V is for viewpoint on ASD #autism - Meet Rebecca L. Brown in this Debut Author Spotlight #AtoZchallenge

Flying at Night by Rebecca L. Brown

1- What's your speed-reading WPM?

I've never actually calculated it, but I read very fast. When I'm not writing I can easily read a novel a week, but I've been doing a lot of writing for the last few years.

2- What five words represent your most notable characteristic or values? #In5Words

loves hard and laughs hard

3- What ignited your passion for writing?

I've always loved to read and since I was a child felt like I had my own stories to tell. My grandma (now passed away) held on to a page turner I wrote about a naughty leprechaun in second graded and said that was the moment she knew I would be a writer!

4- Would you share a picture with us of one of your DIY projects?



5- What are some of your short and long term writing goals?

Short term writing goal: to finish the rough draft of book two by 4/15! thirty pages to go! Long term writing goal: to make a career out of writing!

6- What's one thing about the autism spectrum you want more people to know?

I want people to know that it truly is a spectrum. My own son would have been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome not that long ago, but now his diagnosis is High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. No two people with ASD are the same. There is no "normal". My son is emotionally intelligent, but rigid in his thinking. He's articulate, but has had periods of fixation on certain subjects (when he was younger). Please know that if someone seems a little socially awkward, blunt, or uninterested in you, it may be a huge success that they are talking to you at all. My son sometimes comes off as if he doesn't care about the person he is talking to, but actually the nuances of conversation are difficult for him.

7- What is your favorite book (by someone else), and what do you love most about that book?

I have so many favorite books that it's so hard for me to pick one! I'll go with an unpopular choice: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. This book is hard, tough, gritty and disturbing with a capital D and I've read it three times. I started marking up my copy whenever I found a perfect sentence and stopped when every page was covered in yellow highlighter. The writing continues to blow me away. The characters range from sometimes awful to always awful (plus one innocent that you know isn't going to make it to the end of the book!). No matter how awful they are, they're crafted with such precision and perfection that I continue to read and read over again.


8- Who is currently your biggest fan? What does that person love most (or "ship") about your debut novel?

I have been so lucky to have so many friends and family that have fallen in love with my little book. I'll go back to the beginning. I started this book in a summer novel writing intensive with author Susanna Daniel and a group of other unpublished authors. There was a writer in the group and we instantly connected. Curt Hanke was the book's earliest and loudest cheerleader. When I started querying the book and got rejected he offered to start up a printing press to print himself because he believed in it so strongly. Every writer should have such love and support!

9- What emotions do you hope your book will evoke for the reader, and is there a particular scene you hope will resonate with readers?

I hope that the reader will feel a lot of things, including conflicted! I wanted to write characters that weren't perfect and sometimes did things you didn't agree with. I wanted to write characters that would make your feelings about them confusing. For instance, Isaac, nine year old Fred's father and Piper's husband is an absent father who is away doing great things for people who have been convicted of a crime they did not commit. Can he still be considered a great father if he is never around? Does his work on behalf of those less fortunate excuse him? Is Piper right to resent him? I love tricky questions!

10- What most helped you to improve your writing craft?

There are a few things. First this is the 4th book I've written and the first to get published, though I had an agent for another. I believe that I've become a better writer with each one simply because I've got more words under my belt. The class I took with Susanna Daniel was a wonderful learning experience. I would recommend that if possible writers seek out writing programs or classes in their area. Lastly, I read a lot. In Stephen King's book "On Writing" he says that one of the most important jobs of a writer is to read and I take that very seriously. Every time I read a book I try to learn something from it, even if it's not my favorite. Some writers are amazing at describing a place or time period. Some writers strength is dialogue, some it's plot pacing or character details. There's always something to learn from other's writing.

11- Would you tell us something about the dog in FLYING AT NIGHT?

Chuck Yeager! What a dog! He doesn't die at the end. I am a huge lover of dogs. We have two rescue dogs and if I had my way we'd probably have ten. I'm one of those people who can't read a book where the dog dies, so I'll always write about dogs but they won't die. Chuck Yeager is a composite of several of the dogs we have owned. Dogs that were quirky to the point of being annoying, but you couldn't help but love anyway. We did have one dog who walked into a rental vacation home and promptly lifted his leg and peed on the couch!



12- What is the most memorable trait or visual oddity of one of your characters?

I think I would have to say that the most memorable trait is Fred'stream of consciousness style of communication. He will go on and on about WW II or something but then right at the end circle back around to something relevant to his own experiences.

