Coffee Talks

With Xenoclea

Welcome to the interview done in June 2016! Our featured author was XenoClea!

You can read more about her amazing book by clicking here.

Welcome ,

1. What motivated you to start writing short stories in Wattpad? I got hooked on Wattpad after a friend showed me some stories she had posted on here. I had never really written for fun before, but I decided to try it out. My first story was awful—like really, really bad—but I asked for feedback and people gave it. I decided I should try something a little smaller, and I started experimenting with shorter stories.

2. What inspired you to write your short story entitled "Harlequin Summer"? It was a very interesting romance story where your characters met in a circus. How did that evolve? This entire story is sort of the result of a bet/dare between friends. A good friend of mine is terrified of clowns; she will cry and scream and even faint if she sees one. The friend that got me into writing bet me that I couldn't write a story that would make her like clowns, and I took her up on that bet. I don't usually write clowns as romantic leads, guys! Oh gosh, please don't let me be remembered as the chick who writes clown romance. I would die.

3. Can you please explain to our readers why you chose your male character to be a clumsy clown? Was it to make people laugh? Or was there another meaning behind it as well, such as if 'the mask has two faces'. If I was going to get my friend to like (or at least not be afraid of) a clown character, I knew he needed to be as sympathetic and non-threatening as possible. Why not make him the MC's friend/love interest? As I kept writing the story his character sort of grew into how it is now.

4. How do you think you've evolved creatively? I feel like I've matured a lot as a writer since HS. It was my first story I'd ever finished, but I wrote it when I was fifteen and it needed a lot of editing before I could allow it to stay on my profile. I'm much better at plotting now—I sort of made up the story as I went with HS—and I think trying out other genres has been a big part of that. Even though Harlequin Summer is more Romance, my favorite genres to write (and read) are Fantasy, Adventure, and Sci-Fi.

5. What do you like best about writing on the Wattpad Site? The thing I like most about writing on Wattpad, in general, is the wonderful community. There are so many interesting people! It's a great place to get feedback on your work and improve your writing skills because many people are helpful and passionate. I've made a few good friends on here, and most of them I met through reading. I'm really happy my friend introduced me to Wattpad so many years ago!

A lot of wonderful people helped me with this, so I'm gonna say their names! My thanks to Feesha_Kitty, illgetthereoneday, TGD_Author and Doubleid for helping me out and generally being cool people.

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And thank you Xenoclea for helping us out! *smiles*

June 2016 Interview