Author Interview with Abigail Rhoeas
Introducing storyteller and writer, Abigail Rhoeas.
Q: What do you want readers to know about your writing?
A: My stories are crazy. I like to play with fate, and defy the laws of science as well as coherent chemistry. There are those who say I write too long, there are those who say I talk about unnecessary things (personally, I think they are right sometimes). There are those who say I am good with suspense, there are others who say I write poetically, there are those who say I am the kind of person who sits down in front of the keyboard and pours out their thoughts on paper without difficulty, there are those who say my paragraphs are unrivaled. Maybe all of this is true, maybe not, but I think the truth about my stories is that it doesn’t matter if they are magnificent or not, the purpose of my stories is to make you feel, experience and think. And… I think that although I still have a lot to learn both in my writing and in real life, I have managed to master the art of transmitting emotions through words. Most of what I write is fiction, except for the parts that aren't, and although at some point in history my novels were written for the pleasure of the algorithm, that's part of the past and I can promise you that, with God's help, my stories will be clean, healthy and with the purpose of promoting good thoughts that glorify our Lord.
Q: What do you want readers to know about you?
A: I'm not really sure, I guess the main thing is to let them know I'm alive. I know it might sound funny, but I'm serious. Most of my favorite authors are dead and that's not so fun when I wish I could send them a letter, tell them how much I liked their stories or debate with them about interests we have in common. Maybe I won't become your favorite author, maybe I will, but that's not my point. My point is that I'm alive, and it doesn't matter if you read my novels, my newsletter, my notes or my to-do list, I want you to know that you can respond to each one and I'll be more than happy to respond. Especially if it's to tell me that you don't agree with what I've said, I need to practice my debate skills! (Yes, I need to learn how to say my opinion without making an enemy, hehe).
Q: Why do you write? What motivates you to get your fingers on the keyboard?
A: Why do I write? Well, I think answering this question has never been easy for anyone because, truth be told, there are always more than two reasons why we write, but I will choose to talk about the most important one for me. I write because God gave me a passion for telling stories. Ever since I can remember, stories have been something I wholeheartedly enjoy. The excitement, the adventure, and the unknown have always been elements that completely captivate me. One day I discovered that I could write and tell my own stories, live my own adventures, explore my own discoveries, and since then I have told so many stories that I have lost count.
What motivates me to keep typing? Years ago I would have said it is because I wanted my books to be published, but now things have changed, and I would say that one of the things that most motivates me to keep writing is Evil. I know it may sound strange, but writing is the way I can fight the Enemy. God gave me a sword to fight with, and now that I know that, I will use it to defend what I believe in. Writing is my sword. And I will not hesitate to use it if my Lord calls me to battle.
Q: How long have you been writing?
A: Uh, well…, for almost thirteen years. I started very young, when I was six years old and I was just starting to learn how to spell B-I-R-D. I still remember that day like it was yesterday. I was doing my reading lessons with my mom and the next activity I had to do was to tell a story based on the picture in the textbook. So I told my mom a story about three ants who worked hard during the summer while the other animals in the jungle made fun of them for working when there was plenty of food around them. Winter came, and the animals in the jungle had nothing to eat because they hadn't bothered to collect food, except for the ants, who enjoyed a great treat all winter. The other animals apologized to the ants and the following summer they collected their own food. The feeling I had when I finished telling the story and saw it turned into letters on my mom's computer was indescribable. Joy, excitement, and desire, all at once. I couldn't fully read what it said, but I knew for a fact what it meant, and I guess from that moment on I knew that storytelling was my thing.
Q: Do you prefer self-publishing or traditional publishing? Why?
A: I think it depends on the context we're talking about. Traditional publishing is a marvel and an art, and I would choose it because it's a company whose purpose is to produce, promote, and sell your work. If I were to choose traditional publishing it would be because they would do all the work that I'm not good at, especially in the marketplace. The problem with traditional publishing is that their main interest is money, they produce to sell, not to provide. Therefore, they will often demand that you change certain parts of your work in order for it to sell, they don't care about your morals and much less about your beliefs. That's where self-publishing comes in. You are your own boss, no one tells you how to do your work and you are not bound by agendas. The difficult thing about self-publishing is that you have to do all the work yourself. The good thing is that nowadays it's much easier to access private editors, cover creators, beta readers, and much more. That lightens the work a lot and makes it more bearable. Oh yes, and you have to pay for those services, which can be expensive depending on what quality you want the work to be. So which of these two do I prefer? Even though it's a lot of work, I've decided to start with self-publishing. Perhaps, in the future, if the right opportunity presents itself, I'd be willing to sign a contract with a publishing house.
