Rebecca is an author deeply entrenched in her writing career, a person seemingly living and breathing her work.

Please, introduce yourself. Tell us about your personal life, family, education. I am a speculative fiction author, playwright, writing instructor/coach and book designer living in Seattle with my husband and two muppets: a Portuguese Water Dog named Teal’c Tiberius and a terrier mutt named Alfred Pennyworth. Yes, he wears a bowtie. I got my BA in English and Psychology at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and my MFA in Creative Writing and Literature at Emerson College in Boston.

What do you like doing in your spare time? When I’m not immersed in words, which, let’s be honest, is most of the time, you can find me crafting (embroidery, book building, quilting, crocheting, jewelry making…). And if not there, you can absolutely find me tending our indoor jungle or small outdoor vegetable patch. I love hiking and the ocean, so if we’re off on an adventure, it’s invariably up a mountain or on the coast.

If you are active in career fields other than writing, what do you hope for the future of that business? Describe your work or business activities in which you are presently active. Up until recently, my day job consisted of doing all the technical illustration for O’Reilly Media, the programming books with the woodcut animals on the front. I was there for 9 years, so, if you’ve picked up one of their books recently, chances are I drew the pretty pictures inside. It’s an interesting field, but slowly being drowned out by the proliferation of user-friendly drawing programs that allows authors to make readable art on their own, as well as smarter computer programs who can do the job for you.

But 9 years of straight lines gets rather tedious, so when I saw a chance to switch to teaching full time, I took it. The first step didn’t work out so well, landing with a company that was a dumpster fire on the Titanic, but after parting ways with them, I’m finding I really enjoy being a freelance writing instructor and coach. I spend a lot of my time running badges for Girl Scouts, which is great fun, and the rest teaching with various local organizations, such as the Museum of Popular Culture, Clarion West, Shoreline and Edmonds Community Colleges, and volunteering with a whole slew of others.

Do you have hobbies? How did you get started in them? Lots, and lots, and LOTS of crafting. I tend to rotate through crafts, occasionally adding a new one, but they usually start from the same place. I’m bored. This is why I love writing: there’s always a new idea, a new thing to pursue. But I’ll see a post on Reddit, or someplace else on the internet, of this really cool thing, and one rabbit hole later I’ve ordered a beginner’s kit from the internets and I’m off and running. A lot of crafting uses the same basic skills of design and manual dexterity, so they translate fairly easily.

But speaking of design, that leads me to my other favorite hobby: designing books. I’ve designed all my books, inside and out, and even won awards for a couple of them. I just find that I’m happiest with the presentation of my work if I get to decide how it looks as well as how it reads, so I stick with smaller publishers who I think will be receptive to that idea. It’s worked out so far! I also design on a freelance basis, and sometimes, just for the heck of it, go back and design some classic literature into something fresh and new.

If you are a writer, are you an avid reader? Absolutely. I’m not sure you can be a writer without being a reader, or consuming media and story in some fashion. As with crafts, my reading and writing is often cyclical. I’ll spend a couple months doing nothing but reading, particularly if I just found a really great new series, and then I’ll spend the next few months doing nothing but writing. I also tend to have the TV on when I’m crafting or cooking or eating because I am 100% addicted to narrative and crave its input on a regular basis. Drives my husband nuts sometimes as I tend towards new narratives when stressed and he tends towards familiar, so we end up headphones off while coping…

Goals and Inspiration

What is your ultimate writing goal as you see it today? I want people to enjoy themselves. I want them to feel refreshed and recharged after reading my work and ready to go back to their lives fighting. Some of the stories are made to make you think, and some are written simply to let you relax and enjoy, but the ultimate goal is to make someone smile.

What inspired you to write your first book? Figuring out that I wasn’t limited to the books on my shelves. I was an avid reader from very young and we had run out of the stack of 20 books from the library for bedtime stories and I demanded something new from my mother. And she made one up. On the spot. From there on, I realized that the stories I had in my head were just as valid as the ones in books, and my parents encouraged me down that path. Made my dad a little sad since neither of his children went into the sciences (he’s a physicist) but mom has also continued to tell stories as a professional storyteller all her life, but I prefer my stories on the page. I hate memorizing things.