13- In what ways are the main characters in your book diverse? https://diversebooks.org #WeNeedDiverseBooks

The diversity in Flying at Night comes from the subject matter of people with disabilities. I hope to put a human face on a condition that many people don't know much about. Some people have told me that they thought autism was "Rainman", they didn't know there was a whole very diverse spectrum. It was important to me also to include an adult character with ASD because I feel like so much of what we hear about ASD concerns children. I wanted to show what life might be like for one individual on the spectrum. My own experience with ASD and the experience portrayed in the book represent just one person's understanding and viewpoint, so I don't purport to speak for the ASD community in any way. I just want to bring understanding to ASD and show that children and adults on the spectrum feel, love, hurt and laugh too. They are people just like anyone else. When we had to explain my son's diagnosis to him we told him it meant that his brain worked differently and somethings would be harder for his brain, but some things might be easier too and every person on earth has the same experience: strengths and weaknesses.

14- Which character has your favorite Personality Contradiction?

Fred of course! On the surface, in the way he talks and some of his physical actions he may seem flat and lacking affect, but inside he is incredibly emotionally aware and deeply in tune with other people, though he may not have relationships with many people.

15- Does your book hold a mirror up to society, and in what way?

Hmmm. Interesting question. I think that it does in a small way. The three main characters are coming from very different life experiences and already have preconceived notions about each other in some cases. Are those preconceived notions wrong? Can someone change? How do you love and care for someone that had always treated you badly? I think the book asks a lot of important questions about topics that go beyond the scope of one family.

16- Can you think of any small change in the world you could make to benefit hundreds of other authors or readers potentially?

Mandatory time every day to create, no matter what you make! I think being a "maker" in some way is satisfying in a way that a lot of work isn't. Also mandatory time every day to read! There's so much to be learned from reading and everyone could benefit from that!

17- As a reader, what most motivates you to buy a new book to read?

I'm a very visual person. I love art and color and am very attracted to beautiful things, especially artfully done beautiful things. I hate to contradict the old adage, but I am most likely to pick up a book because I am attracted to it visually. There are book covers that are pieces of art themselves and I'll be drawn to pick them up. I love interesting typography and I'm pretty certain I was a graphic artist in a past life. Then I read the inside jacket copy and if that looks interesting I read what other authors say about it on the back cover. I also rely on recommendations from people I know have the same loves and interests as I do.


18- How will you measure your publishing performance?

It's been a dream of mine to publish a book for so long. I've always wanted to put a book into the world that meant something to people and reached a good number of people. I'm a perfectionist who's very hard on myself so I'm trying to think about the success of this book as touching one person at a time. If someone feels moved by the book in some way I feel like it has succeeded. Reading reviews makes me obsess over why I can't please everyone, so my husband reads them for me! I would love to reach a lot of people with this book because I really believe in it, but at the same time I feel like just getting to the point of publication alone has been such a huge success for me! I don't want to forget that!

19- What was the deciding factor in your publication route?

I was always determined to see my book on a book shelf in a book store. For some people that's not important and it may make for an easier and shorter process not to care about being on a shelf in a physical store. I grew up in book stores and libraries (my mom was a librarian for almost thirty years so I was always reading and perusing books.) The writers who had their names on the fronts of those books were celebrities to me, heroes and it was always my dream to be among them.

20- What's the best book marketing strategy you've come across?

I have been so incredibly lucky to have a marketing team at Berkley that has worked overtime to get my little book on the radar. I'm not even sure how they work their magic but I've been so happy to have them on my team. I really do think that talking to as many people as possible about your book, in person, in media, on social media is the best way to spread the word. Opportunities like this to talk about my book are wonderful ways to get readers interested which leads to them reading it which hopefully leads to them recommending it to others which hopefully makes the cycle continue!

21- What is one question or discussion topic which you would like the readers of this interview to answer or remark on in the comments?

I can't think of a single one. I hope that everyone finds something to relate to and think about after they read this book and interview. My biggest hope for the comments section is kindness! Kindness to the author, the interviewer and most importantly to other commentators. In the last year I've tried really hard to not jump to conclusions about comments I don't like/agree with, even the particularly unkind ones. I'm trying to view them with kindness in my heart and understanding that you never know what someone may be going through at any time. Kindness always wins!

22- Anything else you would care to share about your book and yourself?

I can be found on twitter @rlbrownbooks, on the web at http://www.rlbrownbooks.com and on facebook as rlbrownbooks (rebecca brown)



Flying at Night by Rebecca L. Brown

a-to-zchallenge.com

D is for Dawn Davies in this Debut Author Spotlight #AtoZchallenge

Mothers of Sparta: A Memoir in Pieces by Dawn Davies

1- The Pushcart Prize, the most honored literary project in America, gave you a Special Mention. That's amazing! Were you aware you were nominated?

