An Author Interview with Journey Bloomfield, Author of ‘The Aldrei Meir’

Hey, guys!!! Welcome back to my blog!!! Isabelle Knight here again with another author interview!! I know you guys like reading these, so…. ta-da! I am here again! However, today, this interview is different from the other author interviews I’ve done. Normally I interview published authors of middle-grade books.

However, I’ve never really interviewed anyone who hasn’t been published yet, and I think it would be great to be able to hear from a young writer who hasn’t been published yet to see what their journey is like!!! And the fantabulous, fantastic, wonderful writer I will be interviewing today is…

Journey Bloomfield!!!!

She’s one of my best friends and is a wonderful person – super fun and very helpful if you ever need suggestions on what to do when stuck with writer’s block!! Her work has been published in two different anthologies – the Once Upon a Time anthology by Owl Hollow Press and the Christmas Stories anthology which I put together, and she is currently working on YA fantasy projects, including The Aldrei Meir which is soon to be querying for! Can you tell her projects sound fantastic? 🙂 Sadly, I haven’t read her books yet, but when they do come out, I will definitely grab a copy!!!!

But yeah! Anyway, I should stop rambling on and let you guys here from Journey herself!

1. Can you tell us about your latest project and how you got the idea for it?

Let’s see. I am currently working on the second book in a duology about a girl who loses everything and has to rise from it. (And possibly save her kingdom as well.) It is a YA Fantasy with some seafaring elements, (sea serpents!) and ultimately it is about defining oneself after loss. The first book started out as a short story—as many of my projects do—and then I just kept going and kept going, and 70,000 words later, I had a mess! A very concerning mess. This is probably the darkest story I have ever written, and the hardest, partly because it was so emotional, and so close to my heart. And it didn’t help that I accidentally permanently deleted the first 20,000 words, which were consequently the hardest 20,000 words I had ever written. But now I am writing the sequel. I added a point of view in book two, which I am very pleased with, and it is going well so far.

I am also working on the villain origin story for a high fantasy trilogy I have not yet written, because I just like to do things in the oddest way possible. (I didn’t realize she was the villain at first. I only realized that about 6,000 words in.)

So I’m sort of switching between the two depending on my mood, which is working out pretty well.

2. How long have you been writing? I’m also curious on how you started writing. What originally made you want to write and when did you realize you wanted to become a writer?

I don’t think it was ever a conscious decision on my part. The dream chooses the dreamer, after all. But when I was around two and a half years old I decided, (despite the fact that I wasn’t allowed to watch television, and had never seen a movie before,) that I was going to be a screenplay writer for movies. I would act out very dramatic scenes in my bedroom when I was supposed to be napping, always with me as the heroic main character of course, leaping over pits of crocodiles and other such Indiana Jones-ish things. And one time I asked my poor dear mother, (who had been trying to get me to go to sleep for quite some time now,) who made up the stories for movies. And she replied, Oh, I don’t know. Authors I guess. Now can you please go to sleep?

And I thought: Authors? I have to write a book? I’m not doing that. That’s way too much work.
After that, I sulked for a few days, then decided that I wanted to be a singer anyway, and forgot all about it.

But all through my childhood I was always scribbling down little beginnings to stories. I would make picture books for my younger brother, and scrawl out ideas on unattended scraps of paper. I started my first novel at age six, written with colored pencil on pink construction paper, and stapled together. I valiantly made it to chapter two before I started another project. (I suppose I was flighty even in those days.)

I was around nine or ten when I finally got more than a few chapters in to a project. I wrote out 70 or so pages before I realized that it had absolutely no plot, and that it was essentially a rip off of another book I liked at the time. So I set it aside and started yet another project. This was called The Arte of Magyck, about a boy who finds a magic book in his attic, and I was twelve years old when I finished it. I still have that old manuscript lying around here somewhere.

And after that, I never stopped. I don’t think I ever decided that I wanted to be a writer. I just kept writing until I became one. A lot of it is probably due to all those trips to the library, when we would bring home stacks of books every Friday and read the whole day through. I think, though, that I have always had a need to write down the stories in my head. I just call it a profession now.

