Thank you so much for sharing your book with me and agreeing to do a Q&A for my readers.
Thank you for having me!
Give us a quick summary of The Broken Prince!
The Broken Prince is a YA fantasy that is definitely on the lighter side of the genre (a pretty simple storyworld). Set in the fictional country of Sindaleer, the story follows Serena who lives in a place where some are born with special Giftings- like making stories come alive or shooting fire out of your hands. But in Sindaleer the use of these Gifts are outlawed by the evil king.
In the midst of living in a cruel country with the fear of being killed, Serena is ordered by sorceress to murder the prince. You probably see what's coming....the classic fairy tale and enemies to lovers trope.
But the sparks that fly (literally as well as figuratively...) won’t make this an easy match.
What was the biggest hurdle you had to overcome in completing your book?
Myself. I wrote this book in high school while battling a lot of inner demons. Milosh began as a very dark character with really no good conclusion even at the end. I realized I was not only struggling to give light into his own development but also my own. Doubt and fear and anxiety were holding me back from telling the story I needed to tell. Once I began to overcome the lies whispered in my head, I was able to push forwards.
A very central part of your story and the protagonist, Serena’s, main motivation is the bond of her relationship with her sibling. Is this something that was inspired by your own writing or came up organically in your story?
Ohh good question! I have a very strong relationship with my five younger siblings. We’ve always been there for each other, and that’s continued on into adulthood (three of us actually ended up working together after high school!).
It came very easy to bring this closeness to Serena and Hunter. They’re there for each other no matter what, holding each other up in a crisis. This is a rare and special bond that was inspired by personal experience.
Serena and Prince Milosh are two very strong, but different personalities in the book and they often clash, creating an exciting dynamic. How do you develop and flesh out your characters
I’m a panster in the writing world. It’s funny because in the “real”world everything has to be very planned out, but writing The Broken Prince as well as my upcoming novel The Crownless King, everything was done very on the whim. (Which, FYI, I do not recommend!)
I create my characters long before I begin writing the first chapter, inventing their quirks and likes and dislikes and struggles and hopes and dreams. This sometimes helps with the creation of the story before it’s even begun.
After that, I allow the story to just flow, going back on the second draft to really flesh out the characters and try to discern “their voice.” I try to get myself into their world and figure out who they are and imagine what it would be like to be them. I don’t really have a formula -- just a lot of trial and error.
What is your writing Kryptonite?
Fear of not being good enough.
There’s a lot of pressure in the indie world because we don’t have a publishing house backing us. It’s up to us to do the marketing, to find the right cover designer, editors, proofreaders and ensemble the right team. Even for someone who’s as low on the “famous author scale” as one can possibly get, there’s that pressure.
I want to give 100% for everything I do, but I still screw up sometimes, and I have to be willing to admit that and move on. Otherwise I’d just grab some extra dark chocolate, curl under the covers and remain there forever in self-pity.
Many of my readers are trying to decide which avenue of publishing to pursue for their books. Since your book is published independently, could you share with us what you’ve enjoyed about this process?
Being completely in charge! Such a cliche but true answer, and you have to love that aspect or you’ll hate indie publishing. For The Broken Prince I did the interior formatting and cover design. Probably the most stressful and fun choice I could have made, and something I could not have done had I chosen a different route.
I love that I get to be the one to explore the options, and that I’m learning along the way about the industry. I’m still a baby at it, but that’s okay.
How long did it take you to get this book published, from its initial conception to the release date?
Oh my, five years? Or more?
The book idea was conceived at around the age of fifteen, written at sixteen and not published until I was almost twenty one. I wrote several drafts in high school that resembled next to nothing of the finished product, with characters only slightly the same. But in the end, after rewriting the entire book, and then major rewrites with probably three+ different editors in the span of four or so years, I finally had my baby published.
The Broken Prince is your first novel, but you started your writing with an active blog. How do you feel that blogging prepared you for publishing and marketing your book?
Blogging prepared me heavily, and I owe about 90% of even the tiniest success to my readers on my blog. I began blogging at thirteen, and learned from an early age about marketing, gaining an audience, and finding my voice. My first editor for The Broken Prince was a blogging friend, and eventually my street team were some of my amazing blog readers.
Honestly if I hadn’t began with some sort of writing before pursuing becoming a novelist, I don’t think I would have known who to reach out to or what needed to be done for a successful launch.
This book is the first in a series. Many writers struggle to create a first book that leaves a reader satisfied but wanting more. Did you have that issue as you worked on early drafts and do you have any recommendations for other authors writing series?
The Broken Prince began as a standalone novel until my editor suggested that with my ending cliffhanger, I needed to make it a series. I think the issue we as authors face is we crave wrapping everything up, wanting to put the book in a little bow and have it all complete, but our lives normally don’t resemble that, and character development takes time. I think the best advice I can give is give your characters grace. Allow them to struggle and to make mistakes. Don’t force them to make changes development-wise they’re not ready for. This allows for them to become more human, allow for more writing material and make them more real to us as readers.
What is the first book that made you cry?
I’m not a big crier in books for some reason. I sobbed watching The Hobbit and Sherlock, but really my fangirl remains inside.
However the first book I cried in was probably an early draft of The Broken Prince. This was before it was even titled as such and the storyline resembled NOTHING like it is now. But one of my side characters had just died in a great self-sacrifice moment and I cried over him....and then five years later promptly forgot to put him in my finished draft.
Oops....
What advice do you have for aspiring writers looking to publish their first novel?
Go slow. Learn your craft. Don’t be afraid if your book takes two years, five or fifty to get into the world. Be patient with yourself. Gain an audience and a following (no matter how small). Get advice and learn from it.
It’s a long, hard, rewarding journey. Don’t give up when the struggle becomes real.
What other books and authors inspire you?
K.A Emmons and her sister inspire me with their books. I’ve followed both for quite a while and I think it’s safe to say they’ve really played a huge role in setting the bar high for indie authors.
Also authors that broke through with genres that basically were nonexistent really inspire me. Arthur Conan Doyle with Sherlock Holmes, Mary Shelley with Frankenstein, Lois Lowery with The Giver. These are authors who were pretty original in their own right (though I know a few would argue with me on Doyle’s stories). They took the stories and made them their own, being very brave for their time. Maybe it doesn’t seem so now, but when you look at the eras these writers lived in, it really inspires me to shoot for the stars in originality.
What is your favorite book to recommend to others?
Any of Lacey Sturm’s books. I read The Return when it came out, and I credit her words in both the book and her music, to changing my life in the best ways possible.
On the fiction side, Jackaby from William Ritter or the Patrick Bowers Files from Steven James are two of my favorite series.
The sequel to The Broken Prince, The Crownless King will be available this September. What are you working on next?
EEK yes for The Crownless King! Right now I’m working on a YA contemporary that is slightly paranormal. It deals with mental illness, sucide, and some other hard trash, but is also a slight spinoff of my favorite detective (SHERLOCK!). I won a twitter pitch with it this past spring, which was really neat.
Ten-year-old Harold Hufferbluss has extraordinarily vivid dreams. Some good, some not so good, and some freaky bad, but all in full color and jukebox loud. And these particular weird dreams have attracted the attention of something not quite human: Slender Sam. Ol’ Sam is watching Harold, intrigued by the boy who can dream just a little bit better than everybody else. A boy with a special knack for dreaming that others can only...dream of.