Author Interview: Laura Kreitzer

A little about Laura!

I went to school to be a geographer, cartographer, and geologist working in the field on environmental sciences, specifically water tracing of underground rivers. I was extremely passionate about my job (I worked in a dye trace laboratory at Western Kentucky University), but one day I discovered I wasn’t so horrible at writing fiction. This was all by chance, actually. I fell in love with Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga and had to read more. I soon discovered Midnight Sun, her unfinished manuscript. I was so disappointed it wasn’t finished that I scoured the Internet for more. That’s how I found fan fiction. Well, to be honest, I was not wholly impressed with fan fiction. Therefore, I decided to write some of my own. Soon I had several thousand reviews and more than a quarter million hits. I thought, “Wow, this is amazing.” That’s when I started to write my first original novel, Shadow of the Sun, which you can download for free on B&N, Amazon, or iBooks.  I struggled for almost two years before I started to gain recognition, but after all of my hard work and dedication, it’s finally paying off.


You are the author of the Timeless Series and the Summer Chronicles. Let’s start with the Timeless Series. Can you tell me a little about Shadow of the Sun, the first book in the Timeless Series?

SotS is about a young paranormal scientist, Gabriella. She’s a skeptic, which makes her perfect for her job. One day a shipment of three corpses are sent to her lab. They’re supposed to be thousands of years old, but when she opens the boxes, she discovers the bodies to be fresh. The bodies come back to life, and from there, Gabriella goes on a wild journey as angels appear and tell her about an ancient prophecy that says she is the Illuminator—the one who will bring light to those in darkness. I don’t want to go too in depth, but let’s just say that SotS is full of mysteries, adventure, and plot twists you won’t see coming.

Where did you get the idea for the Timeless Series?

I knew I wanted to write about angels, but I didn’t know how I was going to go about it. I probably wrote fifteen different beginnings before I gave up and wrote one of the middle scenes. From there, the story literally had a mind of its own. I tried to stay on an outline, but I soon discovered that my characters don’t give a flip about my outlines. Hah. I pretty much pulled the story from my arse, which might explain some of the craziness that is SotS.

There are currently three books in the Timeless Series released with books four and five set for release in 2012. How is work coming with the next two books in the series and will there be any more books in the series after book five is released?

I hope book five comes out in 2012, but I know Fallen Legion, book four, will be out before the end of the year. Currently I am busy editing the screenplay for Shadow of the Sun, which is exciting! Next on the agenda is a Timeless novella called Keepers. I hope to have that live on ebook in March. As far as writing more than five books in the series, I don’t think so. However, I am so invested in the characters I have considered writing a different series that would be a prequel to the Timeless series. There is so much rich history I could expand upon. We’ll see what happens

In my opinion, the covers of books really attract me to pick them up and read what they are about. The Timeless covers are stunning! Do you think it is important to have a great cover as well as of course a great storyline?

Thank you, and it depends. There are some books that took me forever to read because their covers were so unattractive, but now I regret waiting so long. I personally think a cover should compliment the story. Lately I’ve come across some amazing covers that seem to have absolutely nothing with the actual story inside. Though I want to judge a book by its cover, I’ve learned not even a beautiful cover means a beautiful story.

You released the first book in the Summer Chronicles 2011. Can you tell us a little about the first book Phantom Universe?

Absolutely! PU is about a young girl named Summer who was created to be a time machine by an organization called the Secret Clock Society. When she was only four, the Society discovered a miscalculation and ruled the experiment to be terminated. Summer’s caretaker didn’t approve and took off with the young girl. The Society, thinking they were being clever, hired a nasty sort to kidnap Summer. Angry the Society wouldn’t pay more for her, the kidnapper sells her to a modern day pirate after beating her into submission and silence. Twelve years later, the Society finds her but is unable to capture her. Instead, the ship sinks, and Summer is washed up on shore. There she discovers who she is and why they wanted the experiment terminated so badly. It was the first of my books to be available in audiobook format (read by the severely talented Karen Savage), and will soon be a free download as well on Amazon & Nook.

Where did you get the idea for the Summer Chronicles?

I knew I wanted to write about a slave girl and pirates. At first I thought about writing it Pirates of the Caribbean style, but just like with the Timeless series, the characters took over. To add in a scifi twist, I wrote it as a dystopian novel with some time traveling mixed in. Now that I think of it, I’m not sure where that came from. My brain works in mysterious ways.

Publication for the next three books in the Summer Chronicles are due for release in 2012. You will have a busy year ahead of you with five books to release! How are you feeling about this massive undertake?

One I know I won’t be able to undertake, actually. The release dates for the last two books in the Summer Chronicles aren’t official and will probably be two in 2012 and one in 2013. I’ve decided not to put any official release dates on any of my novels until they are completely written. I’m doing this because in 2011 three people I was very close to passed away, there was a flood, part of my house caught fire after my neighbor’s house burned to the ground, and I traveled a lot—unplanned. I can’t predict set backs in my life, so I think it’s best I don’t put official dates on anything until I’m 100% sure. Having to change Forsaken Harbor’s release from July to February was upsetting, and I don’t want to have to do that again.

In both your series of books they have elements of Paranormal, fantasy, romance, and sci-fi. Are these the sort of genres you think you will keep writing in or would you like to try any other genres i.e. contemporary, historical etc.

I might write contemporary, but I have no interest in writing historical novels (or at least not historically accurate ones). I write what I love, and I am not a fan of historical novels, to be honest. I find many of them tedious and a bore, but that is completely my taste in books.

Why should we read your books?

The real question you should be asking is: Why not? I believe there is a little of something for everyone in my novels. Romance, action, adventure, science fiction, fantasy all rolled into one. And if one series isn’t your cup of tea, the other might be. They are both completely different. The writing style, the voice, and the premise are not similar. Plus, Shadow of the Sun (and soon Phantom Universe) is a free ebook download. How can you say no to that?

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