Interview with author Holly Rose

Hi everyone!

I had the honor of interviewing the author of one of my recent ARCs, Follow Your Bliss, Holly Rose. I’m going to include a link below to her instagram as well as her website. Follow Your Bliss is out now so please don’t miss it!

website:

https://www.writerhollyrose.com/

instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/writerhollyrose?igsh=MTF4MWpqb3RjMGlxbg==

Enjoy the interview!

❤️Carrie

Can you walk us through your creative process—from the seed of an idea to the final piece?

Often I’ll start with the characters or at least the basic plot setup (like with The Knight of the Trove, it was a lady knight questing with a bookish prince for a magical artifact), and then I have to start thinking about the characters and who they are. I usually sketch them out in sentences and visit Pinterest to (try to) find some non-AI images that remind me of the character. Seeing them really helps me develop their personalities and backstories. Sometimes I’ll fill out (by hand) a really long character questionnaire I made for myself, and other times I’ll just take what I know and start plotting. I use Romancing the Beat as a plotting starting point, but I don’t stick very closely to word count distribution, and the beats are more guidelines for me to think through the story. My plotting docs are usually super long—bulleted paragraphs often up to 20K words—and after I’ve plot the whole thing, I start drafting. I need to get to THE END in the first draft, then let it sit a while, then come back to revise over and over. I use reverse outlines a lot for revision, and usually start back from the beginning making all the changes I want to make.

What inspired Follow Your Bliss?

My childhood Barbie dolls were the first characters I ever created, and Rose is based on one of them—a Sweet Roses PJ, to be exact. But I think she was a model back then? My sister and I were hard core Barbie girls, but she’s older than me and was ready to stop playing with them before I was. I didn’t keep playing with them on my own because half the “cast” disappeared when she outgrew them, so I always felt like their stories were unfinished. In my early twenties I was out of state at an MFA program (also unfinished), and very homesick and anxious. So, I started telling myself stories about my Barbie characters to help calm me down so I could sleep at night. Eventually, Rose was a seamstress who fell in love in a small town with a guy who was renovating his house, and the idea just took off from there years later when I decided to write them as novels. Abby and Heather, Rose’s best friends in the book, are two of my other favorite Barbies, and their stories are forthcoming.

What role does your personal journey play in your storytelling?

My personal journey plays a huge role in my storytelling. Like most other writers, I mine my lifetime of experiences for interesting tidbits, funny things that happened to me, family dynamics from my own family, friends I once had, etc., and all of that often appears in my stories. Rose shares a lot of characteristics with me, at least on a surface level. For example, I also have an anxiety disorder; my Dad also left my mom, big sister, and me when I was very young (although none of the characters in the book are anything like my actual family members); and I actually did go to my senior prom with my sister’s best friend’s brother who I had a crush on in sixth grade (but Jason is not at all based on him—it was just a funny thing that happened to me that sounded like a fun addition to Rose and Jason’s backstory). Writing is also like therapy to me, and I’m certain I’m working on personal issues during the writing of each book.

What is your favorite and least favorite character you’ve written?

My least favorite character might be Rose’s sister, Lily. She’s nothing at all like my real sister (who is so supportive and amazing), and Lily’s pretty much a jerk to her sister for not much reason. I think she needs therapy. My favorite character? That’s a lot harder to choose. But if you’re making me haha, I might say the Dread Dragon Adydorrstea from The Knight of the Trove. She announced herself in my head the day I wrote the introductory chapters to that book, and although she was very bossy about how she was to be portrayed on page, I just love her so much.

Which writers, artists, or movements have most influenced your voice and worldview?

I have to start with Charlotte Brontë, because reading Jane Eyre in the sixth grade made me decide I wanted to write books when I grew up. The language was just so beautiful to me, and I loved it. I wanted to be able to do that. Other influences include Shakespeare (again, the language! I swoon!), the Dragonlance authors, Patricia Wrede, Vivian Vande Velde, Anne Rice (mostly her vampires), and of course JRR Tolkien. I have loved Robin Mckinley’s books (The Hero and the Crown may be my favorite book of all time), and I went through a huge retold fairy tales stage in my twenties when I worked at Barnes & Noble. That’s also when I started reading romance; in particular I enjoyed Julia Quinn of Bridgerton fame. More recently, reading Talia Hibbert’s Brown Sisters Books was a breath of fresh air for me and hugely inspirational. I love her characters so much, and she never fails to make me laugh out loud.

