All right, so I started the transcription app in the background, and I'm watching it, type my words in real time, so it should be working well. And you will hear the voices zoom in the background. So one thing in common is like, Hi, I'm Kristin Smith, then you say your name. This is an interview for MFA, like 604 and then jump into it sound good?
Okay, great. recording in progress.
Hi, my name is Kristin Smith.
Hi, my name is Saul Sandoval.
And this is an interview we're doing for MFA 604. So let's just jump into it. So my lovely colleague here majored in English at University of Texas, Rio Grande, Rio Grande Valley, before enrolling in SNHU is a creative writing MFA program. So can you tell me what your concentration is?
Yeah, sure. So, you mean my concentration? When I have my undergrad? Yeah, undergrad concentration. Great. Great. So yeah, so it didn't really have much of a program where I where I went to school, because that was the closest way I had, but he was just a majoring in English with a minor in creative writing. So it was kinda it was kind of like a bit of a concentration. I was kind of a very small program, though. But I did have a really good professor that kind of, we had a few creative writing classes. And it was kind of like my first taste into to creative writing my first short story, in fact, so
there's always that one professor, I also did English for undergrad, I did lead studies. And I ended up in this program, because one of my professors, I just like, fell in love with the way she just explained things. And I was like, I need more of this in my life. So here we are. So how would you say your experiences in that program? Or even specifically, what that Professor influenced your writing philosophies?
Yeah. So his name was Professor Martinez. And he, he really like, gave me structure, because before I was like, I have an idea. That's pretty much it like, and I didn't really know, like, what to do with it, or even how to approach beginning to structure it, you know, I mean, he taught me Yeah, but you know, how to, how to structure it, how to do it, like a three act type of thing, you know, rising action, that type of thing. But what I really learned from him more was how to, like focus on a character, which is like, you know, how I ended up focusing my novel about is more character driven than anything, because it just came to me the name of them, I named my, my protagonist. And what I learned from Dr. Martinez was he just said, you know, just focus on the character, you know, even read a little bio about him, you know, and I thought, that's a little insane, I don't want to write a two page bio about a character that doesn't even exist, you know, a lot of work. But, but you know, it, you know, I ended up doing it, doing something very similar, I wrote a little thing about him a little mini a biography, and just to kinda get this idea in my head a little bit stronger. And what I learned a lot from him was, once you get the character profile done, and even do a little further back history, talk about the people in their lives, what they liked, what they don't like, just anything that somebody could maybe ask you about this character, have it down, write it down. So that way, when you do potentially go into the story in the novel, it's your, you know, how would they act in the situation? Or how would they? How would they feel that type of thing, and it really has helped me throughout this whole time? Because when I started, when I started writing this novel, I had a hard time at the beginning, like, how was he going to act in this situation versus another? How would he interact with this character versus his brother versus this or that, but having that profile page really helped a lot. That's kind of what I took the most.
Cool. So your approach is rooted in psychology. And I absolutely love that since some people start in different places. So personally, I start with sociology in the sense that there is a big picture question I want to answer. How can I fit a story around that? And will I do sci fi as we'll dive into later? How can you make a laser get into it? So it's so beautiful to see how people's experiences kind of shift to into the writing. So I think it's very cool that you're such an insightful person, which totally makes sense with the genre you're writing because you're doing a Texan murder mystery. So since you're always focusing on people's mind frames and how they're navigating that I feel like that works pretty well with regards to contemporary fiction, which you mentioned earlier in our conversation, which wasn't recording you guys aren't missing anything that you're doing contemporary. So contemporary fiction, as we all know, is based on real life and it's set in Texas, you live in Texas. So as a native to the tip state, I trust that you'll get your neighborhood references right. But what about the technical aspects? Are you diving into the full Lhasa fee of police work in detective work? Or are you more focusing on the literal aspects of their job? Like what's in the paperwork?
