The Story Behind the Story with Em Whelly of Saint John, NB, Canada.

 

E Whelly is an award winning, Amazon best-selling author and avid coffee drinker. She is the author of best-seller, My Beautiful Ghosts, The Mindless Ramblings of an 18-Year-Old Girl, award winning, The Rise of Vardya and coming January 24^th, The Imposter Author.

When not surrounding herself with books, she spends her time with her supportive husband, David, their adorable son, Grant and their zoo of pets at home. A dog, three cats, two guinea pigs and 9 pond goldfish.

 

 

Working Title: The Secrets of Austerland, book 2 in The Rise of Vardya series.

 

 

Synopsis: After the fall of the Neroso Tower in Enross, Satcha finds herself more alone than she’d ever been before. Betrayed by Dominic and her long-lost family, she sets her sights on revenge, the only thing she knows.

Dominic and Lennox rally the rebel soldiers and make a run for Austerland, their last hope of standing a chance against the Enforcers.

 

 

The Story Behind the Story: The Rise of Vardya started like all my books. From a dream. I have very vivid dreams and can remember every detail. There are some dreams that I just can’t shake and those are the ones I tend to write about. My Beautiful Ghosts was my debut novel and came from a nightmare I had back in my freshman year at college in 2010. The entire prologue of the book was my dream. I couldn’t shake it; it scared me more than any other dream. I couldn’t let it go and I couldn’t let it end on such a heartbreaking note. I decided to write the rest of Alyssa’s story. Whether or not it was a happy ending or not.

Something similar happened with Satcha in the Rise of Vardya. I dreamt about a woman trying to survive. She was trying to escape a town being bombed by soldiers. I couldn’t let it end there. I had to know what happened next. I start off writing my stories about what I imagine happening and as I write, the characters come alive and change everything on me. They become real people for me.

 

Website: Go HERE.

 

A couple questions before you go, Em:

 

Scribbler: Can you tell us about the perfect setting you have, or desire, for your writing? Music or quiet? Coffee or tequila?  Neat or notes everywhere?

Em: My perfect setting for writing, depending on the time of day, I like to sit down with a drink. If it's early, it's coffee with two sugar and a splash of Cinnabon creamer. If it’s in the evening, it’s probably a glass of whisky. Either Writer’s Tears or a MacCallan. Neat. I put a drop of water in my glass, swirl it around to cover the bottom and pour it out before I add my whisky.

When I am sitting down to write, I have my notebook where I keep my ideas and plotline, my world bible that has all my character bios and world building details, sticky notes, and different colored sharpie pens for making notes in my notebook.

I must have absolute quiet and no one around for the most part. I can tolerate my husband in the room if he’s quiet, but I get distracted very easily. I will listen to music before I start writing to get myself in a certain mood to write certain scenes.

 

Scribbler: How do you decide on the titles for your novels? Do you have one when you start a new story or later?

Em: This is a loaded question. I have been sitting here thinking on how to answer this and its only confusing me more, because I honestly don’t remember how or why I picked the titles I did for any of my books. The more I think about it, they kind of manifest themselves as I write as working titles and I just go with a gut feeling.

 

Scribbler: I struggle sometimes with a title also, Em. It probably gets changed a few times before the story is finished.

 

Thank you for being our guest this week. We wish you continued success with your writing.  See you July 27^th at the GMRD Book Fair in Riverview, NB.

 

 

And another GIGANTIC Thank You to all our fantastic readers and visitors. Don’t be shy, leave a comment below.