3. What is the hardest part about writing? What’s your favorite part?

The hardest part is when I’ve been revising a book for four months and I have about a million and one things going on in my non-writing life and there are about five subplots that just aren’t working and my characters are flat and I think I’m making it worse at this point and I get stuck in the Void of Endless Revision From Whence There can be no Return.
(Which is really just a very dramatic way of saying I don’t like revision.)

My favorite part is watching my characters learn and grow and overcome their challenges, watching them become the wonderful, beautiful people I always wanted them to transform into. I like to show multiple sides of conflict, different perspectives on the same issue. I think that is a very powerful part of storytelling. Words hold power and magic, and I truly believe that worlds are shaped by stories. And I love taking my  characters from the very darkest parts of the world and themselves and showing them that they are more than their pasts, that they too can rise. And adding random ravens with cheese wheels—little bits that make me smile.

4. How do you come up with all your characters and the worldbuilding? From the book blurbs on your blog, they sound absolutely fantastic! What was the biggest struggle about creating the world of your book?

Why thank you! I tend to figure these things out as I go, I don’t do much planning beforehand. It is very gratifying to see a world flesh itself out, and I figure lots of things out while writing. Language, and culture, ideals. I also like to read about real cultures, and I take inspiration from those. I have not made up a world solely based on another culture before, however. Instead, I like to take little pieces from everywhere, mix it with a healthy dose of my own imaginings, and then let the world fill itself out.

The hardest part about coming up with worlds is the little stuff, I think. It’s easy to say, alright, they wear such and their language sounds like so and they eat this type of food, but it’s the little details that really make a world feel real, and those are what I have the hardest time with. Turns of phrase influenced by obscure past rulers or landscapes, a certain type of shell only found on that coast, husks of barley hung above doorways to honor gods, these little things are what breathe life into a world. And I often have trouble thinking of them.

As for characters, I usually get a feel for them pretty quickly, maybe after a chapter or two, sometimes even less than that. I am a very character-driven writer, so they tend to influence the world and the plot a lot. I try to let them do what they will, and not to influence them too much. And then they start getting a bit too self sufficient and I have to rein them in before they can cause too much collatoral damage. My characters just sort of tend to do their own thing, taking what they please and refusing to behave properly. Unruly little creatures they are. But I love them just the same.

5. What did the first draft of The Aldrei Meir look like and how many drafts did it take to get to this version you have now?

A mess. A complete and utter mess. I started The Aldrei Meir with absolutely no plan. (It, too, began as the start of a short story,) and I just sort of went with it. Which meant that by the time I had reached 100,000 words, it was an absolute disaster. Then I had to go about fixing it. The first version is nothing like where it is now, since I have completely rewrote the majority of it at some point or another. I have added subplots and removed characters and rewritten chapters and removed subplots so much that I am sure it hardly resembles the tangle of random plot threads that was the first draft. As for how many drafts I have gone through after that? I am not completely sure. I must have read the book through at least ten or twenty times all told, and I’ve been editing it for almost an entire year now. (And I wrote the book in four months, which I suppose just proves revision always takes longer that you expect it will.)

6. Do you have a favorite character?

That is a tricky one. I have a lot of characters by this point, and I love them all in their own ways, even the villains. (Sometimes especially the villains.) In The Aldrei Meir, I am very fond of Satu, and I love the dynamic between her and Esmeralia. I am fond of the flawed characters who realize that they are flawed, and the ones who don’t always make the right choices. The raw and vulnerable ones. In the book I’m writing now, my favorite is Indigo Ferrison, a former illusionist who spent most of his life hiding his true identity and his past.

But I love them all, really. I can’t help but getting attached. And then sometimes I have to kill them, and it’s very difficult!

7. What made you decide to traditionally publish? What do you hope to achieve throughout your writing journey? What part of traditional publishing are you looking forward to? Are there any parts you’re worried about?

I am not sure, actually. I just never considered independant publishing as an option. (Not that it isn’t. It’s a very valid option, and a lot of people are very successful with it.) Just for me, I knew that wasn’t the route I wanted to take. I don’t just want to publish a book or two, I want writing to be my career. I believe I would have a better chance of that with a more traditional route, and that I can possibly reach a wider audience. I feel like traditional publication is more work in the beginning, but that it can pay off over time. And I have time, because right now I don’t have bills to pay! So I don’t mind being patient for a while. I think that both ways have merit, and there are pros and cons to both, as there are with most things. It all depends on what you think is best for your situation.

