Interview with Whitney Morris, Author of Crystal Heart

 I'm really hoping that I can do more interviews with other authors cause it's always fascinating.

So a preamble first. 

Whitney Morris is the author of Crystal Heart, a young adult Fantasy which was published by BHC Press. She lives in South Yorkshire, England and has four kids! (My hat goes off to you because I only have two kids and I still don't have time, lol!) 

We 'met' via The Fiction Cafe Review Group on Facebook and while I didn't do an Official Review (in that I got an ARC or anything), I liked the looks of the book and reviewed it anyway. And then she decided she wanted to interview other authors and I like interviewing, so here we are now.

On with the interview!

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1. So, Crystal Heart is your Debut Novel! (Congratulations!) How does it feel now that it’s out in the world?

Thanks! It still doesn’t feel completely real. Release day came and went, due to COVID things didn’t exactly go as originally planned. Of course, friends and family were all very happy for me and brought copies. It wasn’t until a week or so later when I got a message on Instagram from someone telling me how much they loved my book. It was absolutely amazing and heart warming to think a complete stranger had read Crystal Heart and liked it so much they just had to let me know. It is a dream come true.

2. How did you find your publisher for Crystal Heart?

It was a very long journey to finding my publisher. It took two years of querying.  I had researched agents and publishers that I thought would be a good fit for Crystal Heart and made a list. After receiving nothing but rejections, I was about to give up when I finally got a request for the full manuscript. I was ultimately rejected but this spurred me on to do another round of submitting Crystal Heart. In this round I got another request for the full manuscript and an offer of publication.

3. How long did it take you to write the book? (And how different is the first draft from the final?)

It took me a month to write the first draft of Crystal Heart. This first draft was awful. It was literal word vomit, but it is the seed that grew into the now published version of Crystal Heart. I did a lot of self edits, then it went through edits with the publisher. I think it was a bout a year of edits until I was finally happy with it.

4. What was the biggest challenge in writing this book?

My biggest challenge was letting someone else read my work. At first, I kept my stories to myself but that isn’t very practical if you want to be a published author. I’m naturally quite shy but finally sharing my work and talking to people about what I was working on actually improved my writing. It helped my awful first draft turn into a proper completed manuscript.

5. Why did you want to write YA fantasy?

YA fantasy is a great genre to write in. There is so many emotions to explore in that age range. I like the magic of it all and the escapism that a fantasy world allows.

6. What inspires you to write?

It’s hard to explain what inspires me. It’s emotion, a feeling of needing to get this idea out of my head and onto paper. My ideas spark at really random times, but usually it will be at time when my emotions have been running really high, then suddenly I will be walking my kids to school and inspiration hits. I usually have to write notes down in a notebook or my phone, so I don’t loose that moment of initial inspiration.

7. What is your favorite genre to read?

YA Fantasy of course. I love escaping to a world full of magic. I do also like a good contemporary or thriller and I dabble in romance. I have got a thing for regency books at the moment. But Fantasy will always be my go to genre.

8. I really like the cover art for the book – very moody and in tone. Why did you go for that design?

I didn’t actually have much say on the cover. My publisher pretty much has complete control over the design. It was either this one or another. I didn’t particularly like the other option but luckily, I love the design they went with in the end.

8. I think my favorite thing was using creatures like leprechauns and changelings since neither of these are beings seen much (or at all) in YA Fantasy. What made you choose them?

A part of the reason is because they are not given much attention in YA fantasy. It felt like it gave my imagination more scope to go wild. I liked the idea of leprechauns being a lot tougher than human folklore believes. That if you managed to find this ‘pot of gold’ at the end of the rainbow, you were going to be in for a fight to the death to get it off that leprechaun.

9.   Where do you do your writing? And what time of day is your favorite?
I have a desk and a nice comfy chair to work at. Yet I pretty much end up writing anywhere but there. I mostly end up hidden away from the kids in my bedroom tapping away on my laptop.

10. I catch you writing your latest work! What are you using to write?
It depends at what stage of the process I’m at. I like to start off planning my stories in a notebook, writing with fine liners of many different colours. Otherwise I will be on my laptop using scrivener.

11. How has the pandemic changed the way(s) you do your fiction work? Do you have more time? Less? Do you find it harder or easier? Any inspiration coming off it?

I actually have less time to work. With four kids at home and homeschooling, I’m not left with a lot of time to myself. It has meant that I have needed to rethink how I go about getting my work done. I plan a lot more than I used to. I have found it has made me stay on task better and not get distracted by social media as much.

12. Who would you thank for getting you to the status of Published Author?

Of course I would like to thank Joni at BHC Press for taking a chance on me and Crystal Heart. But mostly I would thank my husband. He is the first person who believed in me. He believed I could be a writer before I did. Having someone on my side when I thought my dream impossible really helped push me forward.

13. And finally, when is the second book coming do you think?? (There is a second one, yeah? If not, when can we see something new from you next?) And what’s it called and all about?

Yes, there is a second book… and a third! I can’t tell you when it is going to be released as the publishers haven’t told me yet, but when they do, I will let you know. There is so much I want to share with readers, but I can’t right now. Publishing is a slow game.

Thank you so much!

And thank you Whitney! I'm wishing you all the best for the next book and yeah, publishing is sloooowww, even self publishing, haha!

 

You can (and really should) purchase Crystal Heart here. 

 

The Curious Case of Prince Charming and Something Borrowed are both available and I am working away at the fixes for The Glass Slipper Conspiracy and hoping for a re-release at the end of March.