Hello and welcome to our May interview.
My name is Diana and I am going to spend some time with the beautiful ESHurricane, talking about her, her amazing story Bloodlines (The book of the month of May), and more.
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Di: For our followers who are not familiar with you and your work, tell us who ESHurricane is, please. What you are comfortable sharing of course.
Em: Hi, I'm Emily! I'm an east coast Canadian mom of two tiny humans, and I'm a freelance ghostwriter and editor as well as a self-published erotica and romance author. I also really like pumpkin pie.
Di: It seems like a busy, busy life! ESHurricane is such a dynamic pen name. How did you come up with it?
Em: One of my favourite cars is the Lamborghini Huracan, and my dad made an offhand comment one day about how Huracan would be a cool pen name. It kinda stuck with me and when I joined Wattpad in 2015, Hurricane was born! I didn't want to get sued haha.
Di: Haha, smart move, and what a name! What motivated you to become an author? Were you writing before you discovered Wattpad, or was Wattpad your starting point?
Em: Oh man, I have these little construction paper books from when I was like four years old. 😂 Story has always been a huge part of my life. I spent some of my early to mid-twenties not writing because I was afraid (of course making excuses that I had no time and needed a 'real job'), but it took coming to Wattpad (and becoming a parent) to really kickstart my hardcore determination to chase my dreams.
Di: Leaving out your little paper books from your four years old period. Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?
Em: I did some short stories throughout my childhood but my favourite early one was when I was twelve I wrote a horror novella about all the kids in my class escaping a serial killer. 😂
Di: You are definitely my kind of people! You mentioned you ghostwrite, do an editorial job, and self-publish? How do you juggle all three? Can you tell us more about the ups and downs of the three?
Em: I have no idea how I juggle, haha! I think I can manage because it doesn't feel like work to me. I set a monthly word goal and chip away at it every day. 🙂 Some days are harder than others to make time, but I get through!
As far as ups and downs...
Ghosting is nice because it's lucrative. It's challenging to write in other author's voices, but I enjoy the challenge. Editing is a ton of fun because I get to help polish up a story into the best it can be! Excited clients with shiny stories make me happy. And writing for me has become so much more fluid because writing for myself is so freeing getting to just do my own thing. So it's a symbiotic relationship, haha!
Di: It does sound like that. One can give you a break from the other and everything feels fresh in the end! What is, in your opinion, the most unethical practice in the publishing industry?
Em: Ah, this is a loaded question. I think I'd have to say the fact that trad publishing requires so much from authors for so little. Obviously not all publishers are as bad but I've seen some horrific contracts where the authors have to do all of the marketing and make pennies on royalties, while giving away so many rights. Might as well self publish you know?
Di: Following on the publishing topic. To go and self-publish a work one has to believe in themselves. Nothing wrong with that. But do you think a big ego help or hurt writers in general?
Em: Another loaded question. 😂 I think there's definitely a line between being confident in your work and having an ego. In my experience writers are mostly really supportive and excited to grow and learn together, but of course, there are some that don't feel they need improvement and look down on those that do. That kind of behaviour is toxic not only to the community but to themselves, imho. People are always going to need stories to entertain them. There's no sense trying to cut others down to try to get to the 'top'.
Di: Here on Wattpad, we are in an almost daily "personal" contact with other writers. Do they help you become a better writer? If yes, how?
Em: Definitely! Being a writer is kind of a lonely business, because we do it all alone. Being in a community like Wattpad helps counteract that. Not only does reader engagement feel good, it's also really helpful to see just what is resonating with readers. And for me, I've made some amazing friends! Not to mention the amount of skilled editors I've met along the way. Peer critique with other writers is the most constructive thing you can do, especially for early drafts. Learning by accepting critiques and having to give them helps tighten up your writing in the future. We never stop learning and growing and building our craft. And it's way more enriching to do it with others, at least that's how I feel.
Di: You mentioned reader engagement helps a lot as well. What do your fans mean to you?
Em: Oh man so much. It's so humbling when people read my stories. There's nothing like uploading a chapter and then having people comment excitement or anguish at the moments that made me feel that way too. And I'm so so grateful for those that take the time to give good feedback too, asking questions and finding inconsistencies that I didn't know were there. I'd still put my stories into the void without that, but every single reader gives me the warm and fuzzies. 💗
Di: Where is your favorite place to write?
Em: Anywhere quiet, haha! I do a lot of work at home either with kiddos underfoot or having to keep an ear out if they're sleeping. So the rare times that I can be on my own and fully focus is the best. I think my favourite is probably this stone bench by the river if I can go on a bit of a hike. Although I can only sit there for so long before I get uncomfortable, haha!
Di: Talking about the time, how many hours a day do you write?
Em: I try to use words as goals instead of time because it's harder to track if it's a day where I'm typing on my phone for five minutes at a time, haha! I like to hit at least 3500 words per day, on average. I keep a spreadsheet to track, and I use an average so that I'm not too bummed if I can't hit my goal one day. As long as my average per day is over 3500 then I know I'm still on track.