Q: In what genre(s) do you typically write? Would you like to branch out and try new genres?
A: I used to write a lot of classic Victorian drama, children's stories, and fairy tales. Then I experimented with romance and most of it was a disaster. I learned a lot of things, but I'm sure I could have learned them differently. I will never go back to writing romance as a main genre in my life, dramance is a thousand times better and I think I'm good at it. I want to get better at fantasy and science fiction! I love discovering new things, so I plan to improve my skills in these two genres in the coming years. Maybe I'll add other genres later, I never close myself off to possibilities!
Q: Are you currently working on anything new?
A: It's not really new, but I'm working on three different novels at the same time. The first one is a fantasy novel and was the very first novel I started writing, the second one is the first book in a science fiction trilogy I started a year ago but put on hold for several months. And the third one is my first dramance novel, which I started at the end of July last year.
Q: Imagine it’s a typical Sunday afternoon for you. What are you doing?
A: My family and I have been missionaries under a missionary association called New Tribes Mission (now renamed Ethnos360) for over fifteen years. One of the policies of this association is to create “Mission Teams” of at least two families so that that team can go and share the Gospel among the indigenous people of the sierra. So a typical Sunday afternoon in my life is about meeting with our teammates to discuss the needs of the church and what the next step is. These meetings have been modified over the years according to the needs of the moment, but in the last two years we usually start at five in the afternoon, we eat, talk, and finish at eight. Sometimes it is necessary to extend the meeting a little longer. These meetings have always been a delight for me, especially when our old teammates were still here. Now that they have gone to another place to do ministry and another family has come to serve with us, I must confess that I miss my old teammates. We were like a family.
Q: Describe your writing routine.
A: Wait… Is there a routine!? Nah, I’m just kidding haha. My lifestyle has always been pretty unpredictable, so my routine has changed on more than one occasion, but lately I’ve been trying to wake up early, freshen up, and write for an hour, sometimes a little longer. I haven’t been able to master this routine, I’d say it’s because of a lack of responsibility, but it’s also been for other reasons beyond my control. The goal is to get into the habit of writing like I used to, maybe not the same amount due to my current responsibilities, but with the same frequency as before. I can usually sit down from time to time throughout the day and write a little more or edit what I wrote earlier.
Q: What are your other interests outside of writing?
A: Phew, I have SO MANY! Gastronomy, homeopathy, biology, science, history, mathematics, agriculture, ranch life… And I could go on, and on, and on… Reading is obviously another thing I love to do, traveling is a delight, and music is part of my daily life.
Q: Does your faith play a part in your writing life? Why or why not?
A: I would say that at first it wasn't. I think my faith was, and is, very strong, but I never connected it to my writing before. It was like my real life was one thing and my writing life was something else entirely. In a way it is, but I've been through some experiences these past two years and I believe that God is working in me through my passion for writing. I now understand that although the tasks of a writer are different from those I have as a person, absolutely everything I do has to do with my faith and how I demonstrate it in my actions and decisions.
Q: If you could use one word to describe your writing life, what would it be? Do you have a favorite word in the dictionary or thesaurus?
A: If I had to describe my writing life in one word, I would say that it is «unpredictable». My plans, my storytelling style, even my goals can change in the blink of an eye. Yes I do have a favorite word! My favorite word is: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (not so sure it's officially in the dictionary, but there you have it!).
Q: What was the inspiration behind your last piece of writing? Where can we find it?
A: I don't know! It all started with a contest on a website. The question was to write a story of up to 1,200 words that told a story where bread was part of it. To be honest, I have no idea where it came from, I just sat down in front of a blank page and the words just flowed. It was as if the story had always been inside me, sleeping, waiting for the right moment to come out. That's how my short story called ROSE BREAD came out. For those curious, I didn't win (actually I made sure I wasn't qualified to win). But I received some really good feedback that encouraged me a lot and now that story has become something like the prologue of my current dramance WIP. You can download it for free in PDF or EPUB at
https://freeditorial.com/
! The original version is in Spanish, but the English version is already available. Just type “ROSE BREAD” or Abigail Rhoeas in the search bar on the website and follow the prompts to download it.
