An interview with myself

As a reluctant member of Gen-Z, I do suffer from symptoms of youth. One of the major criticisms of my generation is we are narrisitic. We love to coat ourselves in labels and film ourselves doing everything under the sun from shopping to working to sleeping... and we expect money for it. Not all of us truly want to influencers, but most of us flirt with the idea of being popular, going viral, or having at least five seconds (our collective attention span) of fame. I think we just like the idea of being wanted, but I digress. That's a thought trail for another day.

So please indulge me, while I talk to myself about my next novel, Lonely Forest.

Question: Your next book, Lonely Forest, is a horror-fantasy. Can you tell us why you decided to write in that genre instead of adhering to strictly fantasy?

Answer: It did start as a fantasy, but as the book went along and more monsters came to light, I found myself looking up what made a horror a horror. I wasn't the type at the time of the first draft to plot my books. I was still in highschool, and I dove head-first into the idea of a young person wandering a massive, never-ending forest. Every book needs conflict to keep the story moving, and that's when the creatures started coming. I found them too creepy to simply mark it as fantasy, though it is very fantasy-driven.

Q: How has your writing process changed since the first draft?

A: My writing process has grown with me as I've aged. These days, my new writing projects get at least a little bit of plotting as I explore what scenes to add and where I want the story to go. My characters and the plot love to go off the rails so even if I did try to map everything out, they would find a different path. I'm not sold on planning out the whole novel from beginning to end. The ending is always the hardest part for me to write. I feel like the story could keep going and going, but it has to wrap up at some point.

Q: According to your Instagram reels, Lonely Forest went through a major rewrite in 2021. What inspired that rewrite?

A: I had submitted the book to a publisher. Thankfully, they got back to me with a lot of helpful feedback and showed me where the story felt forced or disjointed. I poured hours and hours into rewriting it to fix those flaws. Some chapters were cut and others were added. The book went from about 50 thousand words to over 80 thousand. I'm extremely proud of it. If someone were to read my first novels, Skeletons: Book One and Book Two, and compare them to Lonely Forest, the difference in my skill level and maturity is stark. Rewriting Lonely Forest taught me a lot about writing a cohesive story and spending time on details. There's no need to rush through everything.

Q: You tried to get an agent and a publisher for this novel, why did you decide to self-publish it?

A: There are multiple reasons. The first one is I don't want anyone to make too many changes to the story. I like every chapter, the number of chapters (I made it that many for a reason), and every character. The plot and the characters are a reflection of me, like with any book and any author. I'm not ready or willing to give up that control yet; however, I know that it would benefit me in the long run. The second reason is no one wanted it. I did not find many open agents who worked with the genre or were open to take on the "project." Some of the agents I wanted to query weren't open to submissions. I'm more than okay with continuing to self-publish my novels, but I do have plans to query more agents and publishing houses with future novels if they are more... mainstream? Palatable? Less niche? I'm sure there's a word for it in some language.

Q: Lonely Forest ends in a way that a second book can be written. Do you have plans to continue the story in a sequel?

A : I have thought about it, but I have no solid plans to at this time. I have other stories that I want to publish beforehand. A sequel for Lonely Forest, and even a third book for my Skeletons series, are not off the table for me. They are just buried under other novels I want to publish.

Q: How many books are you planning to write?

A: I'm not sure. Writing and editing take a long time, though I am much quicker than I used to be. I have a book that is in the editing stage that I plan to publish after Lonely Forest, and now that Lonely Forest has a release date, I have started writing another story.

Q: The world has to know: what are your next two books?

A: I have found myself writing romance novels! Since I read books from multiple genres, I write in multiple genres. Whatever story comes to mind is the one that I write. Forcing a story out is too unnatural and unexciting for me.

Q: And when is the release date for Lonely Forest?

A: September 23rd! I'm very excited. I want to know what everyone thinks about it. Truly, I love the story. The main character struggles a lot with internal and external conflicts, including being cursed with an evil inner voice. I'm sure it sounds conceited; however, I wish I could read the story for the first time.

Q: Thank you for taking the time to share a glimpse into your world of writing.

A: Thank you for having me! I know that Lonely Forest will excite and mesmerize its readers. Please let me know if have any more questions.