MY INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR SARINA DORIE
What’s your name and what genre would you consider your books to be?
Sarina Dorie
Urban fantasy
Paranormal cozy mystery
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Tell me about your book. How did you come up with that (story, angle, idea)?
I often use inspiration from my daily life in my novels. For THE MEMORY THIEF series, I used a lot of things I learned in different areas of my life. I used to live in Japan on the northern island of Hokkaido where it is very cold. This is where the “Native Japanese” lived, the pre-Japanese colonists. The idea of the Ainu being forced off their land much like the Native Americans in the U.S. heavily influenced the creation of the series, combined with my love of steampunk aesthetics from costume making, and my experience doing Civil War Reenactments when I was in high school and college. I took all those different ideas: the Ainu displacement, ruffled bloomers, and Victorian social etiquette and put it in space. The concept became: What would the Victorian era look like if they had rediscovered spaceflight and found a pre-colonized planet of Japanese Ainu?
For WOMBY’S SCHOOL FOR WAYWARD WITCHES, my daily struggles as a school teacher are a major influence combined with my love of Harry Potter. I have always wondered what it would be like to be a teacher at Hogwarts. For years I have wondered, “What if there was a magical school for at-risk youth–not like Hogwarts–more like one of the title one schools I have worked at?” This is the premise of WOMBY’S SCHOOL FOR WAYWARD WITCHES. I am not a kid anymore and I wanted to write about being a teacher, but not in non-fiction or fiction. I wanted to do a reality check on all the perfect parts of Hogwarts that wouldn’t happen.
Every once in a while I see a meme or read a joke about things students would actually use their magic wands for that wouldn’t be magic, or how the point system for a “house” award doesn’t motivate kids who don’t have a desire for intrinsic or extrinsic motivation to do better. I like teacher memes on Pinterest that point out the pain and pathos of teaching that might be accessible to non-teachers if put in the right context like, “I don’t always care about my grade, but when I do it is on the last day of the semester after all work was due.” I channel a lot of that into my writing.
Can you tell me about your Series?
WOMBY’S SCHOOL FOR WAYWARD WITCHES
You think you know the world of magical boarding schools? Not from a teacher’s point of view at a school for at-risk youth.
It’s a lot like my life as a school teacher but with magic. Or maybe just what I wish my life could be like “accidentally” turning bad students into frogs. I started writing the series as a parody of Harry Potter, then it became fan fiction, and then it became its own entity entirely.
The idea behind the first novel uses a premise most people can relate to growing up reading the Harry Potter series:
Most of us have faced the fact that an owl will never come with our acceptance letter to Hogwarts. Find out what this teen does to take matters into her own hands.
I wrote these books because I want to work at a magical boarding school where electronics are banned (the bane of my existence these days), but since I can’t do that and the closest I got was an after school class called Myth, Magic, and Muggles (in which I adopted a British accent, dressed as a witch, read Harry Potter and taught students palm reading and such), I knew I would have to take matters into my own hands and create my own magical boarding school. Thus, Womby’s was born.
Do you have a favorite book out of this series?
WITCHES GONE WICKED is the first book I wrote in the series, but it became the third book. It was meant to be the start of the series and I wrote two prequels, so it became the third. I think readers can read the first four books out of order, but I like this book best because it sets up the series problems, the main character’s internal conflict, is funny, has a great mystery, a potential love interest, a wicked roommate, and the cast of characters who are in the majority of the books.
Also, I like that title. My husband thought of that one!
Where did you get the inspiration/idea for your series?
I have always wondered what it would be like to be a teacher at Hogwarts. I considered making the teacher in my book a music teacher or Spanish teacher so it wouldn’t resemble as much of my life, but I know more about teaching art than any other subject. Also, I wouldn’t be able to incorporate some of the same humorous incidents from my own life. I have worked at numerous schools that have cut the art elective due to budget cuts or other reasons. At my first teaching position I was the fifth art teacher in six years and we joked I was the equivalent of the defense against the dark arts teacher from Harry Potter and a werewolf was going to eat me. As a matter of fact, a rabid werewolf did get me, if a principal counts as a werewolf, but that is a long story that I prefer to channel into my writing rather than tell as non-fiction.