English Version: Rose Bread
Spanish Version: Pan De Rosas
Q: Are there any books or authors that you would compare to your writing style?
A: I guess in some ways I'm a cocktail of many writers who have influenced my writing. However, I think it also depends on the genre I'm writing. If I'm writing fantasy, for example, I think my style is very similar to C.S. Lewis. If I'm writing a classic Victorian drama, L.M. Alcott or Charles Dickens. I don't have much experience with science fiction, so I haven't found "my voice" in that genre yet. But in general I think my writing style could be compared to the style Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera used in "The Awakening of Miss Prim."
Q: Do you have plans for future books?
A: I have hundreds, more than I can count on both hands. One of them is to finish writing my fantasy novel and self-publish it… maybe… in November? I don’t know, man makes plans and God says yes or no. But as long as I don’t get denied, that’s what I plan on. I’m really excited about it because it’s the first novel I started writing, when I was eight years old, but I’ve rewritten it like seven times and I never get past chapter four. I feel like this is finally the year! I also have other non-fiction projects in mind that I can’t wait to start. I think they’ll be good stories to share with the world and bring some hope to this broken humanity.
Q: What themes and morals do you like to explore in your writing?
A: I LOVE writing about love, hope, courage, honor, freedom and faith. Creating familiar environments is something I constantly do in my stories, especially between siblings. As for themes that I like to explore, I take as a possibility any complicated situation that challenges the characters, especially the main one. It can be difficult to talk about certain topics, but with practice and perseverance it is possible to achieve it.
Q: If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?
A: Don't be afraid to love, be afraid of not being able to love. It is better to love in the midst of fear and uncertainty than not to love at all.
Q: If you could give one piece of advice to new writers, what would it be?
A: I'm a fiction writer, so I guess I'd be speaking to writers who want to follow this same path. Here's my advice: if you're a Christian, don't keep Christ out of your writing. I don't mean that you should write stories that speak directly about Christ, nor do I mean that you should write allegories—I haven't even written those kinds of stories myself. What I mean is, don't think that just because writing is "human stuff," that God isn't in your writing every second. Whenever you're naming a character, He's there. Whenever you're starting a new chapter, He's there. Whenever you're deciding whether or not to have your character go through a situation, He's there. If you're on the fence about writing something, He's there. The Lord is everywhere, and that includes your writing. And the best way to include Christ in your writing is by reading the Bible, praying, and letting the Holy Ghost speak to you.
As a technical tip for new writers, I'd say that a good way to start is by writing short stories. People give up quickly when they don't see immediate results, we live in a society where the immediate fruit of our work is what defines our success. If you don't have immediate results, you're not successful, right? Don't believe it, don't want to run before you can walk, relax. Rome wasn't built in a day, and yet men laid a stone every day. Short stories are like that, they're like the stones on Roman streets. Experiencing a beginning, an end, and an end without much effort can give you that culmination and excitement you need to feel when you finish creating something. Yes, that means you might have to write one-page stories with five three-line paragraphs and make inexperienced drawings describing each of the scenes that the paragraphs represent. That's how I started, and it worked. Maybe it will help you too.
Q: Who are some of your favorite authors?
A: C. S. Lewis, Jane Austen, Alejandre Dumas, Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, & L. M. Alcott.
Q: What are some of your favorite genres?
A: In case it's not clear already, DRAMA. Second, fantasy. Third, science fiction. And… I don't know what else to mention. Those are my top three.
Q: Do you have a top 5 favorites for books?
A: Of course! I'm probably one of the strange people who knows for sure what their favorite books are, but that doesn't matter. Here are mine (in order from most favorite to least favorite):
1. The Witch of Blackbird Pond - By Elizabeth George Speare
2. The Book Thief - By Markus Zusak
3. The Awakening of Miss Prim - By Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera
4. The Three Musketeers - By Alexandre Dumas
5. ROUGE - By Abigail Rhoeas (hehe yeah, that's me. What? Can't I like my own book? I bet I can)
Q: Do you have any tips for writer’s block?
