Username: ESHurricane

Prize: First Place

Interviewer: Madhu

Madhu: Hi Emily! A hearty congratulations on standing first in's 'Wattpad's Got Talent' and thank you for agreeing to do the interview. Our followers and your fans would love to know more about who you are behind the screen.

Emily: Thank you! And no problem. :) Behind the screen, eh? Well, I'm a Canadian mom of a 3yo girl and a toy poodle. I daylight as a work-at-home-mom freelance writing and editing, and moonlight as an author of lewd tales we can't talk about in polite conversation.

When I have free time (haha) I love baking, crochet and reading, sometimes all three at the same time. I've been known to sink hours into video games as well, although that's harder to find time for.

I'm a lover of chocolate and a rabid coffee snob, though I promise I'll be nice about recommending good single origin beans. :) Gotta keep warm in the snowpocalypse!

Madhu: How you manage everything that you do with a kid is beyond me. Recent experience proved to me that figuring them out is tougher than rocket science.
I'll wait with bated breath till the interview is over for our lewd conversation over a hot chocolate.
Can you tell us more about what made you choose the song you sang for the WGT?

Emily: Haha lewdness and hot chocolate sounds like a plan! (Tougher than rocket science is spot on, btw!)

So I'm not going to lie, Lightning Crashes was not my first choice. I was dead set on Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. It's one that I've always really enjoyed singing, and can actually play half-decent on the guitar. But my mom's very favourite song that I sing is Lightning Crashes, and she asked me to do it. And, well, I can't say no to my mom, right? XD

I do really love the song, though. It's one of those songs that when it comes on the radio I can't resist cranking it and singing at the top of my lungs. The reason why it wasn't my first choice was because I'm pants at playing it, so I had to get a friend to do the guitar for me. But my dad pointed out that then I could just focus on singing, and I guess he was right. It's definitely easier to do one or the other as opposed to both at the same time.

Madhu: For what it's worth, you have amazing vocal skills. And you play the guitar! All there's left is a band for you to become famous! Where do your musical roots stem from and what do you think would be your greatest success in this field?

Emily: Haha thank you. :) I play the guitar a bit, I know about five chords which is enough to be a backing track sometimes. All of my musical theory comes from the piano, which I played for about eight years when I was a kid. I haven't had one in the house for a loooong time but I find piano is like riding a bike. When I play guitar, it's almost like when you learn another language other than your native, I'm always translating from piano to guitar in my head, if that makes sense?

My musical roots definitely stem from my mom's side of the family. My dad plays electric guitar and sings, but he's more of a technical player, and it's taken him years and years of practice to get where he wanted to be. My mom's side of the family is the kind of musical where they can just pick up any instrument and figure out how to play it properly in about five minutes. XD I wish I'd inherited that talent!

I don't particularly have aspirations for success in music, it's always been more of a hobby for me. I was in a band in my early twenties and we did a lot of competitions and gigs, and while it was fun and high energy, it's a LOT of work. Especially living in rural areas, it was a lot of packing and traveling to different cities and then our jam space was rented in a city because we all lived in apartments... it was just a lot of work, money and energy that eventually just kind of fizzled out. Later I did some online streaming with my dad and that was an absolute blast. We could play gigs in our pyjamas for people all over the world. I think if I was going to get back into a paying music gig (or even just for fun) then I'd definitely go the online route.

Madhu: I'm not sure about the whole 'translation' because I suck at anything and everything musical. :P Sounds like your mom's side of the family has musical prodigies! Gah! I wish I had such talent.
Be it online or offline, I'm sure that people would instantly love your vocals! How does your musical taste resonate in your writing?

Emily: Ahh thank you so much, lol! I've been singing as long as I can remember, and I think a background in piano and music theory definitely helped give me a good basis for key and structure. It wasn't until my late teens that I think I developed vocals because I spent a long time being too shy to really push my voice. I know I'm not a powerhouse and I have a very specific range that I have to stay in, but confidence definitely helps me work within my limits.

My musical tastes are kind of all over the place, lol! I enjoy most different styles of music, and my husband is kind of a human juke box so I'm exposed to all kinds of obscure stuff on a daily basis. This matches up pretty well with my writing because, though I mostly write romance and erotica, I do enjoy exploring many genres. I play it safe with my singing and stay within a set range and style, but when it comes to writing I like to push boundaries and try different things. I'm not one that likes to listen to music while I write because I find it distracting, but often when I'm thinking out plots and scenes there's always some kind of mental backing track. My longest story on Wattpad, No Sanctuary for Old Men, has a musical track for almost every chapter, and I selected each one to specifically fit the mood of the scene. From lyrics to just tone, I had a great time combing through different videos and covers to find the perfect blends for each chapter.

Madhu: A human jukebox, eh? Where is the signup list for one of them? :P
I read your book 'Snowbird' and I was wowed by it! Was there any song that inspired you to write?

Emily: Eee thanks so much! That one was my first on Wattpad and it'll always hold a special place in my heart. Since it's fanfic, I actually listened to a lot of ambient Far Cry 3 music in and around writing that story. I tend to not listen to music while I'm physically writing but I often will listen in the car while I brainstorm or talk out scenes and such. So there were a lot of instrumentals during that process. And dubstep. The Far Cry games are violent and trippy which always works with choppy, grungy electronic music.

Madhu: You are welcome! :) I'll look up that playlist
and re-read the book.
What is the one thing you would choose as a career, with the exception of one in singing or writing?