I am the most inspired by the mystery of the unknown, but that isn’t to say my normal life doesn’t inspire my writing. Students say weird things to me all the time that I slip into my writing. My first day of teaching at a new high school, the custodian found urine in our garbage can. Theoretically this means someone urinated into the garbage can when I wasn’t looking. It might also mean that the room was left unlocked before I arrived and a student peed in there. These kinds of weird things that teenagers do make it into my short stories and novels. The particular event of finding urine in a garbage can, followed by a series of horrible incidents while teaching at that particular school led me to write the short story: FIVE TIPS FOR OUTSMARTING SATAN–AND YOUR STUDENTS. I sold that story and republished it in my collection of short stories: FAIRIES, ROBOTS AND UNICORNS–OH MY!
Was it always meant to become a series?
Yes! I knew for years I wanted to write WOMBY’S SCHOOL FOR WAYWARD WITCHES SERIES but I was involved in other projects. I thought I was going to be a three-book series. When I reached the third book and realized it was longer, I thought it was a five-book series. Then I thought, well, maybe it is meant to be thirteen—which is a great number for a book about witches, but then it surpassed that and became 17ish books plus some short stories and a couple spin-off series.
Do you have a new book in the making and if so, what’s the name of your upcoming book?
I always have multiple projects in the making. I am currently working on Hedgewitchin’ in the Kitchen, a novella with recipes that were mentioned in the WOMBY’S SCHOOL FOR WAYWARD WITCHES SERIES with excerpts from the scenes the foods appeared in. I also am editing the first four books in a spin-off series. I am hesitant to say the name because I will probably change my mind. Also, I am writing what might be the fifth book in the series. I am uncertain whether it is the fifth book or its own spin-off series or a standalone.
Where do your ideas come from?
The thing that inspire me the most is the unknown. I have always been interested in ghosts, witches, fairies, dragons, bigfoot and aliens. These topics make me ask those “what if” questions, like “What if there was a magical school for at risk youth–not like Hogwarts–more like one of the title one schools I have worked at?” This is the premise of WOMBY’S SCHOOL FOR WAYWARD WITCHES. Or I ask questions like “What if the tooth fairy ran into the bogeyman because they both work the night shift? Would they get along or compete?” This was the premise of WRATH OF THE TOOTH FAIRY, coming out next year with Reuts Publishing. Because my brain often asks these kinds of questions, I write science fiction and fantasy. I would like to say that channeling my energy into asking questions which results in fiction keeps me from dwelling on questions/worries that I have very little control over like economics, the environment, or politics, but I probably still do worry about these too much.
Is there a genre that you’ve been wanting to experiment with?
Someday I want to experiment with Jane Austen and science fiction but I need to finish the novels in the Womby’s World first.
What is the hardest part of writing for you?
Stopping is the hardest thing. I would write all night if I didn’t have a day job. I would skip meals if my husband let me. I am driven to finish, and there is never enough time.
What do you consider to be your best accomplishment?
I write a lot and work very hard to get each book out. I have sold 150 short stories to magazines and anthologies. That is a lot of work. I’ve sold three novels to publishers, which are also accomplishments, and written an 18 book series as well as other stand-alone novels and series. Tardy Bells and Witches’ Spells made it as #1 Amazon Bestseller. It is hard to say which of those accomplishments are best.
What’s the best thing about being an author?
I am an artist in several different mediums and writing is one of them. When I am in “the zone” it is transcendent. It is almost Zen-like and spiritual. It must be like drugs are for other people.
I love dissolving into a magical realm that I have created, going on adventures with my characters, and feeling like I have left my body. Writing is in between daydreaming, reading a book, and lucid dreaming.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I imagine in 10 years I will be a full-time author with hundreds of stories sold to magazines and maybe a hundred novels by that point. Right now I have 150 short stories that I’ve sold and probably about 25 novels.
Have you always liked to write? Where did your love of books come from?
Yes! My mom encouraged me when I was six while I was writing and illustrating my own picture books, kept encouraging me in middle school, and read my stories and novels when I wrote them in high school. I kept writing because of my mom’s nurturing, enthusiasm, and brutal honesty, which has helped me improve my writing. I probably wanted to be a writer because of the respect she showed for literature. She read me bedtime stories, our house was always full of books, and she let me watch Romancing the Stone over and over as a kid. I was fortunate my family was so encouraging.
What writing advice do you have for aspiring authors?
Just write. Write and write and write. Never stop writing. If you love it, keep going. Study the craft, read what you love, and hone your skills. And keep writing. Practice makes perfect. Marketing is important to study, but if there is ONLY one thing you do, it’s to write.
Do you read reviews of your book(s)? Do you respond to them, good or bad? How do you deal with the bad?
