Interview: B. L. Pride

What have you had published?
In the last days of October, Addiction (Book One of Beyond Life Series) was finally published. There are still three books to come, all already written but waiting to be translated to English.

What genre(s) of book do you write?
I have to admit that in the beginning I had some difficulties with the question of genres, but now I like to think of Beyond Life Series (as well as the novel I’m working on right now) as a dark romance. It combines elements of fantasy, suspense, and mystery but most of all it is a love story. My favourite review of Addiction was titled A Love Story, With a Heart of Darkness and I couldn’t have said it better myself.
It has multiple layers and I’ve noticed that people read it on different levels. Some get hooked on the relation between Adam and Mila and refuse to let anything disturb that. Others focus on other relations as well, exploring other questions… But enough about that. I wouldn’t want this to become a spoiler.

What inspired you to write your first book?
I believe that we all carry great stories in our souls, but all of us are just not story-tellers. Some people’s drive to express what they feel by writing it down is stronger than anything else, and that’s when a great book is set to life.
My inspiration is music. It was such a strong influence while writing Addiction and the other books of Beyond Life Series, that it makes it hard for me to listen to certain songs now. But then, whenever I need to get that special feeling back (which is really important during the translation process), all I have to do is sit in my car, play that special song, and it all comes back.

How long did it take you to write “Addiction”?
As I have already mentioned earlier, the book was translated from Slovene, so the entire process of actually getting the book into the state it is right now was much more complex than just writing it.
It took me about four, maybe five months to write it. I’m not really sure, because I started writing the next part immediately after Addiction was finished. Only after I had showed it to my best friend, who also happens to be the other half of B. L. Pride, the decision to do something with it started forming. I probably wouldn’t do anything but write on-end but Lea started bugging me about it and managed to convince me we should publish it. So she volunteered to do all the hard work and translate it–which she did so wonderfully I cannot even begin to say. Sure, she was struggling, much more than I will ever know, probably, but she maintained all the tiny little details and shades of emotions, moods, and whispers that I had seen, felt, and sensed while I had been writing it and to me, that is the most important.

What is the working title of your next book(s)?
The entire Beyond Life Series was and is titled Mila for the B.L Pride team. We always talk about Mila, never about the book or the novel or anything like that. So, choosing the right title was a long and troublesome quest, which, as did everything else, was immediately over as soon as we decided to just be true to ourselves and do what we like. The titles of the next books were born accordingly, so Addiction is followed by Insanity, The Breaking Point, and Infinity.
And the new story I’m working on is just as uncreatively titled Luke. So we all know who the main character is, huh? I’ll come up with something better when the time comes, though. Hopefully.

When and why did you begin writing?
It all began after ‘the most important’ things in life had been taken care of and I still felt like there was something really important missing. As a kid, I would write tons of stuff and never show them to anyone, and then the college, work, and family kicked in and kept me really busy for a while. But some things just can’t be ignored and writing is definitely one of them. I started when I needed some ‘therapy’ and now, I’m addicted.

Do you self publish your books or go through an agency?
Our first option was self-publishing but we soon decided we needed some help with the things that we found were dragging us down and shifting our focus from what we wanted to do (and believe we can do quite well) to the things we didn’t enjoy and didn’t do successfully. So we decided to try out AuthorHouse. We read a lot of both negative and positive posts and decided to give it a go. There is quite some negativity toward the vanity-published books but I tend to believe that the way of publishing (self-publishing, traditional publishing or vanity) does not guarantee that I will enjoy a book or put it down unread. It’s the story and the language that counts for me and I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that way.

What part of writing books do you find the hardest?
Writing books is something I enjoy profoundly. I write when I feel I have something to write and don’t push myself when I don’t feel the drive. Maybe the hardest part is not being able to write because of the lack of time. This is something that really frustrates me and it’s not fun to be around me when that happens.
However, the publishing, marketing, and promotion business is not something I could enjoy. The only thing I like about wandering around completely lost and not knowing where to turn is having met some great people on the way.

What do you do in your spare time?
I write. Lea does the translations. We sit together and search for the best solutions. This is our spare time. B. L. Pride has two jobs, four kids, and two husbands (and a hole bunch of cats) so there is rarely some extra time left. However, we both love visiting concerts and use every opportunity to do it.

Who is your favourite author?
It’s really difficult to just choose one but if we’d have to choose, mine would be Sigrid Undset and Lea’s would be Aarto Paasilina. But there are a lot of great Slovene authors and Feri Lainšček would be our choice.

What’s your favourite genre to read?
We tend to read whatever makes us feel. There are so many things we like that come from different genres, so choosing only one would be just as difficult as choosing our favourite authors. I could say that my favourite genre is the eclectic fusion of unpredictability, romance, danger, and strange dark humour that challenges the mind.

Do you have any advice for other writers?
I think that writing is the most personal, intimate thing in the world, and therefore, what might work for me can be absolutely useless for someone else. But there is an advice that I think is universal enough and that would be: Just write. Write your way out of all of the doubts you ever get and enjoy the ride.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Well, I would certainly like to thank you for this opportunity. It was fun to share a little something about B. L. Pride and about Mila on a different level, so I really appreciate it. And to all the readers out there who love a great heart-breaking, spine-chilling story that consumes them and takes them so deep they forget about everything else for a while – check out Addiction. Maybe you’ll end up addicted and craving for more.