I did not know that I had been nominated for a Pushcart Special Mention! Someone on social media told me by taking a photo of the special mention section in the book and posting it. Sometimes editors of journals, who are the ones to nominate works for the prize, will tell you that they nominate you, and sometimes they don’t. I don’t recall knowing if Brain, Child Magazine nominated me (they may have!). I’ve gotten several nominations, and although I am extremely grateful for them, I don’t hold my breath. It was a surprise when I found out, which I think made it more fun!

2- What five words represent your most notable characteristic or values? #In5Words

Introspective, loyal, intuitive, nesty, funny

3- What ignited your passion for writing?

I was a serious, early reader, and reading has always been one of my favorite things to do. I’m talking tote bags of books from the local library as a kid. I ate my way through the library. I started thinking about the decisions writers made when I was in high school, though I am certain I was not aware that I was thinking of “craft.” I just started copying the writers I liked, to see if I could capture some element of these writers’ styles that others would notice. I would turn in papers in “the style of Kurt Vonnegut,” or “the style of Douglas Adams.” Thinking this way helped me to “prime the pump” so to speak, and from that point, I continued thinking about craft until I started to explore what my own style would be, probably around age 19 or 20. That’s when I started writing a lot of really bad stuff.

4- How did you come up with the title "Mothers of Sparta"?

I like history, especially war/battle history, though not in a romantic way. I think war is atrocious, but I am fascinated by war psychology, the regular guy who goes to fight, and military logistics. I really like logistics. I became fascinated with the Battle of Thermopylae as a kid. The ridiculous odds, the fact that they ferociously fought anyway, defending their land while knowing that they were going to perish. That battle is a symbol of courage against overwhelming odds, and the feeling I get when I think about it is how I felt when I was writing “Mothers of Sparta” the essay, which is the title piece of my book. The essay is about parenting a special needs child without any real help from schools, doctors, or the community. It feels like a battle that I am not sure I will ever win, though I refuse to stop fighting.

5- When you're "growing your hair and chopping it off," do you ever donate it charity (such as Locks of Love)?

I wish I did! My friend has a hair factory on top of her head and she seems to do it every year. I am so fickle with my hair that I usually end up buzzing it with clippers, then growing it for two years, but since my hair is very curly, I always wear it layered and I can’t ever seem to get 10” that they need. They also don’t like my henna conditioner that I use, as it lightly dyes my hair a red you can’t color over.

6- Would you share a picture with us of your book in popular Florida place?


Hollywood Beach

7- What are some of your short and long term writing goals?

Short-term goals: finishing a few final edits of my first novel so my agent can sell my next book!
Long-term goals: finishing my three-book detective series about a single mother of three kids who falls into private investigation. Also, to finish my second collection of essays, which is about half done, but essays need to simmer. I can’t just bang those out. They give themselves to me when they are ready, so they take longer than fiction to write.

8- What are your favorite books by Julie Marie Wade and John Dufresne, and what do you love most about those books?

I love all Julie Marie Wade’s and John Dufresne’s books, so picking a favorite is difficult. I think Wishbone and When I Was Straight are beautiful and I hope everyone who reads this will read those. Julie is a remarkable, unique writer. Her lens is like no one else’s, and she is also so lyrical and lovely with her language.
I read John’s Love Warps the Mind a Little when I was a teen and I sobbed at the end and wasn’t the same after. John makes you forget you are you when you read, and it’s rare to get that kind of escape. It might be one of the first books that made me want to be a writer, too. John made me feel so much, and I wanted to do that for readers, too.



9- Who is currently your biggest fan? What does that person love most (or "ship") about your debut novel?

I don’t know about fans, but I have a good reader, Pamela Klinger-Horn, who read an ARC of Mothers of Sparta, and became my Twitter champion and sung the praises of my book to anyone who would listen. She is influential in the independent bookstore world, which was wonderful, because people listened. Her kindness came during a time when I had no confidence in how my book would be received, so it was touching. I’ll never forget that she did that for me, and we have since become friends. She is a lovely person. I think what she likes is that my book is relatable and she could identify with it.

10- What emotions do you hope your book will evoke for the reader, and is there a particular scene you hope will resonate with readers?

