Cyn Balog Q&A!

Today we were lucky enough to get author Cyn Balog to come and cause havoc on our blog. She's the

author of Fairy Tale which will be released on June 23rd. You can also go to her blog or site for more of information. So, without further ado, enjoy Cyn's answers:

Who pwns everything?

I confess to having to look up "pwn" on wikipedia only a couple months ago, so it definitely isn't me.


If someone suddenly threw a wad of twenty thousand dollars at you, what would you do?

Since I am totally uncoordinated, it would probably end up hitting me in the head and I would pass out. Then I would be trampled by other people fighting for it, so I would most likely end up broke and in the hospital.

If 'they' decided to make a movie of your life, which actress would you want to play you?

God, I hate Hollywood. I don't like any actresses, either. But that's ok, because a movie of my life would be such a dismally boring failure that I think the only actress they could afford would be of the cardboard cutout variety. Which is ok because most of the time I would be sitting down, watching tv or hanging out at the computer, which cardboard cutouts can do better than real people. And they won't go all diva, either.

What's the most random question you can think of? Answer it.

If you were stuck on a desert island with one bobblehead figurine, who would it be?

Peter Forsberg. I have one in my office at work and I talk to him every day, like he's a real person. "Hi, Peter, would you like some coffee? Would you like to do these TPS reports for me?" He's not very good with TPS reports but I figure he might be better at building an SOS fire.

Can you do the Time Warp again?
I really couldn't do it the first time.

When writing some authors plan every detail and others just dive into the book, so are you an outliner or a diver (or a mix)?
A diver at first. I have a loose idea and where I want things to end up, but that's about it. I write the first few chapters and see how it is working, then, when I get about halfway thru and that light appears at the end of the tunnel, I sketch out the scenes to get me there. I really don't even determine who my characters are and what their traits are until the second draft.

What was the most difficult step for you in writing Fairy Tale?

I have these two guy characters, and there's sorta a love triangle in there. And I wanted to make sure that both guys were equally loveable in different ways, because the last thing you want is it to be obvious which one is the better catch. There is nothing more annoying than reading a book and wanting to slap the main character upside the head, "Why are you falling for that loser???" It's worse than watching a horror movie and screaming at the screen, "LOOK BEHIND YOU, IDIOT!" So I took traits that I love from my husband and infused them into both guys (actually, that's not really true but he may be reading this).