Author Crush Friday with Natalie C. Parker
Glitter girls, you have pressing questions for your favorite authors and we have their answers. Welcome to our weekly segment, Author Crush Fridays.
We love asking questions and we love the answers from some of our favorite authors. Today we’re talking to Natalie C. Parker, author of the first book in the buzzed about fantasy YA series, Seafire (August 28, 2018; Razorbill). Thank you for talking to us today, Natalie! We’re honored! Make sure you read until the end as we love Natalie’s response on how to find emotional truths in your writing!
GLITTER: Tell us five things that people might not know about you.
NATALIE:
- I learned how to SCUBA dive when I was 18 and dove to a depth of 109 feet (which is super deep, don’t do that).
- Lattes are my favorite food group.
- I’m 100% Gryffindor.
- I’m 100% married to a Slytherin.
- Zombies terrify me, but so do jellyfish. *emoji shrug*
GLITTER: What one question sparked Seafire?
NATALIE: What would an epic adventure look like if the epic adventurers were a group of girls?
GLITTER: Is it true that Seafire is all about female empowerment?
NATALIE: You can definitely say that! I put a group of girls in Seafire because I wanted to see stories about girls where they weren’t jealous of each other or trying to tear each other down, but willing to fight with each other and also lift each other up. You know, like girls do.
GLITTER: How do you find the emotional truths in your writing?
NATALIE: Translating emotions on the page is always a challenge because we all experience things differently. One of the best tools in a writer’s toolkit is empathy. I think of it a little like harvesting lived emotional experiences from the garden of your own life and using those to imagine situations you’ve never personally experienced. It’s like keeping your past emotional experiences in little jars all sealed up and organized but within easy reach. Like an emotional spice rack.
Told you I liked metaphors.
GLITTER: What one message would you like readers to walk away with when they’re done reading Seafire?
NATALIE: Honestly, I hope readers leave Seafire excited to come back for more! And I hope it inspires them; to take risks, to be bold, to let their friendships be filled with passion. And I hope that the sisterhood gives readers license to imagine even bigger things for the girls of our world than we currently do.
GLITTER: What book of yours do you hope to see on either TV or as a movie and why?
NATALIE: I would love to see Seafire adapted for film or television. The battles! The kickass girls! The adventure! I think it would be amazing to see on the screen.
GLITTER: What was the first book that you ever wrote, even if it wasn’t published?
NATALIE: I wrote my first novel in high school and it was painfully autobiographical. I called it The Petal and the Pomegranate and submitted it to an agent complete with a cover and illustrations. (Maybe don’t do this). To this day, I bless that agent for her very kind rejection!
GLITTER: Do you have anything that you love to collect?
NATALIE: I think I am the anti-collector. I think it has to do with growing up as a Navy kid and knowing that we had to travel light and that it was easy to lose things when you were moving your life overseas. These days I think my most impressive collection is my nail polish.
GLITTER: Did any of the authors you read in high school affect how you write now?
NATALIE: Absolutely! Ursula K. Le Guin inspired me to take risks on the page and try new things and Mercedes Lackey filled her stories with magic and ensemble casts that I wanted to be a part of.
GLITTER: Who inspires you?
NATALIE: I have some of the most amazing friends and they inspire me every single day. But also, Janelle Monáe. She’s an incredible artist and I am in love with everything she does.
GLITTER: What one piece of advice could you give any teen going through difficult times now?
NATALIE: It’s okay to struggle. It’s okay to not be okay. Don’t be afraid to set personal boundaries for yourself and let others know what they are.
GLITTER: What are you currently working on?
NATALIE: The second book in the Seafire trilogy. And that’s all I can say about that.
Editorial Director | Writer | Tweet me @heatherriccio
