Welcome to Author Services Australia, Heather Ewings, and welcome to our author interviews! If you could start by introducing yourself to everyone, let them know where you’re from and some of your interests and hobbies.
I’m Heather Ewings, a speculative fiction author living on the lands of the Pallittorre people of Trowunna/Northern Tasmania. I have a Masters degree in History and a fascination with the mystical, anything a little strange/out there/Other.
What inspired you to start writing?
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, and aside from a handful of short stories published during school/uni, my first real publication was in 2012. I’ve had a string of short stories published since then by places such as Microcosm Publishing, Deadset Press, Lite Lit One, and Asymmetry Fiction, among others, and my novella ‘What the Tide Brings’ was published in 2020, right in the middle of Covid lockdown. I’m a slush reader for Andromeda Spaceways Magazine and have worked as a ghost-writer since 2016, writing romance for the first few years, and then recently a complete turnaround, where I ventured into children’s books for a while. I’m a bit of a hermit, it just seems easier to hide away from the world most of the time, and lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time in my garden, growing tomatoes and zucchini and garlic and potatoes (among other, less successful things).
What is your preferred genre to write in?
I write speculative fiction, so even if I’m writing in other genres – historical and literary seem to be the other types of stories that emerge – there’s usually something a little bit strange and magical about the setting or the characters. I always wonder about the things that we can’t see, and that tends to come through in my writing.
What is your writing process?
If I have a story idea, I write until it’s finished. It’s very rare that I can work on two stories at a time, so if I’m in the midst of things, I write every day until the draft is done – very little going editing, even if I change major things – just a note that X needs changing and then I continue on from there. Once a story is finished, I tend to give it a quick read-over to fix up those changes I decided on, and then I let it sit for a good few months at least while I (hopefully) work on the next story (or else dig in my garden…). When I’m editing, I’m again focused on that story until I’ve reached the end. And then it’s a matter of rinse and repeats – leave it a few months, edit, get others to read it when I feel it’s ready for that, and edit again… I’m not convinced stories are ever actually perfect, it seems there are always changes that could be made, but at some point, it feels right to send it out into the world.
What was the hardest part of self-publishing?
Marketing! I still struggle with it. I find my sales come in so unexpectedly – I have a spike in sales and have no explanation for them, and then later find random reviews on someone’s Instagram, for example. Or sometimes there’ll be a spike that I absolutely cannot account for in any way, though I can only assume it’s the same thing – someone, somewhere, has read my books and liked them enough to encourage others to buy them.
Which book is your favorite and why?
This is such a difficult question… I think Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell, would have to be my absolute number one favourite. It covers everything – historical, sci-fi, literary, spec-fic – all in one story, such an epic tale! A friend recommended it to me, and to be honest, I struggled with the beginning. I hated the way he jumps, mid-sentence, from one decade/character/setting to a completely different one, but then by the middle, it all tied together, and I marveled at how cleverly done it was (I would never have kept reading if it hadn’t been recommended, so I’m glad it was, but I generally don’t force myself to keep reading books that don’t grab me pretty quickly).
Who are some of your favorite authors?
Heather Rose and Hannah Kent are probably the top two at the moment. All three of Hannah Kent’s stories are so beautiful and so well told, and so much what I wish I was writing! And the same could be said of Heather Rose – I loved The Butterfly Man, and The River Wife felt like it was a mirror to my ‘What the Tide Brings’ – (or perhaps What the Tide Brings is a mirror of The River Wife – though I didn’t read Heather’s story until after I’d published mine, so it was certainly not deliberate in any way.) (And I do have to admit, ‘Bruny’ scared me a little… the thought of just how easily our governments could sacrifice us to line their own pockets…)
What are you working on right now?
I’m between work at the moment… I have several older stories I’m trying to find a home for – a literary/historical/speculative fiction that I think would do better with a traditional publisher, a YA/NA pirate/mermaid fantasy series, and a literary/futuristic/time travel novella. So I’ve been busy submitting them to wherever seems suitable and keeping my fingers crossed!
If you could choose one superpower, what would it be and why?
This varies – sometimes, I think invisibility would be a great superpower, so I can hide whenever I need to. but then I think maybe the ability to pause time? Because then I could rest and catch up on sleep, and all those books I want to read, and stories I want to write… But I think the best superpower would be the ability to travel from one place to another in an instant – so I could visit my loved ones wherever they are without worrying about the time or expense to get to them.
Thank you for having me! 🙂
Thanks so much for taking the time to do an author interview, Heather Ewings! Please take a minute and check Heather Ewings out on the links below! If you would like to do an author interview, please don’t hesitate to contact us!
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Author Name: Heather Ewings
Genre/s: Speculative Fiction
Author Website: www.heatherewings.com.au
Social Media Links: Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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