Author Interview

-- World of Writing - Author Interview -- 

Today we are featuring Kady Hinojosa who tells us that she has always loved creative writing. However, she took a logic track in college studying Computer Science; specialized in Business Analyst and Quality Assurance. 

After retiring, she returned to writing and wove her IT experience into her debut novel, #HuntedLives. She resides in Blanco, Texas, with her husband and two cats. To learn more about her, or reach out to Kady visit: 

www.kadyhinojosa.com

or

www.facebook.com/KadyHinojosaAuthor

Q: Who inspired you to pursue a career in writing?

A: I loved to write when I was in high school but took a logical path in college and obtained my degree in Computer Science. Most of my career was spent working as a Business Analyst and Quality Assurance expert dealing with websites, mostly financial, but others as well. I loved the work, documenting the requirements of a project down to the minutest detail in a clear and concise manner, then working with the developers through testing and other means to ensure the product delivered matched the requirements. It was exciting and challenging. And while writing requirements that would be interpreted the same way by anyone who read them honed my skills on one level, writing a novel required a completely different mindset.

Throughout my computing career, I dabbled in writing, co-authoring an article about staying healthy for a new trucking magazine back in the 80s, and I constantly write short poem ‘clues’ for my grandkids for treasure hunts. But the desire to do something more was always there.

My husband, Jose, knew this, and after I stopped working, he encouraged me to pursue writing on a bigger scale. He suggested I take a course about writing a novel, to refresh my memory on the basics and to teach me the things I didn’t know. That course got my creative juices flowing again and I jumped into #HuntedLives immediately after. It’s thanks to him that I pursued this passion.

Q: How does writing help you make a difference in the world?

A: #HuntedLives is my first novel. It's a thriller with a chilling take on the dangers of social media, video/app games and the twisted mindset of humanity.  

Social media has taken the world by storm. People are tweeting, texting, and posting every hour of every day. The biggest plus - connections with new friends and reconnections with old ones. The downside is how it has changed the way we communicate. People say things and do things on social media that they would never say or do face-to-face with someone.  

By the same token, video/app games are a dime a dozen, every kind of game imaginable is out there, and kids today are addicted to them. Games are played constantly, many of them violent. There's less playing with friends outside (running around, playing ball or tag, etc).

As a result, we have become desensitized, numb, in many ways. That bothers me, so I took that to the extreme in the book. As with anything, there’s good and bad to using social media and playing video/app games. I hope that by shining a light on this, through #HuntedLives and the sequel that I’m currently writing, people will take a step back from both, use them in moderation, and spend more time visiting with friends and family.

Q: What do you do when you are not writing?

A: I exercise a lot with my husband - walking, biking, running, boot camp, kayaking, golf. My husband and I love to travel - cruising, dude ranches and horseback riding, and road trips around our beautiful country. We have six grandkids and spend time with them whenever we can. We love playing with them and are usually exhausted when they go home. And we just adopted two Siamese kittens and they are keeping us very busy. Those are probably the four things I do most.

Q: What gave you the idea (inspiration) for this book?

A: Originally, the idea came from watching my two oldest grandsons playing video app games.  They were 13 and 10 years old back then, and I would watch them and ask questions about what they were doing and why. It’s amazing how fast kids today learn games and can move around them with such ease.

My husband and I were living in Myrtle Beach, SC, and would drive to Texas multiple times a year to visit our kids/grandkids. It was during one of those trips that I really paid attention to what the boys were playing. Whenever we traveled back and forth, we’d make the trip in one day…19-20 hours in a car is a long time to build on that idea and develop the basic outline for the book.

I use an outline for writing. I like knowing the general idea of how the book is going to flow but I don’t want it to be so rigid that it can’t change. In fact, there is a lot of fluidity in it. The characters or plot, quite often, take me in an unexpected direction and I go there without a thought, updating the outline along the way.

Q: What were some of the challenges you faced in writing your non-fiction books? 

A: The biggest challenge in writing #HuntedLives were the distractions. As my first book, it took me some time to get into the routine of it and block out those distractions. Once I did, it flowed very easily.  

With the sequel I’m currently writing, the biggest challenge is making the time to write and balancing that with marketing and dealing with the ‘business’ of the first book. It’s a balancing act that I have not quite mastered yet.

Q: Did you choose writing as a profession, or did it choose you?

A: That’s an interesting question. I loved creative writing so much that if I had chosen writing as a profession, I never would have pursued Computer Science. I buried that love of writing, for the most part, in logic. I don’t regret that. I love the logic of computers and business analysis, quality assurance, testing, and everything related to that. Besides, #HuntedLives would not exist if I had not taken the path I chose. Other books may have existed but not this one. And I’m proud of it. To answer the question, writing definitely chose me, and it chose me at the right time in my life.

Q: What are common mistakes authors make?

A: I don’t know about other authors, but for myself, some of the mistakes I made are listed below.

- Telling too much instead of showing. I did countless re-writes in areas where I told much more than I showed. It is still something I work on today.

- Not setting tangible goals. The idea for #HuntedLives was born in mid-2015. The book was published in late 2020. I floated along for quite awhile, doing edits here and there, sending queries (when I first thought to go the traditional route), etc. In May 2020, I decided on self-publishing and finally set a goal to publish in Dec 2020, listing milestones of everything I needed to learn and do to reach that goal. As a result, I beat it, publishing on Nov 29th.

- Not reading enough. I used to think that if I read too much of one author I’d write too much like him or her and not have my own voice or style. Or worse, be accused of copying that other author. Boy, was that silly!!! There is so much to learn from other authors, even basic stuff like word choices and cadence, and still have my own style.

- Not knowing enough about marketing. I still don’t. I’m not comfortable with it and constantly step out of my comfort zone. But I learn more every day and I am excited about the things I’m learning (both externally and internally).

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