New Author Spotlight - E. G. Herrera - A Child's Notebook: The Diary Of An 8 Year Old - Interview & Review

The 411:

An adorable insight into the conscious thoughts of an 8 year old who tries to figure out what is going on with his parents. The author does a wonderful job creating the voice of a child and the wonderment and innocence of youth. I loved it. As a mom I wanted to hug Anthony and tell him everything would be okay.

Take away thought: keeping things from children is not always best. Their thoughts can be worse then the truth!

What I know:

I work with E.G. and she is a wonderful person so when I heard she had just self published a book I had to get it. She mentioned it was on Amazon so I told her I was getting it and expected her to sign it for me. She laughed and said "definitely!" She was so excited to see her book in print. Look at that face. She told me it was the first time she was holding the bound book in her hands. She is adorable and sweet and I cannot wait to see what other stories she publishes.

 
About E.G.

E.G. is a young writer who has many crazy and interesting plots and lives living inside her head that she cannot wait to bring to life.

My Interview With E.G. 

Where do you get you ideas?

I get my ideas from both real life experiences and inspirations and from dreams and fantasies. I love imagining the "what ifs" and sometimes these ideas grow into stories on their own. I also, love people watching and I build characters off of the personalities that I have seen and interacted with. 

What is your writing process?  

I don't really have a writing process. As I put the thoughts in my head onto paper, I do my best to make my writing as a clear as I can. From experience I have realized that too much detail will cause your reader to become distracted and too little information doesn't let your reader know what to imagine or even sometimes what is going on in a scene. Depending on the storyline, I may even have a detailed map of all the characters' arcs and how they influence each other and what plot twists happen written down ahead of time. This helps me know what I am going to write since I already know what the ending is. It also helps me keep my facts straight so there are no inconsistencies. I love making sure each character learns a lesson of some kind since I feel that life is full of little lessons and it makes the characters seem more real.

What piece of advice do you have for young writers?
 
My advice for young writers would be to read. Read books of different genres to get a feel for how the author choose to present their work. The best thing I ever did was read books on how to write and then try to see how other authors incorporated these principals in their own work. Eventually you will find your own style that works for you. Additionally, not everyone will like what you write and that's okay. If you try to please everyone your story won't be yours anymore. Trust yourself.

What is the most difficult thing about writing the opposite sex?
 
As an bisexual, and androgenous person I think my perception of the opposite sex may be different than others. I kinda have picked up on the differences that I have noticed each gender has and sort of went with it. I also have a background in child psychology that I needed for my teaching degree so I do know the general milestones that children have mentally. My man did read my book and he felt that it was accurate so I did get a stamp of approval, lol.

Was this story partially non-fiction?  

The only part of the story that was non-fictional was the MC's name (Anthony) and his age. My brother Anthony is currently eight. I also did word things the way my brother talks in this book. Everything else was fictional.

How do you select the names of your characters?  

Like in this book, I kind of name characters after the people they remind me of. Other times, the name has a type of meaning (either literal, like Amora for a woman who is loving) or I looked around the room and see a name written down and gave it to the character, haha.

How long did it take you to write this book?
 
I wrote it over the course of two weeks. In total I think I spent 4 hours on it. I love writing so the words came easy and my first draft is nearly identical to the current story you read.