Welcome back!
I hope your Monday is progressing the way you planned and treating how you deserve!
If not - well, maybe it's a good time to pause and take a little break. Get to know another author. Whaddya say?
Sierra Cross’s Blue Moon Bay Witches series is a sweet magical elixir that’s been compared to hot chocolate. Delightfully cozy, craveworthy, and comforting.
When she’s not spinning mysterious stories, you can find her flying after her 5-year-old witchling or drinking coffee in bed with a book and her cat familiar.
You can keep up with her on Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, and Bookbub. For the inside scoop, join her newsletter list -- you’ll also get a FREE audiobook!
Star Trek or Star Wars?
Battlestar Galactica.
DCU or MCU?
MCU, because it grabs the most people and we are sorely in need of more shared myths.
Coffee, tea, or cacao?
Obsessed with all three. Right now, Seattle’s Friday Teas is designing a special tea blend for the Blue Moon Bay Witches series, which we will package as if it’s from Sage’s Bakery, the magical bakery in the novels.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Eons after everyone else did. My kindergarten teacher predicted it in her conference notes -- literally before I could write my name. This was a kind turn from the universe, as it taught me early that there was no point in trying to fool others or myself into believing I was normal!
What is your work schedule like when you’re writing?
I drop off my daughter at kindergarten, get coffee and work out, then start writing. I stop for the day at three p.m. when it’s time to pick her up. That’s about five hours a day to work, though on Fridays I can go longer because she’s at her dad’s. With this schedule I’m able to shoot for 3-4 books a year. Writing while mostly solo parenting a special needs child is challenging but wonderful.
Is there a trope you find yourself going back to in multiple works? Or one you avoid?
I’m drawn to found family, enemies to lovers, and claiming your own power/magic.
What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
That they don’t get any easier to write. As we gain more skills we tend to strive to create more complex book, juggling a larger cast of characters, weaving in more subplots, going deeper into POV, using theme more cohesively, etc. Still, feels unfair.
Do you have any suggestions to help someone become a better writer? If so, what are they?
Find an author community. Start a critique group. Join Discords and FB groups and local professional groups until you find your crew. You will travel forth together, and it will make every step of the journey both much pleasant and more meaningful.
What do you think makes a good story?
A tight structure + lots of butter. Butter is a literary concept made up by Theodora Taylor in her brilliant book 7 Figure Fiction. It refers to infusing your story with universal fantasies to capitvate readers. To grasp structure, I recommend Terry Brooks’ Story Engineering. I can’t overemphasize how handy it is to have the shape of Western three-act narrative down cold. That way, when you’re watching a film, out in the world, you can lean over and smugly tell your date, “Hey, guess what? The A and B plots just crossed at the Midpoint. This movie’s halfway over.” They’ll admire your eerie, incandescent genius.
What is the first book that made you cry?
I cry every day so it’s not some mystical feat, but Charlotte’s Web.
Does a big ego help or hurt writers?
A touch of grandiosity is preferable to being so wound up in self-hate that you can’t bear to have your work be seen or crumble at bad reviews, but a growth mindset is ideal. You have to know you’re worthy of a place at the table, but at the time time be able to question whether you’re really ready to sit down here at this particular table right now. To me that’s healthy self-confidence.
Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?
It doesn’t matter what I try to do, it’ll end up skewing original anyway. This is called being a Forest or an Aquatic in the author ecosystems universe. This is also called my core wound in the author abundance world; one of my basic psyche issues, echoed in my main characters, is this angsty, ouchy idea that I’m too different and thus don’t belong. It is a juicy trope because, ironically, so many others feel the same way! Too bad you can’t heal wounds with pure logic.
Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly?
Eh, nope. They’d be relegated to hard science fiction or bleeding-edge experimental lit fic and even then I don’t like their chances. People consume stories to feel. As a fiction writer you’re leading readers through an emotional experience, so if you yourself struggle to feel emotions at all then yeah that’s a significant disability.
What authors did you dislike at first but grew into?
When I first read 1984 as a teenager, I found it rather obvious and didactic. (Yeah, I was a dumb kid!) Then as an adult I read George Orwell’s essays and fell in love with his mind. Since then, I have realized that when I form an instant, strong dislike it means there’s an opportunity here for me to learn something.
What did you do with your first advance?
I lived on it, for years. It was a six figure advance from one of the bigs, a pre-empt, and I was very lucky.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
Only my current WIP! I really like to get things out there in front of people’s eyes. I’m far more likely to err on the side of publishing too soon than not!
What does literary success look like to you?
In a recent interview with actor and producer Sarah Michelle Gellar, whom I adore, she defined her own success as having brought to life two characters little girls now dress up as for Halloween. I LOVE that bar for success. And I hope film and TV adaptations are in my future.
What do you have coming next?
Fruitcake and Familiars, the third book in my Blue Moon Bay Witches series. To save Gran, Hazel must face her fear of camping and nature-y stuff. Along the way, she’ll solve the mystery of why fuzzy familiar spirits are vanishing all over town … and she may or may not finally kiss her forever crush, the morally complex Deputy Elliot.
Fruitcake and Familiars (Blue Moon Bay Witches 3) by Sierra Cross
Release date: March 30
Granny Sage needs a winter miracle. Could Elliot’s secret save her...or will it kill his romance with Hazel?
Deputy Elliot James is a walking—and flying—contradiction.