Q1. Hello, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.
My name is Helen Lawrence. I’m a current university student, in English and Piano, and I’ve dreamed of being an author ever since I could write. Seriously, I started writing before I even understood what a paragraph was. This is my first published book!
Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing your book “Cards of Power”?
One of the biggest challenges was the re-writing of it. I started my second draft about a year after finishing the first, and it was basically a complete rewrite. I knew I had good bones of a story, but it needed to be written better. The challenge was figuring out how- what plot points needed to be changed, and how scenes needed to be fleshed out or deleted.
Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
Hmm, that’s hard to say. I’ve read a lot of classics, Austen and Dickens are favourites. My current favourite book series is The Lunar Chronicles, by Marissa Meyers. And I’ve always loved the way L.M. Montgomery writes in Anne of Green Gables, especially the way she writes the dialogue so that it really feels like it’s different characters speaking.
Q4. Whatโs your favourite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?
My favourite spot to visit is my home, and the island my home Church is on. I go to university in Toronto, so going back home to the country is so refreshing and beautiful. All seasons, it’s just gorgeous. Nothing beats it.
Q5. What inspired you to write the book ‘Cards of Power’?
My pastor, in a sermon, said the phrase “holding all the cards of power”, which I thought would be a good book title. Then I was thinking about how multiple people can go through the same situation and be affected differently. These came together and formed the idea that has turned into my book.
Q6. How long did it take you to write your book ‘Cards of Power’?
Many years. I wrote the first draft in about a year, and up till that point, I’d only ever written first drafts. In my mind, the book was done. After about a year, I re-read it, and realized how great some parts were and how cringy others were. It took a while to re-write, especially since I’d just started university. Then the editing process, which was long. All in all, I’d say it took me 4-5 years to get to where I was sending it out to publishers.
Q7. On what platforms can readers buy your books?
Most online book-buying platforms, most notably Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘Cards of Power’?
The title, as previously mentioned, was made for me, I just recognized it and chose to take it. For the book cover, I had no idea what I wanted. Luckily, I was only asked to provide general ideas, and it was turned into a cover that is super cool!
Q9. When writing a book how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?
In the first writing stage, it’s really fun for me. I don’t plan everything out exactly, I just have a general sense of where the story’s heading, and what needs to happen. But I’m almost discovering it as I’m writing it. And if a plot option doesn’t interest me, or flat-out bores me, I don’t write the book that way. If I’m bored writing it, the readers will be bored reading it. Then, in the re-reading, and editing stages, I give myself breaks. If you read something too many times, you lose your perspective and ability to judge.
Q10. What is the most valuable piece of advice youโve been given about writing?
It’s the dedication to this book. “Never stop writing.” I was told that by my eighth-grade English teacher. Your skills, your voice, your abilities, they all can be developed in only one way: writing. If you want to be a writer, you can’t stop. My first books, which I still have, are so cringy. I can hardly read them now. But they were necessary. Don’t freak out that you might not be writing at the quality you want, keep writing till you are.
Buy Cards of Power on Amazon
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