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I love all things creative, from writing fiction, to songwriting, to photography. As a kid, once I discovered my grade school library, I scoured its shelves and read everything I could find, especially the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. My mom enrolled me in a mail order book club, which offered two books bound together—flip one side over and there was the other book. I remember reading Call of the Wild and Black Beauty that way.
Living on a farm for my first eleven years of life, there weren’t many activities other than using my imagination. I made up both songs and stories, and I envied my friends who lived in town. Now I’d move to the country in a heartbeat.
The books I’ve written are my “travels”. It’s amazing how many worlds a writer can visit, just through her fingertips.
I always become attached to my main characters and I want them to have a happy life, though it usually takes a while for them to achieve one. Much like me, I suppose, my characters don’t know where they fit…until they do.
I like to write about small towns and the people who inhabit them—there are tons of stories about people living in big cities, and a huge swath of the country tends to be forgotten. If I have a “niche”, I guess small towns are it.
I’m always itching to start a new story, yet it’s hard to say goodbye to my old friends.
Ten Things You Don’t Know About me
1. My hidden talent is recognizing when a framed picture is hanging crooked on the wall.
2. I’m a coffee snob.
3. One of my self-penned and recorded songs has more than 5,000 Spotify streams (as of this writing), with another not far behind.
4. My happy place is the North Shore of Lake Superior.
5. I love all dogs and cats.
6. I was in a trio with two of my cousins when I was nine. We played nursing homes and street fairs. My female cousin and I sang, and I played “drum” (yes, just one), while my cousins played guitar and accordion.
7. My not-so-hidden talent is my handwriting. What can I say? It must be my left-handedness.
8. Back in the early nineties, when my workplace adopted computers, my co-workers and I enrolled in a computer class. It took me a while to get the hang of it. I kept stretching the mouse as far as I could across the table, but still couldn’t get it to point at the screen. The instructor looked at me, exasperated, and said, “Pick it up.”
9. My all-time favorite TV series is Breaking Bad.
10. I took accordion lessons for four years. (Thanks, Dad.)
Official Biography for April Tompkins
April Tompkins* always made up stories, but as a kid the stories mostly resided inside her head. She spent her early life on a farm in Minnesota with no siblings close in age, so she hiked along country roads and “imagined”. At age eleven, her family moved to the prairies of North Dakota and she put her stories aside and turned to music. She now lives in Minnesota with her husband and her cat Sasha. She is the mother of two strong men.
April is an accomplished songwriter and singer, whose band’s independent music has garnered thousands of plays on Spotify and is featured in music libraries. She is also the creator and editor of a digital music magazine and has been a music blogger since 2007.
April specializes in contemporary and women's fiction, both novels and novellas. To date, she has eleven published works, the most popular being the novella, Lies and Love. Once she began writing fiction, she quickly determined that self-publishing simply felt right. She designs her own book covers and does all her own book promotion, among other authorly things.
In her writing universe, April’s characters are not as uncomplicated as they seem. Everyone has a story, but it may take some coaxing to get them to tell it.
Visit April at www.apriltompkins.net
*April Tompkins is a pen name. All other details are true.
Q&A
What do you think makes a good character in a book?
I’m partial to characters who either don’t know or refuse to recognize their life’s purpose. They’re struggling for answers, and they take some wrong roads. Their penchant for impulsivity often gets them in trouble, but without trouble, there would be no story.
What do you love most about being an author?
I love immersing myself in a different world (no, it’s still Earth!); a world that I’ve never personally experienced. Mainly, I love creating characters, the quirkier the better. Quirky, but lovable.
How long does it usually take you to write a book?
When I’m writing one, it seems like forever. Running From Herself began as a novella that I was dissatisfied with, but even with that head start, I believe it took about nine months to write the rest of it (not to mention the editing). Novellas are obviously much faster to write; typically 2-3 months.
Can you describe your workspace?
I write in our spare bedroom, which doubles as a paperwork collector. Just a cheap desk and a creaky old desktop computer that could expire at any minute. The only provisions I make when I’m writing is to neaten everything up and clear some space. I like order (sometimes).
If you weren’t a writer what would you be and why?
That’s impossible to contemplate. I’ve had corporate jobs to pay the bills, but even in those I couldn’t stop myself from creating department newsletters. Once, a colleague and I wrote an April Fool’s Day newsletter and handed it out to staff, as we did every week. It was glorious to see everyone’s expressions as they read about “new company policies” as well as elaborate and wacky instructions for completing simple work tasks. In other words, I’m always going to write—something.
How do you get ideas for your stories?
Since I don’t outline, I’m not exactly sure where the ideas spring from. I honestly have no plan whatsoever. In Shadow Song, my main character’s job was eliminated and she couldn’t move away from her recently widowed father, so she took a job as a sidewalk portrait painter at a nearby lake resort. Except while she thought she was being hired to paint, when she arrived for work her first day, she discovered she was the supervisor for the carnival rides. Why carnival rides? I have absolutely no idea, but it was an interesting topic to research and build on.
What genre of books do you like to read?
Will this sully my reputation as a fiction writer? I love biographies and reading about cultural events. I suppose I’m just endlessly curious about the world.
What influenced you to become a writer?
I began writing as a music blogger when I was trying to promote my husband’s and my indie band. Strangely, blogs are hard for people to find! But I kept blogging from 2007 to present, switching my focus to all things music-related, from album reviews to critiques of the business and everything in between. While I still love blogging, somewhere along the line I decided to try my hand at fiction, and I loved it. My first attempts were clunky, and I don’t approach writing the same as the majority of writers do. I never, ever outline, instead choosing to let the story go where it wants to go. My method is full of surprises, mostly to me.
Who is your biggest role model and why?
Most definitely my dad. He had a wonderful imagination, and probably missed his calling. When I was little, he encouraged my make-believe and always played along with my wild scenarios. Mostly, he was just fun.
What do you, personally, do when you have writer’s block?
I power through it. I only have specific writing days due to scheduling, so I have to make the most of them. I find that a quick mindless online game allows me to conjure up ideas, more so than typing, backspacing, and deleting (although I still do a lot of that). Even if what I produce on a particular day isn’t up to my standards, I can often isolate some piece of it to build on.
What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
I’m intermittently crafty (counted cross stitch), I love nature photography, and I do like to just chill.
KEEP IN TOUCH!