KP Wee is a teacher and market researcher in Vancouver, Canada. He enjoys writing, hockey, and baseball.
While he has written short stories in the psychological fiction genre, he much prefers chick lit and sports biographies.
KP has previously published "Showing Their Scales." He began writing because he often had to write stories as lessons for his students, and he realized, "Hey, writing is fun. I can do it. I can write stories and try and get them published." And that's how it all began.
TRIVIA-
Favorite color- Blue
Favorite author- Camy Tang.
Favorite book- Zodiac sign- Scorpio
Your motto- Don’t Say I Can’t. It’s the motto of my favorite athlete, Tom Candiotti, and it’s something that I firmly believe in.
Here is the interview:
RC- Is the life of a writer what you imagined it to be?
KP Wee- Not necessarily. I think as a writer, it’s not solely about writing. You need to think about things like marketing, having a blog or website that promote your books, and you need to come up with interesting content on your blog to get people to come back and check your site out. There are things like Twitter and Facebook too. If you don’t have those things, you’re not going to be successful. So essentially, it’s not what I imagined it to be – you have to basically worry about the business side of it, the marketing and promoting aspect of things. So, it’s kind of like running a business as well as being able to write.
Also, there’s a fair amount of research to be done. You want to get your facts straight. You want to make sure what you write about makes sense. For instance, if your character is a teacher, you better make sure you can portray his or her occupation in a story in a realistic way. Even the lingo he or she uses, you have to get that right. I once had to interview people in the engineering and marketing professions to determine if those occupations were suitable for my main character! There are all these types of details you need to be sure about before you can use them in your stories.
RC- What genre do you write and why?
KP Wee- I’ve written psychological fiction – I enjoy writing stories where you expect the unexpected. You see perhaps the bad guys getting what they want, or someone getting back at others for revenge, for instance. My philosophy when I began writing was that we’ve seen enough books were the good guys win, the bad guys lose, and everyone’s happy at the end. I stayed away from those kinds of endings because I wanted to be different. I liken my stories to those you see from the TV series, "Tales from the Crypt," where there isn’t a happy ending but perhaps a tragic and even violent one to certain characters. That was my genre, at least when I first started writing. My first published book, "Showing Their Scales: Three Tales of Lies, Lust, and Deception" was exactly like that. "Fess Up, Jessup!" is a little different in that you do see a bit of justice, so to speak, by the end of the stories.
More recently, I’ve been working on chick lit, realizing it’s not always about what I want to write. It’s more about what people want to read. Statistics do show that women tend to read more than men do, so the reality is to write what women want to read about. It’s been quite an adjustment, for sure, going from one extreme of violence and revenge to a genre where the heroine gets what she wants at the end.
RC-What quality do you think is essential for becoming a good writer?
KP Wee-I believe you need to do a lot of research. You need to be creative. You need to get inside the heads of your characters and think like they do, and be able to convey that in the story. You need to describe things well. You need to get the lingo right. Basically, you need to have a strong understanding of how people think, how to make your characters compelling, and you need to be creative and funny. You need to incorporate all that into your writing and if you think about it, it’s not an easy task to accomplish.
RC-Who are your favorite authors?
KP Wee-When I was younger, I enjoyed mystery novels. I would always pick up novels by Agatha Christie and other detective/mystery authors. As I have gradually tried to write chick lit, I’ve tried to read novels written by chick lit authors. I find Camy Tang’s novels to be funny.
RC-Have you ever suffered from the dreaded writer's block? How did you deal with it?
KP Wee-I wouldn’t say I’ve had writer’s block. What I do have is too many ideas, and I would try to set one story aside if I don’t feel motivated to write it, and move on to the next one. I think the biggest enemy I have isn’t writer’s block, but a lack of time. Being employed full-time doesn’t help with my writing, because there have been times when I return home and do not feel motivated enough to spend a few hours writing.
RC- What message would you like to give your fans?
KP Wee- Not necessarily. I think as a writer, it’s not solely about writing. You need to think about things like marketing, having a blog or website that promote your books, and you need to come up with interesting content on your blog to get people to come back and check your site out. There are things like Twitter and Facebook too. If you don’t have those things, you’re not going to be successful. So essentially, it’s not what I imagined it to be – you have to basically worry about the business side of it, the marketing and promoting aspect of things. So, it’s kind of like running a business as well as being able to write.
Also, there’s a fair amount of research to be done. You want to get your facts straight. You want to make sure what you write about makes sense. For instance, if your character is a teacher, you better make sure you can portray his or her occupation in a story in a realistic way. Even the lingo he or she uses, you have to get that right. I once had to interview people in the engineering and marketing professions to determine if those occupations were suitable for my main character! There are all these types of details you need to be sure about before you can use them in your stories.
RC- What genre do you write and why?
KP Wee- I’ve written psychological fiction – I enjoy writing stories where you expect the unexpected. You see perhaps the bad guys getting what they want, or someone getting back at others for revenge, for instance. My philosophy when I began writing was that we’ve seen enough books were the good guys win, the bad guys lose, and everyone’s happy at the end. I stayed away from those kinds of endings because I wanted to be different. I liken my stories to those you see from the TV series, "Tales from the Crypt," where there isn’t a happy ending but perhaps a tragic and even violent one to certain characters. That was my genre, at least when I first started writing. My first published book, "Showing Their Scales: Three Tales of Lies, Lust, and Deception" was exactly like that. "Fess Up, Jessup!" is a little different in that you do see a bit of justice, so to speak, by the end of the stories.
More recently, I’ve been working on chick lit, realizing it’s not always about what I want to write. It’s more about what people want to read. Statistics do show that women tend to read more than men do, so the reality is to write what women want to read about. It’s been quite an adjustment, for sure, going from one extreme of violence and revenge to a genre where the heroine gets what she wants at the end.
RC-What quality do you think is essential for becoming a good writer?
KP Wee-I believe you need to do a lot of research. You need to be creative. You need to get inside the heads of your characters and think like they do, and be able to convey that in the story. You need to describe things well. You need to get the lingo right. Basically, you need to have a strong understanding of how people think, how to make your characters compelling, and you need to be creative and funny. You need to incorporate all that into your writing and if you think about it, it’s not an easy task to accomplish.
RC-Who are your favorite authors?
KP Wee-When I was younger, I enjoyed mystery novels. I would always pick up novels by Agatha Christie and other detective/mystery authors. As I have gradually tried to write chick lit, I’ve tried to read novels written by chick lit authors. I find Camy Tang’s novels to be funny.
RC-Have you ever suffered from the dreaded writer's block? How did you deal with it?
KP Wee-I wouldn’t say I’ve had writer’s block. What I do have is too many ideas, and I would try to set one story aside if I don’t feel motivated to write it, and move on to the next one. I think the biggest enemy I have isn’t writer’s block, but a lack of time. Being employed full-time doesn’t help with my writing, because there have been times when I return home and do not feel motivated enough to spend a few hours writing.
RC- What message would you like to give your fans?
KP Wee-I would say, "Never give up." No matter what people may say or what negativity you may hear about what you can't do, always believe in yourself, try your best, and maybe you CAN do it. Having the proper attitude and the willingness to try goes a long way.
RC- That was so inspiring! Thank you so much for doing this interview with us. You can learn more about SP Wee by visiting his website http://kpwee-author.blogspot.com/
You can read more about his book Fess Up, Jessup on its Smashwords.com page and also buy it there- http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/30976
Great interview!
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