S.M. Perlow

May Featured Author

What made you choose Red Adept Editing?

While searching for an editor for my first book, I had an independent editor do a sample of my first ten pages. I wasn’t thrilled with his style, so I got back online to see who else was out there. Red Adept was highly recommended on a few forums I visited, so I got in touch with them, and I’m glad I did.

Lynn’s sample edit—the style of her line edits and the tone of her comments—was exactly what I was looking for. As was the overall process she described, going from first edit, to subsequent rounds of refinement, and then proofreading. I felt confident I had found a partner in Red Adept, who would help me turn my book into something truly ready for publication.

You’ve worked with Lynn, Laura, and Stefanie. What did you enjoy most about working with them?

I appreciated that with all three, the editing felt like a process where we worked together to make my book as strong as it could be during the rounds of revisions. To be sure, I relied on the editors for their expertise, but in cases where I felt it was important, I always had an opportunity to suggest alternatives and question changes.

And I was impressed that the overall editing style was consistent between the editors. Lynn said it would be, and she was right.

What inspired you to start a writing career?

Eight years ago, I was making iPhone and Android applications, and I found that whenever I built something successful, other applications would copy my innovations. Then on a subway ride in Washington, DC, I read a blog post about self-publishing. I figured that if I wrote fiction, no one would be able to copy my writing as they did my cell phone applications, so I set out to see if I could write an interesting story.

Early on, I discovered how much I enjoyed telling very human stories in fantasy novels. Other work I had done had offered opportunities to be creative, but nothing to the extent that writing did. I fell in love with the creativity that fiction allowed. Six books later, I’m so glad I gave writing a chance.

Do you have a favorite place or time of day to write?

Before lunch, lying on my couch is my favorite, because that’s when I get the most done.

I also have fun memories like staying up all night in a coffeeshop to write a scene where the sun was ominously rising on my vampires (who cannot tolerate its bright rays), while I watched the sun rise in the real world.

For my latest novel, Choosing a Master, I traveled to New Orleans to scout settings in the afternoon and evening then write about them the next morning. I have no doubt my description of the chaos of Bourbon Street was more vivid because I had been out among it the night before I wrote about it.

Do you like to plan before you write? Or do you prefer to start and see where the story goes?

I need to plan a chapter before I write it, but I have sometimes decided I have enough chapters planned to get started with a book, even if I don’t have the entire story planned out.

If you had to be roommates with one of your characters, which one would you choose?

One of the vampires, for sure. I’d gladly adopt a nocturnal lifestyle to spend time with someone hundreds or thousands of years old. Think of all the stories they could tell, all the people they might have known and places they could have lived…

Plus, my vampires have superhuman strength and speed, and if they’ve survived that long in the world I wrote for them, they’re doubtless good in a fight. Who in their right mind would mess with me if I had a roommate like that?

You have some great covers. Who does your cover work?

I’ve enjoyed working with Glendon Haddix at Streetlight Graphics for my Vampires and the Life of Erin Rose book covers, and I would recommend him to any author.

His website is: www.streetlightgraphics.com

I think each cover he’s done is great individually, and I really like how they look side by side on my website and in print on my bookshelf.

What do you do when you’re not writing?

I work as a web project manager for a social media marketing company in Austin, Texas. I see live music whenever I can, I’m a big movie fan, and I play in a competitive dodgeball league with my friends (sometimes it’s exactly, and amusingly, like the movie).

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever been given?

There’s something from the technology world that I take to heart when writing. When Steve Jobs said, “Real artists ship,” he meant that his team had to actually deliver the Apple Macintosh computer to market, to “ship it.” His company couldn’t afford to develop it forever, constantly delaying their completion date as they tried to perfect their product.

I don’t rush my writing out. I work hard during the editing process to polish my stories. But at some point, it’s time for them to be done and published. It’s time to ship.

Where can readers find you?

Amazon profile page: https://www.amazon.com/S.M.-Perlow

Website: smperlow.com

Facebook: facebook.com/smperlow

Twitter: twitter.com/smperlow