Yes, I do read them. Every couple months I go through them. I don’t respond to the bad ones. I rarely respond to the good ones. Typically I try not to respond or interfere because I don’t want to influence someone’s honest review. But. . . .once I asked someone if she was willing to not give away the ending of a book because that is a huge SPOILER. It was otherwise a flattering review, but it made that reader so angry she removed all reviews of all my books. I still get reviews with spoilers and that bothers me worse than a one-star review, but I don’t say anything any more.
What is your least favourite part of the writing / publishing process?
I wish I had more time to write!
Why did you choose to write in your genre? If you write in more than one, how do you balance them?
I love fantasy and science fiction. I also love romance and mystery. When I read one of these genres I am not satisfied unless it is a fantasy novel with mystery and romance. Or a romance with supernatural elements. For that reason, that is what I write.
Do you have any favorite authors or favorite books?
As a teenager I read a lot of Anne McCaffrey, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Kate Wilhelm. I also read every Star Trek universe novel I could get my hands on.
Among contemporary authors I love Laini Taylor, Patricia Briggs, J.K. Rowling, Carl Hiaasen, Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Peter David. I love Laini Taylor for her storytelling, humor, beautiful imagery and characters. I am hypnotized by J.K Rowling’s world. When I go back to read Harry Potter these days, I have realized I don’t actually love Harry. In the later books especially, I find him to be an annoying teenager, but I am still compelled to read. I love Carl Hiaasen’s humor. Humor is important to me in just about everything I read and I often include it in my own writing.
From the classics, I read and reread Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Dickens. The romance aspects in my novels are often heavily influenced by Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights. I am also fascinated by the unrequited love of Severus Snape and Lily Evans in the Harry Potter series. Readers sometimes tell me Felix Thatch in WITCHES GONE WICKED is Severus Snape while others say he is Mr. Darcy. He is definitely both with a little Heathcliff thrown in.
Are there any themes that you find yourself returning to throughout your writing? If yes, what and why?
I often find myself writing about being a monster and an outcast, or a stranger in a strange land. I suppose someone could say it is a common trope to convey a world, but I think the reason I often do this is because I have lived abroad. I know what it is like for everyone on a street full of people to stare at you and to feel intimidated and threatened by that. Alternately, I know what it is like for everyone to purposely pretend they aren’t looking at you. It is a strange experience being an ‘alien.’
When I lived in South Korea every restaurant brought me a fork and knife because they assumed I couldn’t use chopsticks. I never learned how to in Korea and my family laughed at me when I came home because I still couldn’t use them. I got away with not fitting in because I was excused for being a foreigner. In Japan I was very much encouraged to blend in with Japanese culture. I was expected to learn and speak the language, use chopsticks, and use appropriate Japanese customs. Sometimes I was a social outcast but too ignorant of the culture and language to realize it. At other times, I was excused for certain behavior and treated like a child. People gave me candy and patted me on the head. Other non-Japanese English teachers I knew were insulted to be treated that way, but I wasn’t, mostly because I liked candy.
I often fall back on the feeling of being an outsider when I am writing. I wrote a Japanese steampunk series that largely relied on this concept. Currently I am writing a series titled WOMBY’S SCHOOL FOR WAYWARD WITCHES and I explore the idea of being the least magical teacher at a magic school.
Of all the characters you have created, which is your favourite and why?
I always love the most recent love interest my protagonist falls in love with. For the majority of the Womby’s series I was simultaneous in love with Derrick Winslow and Felix Thatch. Maybe I should have given Clarissa Lawrence a harem of men.
I also very much enjoy Vega Bloodmire, evil witch extraordinaire. She says and does all the horrible things I wish I could say in public. I have met a male equivalent of Vega and there are times I think of this person when I write her.
People often tell me their favorite characters are Felix Thatch and Vega Bloodmire. They both will have their own trilogies or series eventually, but I have to finish my current projects first.
What is your writing Kryptonite?
Chocolate, caffeine, and exercise (usually belly dance and yoga, but sometimes riding my bike).
Can you give us a few tasty morsels from your work-in-progress?
Here are a few tasty morsels from several books in the series:
“Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy are stories,” Mom said. “They’re make-believe.”
I was a big girl. I could handle the Easter Bunny and tooth fairy not being real. I’d already suspected as much from the gossip of third graders in my class. I was fine with that creepy guy at the mall who always waved at me and invited me to sit on his lap not being the “real” Saint Nick.
—Tardy Bells and Witches’ Spells, Book 1 in Womby’s School for Wayward Witches
I drew in a shaky breath, afraid to ask. “But Hogwarts—that’s real, right?” It wasn’t like I was asking if Harry Potter was real. Even if he was fictional, it didn’t mean the place he went to school couldn’t be real. The place I would be going to school.
