I'd like to thank Yettie One for his regular feature here at the GA News Blog - the Pulse Behind the GA Crowd. This month, he gives us a great interview with KingdombytheSea. Enjoy!

Pulse behind the GA Crowd
by Yettie One

In the tail end of December I managed to pin KingdomByTheSea down while she was in Costa Rica (lucky fish) and grill her about her time here on GA. For me this proved to be an interesting insight into a long standing member of GA and the self published writer Sara Alva.

There is a passion to writing that is communicated in the written work of KingdomByTheSea and it got me curious about her experiences here on GA. Thankfully she was kind enough to let me pick her brains we had a really awesome chat and here are the results.

I asked Sara what brought her to GA in the first instance. “A couple of years ago, I was flouncing around the internet reading fanfiction and original fiction after a viewing of Brokeback Mountain left me in dire need of happier fare. One day my husband, who may or may not regret this, suggested to me that I write a novel and see how I fared. Little did he know how much writing would consume me, and so started my journey writing Social Skills. It was from here that I discovered DomLuka’s site and worked my way to GA from there. The community of readers and authors were so incredibly welcoming that I joined right away. I spent a few months reading, reviewing and gathering courage and then began posting my own work." Sounds like the rest is history, you could say.

At 28 KingdomByTheSea is currently living in California, a golden state girl who’s been writing for about six or seven years now. She first had a crush on Harrison Ford (grrrrrrrr, who didn’t, hehe) and finds blue eyes the most seductive, but feels bad for the brown eyed folk like herself, so she says she has a tendency to write of them as the hot love interest in her stories. A rare breed, in that she’s managed to last this long in life without a nick name, however this is a sore point as she’s always wanted one. “Can someone give me one please?”.

I asked Sara about the positive impact that GA had brought to her life, and she warmly spoke of how in her eyes GA has changed her life. “For years I’d dreamed of being a writer, but naysayers and self doubt talked me out of going for that goal in life. When I began posting on GA, the positive responses from readers and other authors literally floored me. Writing, and the friendships I’ve made through GA, got me through a very difficult year last year, and now in a brand new 2013, with the help of friends I’ve made here on this site, I'm about to publish two novels.”

You can’t help but admire that courage. “I am so excited that GA is about to branch out into publishing and eBooks, and this step in a new direction is a wonderful new development for the site and writers like us. This continual evolution of GA is what makes it a great place to be and I think it’s a wonderful step forward for us all,” she says.

A fan of turtles or terrapins or even tortoises, KingdomByTheSea tells me that she’s once been told that she needed to bring her love for turtles down a notch. A true romantic, she believes you can’t have love without happiness and they belong together.

You can’t speak to a person about GA without asking about their favourites, so while grilling Sara, I asked for her top stories and authors.

“I would have to pick In Due Time by J_Ross as my all time favourite story on GA. It was the first story I read directly on GA, and it will always have a special place in my heart. The emotions portrayed are raw without being over-the-top angsty. It’s a realistic high school story with some quirky characters that really entertained me. Some of the other stories I’ve enjoyed would include The Ordinary Us by DomLuka, Square Peg in a Game of Dominos by K.C. and Should I by CarringtonRJ.”

“To choose a favourite author is so difficult. There are two that vying for my attention I guess and they would be J_Ross and DomLuka as they both manage to write with such a natural voice in their storytelling, you almost forget you are reading.”

Towards the end of our chat I asked Sara what stood out to her as the best feature of the site, and she was quick to point to the review facility. “As an author, being able to interact with readers is both exciting and educational, because it allows me to see my story through new eyes. I’ve taken a few reader suggestions into account for revised editions, and believe my work is better for them.”

It was frustrating to end my chat with KingdomByTheSea, but all too quickly our time was up. I can honestly say that I’m glad I got a chance to share some time with her, and find out about her experiences here on GA. I’d like to thank her for her time and friendly openness and hope that like the rest of us you check out her work and enjoy reading, getting to know her, and maybe make a friend of another member that adds to the Pulse behind the GA Crowd.

Thanks for reading
The Yettie.