I thought you might enjoy a couple my earliest interviews done in 2014. The first is with Vic James, author of Gilded Cage and two sequels published as the Dark Gifts Trilogy published in the U.S. by Del Rey Books. Vic's publishing journey started on Wattpad with her Watty award winning book, Slave Days (now Gilded Cage).

INTERVIEW WITH VIC JAMES

Hello! I'm Vic James, and I'm super excited to be doing a first Q&A with our beloved Britt!

When I first stumbled across Mermaids and the Vampires Who Love Them it just made me smile so much my face hurt.

Like all of us, I quickly got addicted to Britt's totally adorable story of Waverly, Pierce, and the West Marin Heights crowd! I want to move into Waverly's cabin!

I can't, of course, but I've been able to do the next-best thing, which is chat to Waverly's creator, Brittanie Charmintine.

She's answered some of my questions about her and her book. Hooray! Read on to find out more about our favourite mermaid author!

Here goes!

Q: So, Britt, are you sure you don't have a tail? Because I'm imagining you as just like Waverly. Are you?

A: I wish! Waverly is much stronger, bossier and kick-ass than I am. I don't have a tail or long green hair. I have never worn a shell bra, and I am a vegetarian so I don't eat mustard-coated corn dogs. We are very different, but there is a bit of me in her character. I think we have a similar sense of humor and love for hot, sexy vampires!

Q: So would you beat Waverly in an arm-wrestle for Pierce?

A: Waverly would totally beat me in arm-wrestling unless I cheated! I would have to find another way to get Pierce to be mine! I'm better at math than she is. I could challenge her to a math-off!

Q: You're smart then! We could tell :D What would be your favourite subject at West Marin Heights?

A: Well, I cannot draw at all, but I would like to gaze at Cupid swathed in seaweed, so I would enjoy Life Drawing, but I would probably not get the best grade. Biology - it would really gross me out to have to look at the skeletons and pictures of the digestive system, but learning about the unusual reproductive history of the gods sounds interesting. I love astronomy, so the moon class sounds cool. Fairy dance - I used to do ballet and I was a cheerleader, but dancing in the air sounds challenging. Math - I think maybe this would be my favorite. Not so much for the subject matter, but I could gaze the teacher and sigh intermittently.

Q: Hang on a minute! Doesn't Waverly's dad teach Maths?!?

A: Yes he does teach math. And he is soooooo cute that all the girls in class gaze at him longingly. This really annoys Waverly and makes her want to gag.

Q: So if you're not a mermaid, what WMH species are you?

A: I'm human, but if I got to choose one to turn into? Hmmm ... Maybe a fairy princess. I always wanted to be royal.

Q: I'd like to be a Fairy Godmother. It would be so cool being able to grant someone's every wish. (As long as they were nice wishes!) Also, I think Fintan is so sweet. Whose fairy godmother would you most like to be - either from the book, or in real life?

A: I think I'd want to be Pickles's fairy godmother. She is so sweet and she deserves to have her wishes granted too. Not just grant wishes for others. Pickles to me is like a girl who grows up in a very restricted old-fashioned household where she is told to suppress her own needs and wishes and take care of others. Making other people's wishes come true is admirable, but I think it shouldn't supplant a girl's own dreams. Everyone deserves to have a happy life.

Q: Gosh, that's a really thoughtful answer. In fact, one of the reasons why I love MATVWLT is that although it's hilarious, it's also got some serious ideas. I think the contamination of the bay is really worrying. Are you interested in environmental issues?

A: I am interested in environmental issues. I'm not fanatical, but I think we need to take care of this planet, and the only way this is going to happen is if everyone pitches in. I have a lot of different supernatural beings at the school. Each has his or her own skill set. It's like the countries of the Earth. Each one has something special it can do to help us improve the environment. We have to figure out how to involve everyone to do a small part. Add those small efforts together and we have change.

Q: The story is such a fun read, even with these serious ideas. Are you a naturally funny person, or do you have to spend a long time working out all the silly scenes?

A: I amuse myself!!! I love to laugh. I have studied comedy writing a bit as well. Here's something that took me years to learn: The story exists to entertain the reader and not me. I used to go off on wacky tangents (a la Douglas Adams), and then the story wouldn't flow properly. I have to rein in the humor. I tend to read books with humor and also enjoy humorous movies. I like to be around funny people. Laughter is the hot fudge on life's sundae.

Q: I love hot fudge sundaes. I loved the food fight scene, and also the unicorn cupcakes. I know you should never ask an author this, but do you have a favourite scene? (I can't choose myself: I love Waverly's turboswims, but also poor Beau the depressed seahorse...)

A: I think my favorite scene is when Waverly rescues Pierce thinking he's human. I also love the scene where Beau complains about pregnancy and Pierce and Waverly's first kiss.

