Martin Follose is a long-standing community member in the area, and he recently published SNAPPED!, a book about a high school student who can stop time with a snap of his fingers. To commemorate the occasion, the Riddle City Library decided to ask him a few questions about his new book, and what he has planned for the future. You can watch the full interview below.

Katelyn has enjoyed a love of books and libraries from her childhood, growing up in southern Oregon. She has authored a number of books since the age of 14 and “The Timekeeper's Daughter" is her first “published-in-paper" story. We are pleased to feature her in our first author interview.

1.) What inspired you to write this story?
I have looked up to the Phoenix Fiction Writers marketing collective for a long time, because as a reader I have enjoyed so many of the stories their authors put out, and I think that they're doing a really great thing by putting out quality stories written by independent authors. So when they put a prompt in their newsletter and explained that they were going to be accepting short story submissions for their next anthology from people who weren't part of the collective I was really excited. The prompt was a picture of a kind of steampunk-looking clock, so it was very open-ended.

2.) Are there any characters in your book based on real people? If so, who?
I never intentionally base characters off of real people, but there is always a bit of myself or someone I know in each character, because I think that's what gives them life. If someone can look at a character and say, “Oh I know that's how people are because I know someone like that," or sees themself in a character, it makes them that much more believable. That said, Annora and Althea's relationship is very much inspired by the relationship I have with my sister Kacy, because she's my best friend.

3.) What type of research did you do to write your story?
One thing I love about fantasy is that you don't have to do a whole lot of research (unless you want to), but I love the French language and have been studying it for several years, so I wanted to incorporate some of that influence into this story. Prevoir, for example, is the French word for “to plan" or “to predict," which seemed fitting for a family who was responsible for keeping time.

4.) What book are you currently reading?
I'm reading The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

5.) Are you writing anything now? And if so, can you tell us when it will come out?
At the moment I am writing a short story about a side character called Samuel Paine, who made his debut in a book called To Live and To Breathe, which is available free on Wattpad. To Live and To Breathe is the sequel to a book called What Is and Could Be, which is also available on Wattpad but I have plans to publish it in print and eBook form in December, so it will soon be taken down from there.

6.) If you weren't a writer, what would you do?
I'd be sane, for one. I wouldn't have to go home after working at my day job or doing homework all day and think, "When am I going to find time to write on _________ ?" But I think that one part of my life would be the same, and that would be my dream to become a librarian. I was a reader before I ever was a writer.

7.) Out of everything you've written, who has been your favorite character and why?
Timothy Wright would have to be my favorite, because he's so painfully, intrinsically human. He makes mistakes, he doubts, he falls down, and he gets up. He feels like the mistakes that shaped him in his past sometimes get in the way of what might have been or could be, but he clings to the hope available to all of us and keeps going. (I also just find it very relatable when he wakes up in the morning and forgets everything he was plotting for his story before he went to sleep.) He's from What Is and Could Be and To Live and To Breathe.

If you've read this far, odds are you're wanting to know a little bit more about this “Katelyn" person. Well, the truth is, I'm just like any other author. I spend my days dreaming about stories and falling hopelessly, head-over-heels in love with my characters. I'm the author of the Warriors of Aralan series, as well as a sci-fi standalone called Tè Nan Lezar, and two nineteenth-century-inspired serializations titled What Is and Could Be and To Live and To Breathe on Wattpad.

When not pursuing a literary career, I can be found with my nose buried inside a book I didn't write, baking cookies, taking photos, learning French, watching movies, and spending time with my friends and family. My passion is always to give God the glory through my writing in the hopes that these stories will touch some lives.