Author Q&A: Val Tobin

Today we’re interviewing Val Tobin, who writes in a variety of genres, including romance, paranormal, thriller/suspense, and science fiction.

Tobin studied general arts at the University of Waterloo, then went to DeVry Toronto to get a diploma in computer information systems. She worked in the computer industry as a software and Web developer for over ten years, during which time she started to get serious about energy work and metaphysics.

In October 2004, Tobin became a certified reiki master/teacher. She acquired ATP® certification in March 2008, in Kona, Hawaii. At the end of October 2008, she returned to Kona, Hawaii to complete the Advanced ATP® training and in April 2010 to take the spiritual writing workshop and the mediumship certification class.

Tobin started work on a bachelor of science in parapsychic science from the American Institute of Holistic Theology in March 2007 and received her degree in September 2010. She obtained her master’s degree in parapsychology at AIHT in 2016.

Tobin wrote freelance for online magazine Suite101 and was topic editor for paganism/Wicca and webmaster resources at Suite. A published author, she contributed a story to Doreen Virtue’s Hay House book Angel Words.

SADYE: Tell us something about your writing process that’s unusual or that you haven’t revealed before.

VAL: I sometimes consult my pendulum or oracle/tarot cards when I want to stir my characters' lives up.

One character died because the pendulum said "yes" when I asked if he should be dead.

SADYE: How did you come to see yourself as a writer, and what inspired you to seek publication?

VAL: I've always read everything I could get my hands on, and after I read Harold and the Purple Crayon when I was in grade one, I wanted to write my own stories.

I stuck to nonfiction articles when I first started writing for publication but wrote fiction along the way, mostly keeping the fiction to myself. My dream was to publish fiction.

Stephen King's On Writing and Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem! inspired me to publish, and an author friend who is a hybrid author mentored me through the process of indie publishing.

SADYE: Which of your characters would you most and least like to trade places with?

VAL: I'd most like to trade places with none of them since I put them all through the wringer.

If pressed, I guess I'd trade places with Gillian Foster (Gillian's Island). She gets to live on an island resort.

I'd least like to trade places with Carolyn Fairchild (The Valiant Chronicles). She has the most hellacious time although Rachel Needham (Storm Lake, The Hunted) is a close second. Yeah, maybe I'd hate to be Rachel even more.

Both these women have trials that would kill most of us, and Rachel's start when she's thirteen and she has to physically fight monsters bare-fisted.

When it comes to physical stuff, I'm more Sheldon Cooper than Lara Croft.

SADYE: Which of your characters would you most and least like to become romantically involved with?

VAL: I'd most like to get romantically involved with Aedan McCarthy (Walk-In). He's a journalist and would have the most in common with me.

I'd least like to get involved with Michael Valiant (The Valiant Chronicles), not because he's an assassin (he redeems himself to my satisfaction) but because the world they're left with is not one I'd want to live in.

I'm quite a princess. My idea of roughing it is a cottage with an outhouse.

I have a little sign I take with me to book events. It says "If you were in my novel you'd be dead by now." If I were in any of my novels, I'd never survive.

SADYE: What message or theme would you like readers to take away from your work?

VAL: Readers should take away what strikes them most. I explore a variety of themes in my novels, and readers should take away what resonates with them.

What I'd love is for readers to have the stories and characters linger in their psyche.

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Learn more about Val Tobin on her website, where her books can also be purchased; like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter.

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