Yeah, definitely, I had to think about it, because originally, my protagonist was going to be a private investigator. So they originally wanted him to be. And it kind of as I started writing it a little bit at a time, I got half a quarter into the novel. And I got to the point where he was investigating the scene. And as I was writing it, it seemed it came out a lot more technical than I had originally wanted to be. And I mean, like, I was talking about picking up evidence, looking at it, analyzing it, you know, that kind of a mindset. And I ended up reading it a day later. And I thought, This, to me, this doesn't really sound like a private, private investigator sounds more like he was a police detective or something like this. But again, I had never written anything, like from that POV. So I was like, I had to do some research. And I spent, I spent like, a good week or two, reading nothing, but police reports from wherever I could find them, you know, and they're kind of really boring to read, right? They're very real technical things, you know, like, you know, on the morning of December 2 2:05pm, on the block of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like super boring to read. But, but what I got from that was the kind of the language that police detectives and people that write these reports, you know, deal with. And I felt that I think making him a police detective was a lot was easier for me. And it, it led to the story well, or better, excuse me. But what I what I noticed when I looked at my grand scheme of my outline, is that there was only maybe about three or four or five real technical heavy scenes that I needed to be like, really research focus, and the rest was like 90% of it was completely like character driven and whatnot. So I didn't really feel like I had to do so much research, and I wasn't so overwhelmed. So I do have one other thing that I want to I still am in the research process of doing that. I live in Rome in Texas, which is a really tiny town. And I mean, like 1200 People really small. Like I said, it's
my graduating class, so
So, so yeah, so it's tiny. And the police, the police department here is I think like, three, three or four officers, including the I don't know who the head is a captain or whatever he is. Anyways, he agreed to let me come on a ride along at some point in the near future, so I can kind of get that POV. Which is doesn't sound as exciting as it is, you know, it's not as exciting as it sounds. It's gonna be exciting. Yeah, they do have, they do have a lot of immigration plus that type of thing. So it's not super super, you know? Scary. But, but anyways, that's the last part of my research, I want to do like to kind of get the POV of a, you know, someone coming to a scene, that type of thing. But, yeah, so a lot of it dealt with, you know, when the police detective gets on the scene, that type of thing. But I think reading those reports really helped me a lot.
That's great. You always say iceberg effect, when it comes to writing that all of our professors always tell you, you'll do so 30 hours of research, that 13 minutes of it ends up in your book. But that knowledge just helps you navigate the space a lot easier. And I think it's really cool that you were so proactive and getting out there and getting someone to take you along because it is definitely not easy to put yourself out there. So that's a really cool thing. And speaking of putting yourself out there, you started your blog. So I think the cool thing is you put it live, because this is a work in progress. And a lot of people that we know within our program are working on their projects offline, which you know, makes sense because mine is messy. But it's the bravery of being messy even though yours is a lot a lot better. And I appreciate you know, was taking notes, I appreciate that. But in your blog, I liked your your personality as it came across. And one thing that made me laugh is I found out you're a big fan of list I am too you'll find my own my to do list, it looks kind of manic, but it's always by me. So I appreciate you. So can you provide us a list today? Or I'll ask you for two different lists. So the first one is can you give us five reasons people should read your book?