Q: I think that first kiss is everyone's favourite scene!! Well, thank you so much for your time, Britt. I've had so much fun chatting to you!

INTERVIEW WITH MISS SHOTGUN

I love this next interview although Miss Shotgun doesn't have a profile on Wattpad right now. I hope she comes back!!!

Hello you, amazing Wattpaders out there! This is Miss Shotgun (@MissShotgun) and I am going to interview a popular Wattpad author Brittanie Charmintine who has authored the popular book, "Mermaids and the Vampires Who Love Them" and has received a Watty Award for it as well. Brittanie is one of the few authors who have tried to benefit others with their success.

Hello Brittanie and welcome to the interview. I would like to start by thanking you for generously accepting my invitation. How's your day so far? :)

It is both an honor and a privilege to be in your magazine. It looks awesome! So far my day has consisted of Wattpadding and having breakfast. But the Oscars are later, so it should be a fun day.

Indeed! It will be. So, let's start with the interview everyone's been waiting for.

1. Brittanie, I'm sure all your readers would love to know more about their favorite author. Can you tell us something about yourself?

I live in Marin County, CA, near the setting of MATVWLT. I read and write—a lot. I also do yoga—occasionally. I live in a forest with 120 year-old redwood trees. I am originally from L.A. and come from an entertainment industry family. I have a dog named Rocket.

The way you described everything makes it all the more interesting. And I can see here that you named one of your characters after your horse. That's really sweet.

2. When did you discover your passion for writing? How old were you when you first started writing?

Thank you!

I started writing when I was very young. It started as a love of reading. I read a lot. My mother would have to force me to go outside and play. When I was about ten I wrote a story called "Halloween on the Moon." I thought it was a masterpiece! I also wrote lots of poetry. Recently my uncle unearthed a book of poetry I wrote called "Ribbit." There was a drawing of a frog on the cover. Some of the poems aren't horrible!

Haha! That is very impressive.

3. How did you stumble upon Wattpad and what made you write your books here?

I have been writing seriously for about six years, but I never thought anything was good enough to publish. Then I read about a SciFi Magazine called "Lightspeed." They were doing a contest called "Women Wreck Science Fiction." I decided to enter. I worked really hard to make it as good as I could. I had about 30 friends read it and make comments. I went to upload it to the contest, and found I'd misread and missed the due date. I was pretty disappointed. That night I was reading on my iPad. I thought I should look at the NY Times. I never looked at the NY Times, and I have no idea why I did that night, but there was a headline that said: "The Future of Publishing." There was an article about this website called Wattpad. I checked it out. I liked the idea that the work didn't have to be perfect. In fact, no one expects the work to be. I decided to write something for Wattpad.

Wow! That's a bit refreshing to hear about your journey to Wattpad. Most people, myself included, found out about Wattpad from a friend. How this friend found Wattpad, no one knows. Haha!

4. Brittanie, when you first started writing your book "Mermaids and the Vampires Who Love Them," what were your expectations for the book?

I meet a lot of writers, and most of the time they have no idea what Wattpad is. Wattpad is the biggest writing and reading platform in the world and so many people don't know it exists!

When I first started writing MATVWLT, I hoped it would do well on the site, but I never dreamed it would do this well. I used to look at books on the site that had millions of reads and think those authors were different from me. Really special. I wished I could be like them but didn't expect it to happen. I just wanted to write a story that the Wattpad readers would enjoy. I thought about my readers constantly.

This is the true gift of Wattpad. Ordinarily a writer works alone in a dark room with endless cups of coffee and paper strewn everywhere. But writing on Wattpad is like coming into a sunlit ballroom and being surrounded by friends. And you know how you want your friends to be happy, right? So instead of thinking "I will write this line because it amuses me" I think "I will write this line because it will make my friends happy." And I think the writing improves because of this.

I am sure every new writer here on Wattpad dreams to achieve the same and that is a very helpful advice you gave to aspiring writers. Many congratulations to you for the book's success.

5. Brittanie, how did you come up with the idea for MATVWLT? How do you generally come up with plot ideas?

I came up with the idea as sort of a challenge to myself. I knew I wanted something different, so I asked myself what would be the two most different supernatural beings I could throw together? I came up with mermaids and vampire out of the blue. At first I thought it was ridiculous, but then I thought it could be very cool.

As far as how I come up with plot ideas, I pay attention to what makes me emotional. Sometimes it's something on the news, sometimes an event or experience that happened to me or to a friend.

That's a very interesting thought you presented here. Challenging yourself. It has to be one of the best ways to evolve as a writer.

6. Every writer, at some point of time, faces a writer's block. What do you generally do to overcome it and write with fresh ideas?

Writer's block usually happens when the writer hasn't worked out some important information about what is happening in the plot. What I do is free write. Here's how it usually starts:

What am I doing? I have no business trying to write a novel. This is crazy. I should just give up right now and clean out my sock drawer ...

