For the elements ask: Earth, Fire, Shadows, Space
Earth: What do you think is the foundation of your WIP?
For Agorned, found family. Throughout every story, there's a consistent theme of being different or lost or abandoned or persecuted and subsequently finding connections with unlikely seeming companions who share some of the same struggle.
For Passions of Secret London, exploration of identity and sexuality. From loving what is monstrous about your partner (and yourself) to working out how your relationship fits in with the world. I mean, how do you see your long-term plans changing when you get involved with a selkie with very protective sisters?
For the Welsh WIP (which needs a name, I can't keep calling it that), it's a bit of an exploration of my childhood/teenage years - the struggle of feeling isolated and not knowing who (if anyone) can help. It's about unwillingly being dragged into a mess you didn't create and don't have the power or tools to fix but somehow all the people who could fix the situation choose to be blinded by their own petty grievances.
Fire: What’s a scene that you are dying to write?
It's a dumb scene that's stuck in my head from Passions of Secret London. In this particular story, the protagonist (Scarlett) is short on rent. She finds out her landlady (Elizabeth) is a vampire - money flow is no issue once you've been around long enough and compound interest is working its magic, but blood is somewhat more difficult to get. Pretty sure you can see where that's going. Anyway, this particular scene is Scarlett asking Elizabeth for more details about the vampiric condition. For example, does Elizabeth need to be invited into Scarlett's flat explicitly? After all, it's technically Elizabeth's property, Scarlett is just renting it. And Elizabeth is just steadfastly ignoring the 'vampire' aspect of it and only addressing the 'landlord' aspect. Like: "Of course I can't enter your flat uninvited, that would be illegal. If I needed to gain access to that space for whatever reason, I would need to inform you at least 24 hours in advance and gain permission to enter." And Scarlett spends a lot of time trying to get her to answer candidly whether the obstacle to entry is simply legal or supernatural (becoming more and more exasperated the longer Elizabeth refuses to give a straight answer).
Shadows: What’s the darkest theme you’ve ever written about?
I've definitely written about darker stuff (suicide, abandonment, death, torture) in my teenage years but the best story that comes to mind is this: In the near future, we can record and playback sensations in a kind of VR setup. Touch, pleasure, pain, etc. The main application of this is in the medical field - 'doctors' are less trained in the external symptoms of disease and disability; instead, they train on recorded simulations of various pain so when they are hooked up to their patients, they can diagnose based on what it feels like. People being people, new doctors make this into a competition: putting themselves through the most harrowing records of pain and suffering and seeing who can endure the longest. There's a betting pool. It's entertainment. Doctors are valued less on what knowledge they have and more based on how much pain they can endure, since they would be able to diagnose a larger pool of patients based on their second-hand experience. While I now feel I didn't really come to a natural point when I first wrote this (the original story ends with an invasion and the outside forces commenting on how barbaric the practice is) I think if I revisited it now, I would like to point out the difference between enduring pain on a voluntary and temporary basis and how that pales in comparison to say...a chronic condition that you have little to no control over. That a doctor might make the argument that a patient's pain is 'minor' because they endured it themselves (with full control over when and how long to experience it) and that their patient doesn't need any real medical help (like painkillers or assistive devices), instead suggesting lifestyle changes and determination.
Space: Where’s your favorite place to write?
Less of a favourite but more like my most effective: the bus when communicating to work. It's like an enforced writing sprint - I have 25-35 minutes where I can't do anything else so I might as well write. The short time frame means it doesn't feel too intimidating and I'm more likely to get something down, without getting too precious about the exact wording or quality.
