Meet The Authors Showcase Edition #3 (3 of 3)

A showcase with @pixelmum, author of: The Sigma Asset

1 what inspired the idea of your story?

I'd wanted to write about musical discovery for a while, but no character or plot seemed to work well with story planning. A character and plot came along after I'd read a couple of "mafia boss" style books on Wattpad which were gritty and thrilling, but inspired me to write something with more diverse characters and a little trope-busting. I'd wanted to write a book featuring a Korean main character for a while, but opportunity didn't arise until I started planning The Sigma Asset. I've worked all over the world, and I'm particularly familiar with South Korean people and culture. The country is unique and the culture is brimming with compelling thematic topics for a writer to explore, and lots of paradoxes (as you can tell if you're a fan of K-dramas). 

2 what is something you struggled constructing with your story?

The world of organized crime is quite far from my usual writing comfort zone (i.e. hard sci-fi that nobody reads!), and writing about topics I found disturbing and upsetting was tough but worth it, because I was determined to portray the characters' experiences sensitively and realistically. 

3 what did you enjoy writing most of your story?

I loved writing the musical symbolism, motifs and imagery because this was the most indulgent part of the book for me, but I was careful not to overload readers with musical vocab, since I wanted the music to be a vehicle to convey the romantic elements of the book.  

4 what's the overall response of your story from your readers?

My book seems to suit people who don't read strict romance novels but want a large chunk of the plot to be about the complexities of relationships. Although most of my readers are bxb fans, or LGBTQ+ readers, an awful lot of them aren't, and simply enjoyed the slow-burn romance, motifs and imagery. The remainder of readers expected a mafia book, but were pleased to find genre-typical problematic tropes subverted. 

5 is your story a stand alone novel or a piece of a series ?

It's a standalone book, but I did enjoy writing a crime drama, so may write these again in the future.

6 what would you like your readers to take away from your story?

If you're not a genre-loyal reader, but want to read something that has a bit of romance, action, mystery, drama and humor, then this is probably the book for you. Also, if you're not a member of the queer community and aren't sure about trying a book with queer representation, this might be an easy book to try.  

7 what advice would you provide to fellow writers, when it comes to focusing on their own story?

Get a small, tight group of alpha/beta readers whose work you love, and share your work together honestly. Having a trusted, supportive group will help you to take your book through redrafts and edits. As wonderful as Wattpad is to reach a large number of readers, if you have more than a handful of betas giving you developmental comments on your draft, you may end up compromising your artistic vision and story ideas to please them. The Sigma Asset is still a first draft on Wattpad, and I am editing offline. I really appreciate reader comments and suggestions, and often they are very astute and will improve the book, but I always try to keep the focus on my favorite reader: myself.

8 does your main character share any similarities to yourself?

Not really. Zephyr is very similar to a lot of writers though; he's hard-working, witty, and learns fast, but he seems very unaware of quite how extraordinary a person he is. 

9 what is something about your story you believe would draw in new readers?

The story is written in a very informal register; Zephyr is recounting his adventures as if he is telling his life story over a beer with his best mates. There is no need to put yourself into any literary mode to start reading. Hopefully Zephyr's voice will spin the yarn around you!

10 do you have any future projects?

I'm currently writing a DC Robin fanfiction ("Something Wicked" updates weekly, to be completed in early September) featuring typical Batman-style mayhem, forbidden love, a hilariously outlandish plot, and a demon. It's set in a DC alternate universe so you don't have to know anything about DC comics to read it. I am not familiar with fanfiction and this is my first time writing it, so I'm interested in what people make of it.

I'm also writing a sci-fi novella ("Verdant Ink" updates weekly, to be completed mid-August) about a troubled woman terraforming new planets for a strict post-Earth regime, who must protect her beautiful and mysterious protege from powerful alien life-forms, and from the regime itself.

I'm plotting and planning a Welsh-Jamaican sapphic near-future spy comedy too. It's as insane as it sounds.