How do you decide on the title of a book? This…this is an art and one of my greatest joys of writing: hitting that sweet spot. Everything always has a working title, I can’t write without one, but the final title needs to be short, pithy, unique, and interest-catching. I definitely prefer one or two-word titles when possible, for ease of design and communication mostly, but also picking words that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to see on the cover and are a tongue-in-cheek reference to what’s going on in the story. For instance, Undeliverable, my first novel, the main character works for the postal service and is trying to find his missing son at the same time. I went through lists of phrases and words associated with the mail service until I landed on this one and a bright bulb just lit up going, “That’s the one!” Currently working on its sequel and can’t for the life of me find the right word for it. Calling it Indecipherable as its working title, but I know that’s not its final title. I’ll get there.

Have you developed a specific writing style and why? My writing style changes depending on the content of the book. I try and work with a voice and style that reflects the feel I want the story to evoke. Sometimes that takes a lo-o-o-ot of editing to get there, but I start by reading books with the same feel as I want my current book to have so I’ve got it lodged in my head. Then I read my work out loud a lot to make sure I’m hitting my mark.

How much of your books is realistic and experiences based on someone you know, or events in your life? Since my work is either fantastical or historical, with not much in between, very little is taken from my life, plot-wise. Character-wise, every character I make takes a piece of its personality from someone I know in real life. Maybe it’s a quirk they have when they are stressed, or a way their prone to raising their eyebrow, or a phrase they really like. I find anchoring my characters on a real person helps them become real to me. And, of course, every protagonist has a piece of me inside them. How else does one get inside their heads? Sometimes it’s not a very flattering part of my personality either. Those make the best protagonists…

Who is your favorite writer, and what is it about their work that really strikes you? Ah, jeez, really? Okay, so, I have a TON of authors I adore and follow avidly. I like them because their writing is clear, concise, and engaging, with captivating stories and characters I like spending time with. These include, but are not limited to: Tamora Pierce, Jasper Fforde, Terry Pratchett, Patricia C. Wrede, Seanan McGuire, and many, many more. My website has a full list for those feeling like they need more to read.

Is there an author, past or present, you would love to meet? Why? All of them? No, but seriously, I love just talking shop with folks of like minds, finding out what fascinates them, and bringing them little nuggets they might not have seen yet that fit their interests. I have a friend who is a wandering master beekeeper, so brining her anything bee related just sends her into squee heaven. I love spending time with other writers and just getting to be in the same space as them for a while, having dinner, and chatting about our favorite media, our lives, or where we dream of going someday.

An Artist Too?

If you could not write, how would you express what you wish to convey through any stories? If I couldn’t write, I would probably paint. I’m finally moving into a house where I’ll have a painting corner that I don’t have to worry about getting paint on anything (yeah weird basement rooms!) so I’m going to dive back in to abstract painting for a while. I’m working on getting better at creating and including figure work in my canvases, but throwing paint, mixing colors, it’s a great way to express emotion and even narrative. I have several of my canvases up in our house and people’s favorite, without exception, is one that I painted to represent a particularly awful break-up I had in grad school. They can feel the emotion and the tension in it, and that’s a fantastic way to convey stories.

When you see new authors struggling, what single piece of advice could you give them on a moment’s notice? Stop. Not altogether, but for this moment. You’re stuck in your story, you’re not sure where you need to go. Let’s look at where you are. Where is your character, physically? Emotionally? Now, where do they need to go? Physically, or emotionally? What’s the next logical step in that process? Are they eating breakfast in their pajamas? Maybe they need to put on clothes. Then leave the house, then get in their car. All these mundane steps will probably be edited out when you’re all said in done, but in writing them now, in following the logical next right step, you’ll pick up steam again shortly.

How do you want others to see you or remember you? Is it important to you? I want to be remembered as helpful. Inspirational. I want folks to be able to look back at our interactions, my stories, and say, I enjoyed that, and I’m better for it moving forward. Maybe they don’t even remember me, but they remember a trick for writing or revision that sticks with them for the rest of their life. That’s what I want for people to remember. I have those things: books that are comfort in hard times because they allow me to escape; books that taught me how to handle tough situations through a cover of magic and knights; teachers who taught me tips and tricks in design and writing; teachers who taught me how not to be a teacher. Those last are sometimes the most important. Sometimes, I don’t remember their names, or the titles of the books, but all of them are there, in my mind, helping me move forward and be a better teacher, writer, and designer than I would have been without them.

Do you have a blog or website viewers can visit for updates, events and special offers?

Personal site: http://rebeccademarest.com

Writing Classes and Coaching: http://speculativecraft.com

Play Imprint: http://mnemepress.org

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Rebecca-A-Demarest/e/B00IKT3K7I