I’m all about the bittersweet. I think life is both lovely and horrifying, thrilling and mind-numbing, hilarious and heartbreaking. When I think of how life works, I can see and feel both, so I like to capture that. It’s why I write humor essays about excruciatingly painful events, like kidney stones. It’s why I write about a failing marriage, which is incredibly sad and tragic, with more than just melodrama and pathos. It’s why I write about the pain of kids growing up and leaving their parents (a success story, really, though sad to leave that life behind when it is over) with as much humor as I can stand. Because the essays are stand-alone pieces, I hope there is something in each of them that resonates with readers.

11- What most helped you to improve your writing craft?

I should say grad school, because that helped, but I think if I hadn’t read so many books and copied my favorite writers using little writing exercises I gave myself, I would have been far behind where I started out in grad school. I am a believer in re-reading. I would read a writer’s entire works chronologically, then start over and read them again, seeing if I could identify what gave them their unique fingerprint, to speak, and how they developed as writers. I recall doing this with John Irving, Evelyn Waugh, Barbara Kingsolver, Richard Ford, and many others. Identifying these elements allowed me to think of writing craft for many years before I started writing myself, so by the time I did it seriously in adulthood, I think I had a bit of a head start.

12- What is the most memorable trait or visual oddity of one of your characters?

Since Mothers of Sparta is a memoir, real people had to become characters, which is weird. The character of the narrator (myself) needed to become a persona before I could put her out into the world. I think the narrator’s insight, which is quirky and often unexpected, is what readers respond to. I deliberately do not mention many visual characteristics of characters in my book.

13- In what ways are the main characters in your book diverse? https://diversebooks.org #WeNeedDiverseBooks

The characters in my book (my family) are “diverse” in the way that any group of people can be diverse. Not all of us are heterosexual, not all are white, some of us have disabilities, at least one of us has OCD (me!) and chronic medical issues (me again). I don’t write about anyone in this book using a label, except for my son who has autism, as the autism is part of the subject of the essay, so I used it.

14- Does your book hold a mirror up to society, and in what way?

I think my book holds a mirror up to society. As a memoir, it is largely a story by a regular person about regular people. I hope my feelings, insights, and actions are not different than anyone else who might be reading the book. Sometimes I fail. Sometimes I have success. Sometimes I’m afraid. Sometimes I misunderstand things. I have regrets, I have simple joys. I’m no different than my readers, I like to think.

15- Can you think of any small change in the world you could make to benefit hundreds of other authors or readers potentially?

I like to do things for others. I am actually planning a series of YouTube videos on creative writing, with topics of interest to people who are trying to get their first publications. Stay tuned for that!

16- As a reader, what most motivates you to buy a new book to read?

I am not the must vigorous consumer of new work, unfortunately, as I tend to go down the author rabbit hole by reading the writers that writers I like read. Sometimes these lists include new work, and sometimes it contains list of previously published writers I have not yet gotten to. I get a lot of my reading material from biographies and interviews, actually. I am also not a picky reader, so I tend to read whatever falls into my hands. Sometimes it’s Dostoyevsky. Sometimes it’s a detective pulp.

17- How will you measure your publishing performance?

This is going to sound bad, but I plan on measuring my publishing performance in three ways: if publishers will publish my future work, if I make any award lists, and if readers end up happy that they spent their time reading me. Making my readers happy is the most important thing to me. I don’t write for myself. I write because I have been moved by reading, and I want to do for people what other writers have done for me.

18- What was the deciding factor in your publication route?

I told myself I would “try” traditional publishing, but as an unknown memoirist with no public platform, I doubted that it would happen. Fortunately, I got an agent quickly and she sold my manuscript quickly, so traditional publishing became my path for this book. I respect both small presses and self-published states of matter, though. I can see doing either (or both!) at some point.

19- What's the best book marketing strategy you've come across?

I learned that the author needs to contribute to the marketing process, even if s/he has a traditional publisher and a publicist. Authors don’t always get book tours, and it’s the nature of the beast for the publisher to sort of let you flutter to the ground after launch, as they have a publishing schedule with more new releases coming down the pike and you won’t always be the flavor of the month. I don’t know anything about marketing, but I care about my readers, and I care about connecting with them. I can tell when an author doesn’t care about me, but instead simply wants me to buy their book. It always feels a little forced and I don’t like that. I hope to always put my relationship with my readers before the sales of my book.

20- Anything else you would care to share about your book and yourself?

Blurb: “Mothers of Sparta is a superbly written book, at times gently poetic, at times devastating. I was spellbound from start to finish.” Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried.

Blurb 2: “I don’t remember crying that hard since I watched Bridges of Madison County.” Megyn Kelly, on Megyn Kelly Today.

