Where do you live?Born and raised in Northern Maine. I lived part of my life in Southern Maine for college. I was an art major. I now reside in Fallbrook, California. What’s your home life like?My home life is quiet. I live with my husband Bryan and my son Marek in a small two bedroom apartment located in a silent, small town. For the most part, when I am not busy working, I am a common house wife doing cooking, cleaning, and the like. In my other free time I do photo editing, book reading, abstract painting, and writing when I am not busy beta reading. I don’t get out much and I’m okay with that. I’ve always been the type to hide in my bedroom and expand my creativity on my own time. I’m not one who likes interruption or someone to come behind me to look at what I’m doing. I enjoy my privacy and at home, my husband is really good about giving me that space. We’re pretty much the same in that area. Since moving to California two years ago I have made friends through my roller derby league, Hidden City Derby Girls (HCDG). I’ve spent a lot of my time strengthening my skills on the track and found that I have learned a lot about myself as a derby girl. Roller derby has brought out strengths in me that I did not know existed and has helped me through depression over the past four years. As a jammer you have to face and fight through a wall of blockers. Defeating depression was a lot like that for me. Every wall that I’ve broken through has taught me that I can break through any barrier and to never give up. If you get knocked down, you get back up again. What genre(s) do you like to write? To read?I love fiction more than anything. I read a lot of books by Chuck Palahniuk. Some, okay most of it, has some disgusting descriptions. I just finished his book “Haunted” and had to put the book down a couple times to avoid from vomiting. I’ve been reading a lot of Stephen King recently. Big surprise, I’m from Maine, of course I’m going to read some Stephen King. In high school I was a huge fan of Nicholas Sparks but I read maybe five of his books until I stopped buying them. Same kind of story lines with different endings but nothing too different. I like variety. My writing has varied from poetry based on life events to fictional stories. Why did you start writing?I began writing in grade school. I believe I was ten years old or younger when I did my first story for a class. My teachers gave us opportunities to become young publishers. I enjoyed writing poetry; I loved that I could use words to hide the true meaning to it. I could reveal the truth with out actually saying it. I had always received feedback from friends stating that my poetry was relatable. Lastly, in high school, while I still expanded my poetry my best friend Destini and I also used to sit in her bedroom, in complete silence. We would write ghost stories with pen and paper. I remember my hand would cramp so bad. We would trade off when we were finished and tell each other what we thought about each other’s stories. We always talked about how we would become famous writers some day. I still want the dream to become a reality. What do you do when you’re not writing?Normally I would be working and playing roller derby but due to pregnancy I have been taking up more opportunity to do photography. I’ve been using my league as my photo subjects. Where do you like to go when looking for a new book to read?My husband bought me a Kindle, which I’m still wary of. I love that I have a digital way to read books but I LOVE the smell of the pages of a book. I love dog-earing new ones. It gives me a feeling of satisfaction. Honestly, I’ve always been a fan of finding books in libraries, I like to pick up the book and read the descriptions. I could read this stuff online through Amazon I suppose but I find it easier for a book store/library to sell me. I’m a fan of going to Barnes and Noble just to look around for something that might catch my eye. At what point do you call it quits when reading a new book?I don’t. If I don’t like it I will still finish it. I am the kind of person that needs to form my own opinion on things and to do that I need to know the entirety of the book. I can’t do that with out finishing it. I’ve read books that I’ve completely hated at the beginning, books that lag at the start with character introductions specifically. I have a slow start with those books. They’ll take me months to finish. I find that when I force myself through it, about half way through I start to really enjoy it and am wowed by the ending. I avoid books that don’t have interesting descriptions to me. They’ve never steered me wrong. Actually, one of my favorites came from the middle school library. I remember I was new to Cunningham Middle School. I went to the library for study hall and looked at this rack filled with R.L. Stine’s Fear Street series. I came across a random book called “Dreadful Sorry” by Kathryn Reiss. I didn’t really understand the description of the book at the time but was surprised to learn that it was describing astral projection. At that time I was I very intrigued by supernatural things. Okay, I’m still intrigued by that stuff! It turned out to be a really good read. Are you independently or traditionally published?Traditionally published. A friend of mine is a publisher and it’s a pleasure to have my short story going into an anthology with many other authors. This will be my first publication.
What’s the elevator pitch?Imagine a dream that creates sounds, sights, and feelings of fear. You wake up from the night mare and you can see your bedroom. A sudden comfort washes over you as you realize that it wasn’t real. You’re safe. You go to move your arm but it doesn’t budge, you scream but your mouth refuses to open. This has happened before. You’re trapped and a sound in the not too far distance suddenly pierces your ears. Your heart begins to break through your chest. You’re not alone. How long have you been working on it?The idea of this book was brought up to me sometime around February/March of this year. I wrote the first draft within a week and emailed it straight to my publisher. I just got the first draft back two or three weeks ago and have been really deepening the visuals in it to give it more. It’s been a total of two months worth of work but it’s only 7000 words long. Very quick read. When will it be available to buy? Where?They’re looking around October 15th tentatively. Preferably sometime before Halloween. It should be available for purchase on Amazon Kindle as well as FlukyFiction’s Etsy page, Barnes and Noble, Books A Million, and from FlukyFiction themselves. Best contact is via Twitter @FlukyFiction. How can readers find you online?
My deepest appreciate to Michaela Martell for taking the time out of family and work life to be a part of the Laughable Blog. I wish her all the best with her future writing and roller derby-ing!  Sincerely, Nicholas Adams
2 Comments
Michaela
9/15/2017 07:10:23 pm
Thank you for posting!!!
Terry Kilcollins
9/18/2017 11:38:14 am
So proud of you, Michaela! Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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