I first interviewed Elizabeth Rose back in March (you can read the original interview here), I recently caught up with her to see what she's been up to since then, you can find out below:
What has changed in your life since we last spoke?
What has changed... well, I'm now of legal drinking age in the continental U.S., that's a new thing. I'm no longer a minor of any kind writing. We'll see if that impacts anything, or if I've simply remained a child in everything but legality... 'Till the Last Petal Falls has passed its first sales quarter, and is now available in paperback and ebook, as well as from a couple of brick-and-mortar independent bookstores. I've also taken up working as a nanny in my spare time, on top of my continued writing projects and finishing up my last semester of college. I graduate here in December.
Have you learnt any new wisdom?
I've learnt what it really means to be an author, versus being a writer. This isn't to say that I've personally really reached 'author' status, but I know what steps I need to take to get there. I've also been participating in a lot of feedback-swaps in my writing, so I'm truly beginning to understand what I can bring to the table as an individual author, rather than just what I think is interesting at the time. My work is slowly evolving, and I really like it.
Have you become a better writer? If so, how?
I believe I have, though it all kind of happened on accident or through natural process. Some of the changes have come from me looking through discussions on blogs that pertained to what I had been writing about- depictions of women and domestic violence in fiction- and then through intersectionality in those discussions was drawn into discussions of cultural appropriation, media representation, and finding an anchor and purpose for one's own writing. Which isn't to say I've fully settled on what my own writing is all about- but I'm at least on the way to finding it. I also think I've been making more steps to making my work more accessible, while also attempting to take into account a lot of the issues of modern media representation in fiction by trying to lessen or eliminate it in my coming drafts. Others have come through the process of having my first novel reviewed- it's currently sitting at an average of 4.7 stars, which has been a huge relief, but even in the positive reviews I've been able to catch and put in my head recurring patterns of what isn't working for my readers, which I hope to incorporate into future works.
What are you working on at the moment?
At the moment, I've finished the second installment of my Once Upon a Reality series, which focuses on Sleeping Beauty, and have submitted it to see if its worthy of publication. I'm also working on a short novella currently titled 'Good Women', which follows three women from their teenage year to the birth of the first daughter in their friend group, focusing on what kind of friendship can be had with friends that society may consider to be 'bad'.
Tell us about your latest release and how we can find out more
After my first novel, 'Till the Last Petal Falls', which is the first installment of my Once Upon A Reality series where I re-tell Beauty and the Beast with a dark, modern twist, I published two short stories. The first, 'Wanakufa', is a fictional memoir of a young girl dying of typhoid in Kenya in the twentieth century. It can be found at www.electiopublishing.com, available for electronic download for .99. The second, due for publication September 15th, highlights a crisis of faith experienced by a young girl in the midst of a theological discussion at college, and is titled 'He Who Wrestles With God'. It will be available to be read for free at http://hirschworth.com/ from its publication date, on. The novel, and all of my other work, can always be found at www.thesingingroses.com.
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