interview

After having been a straight-A student, Karina Fabian has made a career of Fs: Family, Faith, Fiction and Fun.

Karina's writing career began with writing about parenting issues, the Catholic faith, and artists and community leaders. She's written for over 50 publications, including newspapers, magazines of all sizes and radio.

She doesn't just write about family, but with her family. She wrote three craft books for a EcceHomo Press by using her kids to test, create and model the crafts. She and her husband, Robert, write science fiction stories while on dates.

When did you know that you wanted to be a writer?

I've always wanted to write and dabbled with stories from the time I was in elementary school. However, in 1996, after getting out of the Air Force active duty (I was still in the reserves), and going a little stir-crazy with two kids at home, I decided to really devote myself to my dream.

Do you have any advice for new writers?

Too often, I heard writers answer this question with, "Never give up" or other well-meaning but not useful comments. The fact is, writing is a job, like any other job. You need to learn how to do it, how to market your works and yourself. No one owes you anything just because you wrote a story or a book, no matter how good you think it is. Learn the business.

Set goals; set hours. Plumbers don’t stop working because they "aren't inspired." Can't write a story? Write a press release; read a book about writing, edit something--or sit down and make yourself write out the scene, even if it's the worst piece of prose you ever slapped out on a keyboard. You can always fix it.

What is the best thing about being an author? The worst?

Best thing: Seeing my stories come to life on the page, seconded only by hearing my kids laugh when I read one to them.

Worst thing: Dealing with the business side of getting published. I'm not a good business person.

What person has helped you the most in your career?

My husband. He's the one I go to when I'm stuck for an idea, need to bounce a scene or a letter off someone, get a fact straight, or cant' think of the perfect name, event or place for something. He has a brilliant mind, a quirky sense of humor and my taste in literature.

What's the best piece of advice you ever had on writing?

Don't take rejection personally. Editors reject manuscripts for thousands of reasons, from it doesn't fit their guidelines to they just hired someone else to write that idea to they don't need another gun-slinging vampire romance. It's a business, not a power play. If you keep that in mind, you can take any advice they have, and move on to the next submission.

When was your first publication?

I was a Freshman in college and wrote an article on my uncle's cogenerator business. I'd done it for a technical writing class and sold it to North American Co-Gen for $125. I was thrilled. My first fiction sale was to Aberrations. I got $14 and they never printed the story. I sold it again later. My first anthology sale was "DragonEye, PI" to Firestorm of Dragons, and it's my favorite to date, as I've written many stories and novels in the DragonEye universe.

What are you working on right now?

I'm editing Live and Let Fly: From the Case Files of DragonEye, PI, a novel coming out in 2009 by Swimming Kangaroo. In November, I'll finish my sci-fi novel, Discovery. I'm also shopping around Asylum Psychic, a fantasy, and compiling a second volume of Catholic SF, Infinite Space, Infinite God II.

What is your favorite genre to write? To read? Authors and books in that genre?

Science Fiction and Fantasy are still my favorites to write and read, though for reading, I've been branching out lately into other forms of literature, from chic-lit to mystery to straight literary.

Favorite authors: Madeleine L'Engle, Mercedes Lackey (though mostly her earlier stuff), Robert Asprin's Myth series, and of course, Terry Pratchett.

complete bio and interview on http://ghostwhisper.proboards29.com/index.cgi?board=talktotheauthors

Karina's Websites:

www.fabianspace.com, where you'll find info about her, her writing and her eclectic writing/homeschooling/humor/just-gotta-say-it blog

www.virtualbooktourdenet.blogspot.com, where she'll gladly advertise your book if you'll return the favor to someone else

www.dragoneyepi.net, where you can learn more about the fantasy noir dragon detective Vern, his partner Sister Grace, and the world of Dragon Eye, PI.