Emma Shelford, author of urban fantasy
The Creative Council
Welcome to The Creative Council, where I interview creatives about their lives and work and the ups and downs of being a creative soul.
Today’s interview is with Emma Shelford. Emma feels that life is only complete with healthy doses of magic, history, and science. Since these aren’t often found in the same place, she created her own worlds where they happily coexist. If you catch her in person, she will eagerly discuss Lord of the Rings ad nauseam, why the ancient Sumerians are so cool, and the important role of phytoplankton in the ocean.
Emma is the author of urban fantasy series, including Magical Morgan, Immortal Merlin, Nautilus Legends, and Forest Fae. She currently has a Kickstarter campaign running for her Depths of Magic series featuring siren songs, sea dragons, and the hunt for an ancient artifact above and below the waves. Check it out here.
The Interview
Hi Emma! I’m so excited to have this conversation with you. Let’s dive in!
· When did you start creating? Do you remember what pulled you in?
I’ve always loved reading. Thank goodness for the library! I would take home a literal stack of books every week as a child, mostly in the fantasy and sci-fi realm. Writing wasn’t a far stretch from that, and I mainly wrote stories for my mum.
During a particularly stressful scientific sampling cruise (a month-long expedition across the Atlantic to collect water samples for my PhD dissertation in oceanography), I retreated into daydreaming to cope. That spawned a whole book idea in my head that I got down on paper.
· When did you start pursuing your current craft for real? As in, when did you begin to take yourself seriously as a creator?
When I gave that first book I’d written during the cruise to my mum for Christmas (a long-standing tradition), she encouraged me to get it out there. After much editing and research, I self-published the first of my Forest Fae series. To my surprise, people bought it and enjoyed it! My career had started.
I dabbled for a few years, writing a book a year while pursuing other things. It wasn’t until well after my son was born that I started to take a career in writing seriously. It had the benefits of being entirely flexible around my new-mum schedule as well as being something I really enjoyed. I haven’t seriously looked back since.
· How long did it take you to complete your first work?
The first draft of Mark of the Breenan took about three months to write, but I’d been plotting in my head some time before that, and of course editing took a while with my first book!
· How long does it generally take you to complete a work?
I plot my books in detail for a few weeks, then I write for four to six weeks, then I edit and wait for others to read it for a month, maybe? I publish between three to five books a year.
· Of all the milestones you’ve reached thus far, what has been your favourite?
I’ll hopefully reach a milestone in March: 100k books sold! I’m looking forward to that one, and I’ve already planned my cake (it will be a purple 3D octopus, in case you’re wondering).
· When was the last time you celebrated a creative milestone?
I try to celebrate every book I release, but it’s hard to know what to celebrate! Is it the day I finish my first draft, or when I complete my Kickstarter for the book, or when I launch on my direct site, or on retailers? So many choices. I always celebrate with cake, but marking every creative occasion might be too much icing even for me!
· What do you struggle with most as a creative person?
I find coming up with the first kernel of a book idea is the hardest: figuring out exactly what will happen in the book. Once I have even the smallest clue, I can run with it. I bounce plot ideas off my husband, which is great, because he takes ideas down rabbit holes that I wouldn’t have considered but are super useful and interesting to expand on.
· Have you always had that struggle or has it changed over time?
I’m not sure! I think it’s intrinsic, although I don’t remember so much at the beginning. Maybe as I’ve written more books, I’ve already picked the low-hanging fruit from the idea tree, and now I have to work a little harder for it.
· What advice would you give to creatives dealing with the same?
Find a plotting buddy! It’s so good to get out of your own head sometimes. I come to my husband with a few random ideas, then we flesh them out together, then I go away and expand on them on my own, then I come back to him, and on we go.
· What do you do to stay inspired?
Lots of reading and watching in my genre. I also like to try new things to experience the world and bring those experiences into my books. Even a walk in the forest can be a treasure trove of sensory experiences to describe. I heavily use my scuba diving and oceanography background in my ocean urban fantasy series, and I’ve had readers compliment me on the authenticity of my books.
I always shake my head when I see an author bio that says something along the lines of, ‘Jane Doe spends her free time drinking coffee and snuggling her cats.’ At least pretend you get out and see the world, if you want me to believe you can write about it.
· What’s the best creative advice you ever received?
If something isn’t working, switch it up! I probably use a different process every time I write a book, and I motivate myself to write in different ways. Sometimes I sprint, sometimes I have a progress chart, and sometimes I get up early to write. I can’t predict what will work best with my brain on that project, so I keep trying things until something sticks. You aren’t the same person from day to day, and you aren’t the same as the next writer. Keep trying things to find out your method.
You can find and connect with Emma on her website, Facebook (her author page and her Fantastic Lair Facebook group), and Instagram.
The Kickstarter campaign for Sea Crown: An Urban Fantasy Book Series with a Salty Kick runs until the 22nd of March.
Are you a creative and would you like to be interviewed next? E-mail me at marielle@mswordsmith.nl and we’ll make it happen!