Thank you Hazel for the interview!

Interview

What was your inspiration for the Ocean’s Daughter trilogy?

I first had the idea when I was seventeen. I adored the ‘Ingo’ series as a child and desperately wanted to write a YA story about mermaids. Being from Scotland I wanted to set the trilogy there as I was forever reading books set in America and wanted to see more of my heritage and childhood represented. Then when I first read the Percy Jackson books I finally understood how I wanted the trilogy to take shape. 

What was your inspiration for Sky’s Queen?

I made the huge mistake of taking two years off writing between Earth’s Mother and Sky’s Queen to write a different book and I definitely don’t recommend that! However it did allow me to read a lot in the genre during that time and I got loads of inspiration on how to write a morally grey love interest (and a shadow Daddy) then I incorporated that into the story with titans!

What drew you to writing?

I’ve always written stories ever since I was a child. I used to write me and my cousins into Harry Potter fanfiction and print them out for their Christmas or Birthdays. When I got a bit older I wrote a few full length novels on my laptop but never took it seriously. Then when I had the idea to write a non fiction book about my previous career as a killer whale trainer, it was the first thing that prompted me to take it seriously enough to get published. 

What was your process for writing Sky’s Queen?

Different with every book! Book one took 7yrs to write because the first draft sat on my laptop for years. I polished it and quickly realized that it needed split into three books. I am a massive pantser which means I don’t plot anything and just ‘go with the flow’ when writing so while I had an outline and knew the ending of the book, everything else just came to me as I was writing it! 

What is your approach to world and character building?

For this trilogy, world building was quite easy as it is set in our world with fantasy elements attached. Building the underwater kingdom of Oceana involved watching a lot of movies like Aquaman and The Little Mermaid to think about how an underwater civilization would work. For my upcoming series I have had to plot a bit more and I definitely love a pinterest board to visualize characters! Once I can picture their faces I start to think about their traits and motivations and go from there!

How would you describe Sky’s Queen in five words?

Badass women with elemental magic

Did you have a favourite moment in the book to write?

Riva’s revenge arc which has been growing since book 1 and there is a moment when Cronos (the love interest) materializes with his shadows and has a whole ‘touch her and you die moment’

What was your favourite book growing up?

Tough one as there are so many! I loved anything Enid Blyton when I was young, obviously Harry Potter played a huge role in me loving fantasy and magic. When I was a teenager the Vampire Academy books were  ahuge favourite!

Do you have a favourite genre to read?

Definitely fantasy! Bonus points if it is fantasy romance. I do love a good ‘easy’ rom com palette cleanser between epic fantasies though! And I’m partial to a bit of historical romance too!