About C. M. Alongi:
C. M. Alongi is a fantasy/sci-fi author with a (fake) sword, a crochet hook, and two cats who keep trying to claw apart her furniture. Her epic fantasy novella series BLACKWING, starting with TO KILL A NECROMANCER, began this year and features a paladin and necromancer forced to work together to save the world. Her science fiction novel CITADEL comes out in June, featuring wolves with wings, telepathy, and telekinesis.
She graduated from Hamline University with a double bachelor's in history and social justice. She still lives in the Midwest, mostly because it's too freezing cold or too sweltering hot to move.
What inspires you to write?
The burning itch beneath my skin that drives me to insanity when I DON'T write.
Things that have had an impact on my writing have been history, current events, Rick Riordan, George R. R. Martin, and countless action/adventure movies and shows.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
Uuuuuhhhhhhh…
Rick Riordan
George R. R. Martin (if he ever finishes his damn series)
Nnedi Okorafor
R. F. Kuang
Tiana Warner
C. L. Polk
Jane Austen
Tell us about your writing process.
I am definitely a planner (re: outliner). I don't understand how people can literally make it all up as they go along without at least penciling in a basic plot structure or worldbuilding or character notes. How? HOW???
I use Scrivener for outlining and writing. It makes it much easier to locate notes, move chapters around, and–if necessary–to change my outline.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
For me, it's more of watching a movie in my head. I don't "talk to" my characters, per se, but I do drop them in a variety of different scenarios, adjusting their backgrounds, motivations, and character interactions as needed. It's the epitome of "I have forty tabs open and don't know where the music is coming from."
Once something clicks, I delete the other thirty-nine tabs and go with the one that works best.
What advice would you give other writers?
It sounds corny, but seriously: never give up.
Before you find that one literary agent or that one publisher that takes on your book, you're going to get so many rejection letters that you'll be able to completely redo the wallpaper of your living room. But each rejection gets you closer to the one that accepts you.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
Having done both, it depends entirely on the story itself, the format, and my goals.
CITADEL, I knew, I wanted to traditionally publish. It's my debut novel, so I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing and didn't want to mess it up. The fact that I was (am) broke and couldn't afford all the editors, cover artist, and resources required for an effective self-publishing also factored into it.
My BLACKWING novella series, on the other hand, is something else entirely. For starters, they're novellas. Publishers don't like doing those outside of anthologies. By the time I was writing them, I (sort of) knew how to navigate the writing and publishing world. And more to the point, I wanted to publish them before CITADEL came out so I can better grow my readership and audience in preparation for that launch. So I needed speed. All of this pointed to the self-publishing route.
Both options are perfectly valid, and they both have their strengths and weaknesses. So long as I get to write and create, I don't really care what method of publication is being used.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
It's definitely an evolving field–we're seeing the rise of audiobooks, and of course television and movies are becoming easier and cheaper to make, meaning they need more stories, meaning books are more likely to be put on screen.
It's very exciting. But also, writers struggle so much financially. I STILL have to work in a deli in order to make ends meet. If publishers keep paying authors pennies, they're quickly going to find themselves out of their own business as self-publishing takes over.
What genres do you write?: fantasy, sci-fi
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print, Audiobook
Website(s)
C. M. Alongi Home Page Link
Link To C. M. Alongi Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Instagram
YouTube
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
