Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am an Australian-Uruguayan, teacher of English and Humanities from Melbourne, Australia. I love writing in the fantasy, sci-fi and coming of age genres in both YA and Adult categories. ‘Voiceless: A Mermaid’s Tale’ is my debut novel in the YA, urban fantasy and coming of age genres. Prior to my debut novel I worked mainly on poetry and short stories in both English and Spanish, which I plan on eventually publishing.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
‘Voiceless: A Mermaid’s Tale’ is currently my only novel. The initial idea for the story came to me as I watched writing videos by my favourite authors on YouTube and listened to Poor Unfortunate Souls on repeat.
I always loved The Little Mermaid growing up. She was different, an outsider who sacrificed everything for love. She struggled with her identity and finding her place in a world that eventually silenced her. But there were things in both the original fairytale and the Disney version that made me uncomfortable as I grew older.
As I wrote Voiceless, I thought about the choices the little mermaid made in the original tale and knew that I wanted her to make different choices, to grow as a person rather than a damsel in distress. There were moments in both versions where the little mermaid stood up for herself and made choices of her own. I wanted my little mermaid to be more than a mermaid who fell in love with a human at first sight.
While that was what inspired me to write that story, not many people know the reason why I wrote my debut novel. ‘Voiceless: A Mermaid’s Tale’ was actually my NANOWRIMO 2019 project but I decided to participate in NANOWRIMO, and actually write the novel, last year because my Year 9 English students were writing their own coming of age/dystopian stories for an assessment so I decided to plan, write and edit the my own story alongside them so they could have an example for when they wrote theirs. That, and I hoped it would get them interested in writing their stories. I actually promised my students that I’d publish my subverted little mermaid novel. Adding additional character development and editing in general was like pulling teeth but I got there eventually.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure. But I have noticed that in every story I write, for nearly every single character, I try to give them a name that has meaning connected personality trait or quality or to the themes of the story. Moriah, means ‘the lord is my teacher’ or ‘chosen by the lord’ (depending on the spelling), which I chose mainly for the irony.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Neil Gaiman and Sarah Henning are definitely two big influences. I also love Suzann Collin’s ‘The Hunger Games’, Kalinda Ashton’s ‘The Danger Game’ and Louis Lowry’s ‘The Giver’.
What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on the first draft of my sequel to ‘Voiceless: A Mermaid’s Tale’ as I plan on making my debut novel the first in the series. At the moment it will most likely be a series of stand-alone companion novels (stories written from the perspectives of different characters). I plan on writing the first draft for ‘Unspoken’ for NANOWRIMO 2020 and hopefully doing developmental editing by mid-December, with a mid-October 2021 publishing date.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Well, I don’t really have any experience with this yet but I have tried Facebook and Amazon ads to increase visibility and traffic to my Amazon and Kobo product pages.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Well, I’m a new author myself so I have plenty to learn but one of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard was to set aside time specifically for writing, it didn’t have to be every day, but if you set aside specific time for writing it makes it easier to get into a routine of writing consistently.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
If I had to pick another piece of writing advice, it would be to focus on writing your story. Your first draft is for you to get all your ideas down whether those ideas work well together or there are gaps or plot holes in the story doesn’t matter at that stage. You can always go back and fill in those gaps and fix those plot holes later, that is what developmental editing is for. If you don’t write anything, you can’t fix it.
What are you reading now?
I’m currently reading ‘The Deathless Girls’ by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, which I’m liking so far. I plan on reading ‘American Dirt’ by Jeanine Cummins next.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I hope to continue self-publishing more of my own work, particularly my dark fairy tale retellings set within the same mermaid universe.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’d bring ‘Good Omens’, ‘The Giver’, ‘Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows’ and Sherlock Holmes Collection of short stories. I’ve got to have a mix of comedy, murder and bloody or bloodless revolutions.
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