(Closed To Catch Up) Interviews With Undiscovered Authors

12. Mixed Tears

Blurb:

"I didn't have time to question reality. Even if it was fake. No matter what it was- delusion or not, my mind would be ok as long as Malvina was alive in it. All that mattered was getting to my sister."

Halen Kelch has lived in Orinoko, Japan since she was four, due to her single, American father's success in spirit photography. Now, with her senior year of high school approaching its end, and her father still refusing to take his medication for his diagnosed schizophrenia, Halen is scared to leave him and her twin sister, Malvina, behind for college.

Just as she begins to beg for some sort of change to come, it finds her, but in the form of a series of abnormal events that will put her and her family's lives in danger.

Caught between death and delusion, she'll come across a curse- from fourteen different places, fourteen different times, and with fourteen different mental illnesses.

My Impression: What a thrill ride!

Interview:

Q. Tell us about your love for paranormal books.

A. I actually don't read a ton of paranormal books. Its more my love of paranormal & horror movies that drives my writing. I think that's why my readers always comment on how visual my stuff is; I try to write things as movie scenes that play out in my head.

Q. What books have influenced you to write Mixed Tears?

A. I mentioned earlier that I actually don't read a ton of paranormal books, and that also applies to books in general. I used to read all the time when I was is middle & grade school, but then in high school and college I got bogged down with other types of reading. I don't have a ton of time to leisurely read novels, but I do spend a ton of time watching movies. Whenever people ask "what inspired you to write Mixed Tears?" I say "Quentin Tarantino, James Wan, and Frank Darabont." I love, love, love cinema. All my friends tell me that I should probably be majoring in film because I talk about movies so much.

Q. How do you develop your plot and characters?

A. In Mixed Tears, I'm working with a story that has been in my head since I was in the 6th grade. So, as you can imagine, the characters and plot have evolved multiple times over. I guess I developed the story as I developed myself.

Q. Who is favorite character and why?

A. I have a character, named Mia, that was literally only created to be a lens of how neurotic my protagonist, Halen, is. If my readers haven't picked up on it yet, Halen is a bit of a psychopath. She doesn't have a lot of empathy or emotion when tragic and horrifying things happen. Halen is also a bit of a narcissist and feels very content with herself. Mia, on the other hand, is full of emotions and insecurities. So when crazy stuff happens in Mixed Tears, Mia brings a very human element to it. She panics, she cries, she screams, she throws up- You know, stuff that normal people would do if they were in an incredibly stressful situation. She also has a rough family life, and while Halen does too, Mia handles her problems with a very catty and dry personality. She adds a ton of humor to the story, you can both hate and love her at times, and her backstory plays such a fun part to the plot as a whole. She's my favorite because she's just a very flawed and human person.

Q. If picking a favorite character would be like picking a favorite child, which character seems to be demanding your most attention as a writer?

Q. There's a character (one of Malvina's seven souls) that is scheduled to appear in chapter/episode 11. This character literally forces another soul/character named Kadence to pass out so they can make an appearance, and so I hope this new character's brash entrance won't cost me readers. I've had a handful of readers that have admitted that they really liked Kadence's introduction, and so I do feel like this new character has demanded the story's, mine, and my readers' attention somewhat by cutting Kadence's intro short. But that's exactly what that character is: an attention hog. I'm super excited to introduce them soon.