8. I also know from your bio (and from all our wonderful chats!) that you travel a lot! What’s it like? How do you balance writing with your life? Have your experiences with traveling ever inspired your writing?

Good question!

I think that it has greatly shaped my writings, and I take inspiration from a lot of places we visit. Botanical gardens and museums and forests and all sorts of places. I think that meeting so many people and seeing so many things has really benefited my writing. I have experienced so many things that I never would have staying in one place, and I am very grateful to my parents for allowing me to live this way. There are certain things you would never think to include if you had not experienced them yourself.

As for balancing writing and life, well. . . it’s a struggle for sure, but I’ve learned to take writing time when I can and I try not to worry too much if I don’t write as much some days as others. There will always be days when life gets in the way. I think you just have to keep going, try to write when you can, and not let it stress you out.

9. What’s your advice for young writers (or writers of any age!) who are just starting out and want their books to be a huge success?

I always love to see other young writers, (and writers of all ages,) pursuing their dreams. I think you should go for it. Find what works best for you, try out a variety of methods. There is a lot of writing advice out there, and you have to be willing to decide what of it will help you and what of it you should discard.

I would say write what you love. Especially at first. Don’t worry what anyone else will think. Write for yourself first, and revise for others. But just starting out, don’t worry about what’s popular or what’s selling or what kinds of books your older brother likes to read. Just write what you love and it will show.

Also, read a lot. Read other genres, read what genre you are writing in, read craft books. Reread your favorite books from a writer’s perspective.

Don’t give up, don’t let anyone tell you you’re not good enough. Writing takes practice and time and effort, but your stories matter. You’ve got this! Don’t be afraid to ask for help, don’t be afraid to rewrite, don’t be afraid to try something new, don’t be afraid to write about the hard things, don’t be afraid to put your soul into your writing. You can do this. You owe it to yourself to write that story, even if you never show it to the world. Your words are magic. You are capable. Don’t stop writing, even if you don’t think it’s good. Practice is important. Write nonsense, write about silly things that don’t matter. Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t be a writer. Guess what? You already are. Now keep writing, keep being amazing, and don’t let anything hold you back. The words inside of you are precious. Yes, they are. Truly.

10. Do you have a favorite book? What about a favorite craft book on writing?

My favorite book list is both very long and ever growing, so I won’t list them all here, as to prevent this from becoming a novel itself.

I love Lord of the Rings, and the Inheritance Cycle and the Grishaverse, and Mistborn, big worlds and lots of characters and sweeping epics. I also love Skyward and David Copperfield and Heartless, character driven stories.

And I am drawn to the beautiful prose and intriguing turns of phrase of books like Strange the Dreamer and The Night Circus and The Raven Boys.

But I am always discovering new books  to obsess over, and rereading old favorites, because books are one of the things I love the most about life.

As for craft books, I read a lot of those! I am currently reading a book called Write Fearless, Edit Smart, Get Published by Lisa Mangum, which is very informative and excellently written.

(There is also a -reviews- section of my website, where I will be posting five favorites per month.)

11. And do you have any middle-grade books you’d like to recommend?

Let me see… Furthermore by Tahera Mafi, Princess Academy by Shannon Hale, Wizard for Hire by Obert Skye, Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George…

Thank you for your lovely questions, and I hope everyone’s week is going wonderfully! Until next time!

~ ~ ~

Hello!!! And this is me, Isabelle, here now!!!! Journey Bloomfield, thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview!!! Your answers were absolutely fantastic, and I loved hearing about how you started out writing! Your advice for young writers is incredibly inspirational!!

This is probably one of the longest interviews I’ve ever put together (which is great since I do enjoy longer answers since they give me more to read!), and it was so much fun to put together!!! I am ever so grateful that Journey took time off to do this interview!

And also, thank you for reading!!! I hope you enjoyed this interview and I also hope that you will check out Journey’s blog!! She has a lot of things like writing tips, writing updates, and book recommendations over there, so it’s very fun!!! 🙂 Thank you guys so much for coming, and I shall see you again in the next post!!!!!

Isabelle

P.S. If you enjoyed reading this interview, don’t forget to check out Marvelous Middle Grade Monday, where you shall find a whole treasure trove of middle-grade book reviews, recommendations, and author interviews!!!