Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, but have only seriously considered it as a career option for a few years. Mistakes Were Made is my debut creative publication, though I’ve written lots of journalistic pieces before it and since.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Mistakes Were Made is about just that-mistakes-and the lessons that come from them. The poems in the book cover a variety of situations, some of which happened to me, others I’ve watched loved ones endure. Some of the pieces take place before I (or the speaker) even realise that it was a mistake, and this naivete really shows through.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m afraid I’m really quite boring in terms of my writing habits! I try to be relatively flexible when writing because I never know when inspiration may strike, so I have snippets of poetry and ideas for prose strewn across different notebooks, the notes in my phone, etc.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I grew up on Poe and Shakespeare, so, at heart, it has to be those classic authors. Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads and his ideas of poetry as a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling” made a huge impact on me, too. More contemporaneously, Hugh Martin’s The Stick Soldiers and Sabrina Benaim’s Depression and Other Magic Tricks have both helped me to embrace vulnerability in my writing, which has made a world of difference.
What are you working on now?
Right now, I’ve got a few different projects at hand. I’ve got a few individual poems preparing for publication in some literary magazines (more to come on that soon on the website and social media!), as well as more chapbooks/collections going forward. Additionally, I’m working on both a biography and a novel, so I certainly keep myself busy!
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
At the risk of sounding incredibly corny, I’m pretty excited to have discovered Awesome Gang! Otherwise, I’ve found Goodreads to be a wonderful platform, as well as Amazon’s author tools.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
My biggest piece of advice is to write! It doesn’t matter how many ideas you have if you never put the words to the page. From there, you just need to go for it! Pitch your work to publishers and agents, or self-publish. Submit to lit mags. You’ll never know what might happen if you don’t try!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
My personal favourite, which I find myself returning to constantly, is that it’s okay to be confusing. A piece doesn’t have to have an obvious meaning to be good (even if a workshop insists it be clearer). After all, where would literary criticism be if all meanings were obvious?
What are you reading now?
I recently finished The Handmaid’s Tale! I have no idea how I’d gotten this far in life without reading it, but I’m so glad I did. It’s especially impactful with the state of the world at present and it made me think much more deeply about contemporary society. Highly recommend!
What’s next for you as a writer?
I can’t say too much just yet, but there may be a new edition of Mistakes Were Made in the works, as well as those other works in progress I’ve mentioned!
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?
Does a notebook count as a book? Because that would be a must-have! Otherwise, I have collections of Poe, Shakespeare, and Fitzgerald that would probably keep me busy for quite a while.
Author Websites and Profiles
Juliette Sebock Website
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