Sure. Well, number one is I guess because of the originality of it. I mean, I know a lot of people know about border states and you know and California and other in others in Texas as well. But I really think like our area here if you it's kind of like a five county area from from where I'm at all the way down to the to the coasts and there's five counties and it's about I don't know I'm gonna say like between here and to the coast about a good two and a half hours, three hours almost. And this whole area is kind of like one large city. It's a about the size of Houston, I believe. I think it's like about a million and a half people altogether and There's like tiny, tiny little towns dotted all along the whole process. And so it's like every little area has its own little region. And I think that's super, super, like. Interesting. And I've never really kind of seen that type of region anywhere else. And so I think when people read a read my novel, it takes place in a in a fictional city, right, called Valley City. But that's kind of its kind of my hometown, Harlingen, you know, and I substituted that because the rest of it is pretty much. You know, there'll be a lot of landmarks that everything that people, you know, if they're familiar with the area, they'll understand. And I think the originality is one thing, right? I want people to learn about it, too. There. I've read, you know, a lot of history novels, as well, and a lot of detective type of things. And, I mean, a lot of them are, are either male centric, or there's a lot of these cozy mysteries that are just like amateur detectives, that type of thing that are female centric, which are fun to read sometimes. And I don't, I don't mind reading for, you know, just a different POV. But I haven't hardly ever seen too many, you know, Mexican leads, or even even any LGBTQ characters that are a little of both, you know, so I think my main character may have been protagonist, Carlos, you know, not only easy detective, he's male, he's gay, and he's Mexican, which kind of gives him like a weird, multiple perspective on a lot of things that go on, you know, so that's one other reason I think, kind of a different POV. You know, I want to also include the my culture in that, you know, I, I kind of have a bit of a whitewash culture sometimes when it comes to it because it will, Harlingen is a bit of a the widest part of our area. Oh, college. It's where all the sprawl that winter Texans in the snowbirds go to vacation. So it's kind of like the Florida of Texas sort of, you know,
I completely get what you mean. Like, yes,
it is what it is, you know, that they that's where they go. And that's, that's where I grew up. But if once you leave Harlingen you know the rest of the city especially like on the border Brownsville, which is where like, you know, Elon Musk has his company down there. But what SpaceX is that it's a lot more, you know, brown down there. The majority of our area here is like 98%, Mexican American, and like 2%, everything else, which is, which is something I want to display in the book as well, you know, so a lot of my characters are of Mexican American. There's other LGBTQ characters as well. You know, and there are a few female to female female characters. So I wanted to try to kind of represent the valley as we call it a little bit more. So, I do like that. The novel itself, kind of is a little bit Haddix, exactly what I would expect from a mystery novel, you know, most most mystery novels, it's pretty straightforward. They have something happened to beginning a murder or something investigate, the guy gets the guy for its fault. And it's pretty straightforward. They're trying to investigate it throughout the end. But mine is a little bit it has a tinge of a romantic element into it, there is a love interest in it. The murder in the in the book happens and the son of the the person that died had to comes down from from out of state to, you know, attend to the funeral. Right. But the detective who was on who gets assigned to his his case is his ex. And it kind of starts this relationship that they had forgotten about that they had been together, years in the past. So I haven't read anything. I haven't read too many mystery novels to kind of have that aspect as well. And I wanted, it was important to me that I the novel that I wrote, had some sort of romantic element to it. I'm not a romantic, super, super romantic person myself, but I think having that in the novel as well will speak to a lot more of you are readers as well. And I wanted to get that point out across that this person deepen, deepen the mystery, deepen investigation, busy with this life that they've had, you know, they still had this opportunity. And, you know, for things that may have not worked on in the past. It's maybe I'm a softy a little bit, I guess, but I wanted that to be in there. And I think I think it's working out to working out well.
One thing I think is very, for lack of a better word endearing, or just precious is what I wanted to say first and I was like, not me calling grown people precious. But one thing I was really like enamoring about you is your focus on people and kind of showing that we all have a lot of sides to us and getting to know the inner person, because that's just kind of what fiction is all about it in my perspective. So like I say, we do sociology focused on literature, because we're telling you about the human experience in these different cultures and why it's so important. And we're just making you know, read it in a book instead of a lecture. So I just think that's really cool that I can kind of feel the same thing coming from you. But speaking of percentage, what are a few like, reasons people should invest in you as a person? We got enough about your book that you're going to be in some to read lists, but what about you yourself?
