1. How did you get started writing?
Ever since preschool when I literally learned how to write/read, I’ve always been interested in books and writing. I think this was also largely shaped by the fact I was partially deaf as a child and didn’t learn how to speak on time, so communicating in other ways was key and my skills in writing have always been pretty developed. Reading fairytales influenced my tastes and so I became interested in writing fantasy, especially. I think because of my struggles with OCD and other anxiety issues, writing was therapeutic and helped me communicate with my unconscious, express myself, and develop myself.
2. Out of all your books, which one is your favourite and why?
I haven’t published a book yet! But I shall! I’ve been working the mental health field for about a decade now and am at the tail end of a PhD program. While I’ve been writing my first novel, I’ve been writing my dissertation (madness!). I’m editing it and sending it to literary agents soon. It’s a Southern gothic fantasy that involves many different types of pantheons, beings of different ethnic backgrounds, and magical systems. It’s set in New Orleans and is like Indiana Jones meets American Horror Story: Coven.
3. If your friends were asked to describe you in one word, what would it be?
Authentic
4. What is your favorite thing to do outside of writing?
I’m also a model and photographer. I just started an Etsy store that’s a mix of alternative, nerd, and kawaii fashion. I love traveling and spending quality time with all my friends and family across the world.
5. What do you love most about the genre you write?
Fantasy is the best because you can include very human experiences to extraordinary circumstances. It makes you think “What if…” in a rather believable way, if you do your job as the writer right. Every culture has rather similar fairytales and lore, and I think fantasy taps into that, and thus taps into very collective unconscious material. Did I mention I am a psychologist? (Insert nervous laughter) In case you couldn’t guess.
6. What do you want readers to take from your books?
My stories will never be about saving the world. They will always be about saving oneself from the world and creating a home in it.
7. Describe yourself in 3 words.
Entertaining. Confounding. Absurdist.
8. What made you decide to write in your current genre?
I don’t do psychedelics so it’s the next best thing.
9. What does your writing space look like?
I tend to work out of cafe’s since I’m nomadic and I’m often in different countries, and then when I am in the States, I am often traveling about. Hopefully one day I will have my own little writing library, though. But cafe culture sure is bueno.
10. What’s the one piece of technology you can’t live without?
A microwave because I’m lazy and I’d be living off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches if it weren’t for that contraption.
11. Do you find it hard to kill off your characters?
Hahahaha.
12. How much of your characters are based on your traits or someone you know personally?
I’m sure all of them have parts of me or parts of others to some degree.
13. Is there one genre that you have not written in yet, but would love to try writing?
I would love to do a literary piece set in a previous decade, like the early 1900s or late 1800s, which I plan to do.
14. What do you do when a flash of inspiration hits you at an inopportune moment?
Jot the ideas down in my phone or notebook.
15. What keeps you going while writing?
Music, snacks, vino. The idea that death may come at any moment.
16. What’s next for you?
Getting an agent (puts sunglasses on).
17. Where can we find you on the internet?
http://www.facebook.com/
http://www.twitter.com/
If interested in my modeling: http://www.instagram.com/