Emily: Hm that's a toughie. I spent much of my life working different jobs wishing I was writing for a living! I guess being a race car driver would be the next best thing. Or an official taster for a chocolate factory. XD

Madhu: :P The chocolate tester sounds like my dream job. I would prefer the race car driver if I knew how to drive without causing an accident.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

Emily: Longer than I can remember, it's just always been something I love to do! I have these little construction paper 'novels' that I wrote when I was three or four, the words are illegible but I was a little author even then. XD

I spent a lot of my childhood thinking that writing would always be a hobby, my family and I used to joke about me becoming a bestselling author one day but it was always one of those 'make sure you have a real job just in case' type of deals. It wasn't until I got into my late twenties that I realized we live in an age where I don't necessarily need to sit on piles of rejection letters and work a job that I hate while writing books that never pay my bills. That I can write for a living if I want to and publish books myself at the same time, working towards being able to support myself through my own books.

Madhu: How did you manage to find a balance between writing and singing?

Emily: To be honest I didn't, really. When I was playing gigs with my band and entering competitions I wasn't really writing all that much. At the time I was working in animal care and was devoting all of my time to music and my job, and some relationship drama that in hindsight was really unnecessary (lol, ugh early twenties) so I didn't do much writing at all.

Later when I was out of the band scene and just doing some online streaming gigs with my dad, I had a lot more time to write. By that point I was living on my own and focusing on myself, and inspiration was coming in waves so it was a lot easier to balance. Gigs were easy because I didn't even have to change out of my pajamas so I had a lot more time to devote to writing as opposed to being out partying and playing at bars.

Nowadays I don't do any performing except for when my daughter and I have impromptu concerts in the living room. XD

Madhu: I get the early twenties phase :P since I'm going through it. If you had to choose one favourite song, what would it be? And if you could choose one favourite character you've written about so far, who would it be?

Emily: Haha don't worry, it gets easier! <3

Favourite song is so hard! I love too many things. I think, if somebody put a gun to my head, I'd choose November Rain by Guns N Roses. Classic GnR (none of this new Axel-only garbage) is one of the greatest things to have ever graced my ears. My jam is mostly 70's/80's rock but I love a lot of the newer bands that are bringing back that flavour like Greta Van Fleet. Anyway, November Rain is one of those powerful songs that never fails to give me goosebumps. And I can't not crank it up and wail along with it. XD

My favourite character to write is Persephone, hands down. I love crafting a scene and just kind of seeing what she does. She is very driven by her ego, and does what she wants, so it's always a fun time to see what kinds of things she gets up to. It was bittersweet to finish her story, but I'm excited to come back to the second draft in a few months.

Madhu: Hopefully sooner rather than later!
Do you have any pet peeves when it comes to singing or writing?

Emily: Hmm for singing a pet peeve of mine used to be when people would request for me to sing songs that were not really in my voice's realm of capability. And I always tried to be gentle and explain why I couldn't, because they'd think that when I say 'I can't do that song' it's just because I'm shy or not confident enough. But really I'm just a realist, and I know what I can and can't do. There are things I can work towards, like when I was doing gigs I did a lot of vocal exercises and breathing exercises, but range is range and pushing my voice to sing something like Sia or Whitney Houston would not only sound terrible but there's the risk of damaging my body. So while I appreciate the vote of confidence, when drunk people would tell me 'no, you can totally do that song, you CAN!' and I had to explain for the fiftieth time that I physically can't, it got under my skin a little bit.

I don't know if I have any pet peeves with writing, really. I get annoyed when I'm lacking motivation, but I don't know if that really counts, lol! Plus I'm pretty good at kicking my own ass back into gear. When it comes to 'negative' things surrounding my writing, like bad reactions or reviews, I honestly don't mind those because it's a learning experience for me. As much as it warms the cockles of my heart to connect with readers and have them love my work, it's incredibly informative when somebody doesn't like it so I can find out just where a story is lacking. So I guess I don't really have any writing pet peeves. ^_^'

Madhu: Lucky you! When I get a writer's block, I can barely write anything at least for a few months. :/
Have you ever tried writing songs? If there's anything else you'd write other than novels, what would it be?

Emily: Haha I am absolute garbage at songwriting! ^_^' I've written one song and it took me three years and it's so cringeworthy because I wrote it in the throes of my angsty late teens. Poetry is really not my strong point. I am too wordy, I think!

I used to think that fiction novels were the be-all and end-all for me, but I've really gotten a taste for writing non-fiction, specifically pertaining to writing. One of my books, Write F*cking Words Now, has gotten a lot of excellent feedback and seems to be helping people. I really enjoy providing content for people to interact with.

Madhu: Haha! Are there any projects which we can look forward to, from you in the future? Singing or otherwise?

Emily: My favourite project I'm working on right now is Vivid, which is a rewrite of a story that I originally wrote ten years ago. I loved it but it needed me to be a little more mature to tell the story properly I think, so it's coming out how I want it to this time!

But something that my readers will probably be excited about is my rewrite of my story Mountain. It was a very rough first draft from the last Open Novella Contest and by the time the contest ended the whole thing had gone completely sideways (in a fun way!) so it really needs a proper second draft to tighten up the plot that ended up being all over the place. It's going to look a lot different than it does now, but I hope they will enjoy it just as much if not more!

And I'm always working on stories-not-for-polite-conversation for Amazon release. XD Too many ideas in my head all the time! I guess that's a good problem to have.

Madhu: From the music team, everyone who heard you sing and read your books, thank you for taking the time to go through this with us!
We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors for which we will be waiting eagerly!