Mariah Norris interview
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
A little introduction:
My pen name is Mariah Norris; I’m a writer and an artist who loves all genres of fantasy. I live in hot muggy Florida with my husband, son, and two cats, and spend most of my non-writing time attempting to garden, working on various unfinished pieces of art, listening to symphonic metal, and—alas for my productivity—puttering around on various social media.
When did your love of books begin?
I don’t really remember—pretty young, I imagine. Any time I went anywhere as a kid, I had either a book to read or a coloring book to work on. My dad’s bookshelves were always full of fantasy books, which I started reading when I was much too young for them.
When did you start to have the wish to become an author?
One night I was watching some random show on Nickelodeon—can’t remember anything about it except it was a miniseries thing that started in the desert—which for some reason blew my fifth or sixth-grader mind. I very distinctly remember thinking, “I want to make a story like that.” So, naturally, I attempted to copy that exact thing, got bored, and then didn’t really write anything for many years after that. In high school, I started The Wheel of Time, and as most aspiring fantasy writers do, decided I was going to write my own WoT-sized epic…which I worked on all through college and which I still have the notes for on my computer. I’ll get around to it one day ;D
My college career was, uh, we’ll call it rocky, involving several school changes and plenty of unacknowledged burnout. Got married, had a baby, and started writing again: smaller, more manageable stories. My mother-in-law also happened to be a writer…one who was somewhat serious about getting published and knew how that process went. This was also around the time I started listening to a little writing podcast called Writing Excuses, hosted by the same random dude they picked to finish The Wheel of Time; obviously, I needed to see if this Brandon Sanderson fellow knew what he was talking about. Between my MIL and Writing Excuses, I started a new story with the intent to get it published.
How have you found the process for becoming an author?
Imagine you’re trying to drive to a new city. The map everyone tells you to use shows a single paved road you must follow to enter. So you start driving, only to discover that once you reach the outskirts, that “single paved road” is actually a maze of poorly-marked, squirrely dirt roads and nobody can agree which one is actually “The Road”. Maybe all of them are; maybe none are.
Some of the roads have tolls. Most are inaccessible unless you hire a guide, who are in high demand and difficult to come by.
Some of those roads end in unmarked dead ends, forcing you to backtrack. Some have obstacles that will wreck your car. Some will take you on a winding journey and then dump you back out where you started. Some actually do take you inside the city, though it’s impossible to know how long you’ll be driving. Months, years, decades—who knows? There will always be someone bragging that they made the journey in mere weeks. It is okay to feel envious, but don’t hang out your window and badmouth them.
The people manning the toll bridges will try to sell you shortcuts. Those people aren’t to be trusted.
Some roads look like they’ll take you into the city but actually lead to one of the half-dozen little surrounding suburbs, which some people decided they liked better and stayed. The suburbs used to be sparse but nowadays they’re nearly a town unto themselves, with many people choosing to go straight there and bypassing the city altogether. The city folk and suburbanites will often bicker over who is better, when truthfully, they both have their pros and cons. Some people split their time between both places.
This metaphor has gotten away from me XD
What would you say to those wanting to become an author?
There is no right path. The road you think you’re going to follow may not be the one that ends up working out. Keep an open mind. Have achievable, tangible goals. If an opportunity comes up that doesn’t look quite like what you expected, don’t immediately dismiss it. On the flip side, don’t feel like you have to take every opportunity that comes along for fear of missing out. Trust your gut.
Find some podcasts to listen to: I recommend Writing Excuses and Print Run to start. Get to know other authors. Go to conferences, if you can afford it. On social media, follow people outside your bubble; people of different races, classes, orientations, ages, etc. Listen to what they have to say; learn from them. Your writing will be better for it.
Tell us about your book/books:
My current series is called The Seven Strands, which takes place on a world called Verre and follows a young autistic woman struggling to earn her place in a society with no room for nuance, who joins forces with her people’s sworn enemy in a quest to end a hundred years of war. On a hunt across worlds for a god-killing immortal, she’ll have to come to terms with love, loss, betrayal, and the shifting nature of good and evil itself.
In the first book, Hands Like Secrets, we meet Saeli, who attends the exclusive institute of Aschamon, learning to harness her inner qi and preparing to join the battle between her people and their enemies, the Crimson Cowls. But despite her years of work, her teachers still refuse to elevate her to Silver Mantle status and dedicate her to their god’s service. When notorious Crimson Cowl Rafel Kailar breaks into her school, it is either cruel irony…or fate…that Saeli is there to confront him. But Rafel is nothing like the Cowls she’s been taught to hate. He draws her in with his charm and reveals his ultimate ambition: to overthrow the gods of Verre and end a hundred years of war. And he needs Saeli’s help.
As she is pulled deeper into Rafel’s schemes, Saeli fears she’ll be forced to choose whose side she’s truly on: her people, who have never understood her…or Rafel, who’d gladly turn her world upside-down to kill the gods.
You can find it here: https://amzn.to/3yCXPc7
I also have a Finnish-flavored, Omelas-inspired novella in Panthology, a Peter Pan anthology from Shadow Spark Publishing, which can be found here: https://amzn.to/3Cqk2vV
What do you love about the writing/reading community?
Meeting people who are as weird and nerdy as I am :)
If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?
I hope any readers who stumble upon my books will love my characters and worlds as much as I do. I appreciate you!
Where can people connect with you?
My website: https://mariahnorris.com/
Linktree (if you want All the Things in one place): https://linktr.ee/nevertherose
Twitter: @nevertherose
Instagram (though I’m terrible at updating it): @mariahnorris_author
I welcome reviews, cat memes, and conversation :)
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