Bio: Dawn Davies is the author of Mothers of Sparta: A Memoir in Pieces. Mothers of Sparta has been an Indies Introduces Title, and was an Indies Next List in February, 2018. Her essays and stories have been Pushcart Special Mentions, and finalists for The Best American Essays. Her work can be found in The Missouri Review, Arts & Letters, Fourth Genre, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere, as well as various anthologies. She has also appeared on Megyn Kelly Today

Social:
twitter: @dawnlandia
Instagram: @dawnlandia
Website: https://dawndaviesbooks.com
Facebook author page: facebook.com/writerdawndavies



Mothers of Sparta: A Memoir in Pieces by Dawn Davies

a-to-zchallenge.com

Meet Rebecca Christiansen in this Debut Author Spotlight

Maybe in Paris


1- Have you been to Paris and, if so, what was the best part of the trip?

Yes! I went to Paris when I was 15, with my French Immersion program in school. It was incredible, and it helped inspire MAYBE IN PARIS. The Louvre was a highlight, but one of my favourite places that I saw was Mont St Michel. It’s a monastery and Medieval town on top of an island, which is in the middle of a bay on the coast of Normandy. I want to go back to France so bad. If only I had unlimited cash!

2- What is the best meal you've had while traveling?

The best foods I had in France were pear gelato, tarte au chocolat, and the one I still daydream about, pistachio crême brûlée. My mouth is watering just remembering!

3- Can you share a story from your life that shows who you are as a person and why you are a writer?

I wrote my first novel when I was 13, and wrote many of them throughout high school. I wrote them all on looseleaf paper taken from my school binders, because that way I could write in class. So my books ended up being these huge stacks of battered looseleaf, full of my cramped handwriting. In our school, we had a twenty minute silent reading period at the beginning of the second class of the day. My friends would take turns borrowing my manuscripts and reading them during this reading period, and eventually more and more people started noticing and asking me if they could read my books. It got to the point where girls in older grades were coming up to me at lunch and saying they “NEEDED” my books because their friends were sobbing over the fates of certain characters! It was such a strange experience, but it basically explains why I write — to make people feel things, to give people a meaningful experience — and shows what a strange, awkward goof I was… and still am.

4- What ignited your passion for writing?

I started writing as soon as I could read and write, and I was definitely helped along by the adults in my life, all of whom loved reading. In particular, two of my uncles — who were actually my dad’s best friends — gave me picture books for every birthday and Christmas. They made some stellar picks, because I still have all of the books they gave me, and they’re some of my very favourite books. This is why I’m such a huge fan of giving kids books as gifts. They can literally change their lives.

5- Who made the "Maybe in Paris" book necklace, and are more of them for sale somewhere?

I’m so glad you asked this! I got it from this Etsy shop called Jewelry by Compliment, run by a fabulous artist named Bistra Kanalieva. She’ll make a book necklace out of any book cover you want. I love my MAYBE IN PARIS necklace so much, it’s so beautifully made. Here’s a link to the piece on Bistra’s shop: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/266922464/custom-book-jewelry-custom-book-necklace

6- Would you share a picture with us of your favorite nail art?

These are a recent favourite! It’s a chrome powder over bright pink, with black lace stamping overtop.

7- What are some of your short and long term writing goals?

For short term, I’m working on a manuscript right now that I’m trying to finish in the next few months. I’m almost through a second draft now and it’s looking great. For long term goals, it looks like my next project might be a series! That’s new for me. I’ve got it mostly mapped out, but it’ll be a huge challenge.

8- Do you know anyone who is autistic, and did that help in writing the Levi character?

Yes! My younger brother is on the autism spectrum. He is also mentally ill. He’s the main inspiration for Levi in MAYBE IN PARIS. We never went to Paris together, but many of the other things in the book really happened.

9- Who is currently your biggest fan? What does that person love most (or "ship") about your debut novel?

Oh my gosh, I don’t know! Not all that many people have read MAYBE IN PARIS yet, aside from my best friend, my agent, and my editor. Something that both my agent and editor said before offering representation and a book deal respectively was that they loved how the book focused on the sibling relationship, and that the romance took a back seat.

10- What's your favorite One Direction song?

Ahhh, I have too many to list! “Best Song Ever” is a classic, but I’m going to pick an obscure one and say “Wolves.” It’s from their most recent album, and it’s a crime that it isn’t a single!

11- Liam, Louis, Niall, Harry, Zayn -- which 1D is "yours"?

I love them all so much — I call them my sons — but at heart I’m a Harry girl.

12- What emotions do you hope your book will evoke for the reader, and is there a particular scene you hope will resonate with readers?

I hope it makes readers laugh, because while the main subject is very serious, there’s a lot of levity. I also hope it helps readers appreciate their loved ones a little more. If it inspired at least one sister to give her brother a hug, I’ll be very happy!

