Author Interview: S.M. Welles

About the Author:
Welles lives in the boonies of Arizona with her husband and two cats.  She enjoys reading, writing, gardening, online and offline gaming, and many things oudoorsy.  Right now she's a housewife and a full-time independent author.  Her writing career began at age 18.  She's honed her craft through two degrees and learning firsthand what it takes to make it as a novelist.

Interview:
What made you want to become a writer?

It wasn’t so much a want as it was a need. Growing up, I hated reading to the point where my mother would try to bribe me with a penny a page, but money’s never motivated me. She tried again when I was in high school, pushing me to read the first Harry Potter book right after the fourth one was released. My brother urged me as well, so I grudgingly agreed to just read one chapter and stop. Four chapters later, I realized I’d forgotten to stop reading; however, I didn’t want to. I finished the first book and found myself in a quandary: I loved reading, wanted the second book, yet didn’t want to admit that I loved reading after all.

Putting wants before my ego, I put on an air of teen aloofness and asked one of the walls in my mother’s room where the second book was, and thus my life of avid reading began, much to my mother’s delight.

Where do you get your inspirations from?
From all over, be it people, places, or things. It can be a sentence someone said, a story I’ve been told, something that’s happened to me, something I’ve dreamed about, a book I’ve read that I wish unfolded differently, etc. I don’t go looking for inspiration; I let it come to me as it wishes, and bloom in my stories as it sees fit. 
 
Other than writing books, what else do you do in your free time?
Video games, gardening, playing fetch with my cat (no joke), and spending time do anything or nothing with my husband. After a lifetime of being almost entirely alone and having resigning myself to going the crazy old cat lady route, Simon and I never foresaw us getting married one day. Now we’re very thankful and take joy in the little things, even something as simple as craving Chinese at the same time.

If you could work with another author, who would it be?
That’s a good question. If you’d asked me that two years ago, I would have jumped to J.K. Rowling. Now, with all I’ve learned about book marketing, I’d hope the couple going under the pseudonym Ilona Andrews would deem me worthy of their time. I love their books, their humor, their world-building, and most importantly their characters. I’d love advice and guidance from them, and definitely a blurb. 
 
What are major themes of your work?
Greek mythology loves to sneak into my work. I don’t know why. It resonates with me and I love mixing fantasy with modern-day reality, pretending the magic society used to believe in from the days of old still thrives today in one way or another. I also love to daydream about what fills up the rest of our endless universe. Underneath all that are themes on what it’s like to be human, all the crap we have to deal with on a daily basis, yet finding the strength to get through it all and be happy. It’s a tough question to answer since I’m a young author with only four books under my belt. I feel like I’m only beginning to find my stride and my niche.

What do you think people look for in a book?
I believe fantasy readers are looking for a break from reality and a chance to experience a world with dragons and other mythical creatures, having to deal with problems besides paying bills, like taking on a big bad dark lord in need of bringing down, or just plain trying to get better at a spell that eludes you. And, if I may be so bold to add, people read to feel human, to feel alive and let loose emotions we’re afraid of expressing in front of others.

Are there any recent works you admire?
I seem to be going through a bout of bad luck with recent works. The market is bursting with independent authors who’re desperate to make it big and dear god, these works weren’t ready for digital bookshelves, yet I’ve tried reading them to help fellow indie authors. They’ll have their strong points but either they’re knockoffs of pre-existing works, like Lord of the Rings, or they’re so full of unimaginative clichés that I delete them from my Kindle. I’ll keep trying, though. I love reading too much to stop.

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