Name of Author: L. S. L. Gray/Claudia_Witter
Title of Book: The All Mads: The Complete First Season
Favorite Authors: Cassandra Clare, Markus Zusak, J. R. R. Tolkien, Dennis Lehane, Suzanne Collins, Yana Toboso, Tsugumi Ohba
Bio: I watch a lot of anime, enjoy playing video games, and read quite a few manga/novels/comic books, so most of my writing will likely be a sort of mix of all those things. I love cats, and have one named Jack that likes to nap on my legs while I sit and do whatever it is I'm doing. I am also fascinated with how the mind works, and enjoy researching mental illnesses and reading books about them like Brain On Fire.
Can you explain what your book is all about?
The All Mads is about people infected with paranormal diseases, in particular the ones called "rumor detectives." Rumor detectives are like a police force for the supernatural underworld, and one day one of the higher ups in this world decides to form a team of kids that are both mentally ill and paranormally infected, kids that would usually be killed since they're so dangerous. It's narrated by the ghost of a girl that died during World War II.
Who is your target audience - and why?
My target advance is eighteen and older, since the story does contain some darker themes. Otherwise, I'd say you could be any age to read it, since I'll still read/watch things that are meant for people younger than I am. I don't really target a specific gender.
What is 'paranormal' about your story?
There are a lot of different supernatural creatures. Here's a list of some of them: zombies, angels, demons, fairies, shape-shifters, shape-changers, vampires, witches, werewolves, ghosts, zodiac blessed (people blessed by a zodiac spirit), mind-manipulators, rapunzels (people with long golden hair that they can control), Bluebloods (blue-haired people that can make weapons out of their blue blood.)
There are also a lot of supernatural things like dessert that lets a person learn a language when eaten, dimensional doors and the Bone Keys that unlock them, and magic tinctures that can heal small broken bones, bruises, scrapes, and shallow cuts.
The paranormal world is hidden within the real one, and the story takes place mostly in Prague, but various other places as well thanks to the dimensional doors. The supernatural world has its own laws and rulers, and even its own mafia and illegal drugs.
Does it contain other genre elements, if so which ones - and why?
One other genre it includes is humor, as I love to have funny parts mixed in with the more serious and darker ones. Think Guardians of the Galaxy. Other genre elements would be action, romance, and fantasy. While the main characters are all off their rockers, it also explores how they deal with their metal illnesses and also how they deal with hordes of flesh-hungry zombies.
Tell us about your writing process - how do you get from story idea to a Wattpad published story?
I edit The All Mads a lot. It's already gone through four different names over the years before I settled on the current one—The Dementia of a Goidelic Poet, Certain Dark Things, The Freaks of Fifth Avenue, The All Mads: Bloody Good Fun. At one point, it even took place in the 1800s. Now the first book takes place in 2008 and 2014.
I started writing it before I even knew Wattpad existed, after taking an interest in asylums and a liking to Merida's hair after watching the trailer for Brave. From there I created four characters with mental disabilities and bizarre powers that had to live in a sort of asylum. Then I created their caretaker, who was also strange and had powers. I also decided early on that I wanted it to have an Alice in Wonderland feel to it, and there are references to it throughout the story.
While I often write character profiles to help me flush out the characters in my stories, I didn't do that for this one. I don't really know why I didn't, but I've been writing it for so long now that I know the main characters so well they seem almost like real people—or maybe just voices living inside my head.
Did you encounter any challenges when writing, if so - how did you overcome them?
One thing I always struggle with is action scenes. I can picture them in my head with ease, but it's difficult for me to write them out. I have to edit those even more than other parts before I post them on Wattpad. Another thing is remembering to include certain things, so I make a list of things that need to happen and check them off as I complete them. I also make a list of conversations/scenes that I plan to use in future chapters. Another thing would be that when I have more than six characters in one scene, I may forget about some of them and will have to double-check to make sure I've included them all.
You often hear that 'writing well' is the baseline for success. What does that mean for you?
I certainly do enjoy well-written stories, but one thing a story must have to make me really invested in it is good, likable characters that I can really get attached to. I've read some well-written books that were interesting, but that had characters I could never really feel much for and found myself not really caring what happened to the main character in the end—and in some cases, not even liking them at all.
I try to make all of my main characters likable and full of personality (not sure if I've succeeded), and I'm even fond of some of the bad guys I've created.
One final question, this being the Paranormal genre: Have you ever had a paranormal experience?
Once a candle on my dresser somehow ended up smashed on the floor. I left the room, heard something shatter, and came back in to find it broken on the middle of the floor. There was a cat in the room at the time, so me and my family decided to tell ourselves it was him that did it, but he was asleep on the bed and didn't appear to have moved at all in the few seconds I was gone. And the fact that the candle was not right beside the dresser like it had been knocked off, but looked instead as if it had been picked up and dropped, only made things that much weirder.
