Interview Corner !
Death, Crime and a Zodiac Sign. OO2 :
The Author's Tale

This month I have interviewed one of the writers I believe are underrated. The first interviewee is the amazing Flame_of_Frost. Their book is Death, Crime, and Zodiac Sign. The book is ongoing however, it's well written and an incredible story for the chapters that've been written. We talked more about them as a writer and anything to pretty much do with writing. Their inspirations, favorite stories when they were a child, to writer's block. Here my interview with them and hopefully a little more into their life.

C: When did you first realise that you wanted to be a writer?

F: It was when I was six years old. Funnily enough, I wrote my first short story when I realised I had already read all the books I had at home that day, and wanted to read something new. So, in a way, my passion for writing began by writing for myself, to cure my boredom.

C: That's quite inspiring in my eyes. I mean a child reading so much that they decide to write their own stories just to have something to do outside of boredom. Following question is how long does it take you to write a book?

F: It depends on the type of book, I'd say. Novels take me anywhere from a year to even two (considering I'm juggling writing with other work in life), while short stories take me just a day or two to write. Some short stories, written for contest prompts, are time-based, so I usually complete them by the given deadline.

C: You must be well organized to always complete your tasks in a timely fashion in contests or time-based short stories which leads to my next question. What is your real-life work schedule like when writing?

Ah well, despite me being an organised person in general, I don't plan my real-life work schedule or my writing schedule often. On holidays, I just go in with a "write when you want to and stop when you're exhausted" attitude, and then move onto my daily life work. However, on working days, daily life dictates what I do, so writing is restricted to a few hours a day.

C: Well, that's different and unique considering how organized you truly are as a person. Speaking of unique, What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

F: Well, I don't know if this qualifies as a quirk, but unlike most writers who plan to sit and write at a stretch for say, an hour, I simply can't do that. My attention span sitting down and writing is barely half an hour, so all my plots cook in my head while doing other work or walking around. Shower thoughts advocate here.

C: That's relatable to most people. I have A.D.D and when I write; one chapter can actually take me a day or two to write because my attention is so easily distracted. I could write half a paragraph and hear my cat meowing and I'll ask what Moon or Sol wants. I'll end up petting or cuddling my cat and forgetting to complete my writing; instead my thoughts stay in my mind as I play with my cats or my dogs. Okay, next question, what are your favourite books to read?

F: I consider myself to be an avid read to be honest, so I immensely enjoy reading books of various genres - humour, action, mystery/thriller - they're all highly enjoyable. My personal favourites would, of course, be books of the thriller or comedy genre, having written a few works belonging to those categories myself. Being specific about titles, the Count of Monte Cristo is a book I worship for its immaculately crafted plot and subplots. Personally, I'm not a fan of non-fiction, as those books have the tendency to sound like textbooks after a while.

C: Thriller novels are actually fascinating to me. But, I love all genres of books except non-fiction; like you said they can feel like you're reading textbooks. I for one, read enough textbooks with my college courses. So, non-fiction isn't really my cup of tea. I've read some of your short stories and books and one thing that always plagued my mind is where do you get your information or ideas for your book?

F: Most times, my books are unplanned. I see a random incident occur in my daily life, and I imagine an entire story revolving around it, and hence, all the characters and sub-plots sort of fall into place as my imagination runs wild. A lot of times, my short stories in particular are written for contest prompts, which are what inspire those stories.

C: That's a different way of getting your ideas for stories. That leads me to my next question; when did you write your first book and how old were you?

F: I wrote my first book on Wattpad (and first complete novel ever) around 2018, when I was 14 years old.

C: That is also relatable. Most writers on wattpad start around 14. I have written Live.Love.Laugh when I was 17. However, I never got the guts to post it on any site in general until years later. Confidence finally hit and I was like yeah, I'm going to upload this now. Speaking of ideas, that takes me to my next question. How do you create your main characters?

F: For me, writing any character, especially the main character, is a highly personal process. First, I come up with a name that really embodies the character's personality. For example, if the main character has a strong desire for revenge, I come up with a name for them that loosely translates to "vendetta" or "conqueror" in the character's ethnic language. From there, I use that name to build upon their personal traits and characteristics. Their personal history comes next, where I try to put myself in the character's shoes. The final step is creating the character's physical attributes and features (although I rarely give that bit much importance in the book itself).

