Interview with a friend: Emily Rachelle

Hey everyone! Today I have an interview with my friend Emily, in honor of her self-pubbing her second book, Rain in December, a poetry book. So...straight to the interview!

Hi, Emily. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I'm an aspiring journalist and a bit of a nomad, having grown up moving every three or four years. I love chocolate, cats, and Netflix, so if I don't manage to wrangle a husband in the next decade or two, I'm the perfect modern spinster in the making. I also quite enjoy a good rain.

What is your book about? Target age range? It's a book of poetry sorted into four categories, but overall I'd say the book sort of chronicles my own coming-of-age experience. The target age range for readers is about fourteen-twenty years old.

Emily, can you tell us about the publishing process? Was there anything in particular that surprised you or that was easier (or harder) than you expected? I was surprised by how much easier it was to publish this book than Sixteen. I mean, technically, I followed all the same steps. But with Sixteen, everything was new and foreign. For every single decision, I had to do a ton of research and make sure to keep the costs as low as possible. With Rain In December, I spent a lot less time and money and ended up with a book just a beautiful and professional that I'm happy with. To anyone struggling after deciding to self-publish -- it's getting started that's the hard part. Once you've done the work the first time around, things are so much easier next time.

Nice! Which are you - panster or plotter? That's actually a really interesting question for this book. Normally, I'm a huge plotter. I seriously write out an average of 5K words in notes before ever starting the rough draft of any novel. But for poetry, I'm the polar opposite -- I sit down, I write until it feels finished, and then I go back and make a bunch of changes until I'm happy with the result. Either way, though, my writing schedule is always sporadic. I might spend an hour or two writing prose or write five poems in one sitting, and then go a month without writing anything besides blog posts and school papers.

Awesome! Are you planning any other books? I am! Right now, during Camp NaNoWriMo, I'm working on the first draft of a Snow White retelling titled Mirror, Mirror. As for books coming out this year, the first in a series of fairy tale retellings (Mirror, Mirror is not part of this series) will be out later this year if all goes as planned. The series is called Once Upon a Dream, and the first book is an urban fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, titled World of Shadows.

That sounds interesting. I love Snow White! Well...I love all types of fairy tales.What genres have you written? Concerning pulished works, I have one Christian contemporary YA work and this new book of poetry. If we consider all genres I've ever written, several types of fantasy YA, historical YA, and childrens' works are added to the list, as well as a handful of short stories. However, the childrens' and historical works are definitely not books I ever intend to publish, so my published works will probably be restricted to poetry, contemporary YA, and urban fantasy YA.

When you read, what is your favorite genre? I actually read from quite a few genres. Which is my favorite depends on my mood. I've switched between adult and YA works, contemporary and historical, sci-fi and paranormal, romance and suspense. Overall I'm most likely to enjoy a YA speculative fiction work, but right now I'm on a contemporary YA kick. I just finished re-reading The Fault In Our Stars, and now I'm re-reading The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Where can I find you online? My blog and website are located at http://emilyrachellewrites.blogspot.com/, and there's contact and about pages with links to all my social media pages.