My parents’ nervous glance at each other said it all. My heart plummeted to my stomach and settled like a pair of concrete shoes in a river.
“I’m sorry, Clarissa.” Dad said.
My mother muttered under her breath. “See, I told you those books were a bad idea.”
—Tardy Bells and Witches’ Spells, Book 1 in Womby’s School for Wayward Witches
Magic. It was like cotton candy: fluffy and sweet and melting away to nothing on my tongue before I ever had a chance to sink my teeth into it.
—Tardy Bells and Witches’ Spells , Book 1 in Womby’s School for Wayward Witches
“But I already paid you. You drained me of my life force so you could give it to Imani. I found you things in the forest like the students’ brooms and wands and the plants.” And their marijuana.
—My Crazy Hex Boyfriend, Book 8 in Womby’s School for Wayward Witches
Pinky sat on Vega’s bed, probably shedding all over the place, though his khaki kilt provided a small barrier between him and the wool blankets. I couldn’t wait to see Vega’s face when she noticed sasquatch hair on her bed.
—My Crazy Hex Boyfriend, Book 8 in Womby’s School for Wayward Witches
It was hard to believe Jeb had agreed so readily. Then again, alcohol had been helping smart people make stupid choices since the time of its invention.
—My Crazy Hex Boyfriend, Book 8 in Womby’s School for Wayward Witches
“Wow! What a great school! What made you leave?” I asked.
She hesitated. “You know, the usual reason teachers leave a school.”
My reasons for leaving schools when I had been teaching had been things like turning my class into frogs, a giant kraken eating a gym, and the bananas in the sex-ed class turning into dancing penises. I didn’t know why other teachers left schools.
—Hex Crimes, Book 10 in Womby’s School for Wayward Witches
“Have you decided if you’ll let me . . . kiss you?” His mouth said kiss, his eyes said something else entirely.
—Of Curse You Will, Book 11 in Womby’s School for Wayward Witches
I didn’t know why he was looking at me that way. Sure, I might have been at fault for the unicorns and golem. The Raven Court had attacked the school because of me, and I had set a djinn free under the school who then caused havoc, but I hadn’t killed anyone. Oh, wait, I had. Plus I used forbidden magic on a daily basis because the Red affinity I used technically was illegal.
And I had a cell phone.
I wasn’t going to survive this inquisition.
—Cackles and Cauldrons, Book 12 in Womby’s School for Wayward Witches
Like so many good things in life, our happiness was fleeting. Our joy was precariously perched on the edge of the moment. Soon I would discover Felix Thatch’s true nature, and those precious moments of joy would be more difficult to remember.
—Hex and the City, Book 13 in Womby’s School for Wayward Witches
All I needed was to hold a pencil in my hand and think about drawing to make the visions come to me. It turned out a number two pencil was the ultimate magic wand.
—Hex Appeal, Book 15 in Womby’s School for Wayward Witches
Sorrow had taken up residency in me like an unwanted tenant.
—Safe Hex, Hex Appeal, Book 16 in Womby’s School for Wayward Witches
I toed the floor, feeling awkward as I attempted to phrase my words. “Do you have anything black I can borrow that would be appropriate for torturing Felix in the dungeon?”
—Safe Hex, Book 16 in Womby’s School for Wayward Witches
“How do you know?” I asked. Besides the fact that she was a Merlin-class know-it-all.
As much as I would have liked to liberate all Witchkin slaves, sasquatches, and unicorns forced into the service of cruel Fae masters, break Priscilla’s curse that had turned her into a raven, freed Odette from being treated like a ‘princess,’ and broke all bonds of servitude that the Fae courts held over their prisoners, there was no way to change the world in a day.
All I could do was free one man. My husband. If I could manage that.
—The Joy of Hex, Book 17 in Womby’s School for Wayward Witches
What do you think of book trailers? Do you have a trailer or do you intend to create one for your own book?
When done well, they are great. When they are not, they are campy—and often infringe on movie and other artists’ copyrights. I have one trailer. It made using a combination of art I painted and the original cover art I purchased for the books. At some point I will be making another.
Where can your fans find you and follow??
Website:
https://www.facebook.com/sarina.dorie1/
@SarinaDorie
https://twitter.com/SarinaDorie?lang=en
Google+
https://plus.google.com/+SarinaDorie
Bookbub
https://www.bookbub.com/search?search=sarina+dorie
Amazon Author Page
Amazon.com (US)
https://www.amazon.com/Sarina-Dorie/e/B00Q7XYZMI/
Thank you for taking your time to do this interview ❤️
My Books-My World 