A: Pray. If you are a Christian writer, pray. And pray constantly, pray fervently. As I said before, Christ is in our writing all the time, that includes when we have writer's block. On the other hand, if there's one thing I've learned about writer's block and homeopathy, it's that they have more in common than you might imagine. According to the philosophy of homeopathy, illness is not something that just happens out of nowhere, it's the result of what you decide to do or not do. If we think of writer's block as a kind of illness of the soul, then that means that the problem is not the writer's block, but what led to it and the kind of medicine you're using to try to exterminate it. Homeopathy also says that every patient is different, even if two people have the same illness, so it would be completely normal if it turns out that one method of healing works for one and not for the other. So, if you have writer's block, chances are you didn't make the best decisions in the past. The good news is that there is a cure, and if I know anything about writer's block, it's that the cure isn't writing. I know that sounds weird and illogical because you want to write and finish the damn book, right? I used to think the same thing, but I realized that I was doing everything backwards and that the solution is out there, in my normal life. I can't tell you what's not working right in your life, but I can say with almost complete certainty that there's something wrong with it. Don't write, stop, put down your pen, look up from the white paper and look up. The answer isn't on a blank page, there's nothing there, it's empty. There are more colors in life than just white, you just have to look up from time to time and contemplate the sunset. Maybe you won't find the answer there either, but at least you'll have remembered that there are other colors. And then, with those colors in hand, you can go back to the blank page and fill it with them.
Q: What would you say to an author that feels they are not good enough to write?
A: If I'm REALLY honest, I've never been there. BUT I have been/am in a phase where knowing I'm good at writing makes me doubt my current abilities. And yes, it's a feeling that sucks, especially since nothing seems to make sense. As I told a friend recently, I'm good with prose, spelling and grammar (in my native language), and conveying feelings. But the more I look around me, the more I realize that I don't know a lot of things—I don't know the facts, I don't know the subject matter, I don't know my surroundings—and I think that's the missing part of understanding that I'm “good enough to write.” Because yes, though presented differently and prompted by different reasons, I also feel like I'm not good enough. So what would I say to someone who feels the same way? That, indeed, they are not good enough. But not because they can't achieve it, not because they lack the ability, but because they're not there yet. I know the truth hits hard, but it is the truth; Cold, raw, irrefutable. On the other hand, our inner perfectionist will never let us believe we've reached the goal, and in a way, we never will because the only one capable of possessing absolute perfection is God. Something that has helped me a lot is to stop thinking about perfectionism and think more about excellence. That word sounds better and much more accessible. So, in short, when you feel like you're not good enough, it's because you're certainly not good enough in an area. Look for that area, and when you find it, do what you need to do to bring it to excellence and maintain the habit. Then you'll find another area to improve in, and the same cycle will repeat itself over and over again until, generally speaking, you have achieved excellence. Not perfection, but excellence. And remember, the only one capable of being perfect is Christ. If anyone can give us perfect excellence, it's Him.
Q: Any final thoughts?
A: I am deeply honored to be a part of this interview! In addition to having fun answering the questions, I have been blessed to get to know Aaron and his work. He is such a huge inspiration and encouragement. His friendship frequently reminds me that even though things may not be going so well, giving up is not even an option. It reminds me who our art is for and that our art has value because of what Christ did for us, not what our art does to us. And as Aaron always says, keep painting those words & mind how ya go!
P.S. Forget everything I said about my writing plans—I still want to pursue those plans, but for now, I'm taking a LONG, much-needed break. I need to take a step back, rest, recharge, and get ready for war. If all continues to go as well as it has been, I'll likely be back in the fray before the end of the year. See you soon, dear pen!
List links to social media or websites where people can find you:
Sorry guys, I live under a rock. 🙃 All social media I have is Gmail, Substack and… yeah, that's it. Oh, and my profile on the website where you can download hundreds of free books in PDF or EPUB, but I'm not sure that counts as a social network.
My profile on Freeditorial:
https://freeditorial.com/es/books/filter-author/abigail-rhoeas
My Substack:
In case you missed it, here is a link to a poem entitled Notions of Emotion, from Author Acrostics where Abigail’s writing was highlighted.
Feel free to click the ❤️ on this post & share🔁so more people can discover it on Substack. Thank you! Keep painting those words, & mind how you go.
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Thanks for this incredible opportunity!!