Has there ever been a piece of yours that surprised you with its impact or reception?

I was absolutely thrilled with the reception The Knight of the Trove got. I wrote it back in 2019, queried it extensively, was in limbo with an agent for four years (yes, four) during which time I revised it again and re-queried it again in 2023/24. Over a hundred agents and one publisher passed on it (some of them twice, despite many saying “you’re a great writer; I’m sure you’re very close to finding an agent”). But I loved the story so much and was determined that it wouldn’t sit on the shelf. I decided last summer to self-publish it, and the positive reader response to that story was such a shot in the arm. Readers loved it as much as I did! It came at a time when I really needed the validation and encouragement to keep publishing.

What does your ideal writing space look like, and how does it help nurture your creativity?

My ideal writing space would probably be in a posh treehouse with windchimes and a fountain, a cozy nap spot, and plenty of room for my books and lots of quiet. But that doesn’t exist, unfortunately! I wrote my first two published books pre-COVID during my work lunchtime at busy restaurants (I love the percussive nature of restaurant noise, the usually classic rock music, and all the background chatter), and now I write from a desk shoved in a corner of my living room (where I also do my day job) since my house doesn’t have an extra room for an office. I couldn’t make it without headphones because the family TV is maybe 20 feet from me and usually on. But I love my writing desk, which I made myself (I’m a bit of a woodworker), and I like to have Diet Coke or water on hand at all times. When the weather in south Louisiana is not sweltering or freezing and relatively free of mosquitoes (so, April and October?), I love writing on my back patio. Being outside just makes me feel more creative, and my windchimes are one of the best things I ever bought.

What advice would you give to emerging writers who want to write with authenticity and heart?

My best advice would be to write what you love, and not what you think you should be writing or what the market is hungry for. The market is fickle, and you’ll pretty much never be on time for a trend unless it’s by coincidence. But when you’re truly enjoying what you’re writing, that shines into your words. When I drafted Follow Your Bliss, I would sit there typing and grinning at my computer screen. That’s how I know when I’m writing something that’s authentic to me and that I believe in. Because when you’re not into what you’re writing, the readers won’t be either. I think it also helps to let at least one of your characters share your opinions and worldview so you have a place to express those. I’m not about writing nasty, small-minded, prejudiced people (not as MCs, anyway), because I can’t stand them in real life. I want to write the good I want to see in the world. Write honestly and write with love and enjoyment.

Are you someone who DNFs a book if you’re not enjoying it or are you a completionist?

I am 100% behind DNFing a book that I’m not enjoying. Life’s too short, and my TBR is way too long. Not every book is for every person—just go read some of the 1-star reviews of your favorite books (as a bonus, this is a helpful thing to do if you’re a writer). Just because a book’s not for me doesn’t mean it’s not a good book for lots of other people. But I read for enjoyment, so I stop reading if I’m not enjoying it. I also sometimes accidentally DNF a book—mostly nonfiction—just because I got busy and forgot I was reading it. 😬

Looking ahead, what themes or projects are calling to you next?

This is all very ambitious because I have a full time job, but right now, I’m working on my super-secret anthology contribution that’s slated for publication later this year. After that’s drafted, I’m going to revise my completed first draft of The Prince of the Outsiders, which is the follow-up to The Knight of the Trove. I plan to have that out in the fall as well. And in between revisions of that book, I’ll be revising When Horses Fly (the follow-up to Follow Your Bliss) because it’s already written, but there are some changes I want to make before publishing it. I’m hoping for late 2025, early 2026 on that one. And I haven’t forgotten about the Interstellar Witches series! My plan is to fit that in too—you know, somewhere between midnight and 4am (as my mom jokes where the “extra” time lives). 😉