13- What most helped you to improve your writing craft?

NaNoWriMo helps me with productivity a lot. I love the excitement of NaNo, and feeling pumped enough to pound out a whole first draft in a month is just incredible. Almost all of my books are born during NaNo.

14- What is the most memorable trait or visual oddity of one of your characters?

In MAYBE IN PARIS, I think Levi is the most physically distinct character. He’s very big and tall, with huge feet and messy, tangled brown hair. His glasses are always crooked and smudged, and he’s always glaring or rolling his eyes at something Keira says.

15- #DiversityBingo2017 Which squares does your book cover on the card?

Unfortunately not many, but like me, Keira does suffer from anxiety. The romance is interracial — the love interest, Gable, is black.

16- Which character has your favorite Personality Contradiction?

Keira fits pretty well into “responsible and spontaneous”!

17- As a reader, what most motivates you to buy a new book to read?

I’m a sucker for any YA with LGBTQIA+ themes. MAYBE IN PARIS is actually the only book I’ve written that doesn’t have those themes! I also love dark YA that has anything to do with serial killers, missing persons, or threatening cults and religions. All of those things are insta-buys for me.

18- How will you measure your publishing performance?

Oh wow, I haven’t really thought about it. While it would be great to get starred trade reviews and awards, I think the things that will be most meaningful to me are reader emails or positive reviews from teens. Considering I already tear up when near strangers tell me they’re excited for the book, I’ll probably be an emotional wreck any time I get positive feedback!

19- What was the deciding factor in your publication route?

I’ve always wanted to be traditionally published. I just don’t have the energy to be a successful self-pubbed author. I’m with Sky Pony Press, which is a pretty small press, and my agent and I went with them because they loved the book for what it was — a sibling story. I got feedback from some larger publishers that they would like the romance brought to the forefront, and that just wasn’t right for the book. You have to do what’s right for the book. I’m so glad I did.

20- What is one question (or discussion topic) which you would like the readers of this interview to answer or remark on in the comments?

I’d like to know what books everyone is looking forward to this year! There are so many amazing books coming out this year and I’m sure readers would love to gush about their favourites.

21- Anything else you would care to share about your book and yourself?

Here’s the summary for MAYBE IN PARIS, which comes out June 20th 2017:

Keira Braidwood lands in Paris with her autistic brother, Levi, and high hopes. Levi has just survived a suicide attempt and months in the psych ward—he’s ready for a dose of the wider world. Unlike their helicopter mom and the doctors who hover over Levi, Keira doesn’t think Levi’s certifiable. He’s just . . . quirky. Always has been.
Those quirks quickly begin to spoil the trip. Keira wants to traipse all over Europe; Levi barely wants to leave their grubby hotel room. She wants to dine on the world’s cuisine; he only wants fast food. Levi is one giant temper tantrum, and Keira’s ready to pull out her own hair.
She finally finds the adventure she craves in Gable, a hot Scottish bass player, but while Keira flirts in the Paris Catacombs, Levi’s mental health breaks. He disappears from their hotel room and Keira realizes, too late, that her brother is sicker than she was willing to believe. To bring him home safe, Keira must tear down the wall that Levi’s sickness and her own guilt have built between them.

And here’s my bio:

Rebecca Christiansen tried to study creative writing at university, but kept skipping classes to write YA novels in the library, so she decided to pursue that instead. She loves boy bands and diet soda and suffers from incurable wanderlust. Rebecca lives with her boyfriend in a house packed full of books in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
I can be reached on Twitter @rchristiansenya and Instagram or on Tumblr (http://rebeccachristiansenauthor.tumblr.com )!

Meet Ashley Borodin in this Debut Author Spotlight

The Jealous Flock: A Literary Epic in Miniature

1- What are some of your short and long term writing goals?

To enjoy writing. Seriously. I want to have fun doing things. I’m not terribly good at that and I’m planning several interventions after I move interstate next week that will force me to have fun. Like buying a pet, so that I have to look after it. And I have someone who gives something back. At the moment writing is all a one-way street. Marketing doubly-so.

I’d like to get into a writing lifestyle. Cos I tend to binge-write and it’s not healthy.

I’ve started on another book that will stretch my ability to create characters. That’s my greatest flaw as a writer. It’s going to take me a while.

2- How has Autism influenced you as a writer?