Well, I think my perspective in that, in the novel, one of the characters has a has a drug problem, and kind of got involved in in, not directly, but indirectly, and kind of overtook his life. And that a lot of that came from my own personal experience. Because in that I mentioned before, before our interview that in during, during my time in between my bachelor's and my master's, because my dad had passed away, it kind of was a really kind of like a, you know, for a couple years really dark time. And I got involved in drugs, things that I really shouldn't have been doing it just, you know, life happens, as I say, and, you know, it could have gone bad really, really, really easily, you know, and I was lucky that in the two or three years that I was that this was happening to me, like nothing serious happened. But, you know, after that happened, and I got in, I got myself better, and, you know, things got back in track. I, that that situation just always was at the back of my mind, you know, I was like, you know, could that happen again, you know, being so vigilant all the time. You know, it was overwhelming at times. But when I started writing my novel, one of the, you know, and this situation was in my head, it kind of leaked into one of my characters. And I think, like that perspective alone, that having, you know, this person that got overwhelmed in a situation, they weren't necessarily going to do but just happen. And before they knew it, they were there. And it just how did we get out, you know, they didn't have a support system, they didn't have a lot of family members, it was just easier to stay there, stay in the same situation and get out. And I think that's one of the main things that I, why someone should read my novel, because of that situation that happened to me, and it kind of changed my novel a little bit, but in a good way, I feel that people can take a lot of positives out of that situation. And just myself putting it into a novel is a positive for me, because it was like, super hard to talk about it before, you know, with anybody a little, even someone that I was really super comfortable with. But someone that I had just, you know, started talking to, of course, it was a little difficult, but it's helped me a lot. And I think that's one of the main things that I bring to the, to the forefront that, you know, as an author, you know, it's a lot, but I feel like that's the most important thing.
It is being vulnerable is is very difficult, especially sometimes culturally, and I'm speaking for myself, so my family's from the US Virgin Islands, and my family. And I would consider us close, but very awkward or pulling teeth to talk about things that society would deem as shameful. So the fact that you not only endured this survived, gotten to a headspace that like you can write about it, and talk about it so easily with someone you're seeing for the first time and talking to for the first time, much less on a recording. And that's something people really would love to invest in. So sometimes I bought books from people that I just really liked who they were, and I bought into them. And I just ended up clicking purchase on their book. So I feel like a lot of people who want to see such a positive story or representation in something so real would love that. So that's one reason that you know, people have interviews and that's one reason you all should follow him on his blog and all the social medias because you'll get some pretty good gems from there. Okay, so my final question is more like a scenario. So picture this, close your eyes if you wanted to really get into it. Let's say it's 15 years from now and you've had a fulfilling and influential career that English majors foam at the mouth for there is now a prestigious, prestigious and a little bit pretentious. That's okay. Award in your name. What do you want the award to represent or call to mind? And what qualification should there be to earn it?
Wow, good question. Interesting. Well, I, you know, I thought about it a little bit. And, you know, I don't know if I ever would read like, you know, an award named necessarily yesterday or anything like that, but, but, you know, I thought a lot about it. And, and I would like some sort of like an award or some sort of like, scholarship type of a thing to where people that you know, want to get into the into the world of writing, but don't necessarily know either either financially can't get into school or really don't know how to do this, I want to create some sort of grant or something like that where they can, where they can apply to it. And it's that I want the barrier of entry to be super low, I don't want there to be a lot of things where people can't apply because of this, or because of that. Anybody that wants to be a writer should be able to be a writer, if they can, you know, if they want to, if they have an idea, and they, you know, they don't know how to do it, there should be a place where they can go to not only get access to it, to get to the skills to get into the necessary items where they can, like, I can imagine, there being a program where if they get this grant, or whatever, they will get these classes may not necessarily be like a college degree, or whatever, if they don't want to go that route. But a lot of people really get a lot from workshops, learning that type of that type of way, I certainly learned a lot about work, I learned a lot in workshops, you know, but I want them to be able to, you know, if they want to learn that route, you know, and be able to, to learn the skills that way. And then at the end result, they may have a short novella, or a short or a series of short stories, something concrete, I think that that's a goal that I would love for people to have, so that they could apply to it, get some money, get it going either go to school, or for this workshop format, I think that would be super awesome.
