Written Author Interview
- Tell me about yourself. What do you like to do outside of writing. What is a day in the life like for you?
My day job is working for the United Nations – I am the communications lead for the Connecting Business initiative, whose mandate is to engage businesses before, during, and after emergencies. Early mornings and after 5pm, my time goes to my two daughters, aged almost 4 years old and almost 9 months old. A few years back I would have had a much more fun, not to say glamorous answer for you!
All that being said, my hobbies are horse-riding, playing the cello, mushroom hunting, food, and all things hobby farm related – because while I currently live in Lisbon, Portugal, we have an old off-grid farm close to the Spanish border that we used to live on and will go back to once our house is renovated. One day, it will even be an ecoretreat where I can host my own writing workshops…
- What inspired your first novel? What was the thing that got you into writing in the first place?
I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t an avid reader. Ever since I was in primary school, I kept coming up with magazine ideas and writing stories one way or the other. My first novel, however, wasn’t really planned. I found out about National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, in 2017. My husband and I had arrived in Portugal a few months earlier and were volunteering on a glamping project, but come November we had a lot of free time as well as unlimited wifi. I thought to myself, why not write a book – it’s now or never!
Once I decided to write a book, I toyed with a few ideas but the only one that really resonated was writing the backstory to one of my favorite Dungeons and Dragons characters that I played while in high school, albeit set in a word of my own creation.
That’s how the first draft of “Flight of an Orphan Thief” came to life.
- How do you come up with characters? Are they spontaneous or meticulously planned?
My female main character is based on the Dungeons & Dragons character I played a few years (ahem) ago. The other characters are spontaneous – I’m a discovery writer through and through, so I figure things out along the way when writing, as well as with lots of editing.
- What are some of your favorite genres to read? Are there any books you’d recommend to first time readers or people looking for something new?
Top three genres include fantasy, young adult, and memoir. I’ll pick up a romance or a romantasy here and there too, and occasionally a thriller or a non-fiction book. Poetry, less so, but I am trying to do better at appreciating that form of expression.
My favorite books include SMALL GODS by Terry Pratchett, SHANTARAM by Gregory David Roberts, and anything by Jodi Picoult or T. Kingfisher.
In terms of Indie writers… C. C. Davies and her Heliacle Chronicles series is a favorite, as is Sword of Kaigen by M. L. Wang, and anything written by Phil Tucker, Virginia McClain to name but a few.
Beyond that, I keep track of my reads and rate almost all of them on GoodReads, so if you want more recommendations, that’s a good place to look. I try to read about 50 books a year.
- What’s the most difficult thing about being a writer?
Finding, no, making the time to write. The marketing side of things is also challenging, mostly because there are so many aspects to it and no single formula that works. Every author I’ve spoken to raves about the importance of community, and I agree – but finding your people is also harder than one might think.
- What is your process to completing a novel from outline to final product?
My process is always evolving, but I only tried outlining a novel once and it made me quite uninterested in writing it! That’s when I figured out that I am a discovery writer. Now, given how hard it is for me to carve time out to write, I do a lot of brainstorming, ideation, and even a little drafting in my head – while in the shower, sometimes while rocking my baby to sleep. Then, in stolen moments, I write. That might be on my phone (thank goodness for Google Docs) at 5am when my 9-month-old will only go back to sleep in my arms, or for a few minutes during a lunch or coffee break here and there.
Once I have a full draft, I’ll review it once or twice before printing a copy to read through, and then it goes to my alpha readers. With their input, once I’ve made the draft as good as I can, I’ll work with a developmental editor followed by a line editor.
With my debut novel, that was it, but more ninja typos sneaked through than I like to admit, so for future books I’ll either hire a proofreader or add a round with a few beta readers before finalizing the text and getting it ready for publication.
As I am self-published, for my debut novel, I hired a cover designer (Miblart) and someone to do the interior design (Cutting Edge Studio). I think for my next work, I might try my hand at interior design, because I love the idea of learning a bit more about the process each time so I can keep refining my process and decide what I outsource versus what I do myself. From a skills perspective but also to keep costs lower.
- What’s the most unhinged thing you’ve written in your novel? Don’t worry, we don’t judge here.
Two answers come to mind. The first is a chapter that got cut out, of an underground massage parlor where bored housewives can add some spice into their lives. The second is a scene where the female main character gets caught doing something she shouldn’t, and a few unsavory characters decide to teach her a lesson. Spoiler alert, there’s no actual sexual abuse that takes place, but it comes close.
- What’s one thing about being a writer that absolutely drives you up the wall?
Too many ideas, not enough time to flesh them all out.
There’s also never enough budget for book and character art, which is my latest mild obsession – there are so many talented artists, and there are few things more incredible than seeing your characters or scenes from your books come to life.
Ps. I know many authors would say “marketing” here, but – without pretending anything I do leads to amazing sales, ha – I have found that being authentic and doing things my way makes marketing almost fun. For example, writing my newsletter used to be like pulling teeth. Then, I started telling stories and enjoying the content I created for it (because if I don’t enjoy writing it, what are the odds that anyone will enjoy reading it?!), and that has been a game changer.
- What does being a successful writer look like for you? What type of life do you want to live as a writer?
At this point in my life, my goal is not to make a living as a writer – but I hope to continue writing and publishing books, growing my audience, and supporting authors that are newer to the indie publishing world than I am figure out what works for them.
In other words, if I can keep publishing a book every year or two, and start hosting writing workshops and retreats semi-regularly, I’ll consider that an absolute success.
- Describe your writing journey. If you had to write a story centered around it, do you think you could pull it off?
This question makes me think of ON WRITING by Stephen King, and with that kind of hybrid approach combining memoir with a focus on my writing journey and lessons learned or insights to share with other writers… I think that could be fun to write, and if I decided to embark on such a project, why would I not pull it off?
(Yes, I suffer from impostor syndrome on occasion, but I mostly ignore it and aim to prove it wrong by doing all the things it thinks I cannot do. So far, that philosophy has worked rather well for me!)
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