After berating myself for a paragraph or two, I start complaining about the problem I'm having with the plot. I whine about it for a while, and then I begin to throw out some possible solutions. Sometimes I brainstorm with a friend. Eventually I work it out. But allowing your mind to get out all the complaining kind of clears things out and makes room for the real ideas.

Works for me anyway.

In some twisted way, I can imagine it working perfectly. And while complaining, one would get around all the problems with the current plot as well.

7. For a book to be successful, it is important that it feels real to the reader. As a Fantasy writer, how difficult was it for you to not cross the line of imagination that would've made your book feel unreal, superficial. And what did you do to maintain the balance?

This is a great question. In Fantasy, you are asking your reader to suspend disbelief and go on this adventure with you. In order to do this, you have to carefully construct your world, and then you cannot violate the rules. If you do, the reader will awaken from the dream. The best way to bring the reader into the story and make her feel part of what is happening is by incorporating all five senses into the description. Smell is the most overlooked of all the senses. Readers have said to me that they felt like they were in the story, and to me that is the greatest compliment. Your main character is an avatar for the reader. When the main character feels, sees, tastes, smells or hears something, so does the reader.

And that was a great answer to this question. I am sure it would be very helpful for fantasy writers.

8. Many writers face trouble expressing different emotions for their various characters. Did you ever face the similar issue? And what do you suggest to overcome this problem?

Showing emotion rather then telling emotion is another way for the reader to "be" the character. You can tell us the character is sad. The reader will experience this in an intellectual way. "Yes, the character is sad." But if you show a character being sad, the reader is experiencing the emotion as well. The character will have physical manifestations like a lump in the throat, itchy eyes, stomach contorting, ice water running through her veins. Don't go right to the obvious every time—tears. Also, you can use the setting to show us a character is sad. A happy character will see sunlight and think "how beautiful!" A sad character will be angry about the sunlight and close the curtains, relishing the dark and shadow. A happy character will eat a bowl of ice cream with joy. A sad character will not notice the taste or will think it tastes like sawdust. You can use dialogue to show how a character is feeling. Not like the character saying: "I am sad." But rather, what is between the lines of dialogue. What the character isn't saying. You can use gesture: head in the hands, curled in a ball on the floor, shaking the head.

The examples of manifestations you provided are really good and helpful.

9. We already know that you're an avid reader. Which would be your favorite genre and what do you find most interesting it?

My favorite genres are science fiction and fantasy with some romance thrown into the mix. I think they are the most interesting genres for a couple of reasons.

1. It's different from the world I live in every day. It gives me the opportunity to escape from real life.

2. You never know where the narrative will take you. In fantasy, the sky is the limit. Literally!

Of course, a book creates a world different from yours. And science fiction and fantasy excel in that.

10. Brittanie, what advice would you give to a new Wattpader, a writer and a reader both?

For new Wattpaders who are writers

a. I would suggest being a good Wattpad citizen. This means read other people's stories, comment on them. Vote. Make friends. Don't ask people to just read your story. The relationship should come first. What will happen if you make brilliant comments on someone else's story? Other readers will see them and check out what you are doing.

b. Don't ever diss your own work. If people click on your story and you start out telling them about how terrible it is, why should they keep reading? Believe in what you're writing.

c. Try to be as grammatically accurate as possible. Ask a friend who is good in English to look at your chapters before you post. If you can write on a word processing program like Word, you will have the benefit of spellcheck and some punctuation checking as well.

d. Write a really good story summary. It's not a description of your plot. It's a sales tool. Make it exciting and intriguing.

e. Have a really good cover. There are lots of people on Wattpad who do covers for others for free.

f. Take a look at the stories on the site that are successful. Ask yourself why they are and try to do whatever that is.

For new readers I would suggest looking at the "Popular" stories, Featured stories and award winners to start. But then look at the up and coming authors as well. See who your favorite authors are following, and take a look at their stories. Vote for every chapter of an author's work that you enjoy. It means a lot to do this. Comment. Authors have their work on Wattpad to hear from readers and figure out what is working in their stories. Be supportive. Constructive criticism is awesome. Wattpad is a community first and foremost.

Those are things every Wattpader is ought know!

11. Anything else you would like to say to your readers before we leave?

Thank you for reading my stories. Love you guys. And thank you to Miss Shotgun for one of the best interviews ever. Excellent and thought-provoking questions!

You're most welcome, Brittanie. It has been a pleasurable learning experience for me as well. Thank you for this successful interview.

We now bid farewell to you, but we hope to see you again for the next month's issue. If you have any questions for Brittanie, comment below. And if you haven't already, then go now and check her amazing book. I, as an avid reader, highly recommend it.

I hope you enjoyed these interviews! Stay tuned for next week's post entitled: Writing Resources: Character Spreadsheet where I share with you one of my key worksheets that I use to create realistic characters. I will talk about my process as well.