Self-Published Author Interview: Heather Lucinda (3 of 4 Authors)

​Q&A with Heather Lucinda
Author of  Confessions, Route 92, and The Death of Callie Winters

When did you know you wanted to be a writer? What inspired that choice?
As soon as I learned how to write, I was always making up stories. I've always had a very imaginative mind, one that, as a child, I didn't quite know what to do with. Writing gave me a place to put down all the stories I had. 

What is your favorite childhood book? What’s a book that helped shape you as a writer? 
I read a lot of Nancy Drew, Babysitter Club, and Goosebumps books. I always loved a mystery and enjoyed a good scare. A book that shaped me as a writer was probably, The Romantic, by Barbara Gowdy, as well as her other novels. I read it in early high school and fell in love with it. I loved how the timeline jumped between the character as a young child and then as she became a woman. I loved how tragic and heartbreaking it was. I would say it greatly influenced the type of books I wanted to one day write. I wasn't afraid to write about imperfect characters because of her. 

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be? 
Just do it. Sit down, shut off all the other distractions, and dedicate some time every day to just write. It's the same advice I would give to anyone who wants to write and doesn't know how. It all starts by sitting down with a pen and paper, or at a computer, and just doing it. 

What is the best writing tip you’ve ever learned? 
Stephen King once said that the second draft = the first draft – 10%. I keep this in mind while editing my novels. It's important to get rid of the extra stuff that doesn't need to be there. For me, it's very important that every word and sentence serves a purpose. I never want a reader to be wishing to speed the novel up. I try not to go into too much description about anything unless it is crucial to the story. It's a small tip that I find really polishes a novel, making it as strong as can be. 

Who are some authors that you admire and why? 
Liz Nugent, Lisa Jewel, Fionna Barton, Tana French, Barbara Gowdy, of course. All of these amazing female authors  write the best thriller and drama novels. Liz Nugent is my favorite, I just wish I could make everyone read all her novels. They are the kind you finish and wish to God you had the ability to write something as perfect and terrifying as she can. I admire all of these authors because they are strong, talented women who can create a beautiful story that I fall into and forget the rest of the world around me. That's the goal of a writer, to pull in a reader like that. ​

Route 92 is about stories of survival, of addiction, of letting go, and asking yourself one of life’s biggest questions; what if there was no tomorrow?

Where did you get the idea for your first book? How did it change as you were writing? 
For my first novel, Route 92, I always knew the ending. It came to me while I was trying to fall asleep one night. The hard part was trying to figure out how to get to the ending. I knew I wanted four different women to be the main characters and the point of view would change between them. But who they were, and why people would care to read about them, that was the challenge. I came up with the idea and didn't actually start writing the novel for a few years.

Have you always wanted to write suspense/thrillers? What about this genre captures your attention? 
I always wanted to write suspense\thrillers because it was just what I knew best. I've always been drawn to that genre, so it was natural that I would write similar novels. However, I feel like all three of my novels lean more toward the drama side. I love writing about addiction, or the different dynamics of families. Domestic violence is another topic I have brought up more than once in my novels.

How do you select the names of your characters? 
I love this question. In my first novel, every single character's name (first and last) came from movies I loved. For example, Ally Drexyl. Ally is from the movie Remember Me and Drexyl is from the movie True Romance. I had a lot of fun with that. In my second novel, Confessions, the three girls Bradley, Stevie, and Theo were names that I always loved and imagined naming my daughter, if I ever had one. ​

Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find? What’s something that no one knows about your book? 
Absolutely. One of my sisters read the book and there were little hidden Easter eggs for her everywhere. In my first novel, there is a moment between Krista and her sister where they get pink hair dye on the door and Krista is reminded of her sister that passed away. That was a real moment my sister and I had at one of our houses.

​There are other little things too. I wrote about “Mota street,” which is my best friend's last name. The name of a bar in my first book was Bootleg and that was another inside joke between my best friend and me. The reference to ocean eyes in my second novel was something my boyfriend picked up on right away because I have said that he has ocean eyes. I know people are really paying attention when they bring these things up to me and that's fun. Also, there is one character who shows up in all three novels. It's not important to the story but it's fun when people find him and ask me if it's the same person in my other books. ​

Izzy Calleta never knew her real father; he disappeared before she was born and her older half-sister and her mother claim he vanished one day fifteen years ago, never to be seen or heard from again. But everyone seems to know something she doesn't.

​Something no one knows about my book... my second novel, Confessions, was based on a conversation I had with my two best friends sitting at a skateboard park when I was too young to fully grasp just how much evil there could be in the world. But I was old enough to know that friendship was one of the strongest bonds there is.
​-- Heather Lucinda

This book is about the power of rumors and what happens to a boy when he is told he is a monster over and over and over again. Does a person just become what they are made to believe they are when they are called it so many times?

What is the most difficult part of your artistic process? 
Making myself sit down and write. There are so many distractions and seemingly more fun things to do than sit in an office and write, especially when you don't have anything at that moment you feel like writing.

The other difficult part of my process is that I don't write in a linear timeline. Ever. I'm always coming up with new ideas and writing new storylines and switching from past to future to present. In the end, it's more work to put all those pieces and chapters together in a way that makes sense than anything else. I will actually write each chapter down on a piece of paper and put them on the floor and move them around in a way that flows properly. Then go back and make any small changes to my writing that need to be made. This is so important because I don't want to give anything away before the grand reveal. And sometimes I write the grand reveal before writing the hints and storylines that lead up to that big moment.

---

What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? 
It would have to be The Romantic, by Barbara Gowdy or Little Cruelties, by Liz Nugent. Both are just absolutely perfect novels that I happened upon. ​

Heather Lucinda is 31 years old and lives in Ontario, Canada. She has written three novels of her own and enjoys watching movies as much as she does reading. The writer's taste ranges from horror and 80's comedies to psychological thrillers. One of her favorite things to do is to sit outside her cottage in the sun with a good book. And the self-published author is also a collector of oddities, including various insects and taxidermied animals. You can check out her three novels on Amazon!

Click here to see more about Heather Lucinda's books, Confessions, Route 92, and The Death of Callie Winters.

Connect with Heather Lucinda on Instagram! ​

---

Keywords: #alwaysreading #readmorebooks #bookwormlife #bookpost #readingnook #bookcommunity #readers #secondhandbooks #books #novel #bookworm #tbr #bookstack #bookphoto #bibliophile #booksofig #bookishlove #bookclub #booktography #bookhaul #usedbooks #book #bookalicious #readallthebooks #ebook #sudio #library