Author Interview: Rebecca Lemke
A few words with YA dystopian author, Rebecca Lemke
Some of you may know Rebecca Lemke from Twitter or Facebook, though her Twitter was sadly shut down for lack of use. She is a YA author, a painter, a crochet artist, a homeschooling mom, and one of my favorite people on this earth. Seriously, she’s really great. She did me the honor of answering some questions about her life and work. I hope you’ll be entertained by her responses.
Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? Where do you live now? What did you want to be when you grew up?
Hi! I’m Rebecca!
I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma and still live in Oklahoma. The wind doesn’t exactly come sweeping down the plains here, it really embodies the Kool-Aid man, actually.
I wanted to be a paleontologist when I grew up, and an astronaut, and a dream interpreter like Joseph in the Bible, and…perhaps these should’ve been the first signs of budding ADHD tendencies ;)
What made you want to start writing? What motivates you to keep writing?
My now-husband once gave me the space to when I was a teenager. He was so incredibly supportive and made me a blog. He read everything I wrote. Having just a single person genuinely invested was all I needed to get started.
I have a really amazing fan-base for my books now and they are great motivation to keep going. They encourage and perpetually request the next book in various ways (yelling, pestering, or polite asking – all valid).
Honestly though, I do believe in the concept of a muse or multiple muses. This thing or things that whisper inspiration for the thread of a story. Like a gentle breeze. I regret all the times I don’t take notice or don’t write down when these things come. I’m in love with the stories I work on, because of the characters and who they are. It’s an honor to take something that only exists as a whisper and make it solid and real for anyone to see and witness. That’s magical to me.
What is your latest book about?
My latest book is a YA dystopian that is the third in its series. It’s about living in uncertain times where you don’t know what’s true, you don’t know what the future holds, and figuring out how to handle that, together. The theme centers around resilience and how everyone handles stress and trauma differently. There is also a healthy dose of science gone too far.
When did you start writing (originally, not this specific book)?
I think I was around 15. I wrote a mix or fiction and non-fiction, I was very interested in sociology and psychology at the time and enjoyed working through questions I had in written form. With the occasional fairytale thrown in (which is funny because I haven’t touched that genre…yet ;) )
How did you come up with the idea for this book specifically?
The series itself started as a series of reoccurring dreams during a time when I was really struggling health-wise. That’s not uncommon for me in my writing process for dreams to be the start of a book or a series. I have one book that started because of a coat my husband bought me. It’s really quite incredible how things start sometimes!
This third book draws inspiration from the previous books and from places I’ve traveled. I actually have a few snippets written from the original rough draft of book two that got moved to book three in the process of sifting everything. Mentally walking down the streets that this book is set in is so interesting because they’ve existed for me since about 2016, and while the story has changed, the location hasn’t at all. It really feels like visiting a real place for the last seven years.
What was it like writing your first book? How was this book different than any of your others?
Writing my first book was chaotic. I lean toward pants-ing as a writing style, though my non-fiction has historically been more structured.
My first nonfiction book was a novella and almost half of it (11,000 words) were written in a single night at 2am. My first fiction book (the start of the series) I had to claw and scrap for every piece of it in the midst of a lot of awful things happening. It was written as a serial on my blog at the time, one chapter a week until I hit the halfway point. It was in first person. Then years later I rewrote it in third person and released it. Then I wrote book two in third person and at the very last minute, I rewrote it in first person. It was a huge risk, but it was worth it. Now I’m writing book three and right now I’m just discovery writing around plot points, but some of it is in third person and some in first person. Every book is different for me!
How did you go about publishing your book? Would you do it that way again? Why or why not?
I self-published, though I had the opportunity to go traditional afterward. I turned it down. I’ve witnessed a lot, both for myself and with friends in the traditional side of things. I love self-publishing, and I have worked with traditional on smaller projects, but I prefer self-publishing at this point in time.
Are you planning on writing more? If so what are you working on now? / When is your next book going to be coming out?
Yes! This series is set to be seven books long. I also have several other fiction books in various stages. Right now we are looking at the end of this year for the release of book three and I hope to have another book called Air Hunger out by the end of this year as well!
Can you tell us about your other books?
So I currently have a fantasy project in the works, a fiction book about a cult (Air Hunger), a portal fiction book, and some other writing projects that I hope to adapt to audio. This past year has been a struggle, so my publishing schedule is definitely behind right now but I am still hopeful to catch back up.
What helps you to write? Music, pets, reading, specific pen, etc.?
Music, a dead phone, sleep-deprivation, coffee. I do have colored pens that I absolutely love and my favorite currently is neon yellow.
What has writing taught you?
There are certain things that even the most evil, vile human beings on the planet cannot take from you. Creativity and hope are always there, even when they look different from day to day.
What authors inspire you?
Margaret Haddix and Coble Collen! They both have had prolific careers, often in multiple genres. They both explore difficult topics and I think they do it well.
Do you go back and reread your writing after it’s been completed?
Yes I do! I narrate my books for audio, so I have to. But I also occasionally pick up a copy and just read a little. After a while, I forget what I’ve written and I’m a little surprised that I wrote them! That makes it pretty fun.
What is your advice for writers?
Write in the dark. It’s easier to avoid criticizing your work that way. It helps to block out the world and distractions, at least for me.
Is there anything else you want to add?
Not that I can think of ☺
You can purchase Rebecca Lemke’s books by clicking or tapping the image below.
Thank you for reading and enjoy your week!