Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I got married young and had kids right away, fell hard into the green-hippie mom rabbit hole. I love it, I still am a hippie, but it really took over my life, trying to be this perfect mom who only fed her kids organic and no plastic and cloth diapers and everything…
I love fiction to the core of who I am, but I kind of forgot that in the midst of reading all the how-to-be-a-perfect-mom books. When I found fiction again after about 5 years into my mothering, it was like a breath of fresh air. A few years later, I started writing, and romantic fiction was the only option for me. I love it so much.
I’ve written two novellas so far, One Magical Place released in October 2020 and Stuck Together is releasing December 2020. I’m starting to brainstorm the third book, it’ll be a 4-novella series following all four Sullivan brothers.
There’s a full-length book in my “graveyard drawer”. I’m not sure if that one will ever see the light of day. I wrote about 10 different versions of it and it got to be kind of a Frankenstein situation.
Once I decided to try my hand at writing novellas, the writing really took off for me. I’m kind of a perfectionist so it helped a lot to be able to do *my best* at something but then be done with it in a relatively quick period of time. I also think it helped me understand each story element and go deep with the characters without getting overwhelmed. Especially since I worked on that longer novel for about 5 years without seeing the fruit of it. After the pandemic is over, maybe I’ll hand “Frankenstein” over to my beautiful surgeons, my editors, and see if they can help it live.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
One Magical Place. It’s about a bookstore owner and a yarn shop owner who fall in love. I actually had this as a business idea, that you’d have all your favorite introvert stores in one place. Buy some yarn, read a book with a cup of coffee or tea… sit on an antique couch. I quickly realized I wouldn’t want to actually deal with all the inventory and interacting with customers everyday, because I’m extremely introverted myself. So I decided to write a book about it. I get to have all the fun of imagining it and designing it and none of the work of keeping up the actual store.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Hmm… I’m not sure if they’re unusual. I like my cheap yellow office notepad, sometimes when I feel like I have writer’s block I’ll make myself write with pen and paper.
I can write anywhere kind of quiet if I have my AirPods and my playlist. I write to Indie Folk for Focus on Spotify and I turn it up really loud. Like I said, I have four kids, so if my husband is taking care of them, I can write just about anywhere comfortable.
I like to write in my bed, but sometimes I have to make myself go to a coffeeshop, because then I *know* I’ll get work done and not be as distracted by housework or Netflix.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Oh man. Penny Reid is a big one, I love how she didn’t just write stories but really created a community around nerdy romance. My hope is to do that with what I affectionately call modern “hippies”. We’re the quirky, attachment parent, natural remedy, green-minded counterpart to her nerdy scientist community.
Also Katherine Center is one of my absolute favorite writers. I love how she writes positive stories of people overcoming hard things. And they’re just gorgeous to read, they feel like friends.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on novella # 3 of the Sullivan brothers series. It’s about the second oldest brother, Teddy. Just like he sounds, he’s sweet and squishy and lovable, but struggling to overcome depression.
The heroine is a quirky realtor, who uses her intuition to help people connect to their homes.
I’m also dedicating this to the daughter of a friend, a beautiful girl who died this year by suicide, so it’ll touch on mental health a bit more than my other books.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
edenwilder.com You can sign up for my newsletter there, and I’ll be sending Stuck Together out for freeeee to those who sign up for the newsletter. That will be sometime in the next two weeks, definitely before Christmas 2020! So super excited about that, go sign up for my newsletter! 🙂 Stuck Together is a light pandemic romance, so perfect for right now.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing. Read lots of fiction. Save the Cat was amazing for me to understand story structure (although sometimes I still can’t wrap my brain totally around it!) but just remember that writing is storytelling. It isn’t just about making words and feelings, it’s about the big picture of what’s happening, the underlying themes. I think a lot of us start with Bob waking up and walking from room to room, but it gets frustrating when you’re not sure how to move beyond that. So big picture *storytelling* was the thing I needed to understand in order to move forward.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Keep writing. We get distracted, us writers. We like *having written* but we don’t always want to sit down and do the damn thing. So read fiction, read a few helpful books and articles, but the only thing that’s really going to make a difference is to sit down and write something. If it doesn’t change anyone else, it always changes you.
What are you reading now?
I picked up a few Christmas romances on kindle unlimited. One is The Christmas Fix by Lucy Score. It’s cute so far. I’m trying to be better about reading instead of watching tv before I go to sleep, so I at least fit in a few minutes a day doing that. When I’m not actively writing I obviously read a lot more, and then I read less in seasons of creativity. I’m also alpha-reading for my lovely friend and editor, Kristina Suko.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m excited to finish this 4-part novella series and then see what’s next. COVID has definitely made it challenging to plan. When I have more “brain space” I’d like to try writing something longer and see if I enjoy that, but I’m not ready to commit quite yet. Maybe I’ll keep writing novellas. I’ve got a chiropractor story knocking around in my brain for after the Sullivan brothers’ stories are finished…
I’m also trying to learn about marketing and how to use my instagram for readers, how to create that community feeling and things like that. So just widening my skill set.
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?
Oh man, that’s such a mean question!
How to Walk Away by Katherine Center
Truth or Beard by Penny Reid
Renegades by Marissa Meyer (Or Heartless if I was feeling dark and twisty that day…)
The Shack by William Paul Young
Ask me again tomorrow and I might have a different answer.
Author Websites and Profiles
Eden Wilder Website
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