How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing since I was twelve years old. I still remember the first book I wrote. It was called Flickering Flame, and sometimes its plot was a ghost story. Sometimes, the plot was a sweeping period fiction. But it was always a bit gothic. I liked that about it.
Are you a full-time or part-time writer? How does that affect your writing?
I’m currently a part-time writer while also being an MFA student at CalArts and teaching writing at the same time. I think writing film scripts affects my writing a lot. The two bleed into each other sometime, with the prose becoming snappy beats, or the snappy script beats turning into a simpler sentence structure. Either way, I learn a lot from both arts. Film and books. The two practices feed into each other quite nicely. I’d love to collaborate on graphic novels someday—I feel it would be quite dreamy.
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
I’ve begrudgingly become more of a plotter since my film work requires it. With the Gamin Immortals series, I did half-and-half. I plotted, but if a character decided to punch a zombie spontaneously, I let them do it. Lili especially, my main character, the jaded immortal turned cynical detective– she always does what she wants.
Do your books spring to life from a character first or an idea?
I think the idea starts it initially. A siren who’s asexual, and as someone who is queer and on the ace spectrum, I thought it was an important idea for me. Lili, the character, she came quite naturally. She’s always been ruthless, a fighter. She was way more impulsive and violent in earlier drafts of Catch Lili Too. I wouldn’t say she’s exactly mellowed out—but she’s definitely been comfier as the series goes on and she grows with the love of her friends. By Wake the Dead, she’s on the path to healing—rocky though it is.
How did you deal with rejection letters?
Honestly, the best thing for me is to keep on making more projects. It’s crucial I put my work out there into the world, and not every person is going to resonate with your work. So, I make more projects. I get excited about telling more stories and melding my punk fantasy aesthetics and voice into them. If I get rejected, I try and tell myself that everything happens for a reason. And then I work on the next story I want to tell. To bring my next character to life.
How long does it take you to write the first draft?
For Wake the Dead, about a year. Edits continued the year after that, and I cannot thank my team at NineStar Press enough! My fellow writers and editors and collaborators have all been stellar. My queer writing found family.
What is the most heartfelt thing a reader has said to you?
In reading Catch Lili Too, they told me that my book made them want to read again the same way they did in middle school. Those words honestly make me remember why I write at all. Especially on the bad days—the days it’s difficult to write. Especially being a writer who is immunocompromised. Sometimes, when my spoons are all gone, a little motivation goes a long way to keep on my writing journey.
Are there underrepresented groups or ideas featured if your book? If so, discuss them.
As an Indonesian American, queer, nonbinary and immunocompromised and neurodivergent individual, I try my best to enliven my stories with a rich tapestry of mythologies and characters. I weave together BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disability, and neurodivergent rep as respectfully as I can. I believe it’s important to get more books out there by other underrepresented authors and communities. Lili, in particular, is a character who represents my deepest struggles with depression. That’s the reason she’s a ”tired immortal” – when one day feels like forever—how do you build a community to find the strength to carry on? In my case, it was making queer, punk QTPOC friends. In Lili’s case—it’s befriending a poltergeist in her hotel room.
What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?
They’re not tools, but I feel a support network is crucial. We don’t exist in a void, and neither does our writing. We all needs our loved ones to cheer us on!
What was one of the most surprising things you’ve learned in writing your books?
It’s okay for a character to have flaws. As I continue writing, I learn that it’s okay for my characters to be vulnerable. To share their flaws. To be imperfect. I find that’s what resonates most to me: the stories where we see ourselves aren’t the ones where the heroes are perfect. It’s the ones where the heroes are real.
Where do you like to write?
I like writing in my room where it’s cozy, stretching out on squishmallows and a comfy rug. I have quite the collection of plushies now, especially with Halloween season. There’s an adorable Cerberus I have in my room, I got them in homage to my never completing the game Hades published by Supergiant Games (too focused on matchmaking, not enough on combat—darn Minotaur). I love combining aesthetics of the creepy and the cute. What’s more punk than befriending Halloween monsters?
