Name of Author: Ysa Arcangel

Title of Book: Nexus Series Book 1: Anathema

Favorite Authors: Neil Gaiman, Mitch Albom, JR Ward, Kresley Cole, JK Rowling, J. R.R Tolkien, Sherlock Holmes...oh many to mention.

Bio:
Ysa Arcangel is a Filipino author based in Manila. She works as a Spanish-English GDS Helpdesk by day and a writer by night. She is a loving partner to a very talented chef and mom to three amazing kids. She is fueled by coffee, tattoo fan, giant dogs lover and an extreme sports enthusiast. She writes contemporary paranormal and romance fics with lots of laughs, tears and sighs showcasing sweet, funny and badass female leads with raunchy and hot male love interests whether human or supernatural. When she's not writing, you can see her spending time with her family, reading, or having T.V series marathon.

Can you explain what your book is all about?

Nexus Series Book 1: Anathema is about a 17-yr old Anathema who has a unique ability to travel through different realms and a magnet to spirits of the dead. She feels every souls' pain, their misery, agony and suffering. She embraces the gift of her curse being the gateway to purgatory as she strives to find out the truth about her existence. When a war that had been fought since the beginning of creation is about to rage on, Anathema is faced with a choice that will save one world and destroy another. She needs to choose between the light and darkness. A power she both possesses.

Who is your target audience - and why?
Teenagers, they will surely learn something from the book religious views aside.

What is 'paranormal' about your story?
Set in a parallel universe, existence of purgatory, there's angels, demons, hybrids( I call them Nexi), witches, monsters, ghost, vampires, banshees, and zombies, and a whole lot more supernatural creatures.

Does it contain genre elements. if so which ones - and why?
It's Pararomance so definitely there's a spice of romance in the story that cannot be left out in any YA books. I believe it is one the factors that makes it more appealing to readers of all ages.

Tell us about your writing process - how do you get from story idea to a Wattpad published story?

Anathema was actually my piece during our 'StrangeLit' class. It's a local writing online class wherein we were asked to write a paranormal/urban fantasy story in as little as four weeks - edited, polished and ready to be distributed.

Given the time constraint, I decided to write a novella. Atleast two chapters per day. Towards the third week, I hired an editor and then passed my story for local distribution. It's not a publishing deal. It's a local distribution deal. It's like hiring someone to format and publish your book. They do all the formatting and then they distributed it on their local digital platform (Buqo app). So technically, I self-published Anathema without even knowing it.

Did you encounter any challenges when writing, if so - how did you overcome them?
Deadline is the biggest challenge at the same time the best motivator. I am a mother of three, a career woman, and a wife of very grumpy hubby who hates to see me up until the wee hours writing like crazy.
I write whenever I can. At work alt+tab is my best friend. On the train, I write on my phone. It was crazy.

I'm a paranormal virgin. It was my first time writing a paranormal story. I researched a lot. Read a lot. Binge watch 'Supernatural'. Consulted a priest. Basically, just about anything to write it legibly within the bounds of reality though it's fiction.

You often hear that 'writing well' is the baseline for success. What does that mean for you?
For me, 'writing well'

I think for me, when I think about 'writing well' I think about the actual construction of sentences, how the author put words together, creates well-developed and multi-dimensional characters, draws the readers in and the overall organization of the story. That's the technical part of it.

But I think that the best indicator of 'writing well' is if it touches your readers in some way. That your readers might be able to completely put themselves in the shoes of your heroine.

Funny thing, one person's trash-read is another person's great-read. I do believe that just because you have a great story doesn't mean you write well and the same is true in reverse.

Have you ever had a paranormal experience?
I experienced a paranormal occurrence at work and still experiencing it actually. We are mandated to have a duty of one Sunday each month. During one of my shifts the printer was printing out. So when I finally went over to the printer and looked at the printing on the paper, it was blank.