Di: 3500 words per day? Very nice! Also, since you mentioned that quiet time is not a privilege you can really count on, does writing energize or exhaust you?
Em: Definitely energizes. I mean, sometimes I'm exhausted and it's not easy per se but writing is such an outlet for me and helps shut my brain off so it's always worth it after for my mental health too.
Di: That sounds amazing. Tell us about your writing process and the way you brainstorm story ideas. When you develop characters do you already know who they are before you begin writing or do you let them develop as you go?
Em: It depends on the project. I used to be a hardcore pantser, hitting the blank page with a vague idea of what the story would be. I loved it because it definitely brought in a nice flow and the experience was so fluid and natural.
When I started ghostwriting, I had to learn to outline and plot to the nines because my clients wanted specific things and I didn't want to start writing until they approved what I was going to write. And it definitely streamlined the process having a road map for what I was writing. When I realized what my output could be with an outline, I started dabbling in it for myself and realized that it's way easier to use that for my personal process. I do some pantsing still for short stories and I have a few unfinished things just hanging out, but anything that I'm planning on finishing (especially within a certain time frame) I outline extensively.
That isn't to say that I don't let the story do what it wants, though. I have a good idea of who the characters are when I start but often times when I get rolling they grow and change in different ways and I have to adapt. This happened in a huge way with a lot of characters in Bloodlines, haha! But that's the fun of writing, when the story and characters surprise me.
Di: In your opinion, what's the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?
Em: Authenticity! I'm always second-guessing whether they're realistic. I don't know what it's like to be a dude, haha! I'm thankful that I have lots of male writer friends to read my stuff and make sure I'm not off base.
With erotica, it's a little easier because my niches tend to be female-centric, so it's more serving the female fantasy of how they would want the male characters to be. But in my long form fiction, I want to make sure that the characters are realistic and believable, no matter the gender.
I recently wrote a non-binary character in Bloodlines (Dru, who ended up being one of my very favourites by the end), and I had a few non-binary betas reading and answering questions for me which was super helpful. I want to give representation but I want it to be accurate.
Di: Out of the protagonists you've written about so far, which one do you feel you relate to the most?
Em: Seph for sure, haha! A lot of her story is very autobiographical, and no I'm not going to say which parts. 😉 I put a lot of myself into my stories but Seph is very relatable to who I was in my younger years.
Di: You've mentioned Bloodlines, our book of the month for May, a few times now. I think it's time to talk about it a little 😁. I said it in my review, but for those who might not read it, I'll repeat, Bloodlines starts with the global pandemic, though I know you started the story way before the covid19 hit us. How did you come up with the idea for Bloodlines?
Em: I'm psychic! Haha just kidding, I really just wanted to write an end of the world story but I didn't want zombies. Zombies are fun and all, but with post-apocalyptic stories my favourite part is always the issues between the living that are left.
I outlined a werewolf novel two years ago and had a family tree with all kinds of lore and I thought it would be fun to take the werewolf niche and stick it in an end of the world scenario. Then I could really explore the question of - what would you do if you were the last person on earth?
Except, psych, you're not! And hijinks ensue.
Di: My favorite thing in the Bloodlines is the way one can shift their fate based on their mindset in the werewolf world. While coming up with all the rules and how your wolves will work, did you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they might want?
Em: I hope I did both, haha! But I went with what felt right to me. What's always interested me in werewolf lore is pack politics. I wanted to explore that but I needed rules, so I made some notes but some stuff happened organically. I liked that Killian was essentially born an alpha, that some wolves are just more dominant whether they want to be or not. And I liked that some of the characters struggled against their natures, like Daphne not accepting the fact that just because she was born a certain way she had to be at the bottom of the food chain. The wolf natures pull them in certain directions but with the right determination, they can solidify their own fate.
Di: Did you come across any specific challenges in writing Bloodlines? What would you do differently, if anything, if you were to rewrite it?
Em: I'm essentially going to be rewriting it anyway, because things turned out so different in part five than I'd originally imagined. But I don't think I'd do it differently. It was so fun! My goal was a chapter a day and I think I only missed one or two days, so that was the biggest challenge was staying consistent. But it was a fun ride for sure and I can't wait to get started on the sequel!
Di: I am looking forward to the sequel as well! Is there anything you edited out of this story?
Em: No, I let it rip haha. I'd like to add more to Killian's backstory in part three, because there's so much more I can explore there I think. And I didn't expect readers to enjoy Isaiah Jax so much, so I think he might get his own prequel.
Di: Yesss.
Is there anything I didn't ask but you'd love to share with our followers?
Em: I don't think so. A question I get asked a lot is how to get reads, and I don't really have an answer because I didn't really go looking for them, haha! I just interact with the community and read and chat and write and write and write.
Di: I think that's the best way to go around it!
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me and share your thoughts with our followers!
Em: No probs 🙂 thanks for interviewing me.
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This is where we tell Emily goodbye, for now. If you are curious about anything else about Emily, tag her, ask her, jump in her DMs, write on her wall. Let's see what else she'll be open to sharing with you ;) Don't be shy, she's chatty and very friendly.