I love that response. Accessibility is something that I'm really huge on. So the fact that instead of you know, having the Lovecraft bust, but like, you know, make it you and pass it around amongst the nerds, you prefer to do something that people can further their art that wouldn't have ordinarily, that speaks volumes to who you are. So I really look forward to seeing your career take off and hopefully see some grants in your name in the near future.
Thank you. All right. So now it's my turn, I have some several questions for you. So prepare yourself. Okay, so I was cruising your website, right. And I do gotta tell you, I do like the overall aesthetic of it. It looks so much cleaner than mine, which I absolutely love. A lot, very easy. But I learned a lot fast. I gotta tell you, so I really enjoyed it. So I read somewhere on your homepage that you do have an admiration for like Star Trek and Doctor Who? What is it about these? Who Oh, love it? What is it about these franchises that interests you the most? And does that end up being you know, these ideas in the painting your work sometimes,
I love the adventure of it. And the idea that we are more than our contemporary spaces. So you know where we are right now isn't the end all be all, we can go beyond space, we can invent new things, and we can create new cultures. So I love the idea of the future and alternative realities. Because as you know, we live in very precious times in a very prejudiced world, versus Star Trek, you're just out there, you're fighting the xindi, you might have a fling with a coin, Milan, you learned some things about the Balkans, but you're never focused on, like how you look, it's just kind of who you are, and how you can use your intelligence to navigate things and like your friendships, how powerful they are, and how they can change the universe. It's just, it's a nerdy light, it is a nerdy light. And I just want that I want to create that in my own writing. So my goal is to have like, an unapologetically black universe full of nerds who can, you know, shoot fires from their hands, or do things with lightning, or any of these possibilities, or just a regular person who uses their mind to change the world around them and make just individuals better? Because you can't always change the world or the whole universe? It's asking too much, sometimes. Truly. Yeah. But you can influence other people and make their life exponentially better, and therefore change generations. And that's kind of like, what Star Trek does, as you'll see from like Michael Burnham and Spock and how that influences the future and just different things like that. It's, it's, it's a really fun, it's an eloquent version of saying, I like the world building, and I'm trying to do the same.
Yeah. That's, that's awesome. I can tell how deep of a Star Trek fan you are, because I wrote down the word xindi. And I'm like, wow, like she mentioned the xindi Oh, my God. So I absolutely love that. So um, so I'm glad that it does. It ended up you know, coming out in your work, you know, and that's always good, because, you know, I am a sci fi fan myself. So a lot of the when, when I do end up writing, something like that, it does end up kind of leaking into it. And you had mentioned alternative alternate reality. You said alternate realities, right? I just finished reading dark matter.
Yes. By um, Blake Crouch.
Yes. I read it super fast. And I was like, wow, this is so good. So. So yeah, so I totally get what you're getting at. So I noticed on your, on your website that you you had a little bit of a bunch of nonfiction work. It was called the POV the a perspective of fiction. And I saw that and I was like, wow, like, you have this out and available and ready for like anybody to purchase. And I was like, that's, that's super cool. How did did that come before your fiction work? Or did that? Was that kind of like, at the time? Or how did that come about? You
know, that's actually concurrent. So I will do a shameless self promo it is right here, you can buy it on most major platforms, go ahead and get it. And if you go on my website, you'll actually see a coupon for it if you want an ebook version, but we're friends. So I'll, I'll email it to you later, if you actually want this ebook version. Yes. Okay, just email it to you. But um, the perspectives of fiction, I was actually working on it while I was working on my book in Sapiens, which is going to be for my MFA thesis. So I have one chapter of incipient in there. And I rewrite it in each of the perspectives. So you can see how it changes the, the relationship with the character. So and sometimes it is from different characters perspectives, because can't read the same thing on repeat, and it still be fun. I'm not that good. I can try again in like 10 years, but today is not that day. And the reason I wrote it is for the purpose of accessibility, as you'll see, in the author's note, my friend kind of asked me, What's the big deal of perspective, because I'm a diehard first person. And then it goes second person, it goes in order, basically, if scope is like, what my preference is, and as explained to her the benefits of it, and she's like, Well, why don't other people feel