Al: Congrats on your debut release! Now that you are a published Author, what would say was the biggest challenge?
Alexandria: Published Author…it still has not fully sunk in yet. I continue from time to time to sneak over to Amazon to check if I am dreaming. To answer your question, there are two distinctly different challenges I had to overcome in getting my book out and I was prepared for neither. The first was the editing process. I finished the first draft of Before Him Comes Me the second week of March 2015. At 110K words, I figured I would fix the tenses, correct the spelling and press 'publish.' Eight months, six rewrites and one awesome editor later, I finally hit the magic button. I was not prepared for the amount of work required on my story to get it right. Well, as right as I think I got it.
The other big obstacle I faced was I did not know what to do and when to do it. There is self-promotion, social media, take-overs, and several other things I had never even heard of. There is a lot to becoming an author that I had never considered when I began writing. A great deal of the time, I felt as if I was walking down a pitch black corridor with no exit sign. Luckily, I have understanding friends, many who are also published authors, and who allowed me to ask question after question every step of the way as I navigated my way to my release day. In short, editing and being absolutely clueless about releasing a book. LOL
Al: I agree. The editing/revisions process is often rushed, so I'm glad you took your time. How did you scratch your creative itch in high school. Did you write? Art? Music?
Alexandria: Truth is, I grew up surrounded with incredibly talented people. My mother is an amazing writer and has always made it look very easy. My brother writes and has ghost written several books. My other brother is an amazing artist whose work would blow you away. With all of that outstanding talent, I never had the confidence to try my hand at anything creative. Well, I take that back, I did take a lot of really really awful pictures and spent a lot of time listening to music … both good and bad. I still take really bad pictures and listen to a lot of music …still good and bad.
Al: Tell us about 'Before Him Comes Me'. Specifically, the title sounds like there's a big life lesson in the book. Is that the case?
Alexandria: Before Him Comes Me is about a young woman whose entire life has been mapped out for her by her family until she does the unthinkable and accepts an unexpected offer. Her decision requires her family to turn their backs while Zara works to build a new community for herself. It is a story of self-discovery as well as self-acceptance.
As for the big lesson … you should know yourself before you give yourself to another.
Al: Who would play Zara in a movie? And - if you were going to make a cameo appearance in the movie...what character (in your book) would you play?
Alexandria: Everyone in my department just came my office to see what the hell their boss was cracking up about. MOVIE!!!! Thanks for that!! Daisy Ridley, the super cool chick from Star Wars. I am a major Star Wars geek and saw the movie opening weekend. Most likely, I will see it again this weekend. She was amazing and I am confident she could pull off my Zara.
May I plea the fifth on the second question? LOL All of the characters have a little bits of me threaded through them with the exception of one. She is me.
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