This is really what I was alluding to in the previous question - my ability to empathise and relate has been severely stunted. I’ve spent my life concerned about ideas. I have compassion for people. I’ve stepped in when people were dying. Animals too. But I don’t relate to them. That’s changing as I persist with the Autism diet I’m on at the moment. For those who came in late it’s called GAPS, or FODMAPS (the more extreme version) and there’s little research, but tremendous allegorical evidence of its efficacy. If you search for GAPS on Youtube or Autism/Asperger forums you’ll quickly discover what I mean.

3- Would you please give an example of what makes you more liberal or more conservative?

Just as an aside, the conservative party in Australia is called the Liberal party. And I notice a lot of Liberals in North America these days are defining themselves as Classical Liberal or anti-Progressive. I’ve always found those labels irrelevant.
I’m a Gelato Centrist. I don’t care what flavour you are as long as you can hold a conversation and cede some ground to reason from time to time. That’s all we need for a perfect society. We already live in utopia, it’s just that several people don’t realise it.


A good example is this interview between Dave Rubin and Glenn Beck:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEbhOtC9klbAhjxCd7qOUd0edqTrEyUeA

Like Rubin, I believe in the conversation. To me conversations about issues are more important than what side you take. A side is almost animalistic. A defensive reaction to perceived threat. You see this a lot with the current climate surrounding refugees on one hand, and the rise of the Right on the other. The reactions to these on the corresponding side are typical of frightened animals. The fear is real, but often they fail to prove the threat is equal to their reaction.
And that’s bad politics, it leaves you open to ridicule and ultimately being dismissed from further engagement. Over-reacting, as so many people do on social media, leads to ghettoisation. The other side simply ignores you and you retreat to your irrelevant echo chamber and remain useless in the real world. Only to emerge some time later and discover to your horror that the world has moved on without you. This culture shock is what we’re living through at the moment. The Left is waking up to reality, to the consequences of their actions, of straying from their own noble ideals. Even the Guardian, the Guardian! Today it published this:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/05/trump-not-fascist-champion-for-forgotten-millions

If the Guardian are finally acknowledging what everyone else has been saying forever, if even they can get their head out of the ideological sand and remember The Working Class - if they understand Trump finally - that means they know what trouble the Left is in. The Left has lost the moral high ground.
So you could say I’m a Liberal. Like Sargon of Akkad and others wanting to bring the Left back to the centre. I want the Left to re-engage in the good fight for the underclass, for Liberty and all that.
Honestly, the people I identify with most are Catholics. Because they are the ones taking on the big issues and whether you agree or not, you have to admire their principles and courage. I’m a Catholic Liberal. But it’s ok, I have no character to assassinate and no career to sabotage, so I can afford to say things like that. Because that’s the world we live in.

Here’s Sargon talking about that world and The Skeptic community:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws95DCRL1p4&ab_channel=SargonofAkkad

4- Who is currently your biggest fan and what does that person love most (or "ship") about your debut novel?

My wife was an early detractor. Three years ago when I finished the novel, which she’d been tirelessly editing, she pretty much dismissed it. It was the character development, which I agree with.

But now, after many books have gone under the bridge on her side and she’s become a competent translator and editor in her own right - now she is my biggest fan. Perhaps it’s just a book you need to read twice. It should be twice as long, but at the time I was severely ‘autistic’; I did the best I could. And still now I would struggle to do much better. I envy writers whose first novel is perfect. But in my case I have drawn uncommon wisdom from the startup field.

Here are two useful quotes::

“Fail early, and fail often”
“If your first draft doesn’t embarrass you, you’ve launched too late.”

I won’t be forgiven for being a Moderate, but I might be forgiven for being an amateur.

5- What does your Twitter handle 0rWouldUrather mean or where did it come from?

I wish I knew. I think it comes from a song that a guy in my high school physics class made up, it’s a parody of something:

“...or would you rather be a fish?
A fish is an animal
With big fuzzy feet
It eats pineapples
With it’s beak..

….

So if you can’t tell
A big pond
From a dish
You could
Turn out
To be a fish.”

Genius. By the way, I don’t know if it was ‘big pond’ or ‘Bigpond’ which is a broadband provider in Australia.
(*Interviewer Note: I solved some of this mystery for Ash.)




6- What most helped you to improve your writing craft?#

I think it still needs improving. But starting to overcome autism is the one thing I can say helped. Which means putting your health first.
There was a study of entrepreneurs (I can’t remember the citation) that showed the most important element of success was personal health, putting that first. Every entrepreneur has some crazy, eccentric health routine they swear by. And they’re all different.


7- Does #RRBC stand for (https://twitter.com/rave_reviewsbc) Rave Reviews Book Club? If so, where do you review your books at?

