[upbeat music] Hey guys and welcome to my vlog! My name is Erin and today is my birthday!
In case you couldn't tell (laughs) So for my birthday vlog I'm going to be doing
a Get To Know The Writer Tag. And I was tagged by KB Cypher on Tumblr
like a LONG time ago and I'm sorry it took this long.
There are 10 questions in the tag and I will put all those questions in the description below
as well as a link to KB Cypher's Tumblr and I will also tell you guys just a little
bit about me in general, I guess. Obviously if you've been following my
channel at all you know that I'm a writer. I have two books out right now
they are Olympian Confessions: Hades and Persephone, which is a retelling of the
Hades and Persephone myth, obviously (laughs)
and Olympian Confessions: Hera, which is a retelling of a lot of the Hera myths, but it's positioning Hades and
Persephone and Hera as the protagonists of their own story. Because I find that their - Hades
especially, and Hera are vilified a lot in mythology so I did a revamp of all that (laughs)
and I also have a contemporary romance coming up that is tentatively named I Ship It.
It's Kpop romance and I've been having a lot of fun working on it.
So currently being a writer is my full-time everything.
I worked in senior care for about 8 years and then in insurance for
about four years and I know those are a big switch and not at all related but
you know life goes where it goes. And about... and actually about a year ago this time
I quit my job in insurance and stayed home to write.
So I've been very much enjoying having all that extra time to get my books finished.
I'm turning 30, or I am 30 now, I guess. (laughs) This little bundle is Snowdrop she is about six years old
and Willow, the black and white one that is
in most of my videos, she's six and a half and... we got them both when they are
about six months old and they kind of grew up as sisters.
And then we got Iggy, who is the big black fluffy one, about... I guess almost a year ago now and so
Willow was significantly LESS than impressed, but she's much better with him
than she used to be. There's moments of love and other times where she gets mad
at him for existing. (laughs) It's also my three-year wedding anniversary coming up
in like two, three-ish weeks.
If you've seen our other channel, The WriteGamers, then you'll have seen my husband A LOT.
That channels a little bit on hiatus but I think he's getting back into playing stuff, so hopefully there
should be more things there and I'm mostly focusing on the whole writing end of everything.
I'll put a link into the description of that channel as well so
if anyone is curious, we did a LOT of video game Let's Plays so they're all on
there for people to enjoy. And onto the tag!
So Question 1: What time of day do you usually write?
Uh...When I have the option to it's usually evening but I write
pretty much all day at this point. When I worked in senior care I would pretty
much just write on all my breaks and that was pretty sporadic and I would write
before work and when I worked in insurance it was basically every single
lunch hour of the work week was writing time. I do prefer like afternoon-evening
usually after like five-ish. I'm not very good at writing in the morning because
I'm not very awake. I am NOT a morning person IN THE LEAST.
I have tried, God, I have tried to be a morning person
and when I had to work the 7:00 a.m. breakfast shifts when I worked in senior
care I could do it and I could be perky, happy, smiley, but getting there was agony (laughs)
Number 2: Do you outline or do you just wing it?
I kind of wing it. I have a basic idea of where I want things to go and I will do a good chunk of research
and whatnot beforehand and I will make a very vaaaague outline, because I'm really
bad at figuring everything out at the start. Like I don't - I kind of know my
characters but I don't KNOW my characters until I write them through
these different situations and I get to know them and how they vibe with one
another and so it's really, really difficult for me to outline an entire
book from the get-go. Usually it's just I know what events I need to have happen
but in terms of anything else... I wing
Number 3: What authors do you admire the most?
So, hands down my absolute favorite author and human being is Jenna Moreci.
If you have not yet read her book The Savior's Champion I highly, HIGHLY recommend it
I am critiquing the next book of it right now and OH MY GOD you guys. I'm so excited for it
I'm reading it right now and I'm still so excited for it. (laughs) Jenna is amazing I will put a link to her channel
in the description in case you've been living under a rock and don't know who
she is. She gives the BEST writing advice. She is super knowledgeable, super funny
in her videos and she's just a gem of a human being
Number 4: What is your least favorite genre to write or read?
