I interview The Sullivan Scripter!

Hey everyone since The Sullivan Scripter interviewed me, I decided to interview him back! It went really well. I think we may have a future author on our hands! Check out his blog here and tell him that I sent you! 

http://thesullivanscripter.weebly.com/blog 

How long have you been writing for?

I have been writing for 9 years. I love writing, and am thinking of making it my career. It's been a long time since I wrote my first story in June, 2006, and my writing (Not to mention grammar) has improved significantly.

What inspired you to start writing? 

In first grade, I read the story of The Three Billy Goats and the troll that lived under the bridge, and I immediately wanted to recreate that same idea with a different set of characters (Three ninjas and one samurai) and a different place (China, because at the time, that's where I thought all ninjas came from.) I stopped writing for a year until I found the Harry Potter series, which I was immediately hooked on. I read that entire series in three years. Loved it! Anyway, I loved the Harry Potter Universe, and wanted to be in that universe oh so bad. As we know, that's not possible, but in writing, you can go anywhere you want to. If you can dream it, you can go there. So, being the self-centered person that I was at the time, I replaced Harry with me, then wrote about MY adventures. That's where I started to become more creative and original. I spent a year writing that stuff. One day, I found an Alex Rider book in a library; Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz. Alex Rider was a spy, and the gadgets he had and the new possibilities that came with them made me cry because I couldn't have them. (I was 8, what do you want me to do?) I began to write ORIGINAL spy stories, completely independent of any other stories I had ever written. It was a big step in my writing, and while it was difficult, it opened up a lot of doors for me.

What is your favorite genre to write? 

I like to write futuristic/comedy sci-fi. It gives you the freedom to make the universe as big or small as you want, and you have the freedom to fly with the characters anywhere. For me, I let my characters go where they want to go, because after 1 or two chapters, they really start to take on a life of their own. If I'm writing a short story, I like to write horror. A lot can happen in horror in less than 10 pages. ;)

Favorite Author? 

Hm. My favorite author varies depending on why they are my favorite. I look up to J.K. Rowling as a good writer because her stories have the capability to go anywhere. That universe has endless possibilities, numerous endings, and there's no such thing as "Can't happen" in the Harry Potter Universe. Unfortunately, I have not read her other books, so I can't make a complete judgement call there. I look up to Stephen King, as well, as he writes with suspense, something that I've never been able to do without sounding cheesy. I loved Salem's Lot. That was good. But my favorite author of all time to sit down and read would have to be Herman Melville. I loved Moby-Dick, surprisingly, and couldn't put it down. Many high scholars will hate me for saying that, but I do.

What are your goals with writing? 

Let me think about that. Well, I just like to write, and I want to share my good ideas with the world so that at least one more person logs off the computer thinking about, knowing, or having anxiety about what's going to happen next than before they logged on. Also, while writing for some is to write down their reality, I write down my other reality. 

What made you want to start blogging?

My dad wanted to set me up with a blog for my writing, so I did. That one was not too active, and I never really wrote to it again. I used Wordpress for at least 2 years, before I found Weebly after seeing a friends' weebly page. I wanted to get famous, but now I blog just to keep track of all my writing.

Where Friendship Goes Wrong: A True Story: My interview with The Sullivan Scripter

Hello everyone! Recently I was recently introduced to a young blogger named Justin. He does interviews,stories, articles and podcasts! He was nice enough to interview me about my "Where friendship goes wrong" stories. Since everything I write is based on true events I didn't want to leave anything left unsaid in my interview. Please, please, please check out his page he has lots of good posts up,  http://thesullivanscripter.weebly.com/blog/archives/06-2015 
Thanks Justin for all the kind words you said about me! : http://thesullivanscripter.weebly.com/blog/interview-with-amanda-catherine-mandamoonflowerbloggercom


Hello, everyone, it is Justin here again,

About 2 weeks ago, I found this great blog known as mandamoonflower.blogger.com. It details the life of a woman known as Amanda Catherine, the author, along with the struggles, hardships, and positives that go with it. She is a pleasant person, and I highly suggest reading her blog. She writes very from the heart, and that takes a lot in a writer. I thought that while the story itself may repeat itself many times throughout history, this is a very well-written perspective on it. (A few grammar mistakes, but I'm just a grammar Nazi, so oh well) I did an interview on her, and this is what she had to say to my questions. Very interesting responses. My questions are bold, her answers are in normal text. Here they are, just how they came to me via email:

You have clearly been through a lot, at least according to your blog. All of those stories are 100% real, true? 
Yes, everything in my story is true. Everything that has happened thus far in my story has happened to me.  

Are you in a better place now?
I am in a way better place now. There are some parts of the story that are painful for me to write, but I love writing them to much to stop. I do find love, not only love but true love, I am coming up to that part of the story here soon. Since everything that happened to me happened in High School I never got a great education, I was to distracted with friend and home life drama to care about school. I can honestly say I am lucky to have graduated and because of this I was never able to go to college. I took some college prep classes but nothing ever came from them because even the simplest of topics I still struggle with. I have to start from the bottom and work my way up with everything I do. I was lucky enough to find a great set of friends. They are so amazing that I don't think I deserve them. We love each other and have a great time together. It brings a smile just to my face to say that. You'll often find us playing Dungeons and Dragons on the weekends. I never thought that my life would have gotten as good as it has right now.

For those that haven’t read your blog, you mentioned that you played guitar. Do you still play guitar or another instrument?
After the comment that my friends made to me in "The Chain on Inappropriate Texts" story, I do eventually stop playing. I have that same guitar I played back then and I do pick it up and play "Sweet Dreams" by the Eurythmics every now and then. I have been slowly getting back into it, but when someone you trust says something that harsh to you it can take a while stop thinking that about yourself. The sad part is I was actually really good. I had made it all the way to the advanced lessons when I stopped. I do hope to someday start again and not be fearful of people judging me when I play.  

Do you have a specific goal with writing? Like inspiring people, keeping track, or just write for the fun of it?
When I first started writing on my blog my goal was to inspire people. Now my goal is to show people that they are not alone. Everyone is going through something you don't know about, because of this my goal became to show someone who maybe going through a rough time that there is someone out there that they can relate to. Someone who gets it. I hope when my people read my story that they do not feel sorry for me but that they can relate to me and my quirks or actions or even my story. 

How long have you been writing for?
I wrote my first poem in 2003 when I was in 7th grade. It's now been 12 years since then and I am still going strong with writing. My writing has definitely improved since then but I like to refer back to my 2003 writing for inspiration a lot. Sometimes it feels like I saw things a lot more clearly back then. 

Did you write before starting your mandamoonflower.blogger.com blog?
I did write a lot before starting the mandamoonflower blog. I actually started the blog in 2013 because I wanted to push myself to write more. I had my ups and downs with it at first but I have it figured it now. I know now what I want to write about and how I want to go about it. 

Do you have any advice for other bloggers out there?
Don't give up please! There are many times I stopped posting because no one was reading my posts. I had to learn the hard way that when blogging you have to blog for you and not be obsessed with stats. It also took me a really long time to figure out what I wanted to write about, what I wanted my blog to be. At first I knew that I was good at writing poetry so I did that, but I never got what I wanted out of it. I wanted to effect people and writing about flowers really wasn't doing the trick anymore. That's when I started writing my life story and everything clicked. I never thought in a million years that my story would become so popular but I am really glad it did. 

I think that she deserves a lot more attention than she is getting. She has clearly learned a lot throughout her life, and it really shows, if you are reading this, Amanda. ;)