this strongly about it. And I'm like, well, people haven't had an exposure to it, or they haven't researched it themselves. So I told her, I was like, I'll explain some more, I'll, I'll do some research and get back to you. I did some research, and I got back to it. And I just kind of, I wanted it to be out not just for my own means because I could have took it and run with it. But I'm a strong, strong advocate of you do not need to go to college to learn something, which is contrary because this is like a homework assignment right now. However, I think that if people don't have the ability to sign up for loans, or have a job that can provide the funds for it, they should still be able to access writing, because it's just a beautiful way of expression, and changing the world around you and making other people feel safe in their mental faculties. You shouldn't have to go to school just for that. So I was like, Well, this is one thing, I'm passionate about this subject, let me write about it. And let me put a price point that if a 13 year old wanted to buy it with some lunch money that because I don't feel like chicken tenders for like three days, you can go buy the book, or if someone wanted to gift it to you. It's possible. And that's just kind of how this came about. So my fiction is in there, and some other sci fi stuff is in there, because it's still my primary love. But I just kind of wanted to start my career by showing people. Hey, I care about you more than I care about my personal success. And I'm here for the team basically.
Yeah, that's, that's good. That's, that's awesome to hear. I mean, I, I also am the mindset that I do think that if someone wants to learn how to write, and they can't afford to go to school, they don't have to like the loan accessibility that they should have some Avenue, you know, something that do that, whether it's buying a book, or whether in reading an online tutorial, video is something that should be accessibility. And I think that's a great idea for for your book. So I definitely will, we'll get to it. And I'll look at it look at it when I get a chance to definitely. So let me see here. So you You're, you're mainly you read about speculative fiction, as science fiction stories. So what what do those stories look like? Because I looked through your through your website, and I didn't get like, I didn't learn too much about that. So can you tell me a little bit about what those start what your novel is progressing about? Or what the general goals or ideas that is kind of about? Yeah, so
in sapiens is a science fiction piece that explores the intersections of individuality versus necessity, and priorities. So Charlotte and Molly, which is she's named after the capital of the US Virgin Islands, where my family is from, so she is from a very collectivist community. So now that she is ripped from her home, and she's now in an intergalactic war space, she's trying to figure out, is she important in her personal desires to remain a pacifist? Or Should she fight for the team because of her emerging meta human powers? And it just kind of touches on the fact that what you want as a person does matter, but there's also there's also no good way to win? In a sense that like everyone has need They're fighting. So do you want to be like content? Or do you rather other people? And there's no one right answer to it. And that's just kind of what I'm exploring. And that's what most of my books do is kind of go through different questions that a lot of people are plagued with, especially in minority communities. Because I've come to terms with like, Okay, I'm not going to be selfish, but I will look out for me because I can't drain all of my soul for other people have done that. life sucked. And that's okay. And I want kids to understand that they can choose themselves, and they can still be a good community member, and just making it so grandiose Woods sci fi is a good way to teach them without forcing it down their throat.
Yeah, let's good, I can definitely understand that. So did your novel begin with? Well, how do I close the question? Did it begin with an idea? Or was it more? Were you? Did you have a character in mind to begin with? Like you said, Charlotte? Or how did it begin?
For you? Um, I had an objective, because I was a Wattpad addict. If you saw my phone in my hand, I wasn't texting my friends. I was typing in a comment in somebody's story. It was, it was interesting time. I don't regret it. Love it. Anyway, um, it was it was overwhelmingly white. Like, all their pictures of beauty, or Oh, my silky blonde hair, they tied into a messy knot. And I was like, Maybe I can't do that. Every single feature you're listing, I'm the exact inverse of like, and I'm not ugly. Like, I'm not saying I'm Tyra breaks, or Niomi Campbell on the track. But I'm not like, why are all my features the absolute inverse of everything and popular fiction on Wattpad. And people can do anything, publish anything you want. In mainstream fiction, I was like, This is not fair. I want to see myself and see my features and my specific culture represented. So I was like, You know what, let's do it. Let's figure it out. And I started typing, and here we are.