Probably horror because I'm a huge baby and my imagination will like cling on to these things
for MONTHS. It's terrible. Like, I watched Signs when it came out
and it was like a good six months before I was not genuinely concerned that these aliens would come
and kill me. So especially because I read right before bed so reading horror
before I go to sleep would be the worst idea....just...no.
I don't read a ton of nonfiction unless it's for research. I will read the odd like autobiography if it's someone
that I find particularly interesting. In terms of ones to write, I don't know
I've written now historical fantasy, historical fiction, and contemporary
romance and I like all of them. The romance one is my favorite so far.
Out of those three I guess in terms of ones that I'm actually informed on to answer
this question I guess the historical fiction, only because I feel like I have
slightly less control over what goes on with the characters because I'm using
ones that actually historically existed but there's very little information but
what information I do know is not like... happy information so sometimes I feel
very bound by that. Whereas if I'm doing a fantasy or whatever I have a lot more
control in what the end result of my characters is going to be.
Yeah I can't really say for any other genres because I just, I haven't written them so I don't know.
Number 5: Do you want writing to be a hobby or is your goal to write full-time?
OBVIOUSLY full-time. That's what I do (laughs) I don't actually know when I
firmly decided that I wanted to be a writer because for so long growing up
even up into my 20s it didn't feel like an option like everyone was like you'll
never make money off it, it's a waste of time like,
as people do with the arts because people are buttholes. (laughs)
There wasn't like - when I first would, like mention be like this is what I would love to do
there wasn't like a ton of support, like people were excited when the book was out
and when I had finished the first draft but prior to that they were like okay?? suuuure.
Yeah I didn't start working on Hades and Persephone until after I graduated university.
and it took me like a good 4 years because I would just write it like
before work, during breaks, and whatnot because I didn't think anything would
really come of it and you know, not that I'm like a best-seller right now that
doesn't mean it's not a possibility in the future. Like writing is a very very
difficult industry to make a living off of writing exclusively. So I am very
fortunate to be in a position where when my husband got a new job it covered
basically what I was making in his raise so we transitioned to both of us working
from home and me writing full-time. So and not everyone has that opportunity
but that's how it ended up going for me
Number 6: What is the hardest part of writing for you?
I really kind of like all aspects of writing and it's not the writing part of it that is difficult for me
it is the marketing part of writing a book. Because I have a very difficult time like putting myself out there
putting my books out there because while I am - I know that I love my books and I'm
still working on the part that other people may also love my books because I
I find with a lot of artistic people they are very insecure about their own work
and when it is just mine, I LOVE it, but
I'm always so afraid that everyone else is gonna hate it
So that's where marketing becomes a very difficult aspect for me but I'm trying
Number 7: Do you have a writing routine?
Kind of? Mostly I just literally sit down and write. Yeah I don't really have any rituals per se because I don't
even like have a cup of tea every single time I sat down to write because that's
most of my day. Yeah I don't really I just sit down and write.
Number 8: What is your solution to writer's block?
Write. If one story in particular is being really really difficult then I will
write something else. I will work on one of my other projects that is kind of
hovering in the background but that's only for a very short period of time you
just [strikes hand] make it happen. Sometimes I will do writing sprints and even just getting
like 100, 200 words down will get me past that block and then I can just write as
normal. But really the only way to get past writer's block is to write. And it's
okay if it's garbage, you can fix it later. It's okay if it doesn't flow
properly. Like any words that you write down are more words than you had before.
And it's so much easier to work with that than it is to work with nothing
Number 9: How long have you had your writing blog?
I have no idea how long I've had my Tumblr for. I have no idea how long I've had my website blog for
but I know I've had my YouTube for two years.
Number 10: Do you think having a writing blog slash vlog has helped your writing in any way?
I think so. Especially with like my world building series because I
had to think of all those things before I could make videos about them and
interacting with the writing community in general opens you up to new styles
of working. Especially authortube is very useful although I only really watch
Jenna Moreci on that and some of my smaller youtuber friends.
Yeah I think it's useful just in that you're being exposed to other ideas
and how to do things. So if something that you're trying is not working for
you then you know, go out and see what other people are doing and see if that
works better. If you would like to do this tag please feel free and tag me in
your videos so I can go watch it. I will put all my social media links in the
description below. Thank you so much for watching and joining me on my birthday
I'm gonna go celebrate now. Bye guys!
[blows party favor for cat] (laughs)