TQ: What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?Īsh: Finding enough time! I’m the sort of person who needs to stay at it daily-I get antsy when I’m away for too long, and the story starts to become stagnant in my mind. I’ve found that while you can try to force a plot upon characters, it seldom ends well. Once you get to know your cast, some of those carefully plotted chapters begin to unravel.

Of course, there’s always room for improvisation in writing, and characters tend to surprise you. If nothing else, plotting helps me memorialize ideas for scenes I may not write for months, and it’s always nice to go back to your notes and have one of those, “Oh yeah, right,” moments when you think you’re stuck. I may not map out every moment in the story before I begin, but I like to have more than a notion of where I’m headed and how I’m getting there. TQ: Are you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?Īsh: When I first tried my hand at long-form fiction, I was a pure pantser-I had ideas and general thoughts about scenes, but I felt my way along. I wrote my first novel at nineteen, and I was hooked. When and why did you start writing?Īsh: Thank you for having me! I’ve always loved reading, and writing gradually became an extension of that.

If Hope and Arik want to save Arik's brother from a bloody end, they'll need to go on the run-and with lives and a throne in the balance, they'll need help from the living and the dead.TQ: Welcome to The Qwillery. Now, an insatiable force is loose in the mortal realm, hunting him down, and no one in its path is safe. Worse still, Arik's father fears that another of his sons might be the missing monarch-a son who, like Hope, fled Conota. Back in Conota, no one has yet stepped forward to claim the late queen's throne, and the rival factions are massing their armies. Still, even if Hope's path forward isn't entirely clear, she thinks she has matters under control.Īnother highborn cynaeli in Oklahoma would be dangerous enough, but Arik is wounded and weakening.and he carries an ominous message. Cynaeli are natural mediums, and Hope, who's particularly gifted, has to contend with a constant stream of requests from the departed. But the locals still regard her with suspicion, she knows precious little about her new home, and then there's the tiny matter of the dead to consider. Living in a small Oklahoma town as Hope Lozano, keeping her true appearance masked by magic, she's tried to blend in and make a life for herself as she adjusts to her freedom. One year ago, Lady Imaranta of High Vale escaped Conota-the so-called Gray Lands-and joined her human mother in the mortal realm.

Stranger Magics by Ash Fitzsimmons