Sure. Well, that's, that's good to hear. Because I mean, I had not necessarily kind of started in the same path. But I do want to read books that were I feel that, like, I'm represented, represented, whether it's, you know, whatever part of me I want to be able to read. And I think that's, that's good for people that are on our similar situation to read. And so, you know, role models are hard to sometimes come by and being able to find somebody that you really like, you know, you know, you can see yourself in that novel, or that book, and their story is really good. So I'm glad that you kind of had that I had that idea in your head. So when you're writing, when you're beginning when you're thinking of Writing Your Novel, when you're at the very early stages, or whatnot. So what is your process? Like? Do you are you more? Are you really deep into structure outlining that type of thing? Or do you kind of write as you go more, have a seat of your pants? Do you write daily, what's kind of like your process you,
um, I am an outliner, for the most part, so I get ideas in bulk. So I'm like, Okay, I know what the beginning middle and end are, let me just write it down. And then I'll kind of get more of the fine tuning. I was like, oh, and like, revise, but it's interesting, I have an idea. And then I'll kind of like pants it for the chapter, especially if it's on a short timeframe, because I'm a serial procrastinator. I've been a procrastinator since literally kindergarten, I would do my my storytime reading in the back of the car type of cancer feed reader like, so I'm always feed writer in that sense. 1159 is my phone that I try to vanquish frequently, because life is busy, especially if you're a procrastinator, so I do a lot of binge writing, I'm trying to get better, do I see myself getting better in the near future? Maybe not. However, I'm trying to be like, that.
I can, I can definitely understand that. You know, that's definitely polar opposite of how I work. You know, I started off my ideas in a notebook like this. It was very, very generic. Very, just, like you say, bulk writing ideas just kind of came at me. And then I and I sent this sounds like totally, you know, opposite of what you do. But, you know, then I did a real detailed outline and another version of that and another version of that finally get to the final one. Oh my god, you know, I think about it, and it makes me makes my head hurt. Now thinking about it, how much detail I went into it. But I can also understand your perspective, though, because sometimes the ideas just kind of come on and biggest flow and I just want to get get them down so I can I can understand that idea as well. So let me see growing up, did you Where did your idea for you wanting to become a novelist or a writer? Where did it come to? This is something early on. You know where How did that start?
Oh, yeah. So I've always been a reader but I kind of burned through my section of like Girlboss spy movies in my library at you know, the public library and my school and like I had la carta addiction. So I was like, I can basically write a fanfiction and change the name and self insert and run with it because I'm, I needed, I needed more. I was like, yes, yes, I'm not what. So I provided it for myself because I was starving. And I kind of liked it. And my friends were like, who add me in here who add that? And all these different things. And I had to do the research is like, How would I describe Stacy correctly or, okay, I need to put a little bit of culture in here. And I was like, Oh, this is fresh. This is fun. So from 11 Onward, that's just been my primary passion like that summer, I think I wrote like 75 pages of Hulk, which is pretty good for an 11 year old, because I was in like, sixth grade. And, well, I'm 22. Now. So 50% of my life later, this is still my primary passion.
Wow, I did a lot of reading myself too, in elementary. And that's kind of like where my I was a reader before I was a writer for the long for the longest time as well. So, but my writing came a little bit later in life. But you made a quick little mention about, you know, like when you were you wrote something and you went back to reinsert certain parts of it or whatnot, which reminded me of what is revision, revision and editing for you. Is that, is that tough? Or is that something that you really enjoy doing?
