Dedicated to olga_godim 

Welcome to another interview with the wonderful Olga Godim, a Canadian writer whose literary works have been published in many internet and printed magazines. Olga's fantasy novels ALMOST ADEPT and EAGLE EN GARDE were released by Champagne/Burst. If you want to know more about Olga, go ahead and check their blog: olgagodim.wordpress.com – oh, and if you find yourself in a desperate need for a good looking cover, Olga will happily make one for you. 

ContemporaryLit: What prompted you to become a writer? And why did you choose contemporary literature and its subgenres?

OLGA: I write speculative fiction in several of its sub-genres. Some of my stories are pure fantasy or science fiction. Others are urban fantasy or magic realism, but in all of them, there is something that doesn't exist in our mundane lives, be it magic or advanced technology.Truth to tell, I don't like our magic-less existence. I've always been a daydreamer, and my daydreams were full of magicians and princesses, extraordinary heroes and gripping adventures. I have always been an avid reader, and my favorite stories were always those about faraway or imaginary places and exotic characters, never the regular people next door. I always liked escapism in literature, even though I worked as an ordinary computer programmer. At some point, I couldn't find books I liked in the genres I preferred, so I decided to write down the characters that populated my own daydreams and tell about their exploits. Of course, there was a long way from that moment to today, when I can list a number of my novels and short stories published. I learned a lot in the process and I'm still learning. It's been a fascinating journey, and I hope it will continue for a long time yet. 

ContemporaryLit: How do you find inspiration for your stories?

OLGA: Inspiration for my stories? They come from a variety of sources. Sometimes, I would hear my characters talking in my head. A dialog or a monologue or an argument. I might not know yet who the characters are or where they live, but that would be a start of a story. Or I could 'steal' a story from some other writer. I would read a book and like it and think: what if it didn't happen in Wyoming in the 20th century, but happened instead in a magical world where dragons serve as transportation? What if a dragon refused a passenger? And the story goes from there. Or a theme could prompt a story. Or, in the case of my fan fiction, I would be interested in exploring my favorite writer's world in the direction she never did.

ContemporaryLit:  Can you share some of your writing habits? How do you fit writing time into your day? What tricks do you use to organize your writing life?

OLGA: I don't think I have any special tricks. As I'm mostly self-published, I write when the mood strikes me or when a story inside me needs to be told. The only exception is when I have a deadline. For example, recently one of my short stories was accepted by an anthology. The editor sent me her fixes, and I have to return the file by a certain deadline. I found that a deadline works wonders for me. In all my writing life, I've never missed a deadline. It was a surprise for me, but I discovered that I work best under pressure. Go figure!

ContemporaryLit: Tell us about your experience with writing on Wattpad, please. What are your favorite things about sharing your work on this platform?

OLGA: I like Wattpad because it comes with the inbuilt community of readers. Any story on Wattpad, mine or by other writers, has at least some readers. And I can see which genres are more popular than others just by watching the number of readers and likes for my stories. For example, my regency romance novella, Fibs in the Family, has almost 62K readers, while my steampunk novella, Open Charlie, has only 2.6K readers. Obviously, steampunk is less popular than regency. I don't promote either story. On the other hand, the longer the work, the more readership it has. Short stories don't do well on Wattpad. Novels and novellas fair much better. Overall, it gives a writer not only a free platform to publish and willing readers, but free statistics as well.

ContemporaryLit: What do you like to do when you're not writing?

OLGA: I love reading. I'm an avid reader and has been all my life. Recently, I also started dabbling in digital art. I enjoy creating pre-made book covers, mostly for speculative fiction. Or maybe they are not book covers as such but simply images that reflect different aspects of speculative fiction. Some wattpad writers have my covers for their books; I even have a dedicated reading list for those books. And you could see most of my 'book covers' on my deviantArt page. 

ContemporaryLit: This will surely interest our followers a lot: what bit of advice would you like to share with aspiring writers?

OLGA: My advice to aspiring writers is unoriginal and expected: read a lot and write a lot. The more you read in all genres the better you could be as a writer. Ditto for writing. A famous writer once said that to become a decent writer you have to have writen 1 million words first. I think that's a realistic estimate. The number sounds a bit scary, but if you're serious about a writing career, you'll go through that many words in a few years, four or five maybe, which is a reasonable apprenticeship time for any profession. Don't expect your first novel to be a masterpiece. It won't be. But don't stop writing either. By the time you've written several novels and revised them all multiple times, and wrote a slew of short stories and novellas, and worked on articles on various topics for magazines, you will reach that million. And you will have no choice but to become a competent writer.

ContemporaryLit: Can you tell us what you're working on at the moment? And will you be sharing it on Wattpad? Share something about your current WIP and why you chose to write it. What can your readers look forward to reading?

OLGA: I have a romance novella on Wattpad, Fibs in the Family. It is a regency about Rebecca, the oldest of the three sisters. I'm thinking about the next story in the series about Rebecca's middle sister Mary. Actually, I've already written about a third of Mary's story. When it is done, I'll post it on Wattpad. 

ContemporaryLit: Thank you Olga for your time and great answers, it's been a pleasure to interview you. We wish you the best in your future writing journey!