Author Interview: Victoria McCombs

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Pen Friends ~ Please welcome YA Author Victoria McCombs talking about her new novel, OATHBOUND, publishing journey, writing tips, and so much more!

SP: Hi Victoria! I’m thrilled to have you on the SP for your newest book! You’ve penned so many wonderful books and this one feels like it’s going to be the crème de le crème! What brought you to this point in your writing journey? How has your writing progressed since your first published book?

It’s insane to think about where I started as a writer and where I am now. For my first books, I had the beginning of a story idea and I just started writing it. The end result was messy and shallow. For Oathbound, I covered the walls in character charts, outlines, a map, and themes for the book before starting. Now it’s a story that I’m really proud of. I owe it all to the writing community who shared writing tips. They pushed me to grow in my craft and study it instead of casually throw words together.

SP: OATHBOUND will released on February 8, 2022 by Enclave, it’s the first book in the Royal Rose Series. Please add on Goodreads or go ahead and PreOrder, I did! Here’s the blurb:

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Author Interview: Laura Juntunen

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Pen Friends ~ Please welcome YA Author and Podcast Host Laura Juntunen talking about her new post-apocalyptic, sci-fi series, THE SHOCKWAVE; publishing journey; fabulous podcast, Read It With Whiskey; and so much more! I’m so excited to introduce you to Laura!

SP: Hi Laura! Thanks for joining us! Before we get into book stuff, we’d LOVE to know a bit about you and your writing journey?

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Social Media and Writing

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Do you have social media? What’s your favorite platform? Instagram? Twitter? Facebook? TikTok? Snapchat? Other? How do you balance your time between social media and writing time? Is it possible to do both well?  I think the answer is yes.

For this article, I’m going to focus on Instagram or my Bookstagram, as I call my account. This means it’s an Instagram that focuses on books. It is one of the highlights of my day meeting other readers, writers, and authors. The people on Instagram remind me that I’m not the only one that struggles with mental health or is in the query trenches. It’s a great way to make connections. Instagram is a lot of fun, but it can take a lot of time.

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An Illustrator’s View of Story

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As someone who was reading books entirely too old for me at an age when most of my peers were still thumbing through chapter books, I’ve always loved when I flipped a page to see a map, illustrated chapter head, or even a full illustration hidden in pages of text. As an artist and life-long book geek, imagery in stories has remained important to me as I grew up. I think that’s why, when I got to a point where most of the books I was reading no longer boasted any art past the cover, I found myself going back to world or city maps placed at the front of fantasy books over and over.  

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Author Interview with Brianna Tibbetts

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SP: Hi Brianna! Thanks for joining us! Before we get into book stuff, we’d LOVE to hear a bit about you and your writing journey!

BT: Thank you for having me! My writing journey feels like a voyage I’ve been on my entire life. I’ve always loved stories, and I have several old notebooks filled with my early attempts at novel writing. While they’re highly entertaining, the partial novels I wrote in elementary and middle school aren’t likely to ever see the light of day. I started treating being an author as a career in 2015, after finishing my degree and getting a few years of work experience under my belt. Going to conferences, networking, learning from my peers, and steadily writing that entire time resulted in a lot of growth for me, and definitely led to all my successes so far!

SP: Word on the street is you just signed your first book deal! Wahoo and congrats! How does that feel? What was your response? Crying, sitting in shock, partying all night, or…?

BT: Yes, thank you! I’ve signed a book contract once before, for a children’s novel called The Knight in Battered Armor (released in 2019). This new contract is for my first ever full-length novel though, so it definitely feels like something big, new, and exciting! Because of an email I’d already been sent the week prior to the offer, I knew that a decision was coming soon, and I was on pins and needles, constantly refreshing my inbox. I was hoping for an offer, but didn’t know for sure what to expect.

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How Do You Handle Rejection?

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It’s the evening after #PitMad and as usually goes, rejection haunts me.

You’d think I would be used to it by now. The trademark of being a writer is rejection. While there are always the lucky few who make their break early and fast, the majority of us writers slog through a plethora of rejections before finally getting that coveted book deal, agent, or movie deal.

And yet, it still hurts to refine your pitches, touch up your query letter and apply for yet another program or pitch your manuscript on Twitter—all for nothing. That empty inbox, that polite rejection email, the lack of likes on your PitMad tweets, staring back at you like an empty bag of chocolate.

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