I actually have more fun with it than like sometimes writing because I do it with an objective. So I don't go from beginning to end, when I'm revising, I revise categorically. You can say I'm great at compartmentalizing. Who knew. So one thing, it's like, okay, I want to represent this person's culture better. So I will do like some researching, I'll talk to people that I know, a lot of the time. So it's a lot of like phone calls. And I'll kind of take that and I ask myself, How do I want this to relate to the plot itself? And then I'll think about it, then I'll revise a section specifically for that. So it's like putting together puzzle pieces. And then I'll go from the beginning and like, kind of, you know, brush it up and go through a fine tooth comb. So it's just kind of chunking it out. So I don't forget anything major, rather than going from beginning to end and getting overwhelmed.
Gotcha. Oh, it sounds like a really good process. I find it super difficult to edit and revision and revise. So it might be something I might consider to do, you know, kind of chunking it out instead of being overwhelmed in the whole process. But
yeah, let me know, let me know if you need some pointers. Yeah, my numbers.
Awesome. So So lastly, what, you know, since you're into speculative genre and science fiction, in general, what do you think is like, what goal Do you want to see yourself, you know, years down the road, accomplishing within this genre.
Um, two things I would say. One is I'm that one professor that everyone comes to this program for, like I am bringing in the students. I am the Annalise Keating of this department, like, minus minus the walk in the hills, I'm not gonna do that part. But I have, I love teaching. As you can see, I talk a lot. But I like seeing people better themselves through literature, because they're finding different ways to cope with the reality around them, or just kind of understand other people and apply it, then you take it to sci fi, how you can bigger picture make the world a better place, even if it's not, you know, with a sonic screwdriver, because not everyone has access to those too expensive. So that would be one of my goals on the Sci Fi community to just spread information, especially for minorities to have them walk in. It's like, oh, Professor Smith with her Afro and she's going to code switch with me. Yes, I can use my my high lexicon if I so choose. But your authenticity has a place in academia, because you have a place in academia and you are valid as you are, you don't always have to talk like old Englishman, so kind of perpetuating that is one of my big goals within the community. And another thing would be to have something kids can cosplay as, so if it ends up like a serialized thing, like Star Trek Discovery ends up as a serialized version of Star Trek Discovery, that would be amazing, because like seeing kids dress up, and everything, like you know, their crooked wig with it, but um, this character, and you can barely tell, but they love it, and they know everything about it. That would be phenomenal. And, you know, for the people to the adults or whatnot. But seeing that passion, having that representative as a little person and growing up and seeing that being you, I want to give people that confidence. So those are like my two goals within this field.
Wow. That sounds awesome. All of it sounds super positive. And I it's something I can relate to. Because, you know, within, you know, even though I don't write Speculative Fiction or Science Fiction, you know, I do watch it a lot and read a lot of it. So I always feel super uplifted and positive after watching Star Trek show sometimes. Even just even discovery, even discovery, you know, it is sometimes a little bit dark, but I think more true, true, you know, so, but overall, I think it's you know, I do enjoy the message and I do love that that's what you hope to accomplish. So I think those are all the questions I have for you today, though.
And between the two of us I have a son Oh my face, I'm gonna have to take a nap because there's a lot of too much positivity. So I'm starting to hurt a little bit. So I guess we can wrap it up here. But seriously, thank you so much for taking the time to chat. We could have done this asynchronously, but I super love our conversation. So I'm really glad we
can actually. Yeah, definitely eat you. Thank you. It was good to be. Of course you too.
recording stopped. Okay, so. All right. So you'll be notified when the cloud recording is ready is what zoom just showed. Look at us. That's pretty fresh.
Yeah, I'm surprised because I mean, I gotta be honest. I mean, I've never really done one like that before. And I was like, super nervous, but, but I'm glad I'm glad we did it because it felt it did feel pretty natural. So
it's all about conversations and you're friendly person. I got that from your website. So it wasn't as nervous because give us a welcoming like vibe with your writing. So I was like, okay, cool. We got this. Awesome. Yeah. So um, I will get this rendered and send everything to as soon as I get the notification, so we can kind of keep posting and be good to
