So what have all those unpublished books or the false starts, what have they taught you about becoming a writer?

Oh, so much.

I truly think had it been easy for me and my first book that I wrote at 12 or 13 years old got published, I wouldn't be the writer that I am today because the constant rejection, as you can imagine, really taught me a lot of resilience and it taught me, yeah, persistence.

I just, if one book would get rejected, I'd just start writing another.

Like I, I, By the time that that was sort of getting rejected and I realized it maybe wasn't going to be published, I'd already have the next thing ready.

And so I was just constantly writing, writing, writing.

And I knew that one day it would pay off.

Yeah, definitely the latter.

Tell me, when you come up with an idea for a book, do you have a process to get that from idea to finished manuscript?

I don't.

So I know some writers, I think you're either a planner or a pantser, and I am definitely a pantser.

I...

It's been the same with all of my novels, so I don't think it's ever gonna change, but basically I'll just think of an idea and I'll sit with it for a little bit, maybe write some like notes in my notes app.

Um, I'm a big fan of dialogue, so I'll imagine dialogue that'll be in a scene like, um, halfway through the book.

Like I'll just start thinking of scenes and start, um, sort of visualizing the book, and then when it gets time to write it I will just sit there and write as much as I can, and it usually gets to about like a third of the book.

[laughs]