C: I usually put myself in my characters shoes or I write my characters personality, appearance, etc about someone close to me. Live.Love.Laugh; my female main character and her siblings act and relate like my siblings and I do. However, each writer is their own; they do things differently which isn't wrong either. It's fun and interesting knowing how some writers work. Speaking of books,
What might your next book be about?

F: I haven't given that much thought! Although, having focussed on a collection of short stories and mystery novels, my next target would probably be to try my hand at some fantasy work.

C: That's opposite from your story Death, Crime, and Zodiac Sign. I'm sure your fantasy books will be amazing like your others. Off the subject of writing for now; what do you like to do when you're not writing?

F: I think it's very important for writers to find ways to cool off in between their work to avoid burnout. So, I indulge in hobbies like playing the guitar, or playing around with my cats when I'm taking a break from writing.

C: Yes, cooling off periods in between a writer's work seems like it's a better way to keep from getting burnt out. That's what I usually do. I usually play around on my farm, draw, paint, build things from scratch, anything productive is what I usually do. After a week or two I'm back to writing in my docs my next book and start the cycle all over again. Back to writing again, what types of questions do you ask yourself when writing a new book?

F: When planning to write, or beginning to write a new book, here some basic questions I ask myself:
Why am I writing this book? (Whether it's for spreading an idea or for my own pleasure)
Who am I writing it for? (The target age group)
What is the main storyline? (Which helps me decide the characters later).

C: Those are some great questions to ask before you start to write your book(s). I ask similar questions and I assume most writers do as well. Speaking of characters, do you base your characters on real people?

F: If I come across a particularly interesting or eccentric person in my real life, who I feel absolutely has to feature somewhere in my book, then I base a character on that person. But in general, my characters are purely fictional, and resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental. 😂

C: Haha, for some reason the last statement made me laugh. Someone must make a big impact on you to have them feature somewhere in your books. Some of mine have my brother's personalities when it's siblings. Like I mentioned earlier. Obviously, my brothers are an important factor in my life. But, they're the only ones I really someone feature in mine. Of the subject of writing for a minute; we're going to talk about book reviews. How important are book reviews?

F: VERY important. Every aspiring author knows that without primary feedback, they won't have any idea if they're heading in the right direction in their work or not. Book reviews are crucial, especially at the initial stages of writing a novel, as they help the author gain an insight as to what their readers honestly think of their work. From there, they can work on making progressive improvements.

C: I agree, reviews positive or negative help improve a book. Without any feedback; we're second guessing ourselves or we're thinking 'Oh this is excellent' when in reality it could have some or a lot of grammar errors or have a few plot holes that need fixing. Still on books, how many books have you written? Which is your favourite?

F: Well, my short story count outnumbers my novels, and my anthology consists of about 24 short stories I've written across the years. I've also written a complete action novel (the hardest one my teenage self worked on), and an ongoing thriller work. In terms of fun while writing, my favourite would definitely be my ongoing novel "Death, Crime, and a Zodiac Sign."

C: Your short stories are fantastic however, my favorite is also Death, Crime, and Zodiac Sign. That book so far is phenomenal. My interview questions aren't in sequence forgive me; let's move to a different topic for a second. Do you have any suggestions to help me become a better writer?

F: Of course! In general, I think becoming a better writer can be brought about by simply writing about what you're most comfortable with. Don't get pressured into writing a story you don't resonate with, just because the readers demand that. Remember that ultimately, you have to love your own book before your audience can.

C: That's incredible advice. I wished I had someone to honestly tell me something like this when I started to write. Again, back to being a writer. What is your favourite part of being a writer?

F: Being a writer is in itself a wonderful thing for me to be experiencing! It gives me the power to share a message with a large number of people, and influence their ideas by showing them different narratives through my stories. So, the massive reach I get by being a writer is what I love about it all.

C: That's interesting. My favorite part of being a writing is connecting with a lot of readers. And the fact a lot actually like my writing. It helps me move on and continue to write. Now we're going to back back to childhood. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Oh, as a child, I had a list of more than 24 careers I wanted to take up when I grew up, ranging from a fashion designer or journalist (we've all had that era) to a gymnast or graphologist (slightly less common era). Although that order of careers has definitely been altered now, being an author has always been a constant on that long list!

C: I think a lot of us can relate to the 24 plus careers we wanted to do going up. I for one, have had several endless lists of careers I wanted to do. Sadly we're going to jump back to writing. Does writing energize or exhaust you?

