Interviews

Interview with authorelizasolares

Firstly thanks for taking your time to do this interview with us. I appreciate having you here today. Let's get this show on the road, I want you to have fun with this. Tell us any and everything. You have liberty to add your own little closing as well I can see to include that.

Tell me about yourself outside of a wattpad creator

I spend most of my time being a mom to my three little ones. Which basically means I get to act like a kid again drawing with chalk and blowing bubbles and investigating tree branches and watching the bugs crawl around the garden. I also love making junk journals, watching movies, and (of course) reading all the books! Romance and romantic comedy are my favourites.

How did you become a wattpad writer tell us about that journey

This is actually one of my more entertaining tales as a writer. The short answer: it happened by accident.

I was never one of those kids who liked to write. Honestly I was about twenty-eight when I started writing and I only did it because my husband (maybe jokingly) set me a challenge to complete NaNoWriMo. So at the end of October, 2019 I opened a Wattpad account and started writing. I finished the first draft of a (now unavailable) teen romance and never looked back. The rest, as they say, is history.

Are you a full-time or part-time writer? How does that affect your writing?

I am a full time mother. My bank calls it a "homemaker." But I do have a fair amount of time to write while my kids are sleeping or occupying themselves or chasing their dad around the yard. So I guess part time would be most accurate, but I do have a decent amount of time available each day to devote to reading and writing and all the things that inspire me.

As to how it affects my writing... I'm not sure! I think if I had more time to write I would do more writing, but I'm happy with where I am in life and I think the ability to take time away from writing to do things that bring me joy really adds value to my life. So I don't spend a lot of time thinking about what could be, because I'm really happy with what is.

What was the hardest part of writing this story?

The idea for Vegas Knot hit me like a tsunami. Seriously. As far as writing it, I think the biggest difficulty was how much I learned about writing while I was in the middle of writing this novel. By the time I wrote ten chapters I'd have to go back and edit the first ones to be more in line with my current knowledge. Even now, I still debate if I should go back and include Enrique's point of view or not, and my readers are very divided!

What got left out in the final draft?

There were quite a few cut scenes in this one, actually. I had to delete a lot of cute scenes between the leads and the side characters which were fun, but didn't really advance the plot. I think I probably still have them somewhere.

This may somewhat be considered an extension of the previous question but Were there alternate endings you considered?

For Vegas Knot, no. I always knew exactly how these two would work out. I did have to rewrite a couple chapters near the end because my first attempt didn't do justice to what was in my head, but I always knew what the ending would be. There have been other books where I completely changed the ending, though. For anyone who's read Under Chateau Lights, I almost ended the love triangle the other way.

I noticed you had a few books so I'm going to put you on the spot. If you had to pick which one of your books would be your favorite, who's the love child?

This is literally impossible because it's whichever book I'm working on at the time! I love different things about all of my books. If I had to pick a favourite book, though, it's probably Under Chateau Lights or Roatán Plunge. I really can't pick! But I narrowed it down to two, which is better than I usually do when people ask me to pick favourites.

What's next for you? What are you working on now?

So many things! Here on Wattpad I have two full-length stories in progress. Roatan Plunge, the sequel to Vegas Knot, is a rom com between a super rich and lonely soccer star and a super broke and independent soccer blogger... Nothing could possibly go wrong!

The second story I'm working on, more slowly, is A Kiss in Costume, which has some of my favourite characters I've ever had the pleasure of writing. They're so demanding and feisty and larger than life and I love his nerdy and her confidence. Plus, who doesn't love Halloween pranks on a terrible ex-boyfriend / boss?

I'm also working on a couple short stories/ novellas for community contests (I love community contests) and am helping to organize an epic, multi-genre anthology with WritersConnX and almost 40 writers! So there's no shortage of things to do.

Off Wattpad I have many plans, but my current WIP is a small town hockey romance with the most entertaining childhood friends to lovers. Their banter is top notch and their love for each other is fierce. Now all they have to do is admit it. Should be easy, right? Yeah, it's not.

As you can probably tell, I love to draft multiple things at once! My brain likes to have a lot to think about, and I love to keep busy and support the community in any way I can, so I always have a lot on the go. But I love it, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

If you could give your younger self any advice what would it be

This question is so hard for me because I kind of love the way everything turned out, so picking things to do differently is so difficult! I guess I would give myself, or any young author, advice I accidentally took without realizing it: don't be afraid to fail. I pride myself on learning and trying new things even if they scare me.

My personal motto is "fail forwards." Because I know I'm going to fail. Not always, and maybe not even most of the time. But sometimes, I will fail. So the goal isn't to do everything perfectly, but rather to make mistakes I can learn from that will help me move forward. So if I could give my younger self advice, I'd probably share that with her sooner so that she knew failing was all part of the process and could see that it all worked out for the best. Even the failures. Especially the failures. 

You can find the book review here