Interview with Haley Fisher

Haley Fisher, the author of Rising Calm, gives us insight on writing her novel.  :D WOOOO

1. You wrote Rising Calm at a young age. Were you intimidated at getting it published because you were so young?

Well, I think that’s one of the things about being young: you don’t feel young. Not really. Not in the way that older adults think of as “young”, at least. So when I had Rising Calm finished and wanted to publish it, my age wasn’t something I thought of much. It occurred to me—and still does occasionally—that publishing companies and agents might be less likely to take me seriously since I’m younger than the authors I would think they usually work with and I have no prior publications or anything. But I wouldn’t say I was intimidated. It was just something I took into account.

2. When you started the story was the ring as important or did it develop?

When I had the basic idea for the story first written down, no, the ring wasn’t even a part of it. It was one of the many things that was added and changed as the work became bigger and more detailed and more mapped out. Before I had many full chapters, I realized a little ways through the scenes I had been writing and organizing that it was going to be hard to shape much of Lyria without having the entirety of the prophecy written down. In writing it, I discovered that I thought the whole story would make more sense if there was something tangible marking Cara as this prophesized warrior. So, as I was trying to come up with lines and rhymes for the prophecy, I stuck the words “ring” and “king” together (at this point with no further plan for the ring than the rhyme it gave me). And it all snowballed from there.

3. What have you learned in writing the first book that you'll do differently in your future writing?

I don’t regret holding off on the action in Rising Calm until it was a few chapters in, but in future works I’d like to try harder to bring more action and excitement in more immediately. For this book I really felt that I had to paint a picture of Cara’s world and rather ordinary life and the subtle shifts that James and Crispin brought to it before I could get to the good stuff, because I wasn’t going to have the entire book to world-build on Earth; I had to give Cara something to return to that the readers could understand at the end of Rising Calm. But I think it will draw many more readers in if a work picks up with action and throws you into the plot, so I’m going to try for that in the future!

4. Did anyone inspire Cara?

Nope. Cara is (hopefully) one hundred percent original. I don’t think I consciously pulled any of her traits from anyone that I know, though subconsciously I’m sure some pieces of her came from some people. I know she ended up with my voice more often than not, which I’m attributing to the fact that I wrote in first person. Truthfully, though, I went in to writing her knowing what I didn’t want her to be like, so I strived traits that I couldn’t find in the book heroines who annoyed me as a reader.

5. How did it feel to know that your book is out where strangers could read it?

That was and remains the scariest part of all of this. Any second someone who has never heard of me and never plans on meeting me could pick up my book, instantly dislike it, and have no trouble saying so, and there will be nothing I can do about it. People are completely entitled to dislike my writing—I have no misconceptions that everyone who reads Rising Calm will love it. But my book is such a part of me, that having strangers open it up and potentially find nothing redeeming about it is freaky. Anyone anywhere can read what I wrote, which sometimes feels like the equivalent of letting everyone inside my head. Although there is a certain thrill that comes with it as well.

6. Are you wanting to be a full-time writer or just when you get a chance as you pursue another career?

Both? Haha, I would love to make it big enough as a writer that it could be my career, no question. Getting to spend time at home and in coffee shops and ice cream shops and parks and bookstores without having to go anywhere else… That I pretty much heaven for me. But I also really like trying my hand at other things. I think it would be incredible to have a job in the publishing business, helping other people do the same thing I want to do, and getting to spend all my time around books and authors and stories. I would enjoy it if I could continue writing and never have trouble finding time to do that while still working at another job I love.