Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

Thanks for having me on your blog!

I’m Ari and I write mostly Traditional Fantasy and Preternatural Urban Fantasy.  Though I have turned my hand to sci-fi and crime.  When I’m not writing I am blogging about writing and supporting other writers.  So yeah…it kinda infected my who life.

How long have you been writing for?

I have been writing since I was 8 years old.  Despite struggling to read through most of my young years, I always held a strong love for writing.  I think I just had too much crazy inside my head and it started to leak so I found putting it down into notebooks helped.

What motivates you to write? How did you begin writing?

I began writing after a teacher created a project where we had to create a monster under the bed and from this little spark of creative writing, my love for writing bloomed and has continued to grow.

I don’t really consider there a motivation to write.  It is more like, I can’t NOT write.  It is my purpose.

Do you have a writing routine? If so, what’s a typical day like for you?

I try and have a writing routine but other things manage to mess it up.  On days when I actually get a nice long stint of writing done, it usually starts early (I work better first thing in the day).  I get a glass of water (which I usually don’t drink), a cup of tea (one of many) then lock myself away in my room.

I play no music when I’m actually writing, as I find it a distraction.  If I am struggling to write, I will read through something else I’ve written to spark the flame.  I then write until someone knocks on the door to tell me how late it’s gotten.

On writer block days, then my routine is to stare blankly at the screen in front while sobbing.  Thankfully I don’t have many of those days any more 😀

Have you thought about self-publishing or traditional publishing? Are you leaning towards one over the other? If so, why?

I am not yet at the stage for publishing but I have already been contemplating the options.  They both have their pros and cons.  I am a bit of a control freak and with self publishing you have a lot more creative control.

Also, with traditional publishing you are expected to do a lot more of the marketing than it was years ago.

I think if you write a good book, polish the crap out of it then pay a professional editor and book cover designer you can do really well in self-publishing while keeping a lot of the creative control.

Not to mention, moving from self published to traditionally published is apparently a lot easier than moving from traditionally published to self published.

Are you currently working on anything new?

My current WIP is a preternatural urban fantasy called Dark Hart featuring exactly what you’d expect from any preternatural – vampires, shifters, gargoyles, goblins, psions… It is currently gone through its first edits and is with my Alpha Reader.

While I’m waiting to get it back from all his red penning, I have been working on a completely new fantasy story.  I had ideas about it last year and decided to flesh it out during the 85K 90 Day Writing Challenge.  It is still in a very tentative phase as the plot is a little fluid right now.

If you weren’t a writer, what would your career be?

Definitely something creative.  I do run my own online shop where I make items, so I am always drawn to creative endeavours.

Failing that I would probably have become a vet or a paleontologist, I’m not sure all I know is I’m really not cut out for more “normal” work.

What’s one thing you learned through writing that you wish you knew before you started?

I wish I had learnt to outline sooner than I did and also to not get caught up editing while writing.  For a long time that is how I wrote.  A constant back and forth of writing then editing what I’d written then editing it again… without actually finishing the work.

I am a lot better now, thankfully.

What is your favorite book, genre, or author?

My favourite author is a tie between James Clemens and Anne Bishop.  These two fantasy writers created the bar for me when I got seriously into writing.  I wanted to get my work to their level.

Their books are the ones I can read over and over.  They create worlds I want to just continually visit.  And I would love to have readers who feel that way about my work.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

First, don’t call yourself aspiring.  If you write, you’re a writer.  Own it.

Second, keep writing.  Ignore all the nay-sayers and people who will try and tear you down.  If you do anything creative in this world people want to crap all over it and that can sometimes include friends and family.  Find people who will support you and lift you up.

Third, work hard.  Writing gets better with practice.  With the surge of self publications, everyone now thinks they can write and publish their work.  The problem is we are seeing so much rough work.

Your manuscript should be edited, re-edited, professionally edited and polished.  The more you write the better you get, you learn and grow and develop your skill.  There is no rush to be published and it is better to take time and do a good job than rush and put out something lacking.

Finally, learn about the business side.  Yes writing is awesome and creative, but there’s a business side too such as networking and marketing.  The more you learn, the more you plan the better situated you will be when you are finally ready to release your novel.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

I like octopi.

Too weird?

I’d like to say a big thanks to you Rachel, for inviting me onto your awesome blog for this interview.  😊

And to all the readers, if you were born to be a writer?  Then let nothing stop you.  Writing is one of the hardest, awesome, exhausting, exhilarating things you can do.  So go do it!

ABOUT ARI

When not immersed in her worlds full of screaming trees, living gargoyles, vengeful demons or trapped souls… Ari is pretty much day dreaming about said worlds.

She writes fantasy, lots of it and also blogs about writing to help other writers, because apparently working on over 5 different novel series’ is just not enough “writing.”

Most days she is surrounded by cats and books though she also enjoys watching really bad movies with her boyfriend.  Like REALLY bad movies.

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