An ominous presence awakens in the small town of Gamin.
Fairies murdered by crazed monsters. Magic that makes immortals lose their minds and their heads (literally). Whispers of a vendetta against the fairy crime lords who own the infamous Kraken Club.
One ace siren detective, Lili, is dragged back into defending her turf…and hopefully, she doesn’t die this time around.
Warnings: violence, survivors, mental illness.
Universal Buy Link | Goodreads
Amazon
Sophie is giving away a $20 gift certificate for Nine Star Press with this tour:
The Kuntilanak’s name was Indah, at least, it was in the strip club. Her long, black hair wrapped like a shroud around her body as she circled the pole. When her hair coiled past her shoulders, it revealed the nail sticking out of the back of her neck, thick as a child’s fist, the color of rust and blood. Black rope was tied around her legs, cuffing them to the soles of the boots she wore as heels. A tall and thin man, a fairy, with willow-emerald skin and eyes the color of lotus leaves, held out a wad of dollar bills. He placed them at her feet.
“Smile,” he told her.
She did, baring her fangs.
The fairy grinned. “Ah.” He traced his thumb against those fangs, still grinning as she sank them into skin that tasted of rotting leaves and nectar. The fangs retracted when he didn’t flinch. “Like a vampire.”
Indah laughed, bending over to pocket the bills in one smooth movement. “The vampires wish they were Kuntilanak like me.”
###
As soon as she pressed the bills to the glittering zipup pouch at her thigh, they disappeared. The fairy waggled his long, thin fingers. “Alakazam.” He chuckled even though this wasn’t a laughing matter. Being of fairy blood, he couldn’t care less.
“Fae magic doesn’t feed me. Money does. So, if you’re not willing to pay with real cash, then get out.”
She spat at his eye, praying he went blind. “Setan.”
She moved toward the bathroom, taking the long way around so she wouldn’t run into the handsy Ljósálfar manning the bar with his light-blond hair and translucent skin. He thought he was handsome, and he took many a mortal woman to bed, but his overconfidence turned the Kuntilanak girl off him.
Overconfidence just made you all the more of an asshole, and she knew his type. Pelle was just another elf acting as a handler in this gods-forsaken place.
She slammed into the bathroom and took the sink covered in the least amount of glitter and wadded tissue paper. She splashed under her armpits and near her groin, counting the feeble bills she’d collected in the first hour of the night.
The blue bathroom door swung lazily open behind her, screeching against tile. “Fuck off, Pelle!” She screamed it out, hoping she could scare him off.
Instead, it was the green fairy. He stood in front of her with his legs splayed wide, his eyes focused on her face.
“You again? I’m not for free.” She raised her middle finger, water trickling down the sides of her face. Smelling a sweet-smoky mix of nail polish and cigarettes in the back.
No reaction. His eyes stayed focused on her face. “Hello? Fairy dude, you doing all right?”
His neck bent backward then slammed forward again. Something splintered: wood, blood, and bone.
“They’re coming,” he said. “The ones who see all.” Then he struck.
They grew up in Chicago and live a life of thoroughly unexpected adventures and a dash of mayhem: whether that’s making video games or short films, scripting for a webcomic, or writing about all the punk-rock antiheroes we should give another chance (and subsequently blogging about them).
Sophie’s been featured as a Standout in the Daily Herald and makes animated-live action films on the side. Their queer-gamer film “IRL – In Real Life” won in the Freedom & Unity Young Filmmaker Contest (JAMIE KANZLER AWARDS Second Prize; ADULT: Personal Stories, Third Prize) and was a Semifinalist at the NYC Rainbow Cinema Film Festival. They’ve published in multiple literary magazines and also worked as a staff writer for a time at AsAmNews and Her Campus Media. Ultimately, Sophie lives life with these ideas: 1) live your truth unapologetically and 2) don’t make bets with supernatural creatures.
Author Website: https://www.sophiawhittemore.com
Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/sofia.margareth/
Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesophiewhit/
Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15057772.Sophie_Whittemore
Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Sophie-Whittemore/author/B01CHOEOFS
