished projects do you have?
Too many! As of right now, I have a note on my phone with 46 different book ideas in it, most of them being series ideas with more than one book. However, as of right now, I am working on my second poetry book, as well as the second instalment of The Crowning Games (title revealed at the end of A Call For Blood). Once I finish my first draft of The Crowning Games #2, I will continue working on Project Splash, A YA Fantasy The Little Mermaid Retelling, or Project Dragon, A YA Epic Fantasy with dragons, witches, elves, and prophecies. And those are only the projects at the top of my list!
16) Do you enjoy reading your own stories – have you ever cried or laughed out loud at one of your own stories?
It might sound conceited but I absolutely love reading through my stories. I feel like even though I’ve read A Call For Blood more times than I can count, I still find myself anticipating what’s coming in the next chapter. So far, I’ve never cried while writing, however, as I’m writing book two, I’ve come close and do not doubt that I will cry while writing the ending of book two. A little spoiler there wink wink. I have laughed out loud but I don’t know if that’s because I just think I’m funny or if anything I’m writing is actually funny.
17) How does publishing your first book change your process of writing?
As I’m starting to write book 2 while A Call For Blood is being released, I definitely am changing up my process. I’m trying to set weekly writing goals for myself and ensuring that I have a good outline and know where the story is going before completely diving in. This time around, I’m trying to finish the first draft as quickly as possible, while maintaining quality, because I want to be able to get the next book out as soon as possible!
18) What is your favourite part of being a writer?
I love getting to bring the stories in my head to life. For instance, Keith and Camille are now living outside of my mind, on paper, and hopefully, now in other people’s minds as well. Ever since I was a little kid, stories have filled my mind and I love getting to share them with other people and bring to life the characters that otherwise would be lying dormant in my head.
19) What makes a story exciting in your opinion?
For me, it’s always the characters. If the characters are well written and well constructed, I don’t care what the plot is. Getting to see lovable, and maybe sometimes not-so-lovable, characters grow and interact is what makes a story exciting. Plot twists and turns are always my favourite, and I love a story that makes me try to anticipate what’s coming next. I’m also a sucker for any hint of romance. The slow burns are absolutely the best, always making me scream at the characters to just get together already. To me, love triangles are another way to make a story exciting, because I love the drama of it and they immediately have me invested. But it all comes down to the characters. They will make or break a story for me.
20) If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
I honestly don’t know where I’d start. I’d definitely tell her that there’s a lot of work that goes into everything. Sadly, you don’t simply write a story, hit publish, and botta-bing, botta-boom, it’s done. But I would tell her that despite the work that goes into it, we made it. We’re publishing our debut novel and ran a successful Kickstarter with special edition cover art, gorgeous sprayed edges, and some sweet swag. I’d tell her that it’s all worth it. I’d tell her to keep writing, keep dreaming, keep coming up with new ideas and too, most importantly, never give up.
A Call for Blood was released on 22 August, and is now available to purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and The Great British Book Shop.
You can find more information about Natalie and her upcoming projects on her website.