1. Congratulations! How does it feel to be a debut author?<\/strong>
Thank you! It feels so wonderful to be a debut author. Getting to be a writer and to have my book published has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember, and it\u2019s truly so amazing to realize that dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Tell us about the moment you found out you had a book deal.<\/strong>
It\u2019s funny. The original offer actually came the day before a large conference I was attending for work, and I remember Rebecca, my agent, calling me on the phone during the lunch break in the middle of this noisy conference room so that we could talk about it, because that was my only free time.

And, of course, we also nudged the other editors who had it. Inkyard Press also ended up taking the book to their acquisitions meeting. For that one I was actually at home when Rebecca called again letting me know that they wanted to make an offer too. We ultimately decided to go with the Inkyard
offer and as soon as we did, I texted all of my family and I just had the most wonderful calls and texts come in from all of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Describe This Golden Flame in three words.<\/strong>
Friendship, mystery, automatons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Are you a plotter or pantser?<\/strong>
I am absolutely a plotter. I love outlining and I\u2019m also a very visual person, so I\u2019ll grab a stack of cue cards and just go at it. I usually lay the cards out on a table so that I can see the entire structure of the novel in one look. I also like that format because then I can easily shift scenes and plot points wherever I need to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. How long did the process of writing This Golden Flame take from your initial idea to final edits?<\/strong>
I don\u2019t remember the exact timeline, but I want to say that it took me about 4-5 months to write the book and then 4-5 months to edit it with Rebecca. Then, of course, it sold to Inkyard and I had to do many more edits. I\u2019m not entirely sure how long that process took because there were some large gaps between the different editing stages, but needless to say, it took quite some time to get it to the fully polished version that is now the final book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. How did you come up with the magic system? Did it take a lot of planning?<\/strong>
I knew very early on that I wanted a rune-based magic system called the Script. I don\u2019t remember how I came up with the initial idea, only that I wanted to do it. And it definitely took a lot of planning. A lot of the plot, and even a lot of the character development, relies on the Script to work. But it didn\u2019t all come at once. With every draft I did, I had to expand the magic system as the world of the book and the characters expanded around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. This Golden Flame is (currently) a standalone, but do you have more planned for this world?<\/strong>
Not at the moment. Though I did a short story from the POV of a side character for my preorder campaign and that was a lot of fun, so I would definitely be open to writing more stories like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. Apart from the magic system, people are very excited for the aro-ace rep in this book. Do you have a book that you remember deeply connecting with?<\/strong>
I\u2019m so glad that people are excited! This Golden Flame was really the book that I needed when I was younger, because I can\u2019t remember ever seeing my identity reflected on the pages of the books I read. That being said, I do remember deeply connecting with Daine from Tamora Pierce\u2019s Wild Magic. Unlike her, I could not talk to animals, but I definitely wanted to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. What do you hope readers with get or take away from This Golden Flame?<\/strong>
This story is really about losing yourself and finding yourself. Both Karis and Alix deal with loss in different ways: Karis because she has lost her brother, Alix because he has lost basically everything. But they find each other, and through that they find ways to hope. So I guess I want readers to find that hope too, those persistent flames that flicker despite the darkness that might be around us at times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n