How did you come up with the title of your first novel?
I wanted to find a word that really expressed the emotion of Elodie’s life, and Misplaced was immediately it. She feels misplaced in a lot of ways, never quite fitting in her world. That's something that a lot of people can relate to I think. From there, I tried to think of a naming convention that I liked. Book one is A Misplaced Child, and book two will be A Misplaced Hope.
Who designed your book covers?
All three of my covers are being designed by the amazing and talented Rachel George (www.rachelgeorgeillustration.com) I have a little bit of design experience, but knew right away I would never be able to create something I would be happy with. I wanted the covers to be really illustration heavy with lots of hidden details, and Rachel George delivered. I’m excited to see what she does with the next two covers.
If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?
As writers we are always growing and changing and getting better. I think there will always be things we aren’t satisfied with, but that’s ok as long as we don’t let it stop us from actually finishing. A Misplaced Child isn’t perfect. There will always be small things I want to change and improve, but for the most part I am happy with where it is at, and am so glad it’s completed. A lot of people I know who never get through their first draft run into issues with perfection. They focus so completely on making every line perfect that they never finish. My favorite quote about writing is by Shannon Hale and says “I'm writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.” Another one is by Jodi Picoult “You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.” I’m happy with A Misplaced Child, and I’m so happy I pushed past trying to make it so perfect that I never tried to share it with anyone else.
Did you learn anything during the writing of your recent book?
I have learned SO much through the writing process. The best way to learn, I think, is to just stumble through it and be VERY open to feedback along the way. I’ve learned about writing craft, about story and how to shape it better, but my favorite things I’ve learned above all else are what words I have a tendency to swap and not realize it. I love to embrace the ridiculous and laugh at my own mistakes, so when a betta reader highlights a section like “He sits on the thrown” and then very politely asks me if I meant “Thone” I always laugh. Yes, I did mean Throne, thank you for catching my mistakes. I’ve switched aristocrats for aristocats, which I still think make the passage better, across for accost, minute for minuet, and so many more. Also, sometimes my word processor just won’t tell me when a word I’ve used is not a real word, so I won’t realize the abomination of a word I created is not in fact how you spell curtsy.
If your book was made into a film, who would you like to play the lead?
NOPE. I would prefer for the movie to be actually good. Even if the main character was the same age and physical description of me, I would still say no. I would want to see someone else's vision of how the character is meant to be. I would prefer going the Stephanie Myer or Jo Rowling route and have a super random cameo, preferably in a bunch of makeup so I wasn’t even recognizable.
What is your favorite part of this book and why?
I think I have two. The first would be Elodie visiting the Variant forest with Gedas. It’s a moment when we get to see how they usually operate when away from the castle and politics, and nothing really seems more magical to me than being in a forest during a heavy snow.
My second would be a scene right near the end of the book that I won’t go into too much detail on for spoilers, but Elodie is alone, and Gedas, Silas and Sir Jesper show up. I like seeing the dynamics of those three men when they are taking care of business.
Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?
Most of my characters are made up. A lot of them I think carry traits from real people, but with the understanding that they are not those people. Vanessa for example is an amalgamation of all the best traits from my best friends, as well as a bit of who I wish I could have been growing up. She’s confident, and she loves her friends unconditionally. Elodie is a lot of my bad traits meshed together with the potential to be a strong hero/leader (which I don’t think I would be in her situation.
When you write, on some level you have to pull from what you know. Whether you think of a person you know, then do the opposite, or think of a teacher you loved, and pull out the core of who they were, and shove it into a character. Elodie’s mom is nothing like my mom or the relationship I had with her, but Vanessa’s mom is a little more like my mom.
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