As promised, here’s my interview of Monica Leonelle, author of SocialPunk, available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble now. Let’s get into it!
Monica Leonelle is a well-known digital media strategist and the author of three novels. She blogs at Prose on Fire (http://proseonfire.com) and shares her writing and social media knowledge with other bloggers and authors through her Free Writer Toolkit (http://proseonfire.com/free-writer-toolkit).
When did you discover or decide to become a writer?
Just a few years ago. But I also wanted to be one when I was a kid. I feel like I mostly write because I can’t help it. I love to write and that’s how I express myself, day in and day out. I can never understand how people want to be writers or authors when they don’t write. I always think, “Then why aren’t you writing every day?” I organically average at least 2,000 words a day writing. When I’m finishing up a manuscript, I average closer to 5,000 words a day. This is just what I do, so I never believe people who say they’re going to write something but just don’t have the time.
Is being a writer anything like you imagined it would be?
It’s hard, and no one imagines that. So I suppose that’s a yes. 
Do you have any writing quirks or rituals?
While I do write all around the clock for my job, I get most of my fiction writing done in the wee hours of the night. I need a lot more silence for that than for non-fiction, which I can pretty much write anywhere with anything going on around me. Earlier this week, I wrote nearly 10,000 words of non-fiction while catching up on all my TV shows, for instance. I have no idea how this is possible, though I assume it’s just practice at this point. I’ve been writing non-fiction much longer than I’ve been writing fiction.
Is there a message you want readers to grasp?
I don’t do messages, really. I can’t honestly understand authors who try to give a message. I prefer to present the world through my viewpoint and let people decide what they believe for themselves.
How does your environment or upbringing influence your writing?
Socialpunk is inspired by Chicago winters, technology and digital media, and the Terminator series, which are all part of either my environment or my upbringing. So I would say it influences my writing in every way.
Chocolate or Vanilla?
Chocolate!
Thanks for stopping by, Monica!
For your reading pleasure, here’s an excerpt from SocialPunk:
Twelve cups of water sat on the table, four for each of them. Next to each cup sat a pill—yellow for fat, red for carbs, blue for protein, and green for vitamins.
Vaughn took the red pill, ripped it in half like a pack of sugar, and poured it into his cup. He set his cup into a contraption on the table and it whirled and hissed. When the machine finished, the cup had a pink, swirly liquid inside.
Nahum looked at the four cups in distaste.
“Not up to your standards?” Vaughn asked, shooting his drink. He swallowed the mixture in one large gulp. “I would get you something else, but we’re rebuilding our hash. We can’t afford real food, plus it’s bad for you anyway. Extremely difficult to maintain a balanced diet.”
“Synthetic food can’t cost that much,” Nahum countered. He grinned. “We had it in our little fake world, at least.”
Vaughn chuckled. “Synthetic food is even worse for you than real food. Shortens your life. We stopped eating that stuff at the turn of the century. It gave people long-term hyperactivity, which can kill you. LTH took out a lot of the population, kind of like cancer in your day, except a bigger deal because the population had dwindled so low already. Plus, people live indefinitely now.”
Nahum’s nose twitched as he laughed. “People don’t live indefinitely.”
But Vaughn looked genuinely surprised. “Of course we do. Have you seen anyone who looks over the age of twenty-five to you?”
“What does that mean, though?” Ima asked out of curiosity. “How could you live indefinitely? You may not look older, but you still age.”
Vaughn grinned. “Like I said before—there’s a lot you don’t understand about this world.”
