Blogger Interview with Sarah Foster

BLOG TOUR:

Confessions of a Watery Tart - Lines of Dialogue - Fill in the Blank

Tim Brannan - Liberty Sawyer Character Stats
Friday Night Videos

BLOG UPDATE: I made the background gray so it's not so harsh and softened the white font. I didn't make it too dark, though, because I have a hard time reading gray on black. Anyway...I hope the overall appearance is better. I think it is. :)

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Today I am featuring Sarah Foster for a blogger interview. On her blog, A Faux Fountain Pen, she shares her trials and tribulations in writing and life. She is sarcastic, fun, and honest. I enjoy her posts a lot. For the A to Z Challenge, she offered awesome advice on how to name characters. Check out her interview below and then hop on over to her blog. :)

1. Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging in 2011. I was going through a whole bunch of transitions at once. I had just graduated college and was trying to find a job and a new place to live. On top of that, I was figuring out what I wanted to do with my writing, because I had always known that I wanted to be a writer and it was what I went to college for. Blogging just seemed like the next step. I knew it would be a good idea to create an author presence online even if I didn’t have anything published yet, and hopefully it would motivate me to keep writing.

2. I also started my blog when I didn't have anything published. How did you come up with The Faux Fountain Pen as your blog title?

It was a phrase I used in my first blog post because I was writing with one of those disposable fountain pens, and faux just sounded better. It also felt right in a symbolic way for what I thought my blog was going to be. It was like, I have no idea what I’m doing but I’m just going to fake it and keep writing.

The Faux Fountain Pen! :D

3. I love the story behind your blog's title! What was your very first blog post?

My first blog post was called “Full Circle.” I had written fiction since I pretty much knew how to write up through my first year of college, but then I gave it up and wrote only poetry until my last semester. But I took one last fiction course and wrote a short story that just would not leave me alone. I decided I had to turn it into a novel. So it felt like my journey into fiction writing had come full circle, but a brand new journey was just beginning.

4. I know Jordan, your muse and MC, likes to take over your blog every now and then. Can you tell us about him and what he likes to talk about?

Jordan took on a life of his own pretty much the second I started writing his story. I used to joke that he was trying to break out of my brain because it would physically bother me not to be writing. As a character, he’s actually very manipulative, but as a muse, he’s pretty much all sass all the time. For the most part he talks about muse-related things, like finding inspiration, character development, and other types of writing advice. Or he’ll just talk about himself. Actually, the latter probably happens more often.

5. You recently hosted a blog hop: The Muse Party Blogfest. (Which was a load of fun, by the way.) What possessed you to do a blog hop just after A to Z? And how did you get the idea?

Because I’m a crazy person! The idea had actually been floating around in my head for a while, and since my fourth blogging anniversary was coming up at the end of May, I thought it was the perfect time. A milestone is a great time to throw a party, right? I know I’m not the only writer who has a personal connection with their muse, so I thought it would be fun to invite everyone to a virtual party and get all of these crazy characters together. It turned out to be a lot of fun!

6. Happy Blogiversary! This is the perfect time to ask...What do you love most about blogging?

I really love connecting with other bloggers. It’s great to read what other people have to say and get a lot of great writing advice. And I just love putting my own thoughts out there and getting feedback. If I’m struggling with something, they can offer advice, or if I write something silly they’ll tell me that they enjoyed it. It’s just a great feeling to put a piece of writing out there and get a response to it. And getting to know all of the awesome bloggers, too!

7. What are the top 5 most-viewed posts on your blog?

1. Making Sure Readers Get I 

2. How Do We Deal with Fear?

3. The Muse Party Blogfest! 

4. Grabbing a red pen in the dark… 

5. How Accurate Do You Need to Be? 

8. Share your number one tip to bloggers just starting out.

Don’t get discouraged if it takes a long time for anyone to actually look at your blog, and definitely don’t give up. The best thing you can do is visit as many other blogs as you can. Most of the people out there are kind enough to return the visit. Eventually you’ll start building connections and getting more traffic on your own blog.

Hyper Round:

1. Favorite time to post blogs? Morning, by 9 AM usually

2. Blogger or Wordpress? Blogger!

3. Do you host guests? Mostly blog tours, but yes!

4. Where are you when you’re blogging? Sitting on my bed

BIO:

I’ve been writing since I was 8, letting my writing grow up with me from children’s books to YA to Adult. As of now, I’m still unpublished. I’ve been working on my novel Uneven Lines since 2011, and hopefully someday you’ll get to read it. Sometimes I write poetry, if the muse isn’t hogging my attention. I’m 27 and live in a studio apartment with my stand-up comedian fiancé and my cat Gizmo. If you browse through my blog, you’ll definitely come across Jordan—he’s the 15-year-old narrator of my novel and my muse/the annoying voice in my head/the third love of my life. Mostly I write about…well, writing!

Blogger Links:

Blog / Twitter

Thank you for chatting with me, Sarah! I’d love to have you back.

Please leave a comment for Sarah! :)