Your research is correct, it’s Rave Reviews. I’ve joined as an author and so far I have been very slack with Goodreads. Or rather so overwhelmed with Twitter and everything else involved in launching that I haven’t really developed a routine with Goodreads yet. I’m also having trouble with the site, so I need to get on that.
I’ve done a few reviews on Amazon and I’m thinking of perhaps doing a few more. I’m not a great reader so I’m not really the best person for the job, though as a writer I understand the tremendous demand.
If I did review regularly, I’d like to focus on stuff like ‘The Leshy’ by NC Stow. You can read my review here.


And poetry and perhaps well-written essays. Basically the stuff no-one else wants to read. Rather like my book.

8- #DiversityBingo2017 Which squares does your book cover on the card?

The nearest thing that comes to mind is Poe's Law. Perhaps there’s a better category for things that I can’t tell whether they are a parody or the real thing.

When I started The Jealous Flock I used to be a bit like that. I was never a progressive, because for one I’m not American so the term means nothing to me, but also I’m not a joiner or a populist. I’d heard of people ‘fighting racism’ online and I’d heard of ‘elevatorgate’ and I took them at their word. I assumed it was true.
I think the first facadal fissure began to occur when I saw an interview with one of these anti-racist crusaders (self described) on SBS, which I used to watch a lot. The thing that caught my attention was a picture of Gene Wilder, the American actor in his Charlie and the Chocolate Factory garb. It’s one of my favourite films, so I was interested right away. I didn’t know what memes were at the time, and I didn’t care about Facebook, but I couldn’t quite make the connections between racism and Gene Wilder. Nor Willy Wonka for that matter. Perhaps the Oompa Loompas were typecast and that was the issue. I couldn’t figure it out.
I think the camera actually showed a glimpse of one of the memes, and it was Willy Wonka saying something like, ‘So tell me again how white people are all racist.’ And I thought, that’s funny. That’s really quite funny. And perhaps a year or two passed, and somehow I discovered Sargon and the sceptics. It wasn’t long before I was introduced to memes. And there he was, Willy Wonka saying some really funny shit. All over the internet. It was about as un-racist as one can get.

Anyway, back to your question. I basically took home the grand prize. I don’t know how Bingo works, but I definitely won. Plus I added a whole new chart, so I won next week as well.

I am a fan of diversity, but not systemic conspiracy theories. For as one progressive (I believe he’s called Aids Skrillex by the cool kids) put it : "You’re *^cking a white male." And if you know someone in the West at least who’s more underprivileged than me, I will relinquish my bingo takings. Both weeks. I’m that confident.

9- Which character has your favorite Personality Contradiction?

I don’t know. Is this a writing school question? I never went to writing school, but it sounds like a formula. I don’t use those. Or genres. Those people sound mental. I’m mental, so I know the signs.

10- As a reader, what most motivates you to buy a new book to read?

I read as little as possible. Especially these days. The book industry is crap, it just churns out things designed to piss me off on purpose, I’m sure of it.
But also I have too many impediments to reading. It’s just too painful. The amount that I have to do in writing and using the internet is way beyond my pain threshold. Adding reading for pleasure is just impossible.

11- How will you measure your publishing performance?

A good question and one I can’t rightly answer. I think the quality of the conversations I have with readers is my honest answer. I’d quite like to make back some of the money I spent on marketing so I feel like less of an idiot, but there’s no guarantee of that. So far it’s not looking good. I’m told if you switch to romance you can clean up in a month, no promotion whatsoever. The demand is off the chart. It’s a woman’s world.

12- What was the deciding factor in your publication route?

Desperation and obscurity. No one wanted me. And I wanted this to be the one project I saw through to the end, give it the best chance of life. So ‘self-published’. Which is the industry equivalent of leaving my book on the nature strip and hoping the right person will find it.

13- What is one question (or discussion topic) which you would like the readers of this interview to answer or remark on in the comments?

I honestly don’t know. But as long as it’s well-thought out they can say what they want. I’m more interested in free thought than free speech. There’s a reason tourrettes is considered an illness.

14- Anything else you would care to share about your book and yourself?

No, I think I’ve just about ruined my chances with your audience, but if they want a proper fight they can try to get me banned from Twitter, I hear that’s all the rage these days:
https://twitter.com/0rWouldUrather

You’d be doing me a favour. I hate Twitter, but I endure it because I’m really trying to make a go of this book. I really would like to eventually talk to people about it, about things that matter. I’m thinking of eventually starting a Youtube/Minds/Facebook video thing where I try to bridge the gap, the gulf rather, between the progressive mindset, actual liberals and other moderates.

The Jealous Flock: A Literary Epic in Miniature