Author Interviews

Two: @RickyPine

The Five Standard Questions:

Question One:

What inspired you to research and write the tough topic(s) that your novel centers around?

I knew a few people in school (high school and college both) who'd resorted to self-harm as a coping mechanism. One of them even killed herself during our sophomore year. I've never done self-harm myself, but I've been tempted to do so many times. However, instead, I chose to write about it happening to another character, one who was like me, except not. I consider it a classic example of sublimation - using some kind of art to express my own problems and get them out of my system.

Question Two: 

Has writing said tough topic changed the way you view writing, or the world in general? How has it impacted your creative aesthetic?

Back to the sublimation thing - it's a good thing I've chosen this method of psychological defense. Since I started writing the cutting into Red Rain, I've experienced less urges to commit self-harm, and it's also helped me out with some mild body-image issues. Probably because, again, I channel those problems into my characters instead of me.

Question Three:

How do you hope to help people with your writing?

The first goal of my writing is to entertain the next generation of teens and future writers. The second goal is to show them that no matter what problems you might face - especially self-harm and homophobia, which are the most common issues brought up in my work - you're not alone. There are others who have your same issues, and you can always find someone to empathize with - real, fictional, or otherwise. :)

Question Four:

What does your writing process look like?

I have to credit @Ysa_Arcangel for coming up with this term with which I can describe my writing style: Half-Blood Pantser. Most of my stories aren't planned in advance, other than the endings of each individual entry in my series and a few other key events. Those, I have in my head almost from the get-go. Everything else tends to be made up as I go along.

Question Five: 

What are your long-term goals with writing? What are your long-term goals outside of writing?

I'm currently trying to get agents interested in Red Rain (80 query letters have been sent in seven months, with no offers of representation yet.) If that fails, I'd like to be a librarian.

The Five Unique Questions:

Question One:

Your novel RED RAIN addresses the subject of self-harm within the constraints of a Paranormal story, which is rare (on Wattpad). Why do you think that most authors shy away from this?

My theory is that, because a lot of Paranormal stories deal with larger-than-life creatures (I'm pretty much paraphrasing the #SYTYCW15 guidelines for Nocturne here), that their issues are equally larger-than-life - that is, superhuman. Either that, or they're created as a sociopolitical allegory for the cause du jour (X-Men and True Blood come to mind.) Red Rain, however, was created with the express purpose of creating a more down-to-earth, relatable paranormal protagonist, and that's why my story features a more direct portrayal of mundane, normal-teenager issues.

Question Two:

Where did the idea for RED RAIN come from?

I spent years wanting to do a different angels-and-demons story, one that deviated wildly from traditional mythology while remaining believable. Then I had the dream that opens Red Rain - about a young angel playing a creepy Pac-Man game - and it just built from there. It should be noted that Dani was the original protagonist, but at the urging of my creative writing professor, I made Alex the protagonist instead because he was more directly connected to the central conflict.

Question Three:

Best YA book you have ever read.

Does Harry Potter count? If not, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. :)

Question Four:

What does your writing process look like? Do you dream up characters first, or plot?

Seems repetitive, this question...but the characters tend to get imagined first. Making names and putting faces to them (usually those of Andrew Garfield, Dylan O'Brien, Chloe Bennet, or Emma Stone) is a lot of fun, and then I end up constructing a plot around them. :)

Question Five:

Tell us about the other writing you have available on Wattpad.

There's a spin-off of Red Rain called The Dark Ice Chronicles, which is set on Earth and deals with teenage warlocks. The first in the series, The Magi, has been entered in #SYTYCW15. I also have a number of Amazing Spider-Man fanfics (chief among them, the Deadpool Syndrome series), a planned trilogy of Teen Wolf fanfics, and a futuristic sci-fi murder mystery about a planned Marvel Land theme park, called Immortals Image Works. Think Big Brother meets Preston and Child. :)