Sera Drake

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Tell us a little bit about yourself, your hobbies and interests.

I'm a resident of a conservative Midwestern state, which makes for an awkward situation, given that I'm bi, genderqueer, and liberal. I have a husband, four children ages fourteen to twenty-two, a cat, and more rosebushes than I can count. The rosebushes double as a home security system. My hobbies include reading, making digital art, cooking, gardening, and attending our local symphony.

When and why did you start writing books?

I started writing stories to amuse myself when I ran out of library books to read - I think I might have been six or seven years old at the time. I wrote my very first novel in third grade. It was dreadful. I got better, though. Practice makes perfect.

What made you decide to tackle writing as a career?

If I have something to say, I say it. I might as well say it in print.

Which one of your books or characters is your favourite?

Not counting all the characters that are still living rent-free in my head until I give them their chance to live on paper, I'd have to say my favorite created character is that of "Magister," the mentor/dom/soulmate of my protagonist in Ancilla (I'm using scare quotes around his name because the characters in my debut novel do not have names. They have functions that give them titles). I made him the antithesis of every toxic male romantic lead stereotype in erotic romance. As a result, he's delightfully eccentric. Well, really, both he and the protagonist are probably eccentric. I wrote them both assuming that they were on the autistic spectrum like me. I don't think I would find it easy to get into the head of a neurotypical person, and I wanted to just get into the flow of writing my characters rather than plot them out on paper outlining their strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and so on, so I let the characters evolve themselves and think their own thoughts. (I plot. My characters pants me). So of course, they'd wind up being as autistic as I am.

Which one of your books was the hardest to write and stretched you the most as a writer?

It took me eleven years to write Ancilla. Writing characters without giving them proper names was only part of the challenge. The plot comes from character development, as do the conflicts in the book, and setting up situations that I know will cause my characters pain hurts me on their behalf.

Who is your favourite author and book?

I don't have just one. Donna Tartt, The Secret History; Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar; Robin McKinley, The Blue Sword; Richard Adams, Watership Down; T S Eliot, The Wasteland; Galway Kinnell, The Book of Nightmares; Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series; Pauline Reage, The Story of O; Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife; Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale; Ray Bradbury, The Illustrated Man; Mary Renault, The King Must Die; Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series... As you can see, my reading tastes are all over the place.

What book are you reading right now?

Draakensky by Paula Kappa.

Where do you get your inspiration for your books?

Ideas come to me and nag me until I write them down.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

I have a full-time day job, I'm an indie author who does all their own editing, illustrating, and marketing. I have a husband and family who need to see me every now and then - what is this "free time" of which you speak?

Do you have any new books in the works?

I'm writing a standalone novella, The Adventures of the Hypotenuse, which is a spinoff novella about a side character in Ancilla. I'm also working on Soror Mystica, the sequel to Ancilla, and I'm cobbling together a small book of safe-for-most-ages fantasy stories so that my children will have something that they can actually read and show off to their friends. It's rather awkward when your niche is erotic litfic. It''s not something you can just share with your offspring, you know?