F: I think that depends on the situation! Sometimes, when I apply myself to writing a whole chapter and realise that I've been at it for about an hour, it does tire me a bit, as any rigorous mental activity would. On other days, when I indulge in writing as a break from my study schedule or other work, it certainly energizes me.

C: If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

F: My younger writing self, as most amateur authors begin with, was definitely apprehensive of people's feedback and comments, especially any negative feedback. Thus, I'd like to tell that younger self (and everyone out there who began that way) to accept criticism just as well as praise, as both elements play a major role in your future writing method.

C: That's excellent advice again I wish someone would have told me. Maybe beginner writers will read your advice and take it with ease. Let's taking about research. What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

F: Oh, from my experience, the whole researching process takes almost as much time as writing the book itself! I think it's crucial for writers to get details right to the T, especially if they're attempting to write realistic fiction (as I do). Before beginning a book, I use a variety of sources that include Wikipedia, official websites of museums (which feature in my book), and more recently, ChatGPT, for obtaining massive amounts of data concerning what I want to write about.
I ask myself - "Can this actually happen?" - and then do some research to ensure that a scene is scripted in a highly realistic way.
For example, a scene in my book, set in the National Gallery of London, will describe the halls of the museum exactly as it is in real life. That's the amount of research that I insist on doing before I begin any literary work.

C: Most writers do research I think; I mean I do. Some of my imaginary places I use actually monuments, museums, etc. But I still have to do research on places to make them as accurate as they are in real life. So my next question has to do with Easter eggs. Some writers leave Easter eggs in their stories. Do you hide any secrets in your book that only a few people will find?

F: That makes it sound like an ominous treasure hunt, but yes, I do! There are some tiny details I throw into my book that only the sharpest pair of eyes or the most discerning of readers can catch. This may range from a minor clue about a killer's identity, to a recurring character who makes an appearance in another one of my books. It's sort of a fun way to see who's paying attention, and reward them for it 😂

C: Haha, I love books with Easter Eggs in them. Once you find that hidden treasure it's like you hit the jackpot. Let's talk about scenes. What was your hardest scene to write?

F: Since I can't give out spoilers from my ongoing crime novel, I'll answer this question using one of my short stories, "Decayed Roots of the Oak". The hardest scene I probably had to write was a highly emotional conversation between a father and son about the latter's status as an adopted child, and how his biological parentage was haunting him. In general, although I've got the hang of writing long conversation scenes, they still prove a tad challenging to master.

C: I would say that's a hard scene to write. One of my hardest scenes to write was in Vanished Into Thin Air. It was hard to have someone die and it actually made me sad and cry. I know I cried over a character dying but still it was like my precious baby. 🤣 Do you believe in writer's block?

F: Absolutely. Writer's block is a real situation in my opinion, and it's more than natural for authors to face a minor setback during the course of their writing. It's different from burnout, since writer's block is temporary and isn't exhaustion per se. Everyone has different ways of dealing with the dreaded phenomenon, but it does exist and it's alright to be affected by it occasionally.

C: I agree it's okay to be affected by it. I was once and it was a pain to get out of writer's block. Let's go back to your childhood. What is your favourite childhood book?

F: Ah, that's a tough one, considering I read and reread a lot of books dozens of times. I'd say my favourite childhood book (or series in this case) was a close tie between the Geronimo Stilton books and, later, the Treasure Hunters series by James Patterson.

C: Those are some good books. I'm the crazy literature person; my favorites as a child was reading William Shakespeare books. Or Edgar Allan Poe short stories. Weird I know. Everyone has a Kryptonite while writing. So what is your writing Kryptonite?

F: (Assuming you're referring to my weakness in writing)
My writing Kryptonite would perhaps be my lack of expertise in writing long descriptions in my books. Writing about a scene, describing a character's surroundings, and making the reader feel like they're in the very crime scene that the protagonist is standing at - I have a long way to go before I can successfully do that. So descriptive paragraphs would be my weakness as of now.

C: Definitely meant your weaknesses. Descriptive paragraphs are mine as well. 🤣🤣
Thank you for your time Flame_of_Frost. Thank you for letting me interview you. It was my pleasure.

F: No, thank YOU so much! It was a pleasure to answer these questions, and it was really good fun. 🙂

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