Supplemental: NBR Newsletter: THE SPOTLIGHT

@LLMontez ARC 10 Interview

THE SPOTLIGHT

I'm here with @llmontez , winner of Watty's 2017 Award for ARC 10 and NBR Member. 1) Can you give to us a couple of sentences on what ARC 10 is all about?

llmontez

* taps mic *

Hi Michael! I'm thrilled to be here.

ARC10 is a speculative dystopian story set in the aftermath of an alien apocalypse. People have been living underground in a makeshift city known as the United Regions of Earth. Captain Janika Lorn is charged with assisting a sympathetic alien race in a grueling caravan relocation project where secrecy, conspiracy, betrayal, and lust threaten to derail her participation in the endeavor.

In a nutshell, ARC10 is a story about how freaking hard it is to be human. (edited)

THE SPOTLIGHT

What inspired the story? Favorite authors?

llmontez

Sandra Cisneros' House on Mango Street, has always inspired me. It's a book about a girl who is frustrated with her life and dreams of a better life for herself where she won't be stuck in the house her parents could afford. In its essence, ARC10 is a similar story about a dreamer in the slums. Cisneros' writing style and imagery has impacted me in a major way. I love her. And all her weird little bits.

THE SPOTLIGHT

Very cool.

How long did it take you to complete ARC 10 and what's the editing been like?

llmontez

Ha! Way too long, Michael. Way too long.

It took four years to write ARC10. From June 2012 to August 2016, I was building my world at the same speed of fossilization.

I posted Chapter 1 in the fall of 2016. Out of nowhere, Janika shot out of the URE and took Wattpad by storm.

Editing? It's been like a tornado made out of sandpaper. It hurts, you know? It's fast and scary, but at the end of the destruction, the rebuild is always better and stronger than ever.

I always credit my fam for what they've done for me.

@NextBigRecognition has been the biggest influence. I joined sometime in December of 2016 and had a helluva time getting used to the flood of comments on my ARC10 baby. But after five spotlights (the last three being my Champion Reviewer's showcase showdown), I've come to crave NBR style feedback.

I need it, Michael. I needs it bad.

Unfortunately, my IRL [real life] got stupidly busy and I have to take a quick leave from NBR and the intensity it requires.

I'm still working with The Writer's Edge to clean up some of my other projects. I'm also personally working with @SapphireAlena on cleaning ARC10 up for her big-girl pants.

llmontez

Aaaaand Im back. I've got an hour-long train ride.

You've got my undivided attention until I arrive home and see my furball. Then I can make no promises. My attention span will diminish to zero.

THE SPOTLIGHT

Great! Only a few more questions. Can you attribute your Watty win to anything in particular? How did you do it?

llmontez

Sorry—got distracted. I misssssss himmmmmm

llmontez

That's a tough question. I have no idea what actually attracted ARC10 to the Watty committee, but I'd like to think it was my sharp imagery and witty dialogue (that's probably not it at all).

But honestly, I think it had a lot to do with my metrics. When going over to WP for WattCon 2017, I didn't realize how much metrics matter. There's a big tv over there that's constantly running numbers and stats for the whole site. It was reinforced over and over again that data matters in WP.

When I first posted in 2016, I worked really hard to get my story read. I joined four book clubs and tried to engage other writers and readers as much as possible. Commenting on other books and building relationships with other writers was the foundation of my experience. Because of that, I spent three weeks bouncing between first and second position in the Rising list.

I don't know why ARC10 won a Watty and I don't know if I'll ever know why they picked it from within the myriad of other masterpieces I see from the deep ocean of talent of Wattpad.

THE SPOTLIGHT

Totally cool! It truly is a numbers game, has to be quantifiable. You mention NBR and being involved since 2016, What is your favorite aspect of NBR?

llmontez

Great question. There is so much I love about NBR. @the3dreamers and I had a conversation about this until 2am on Saturday morning.

THE SPOTLIGHT

Oh?

llmontez

I love the community. NBR collected the most loving, supportive, intelligent, and creative group of superstars in one basket. When I go through the spotlight chapters and read everyone's praise, constructive feedback, changes, suggestions, corrections, personal experiences, and jokes, I get misty-eyed. We've transcended strangers-alone-in-our-basements,-scrambling-to-be-heard. I've seen serious change come and go through NBR but at our core, we're a writing family. We have a collection of writing mothers who nurture our group. We have a bundle of writing fathers who make lame jokes but we love them anyway. And we have tons of writing brothers and writing sisters, who bicker and fuss but only because they know there's genuine love there at the end of the day.

That's my favorite aspect of NBR Fam.

THE SPOTLIGHT

Looks like time is ticking down on your train. Here are my final questions. Feel free to answer them at your leisure.

Any shout outs? Old schools/college? Teacher? Fraternity? (Optional) What region do you live and where are you from? (Chicago's your home, right?) Again, you do NOT have to disclose where you live, LMK if you want it left out).

Any words of wisdom or anything you'd like to share in general?

Thank you for your time and for participating. TONS of great insight both into you and Wattpad. I'm so glad you came up with this idea! Enjoy the rest of your weekend and look for your article in the November Issue of THE SPOTLIGHT! :0)

llmontez

Shout outs? To my ten year-old self who purposely got grounded so I'd have an hour of undisturbed time to write Sailor Moon fanfiction in a secret notebook in my closet—this is all for you, Kid.

I'm from Chicago, born and raised next to Wrigley Field.

Words of Wisdom:

Coco nibs and chocolate chips are not the same thing. Don't slap a handful of them into your mouth and expect anything good.

Don't believe everything you hear.