Today, I get to share an interview with Samantha K. Garner. I've been a fan of Samantha's writing style for a while, such soulful and emotional perspectives, so it was an absolute pleasure to get her responses to some of my interview questions! (She has the best writing mascot, too.)
Friends and foes, the definition of an artist, here is Samantha K. Garner.
1) Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and The Quiet is Loud?
I'm an author of character-driven adult SF/F inspired by history and mythology. Essentially I write books about outsiders who want to live their lives but end up unravelling the fabric of their whole world instead. The Quiet is Loud is my debut novel, a literary sci-fi story about a woman with prophetic dreams living in a society where people like her are scorned and feared.
Aside from novels I also write poetry and short stories. When I'm not writing I'm playing around with photography or rambling on the internet about various things (the latter is a habit I've been honing since 1997, for better or for worse).
2) How did you first get started writing?
This might be a bit of a cliché but I can't remember a time when I didn't love writing. I always loved books and reading too, so I was probably eager to write my own stories just like the ones I read. I vividly remember my first "published" book, which I wrote at the age of six and was eight pages long. It was about a girl who found a litter of cats and was trying to hide them from her parents. Shows where my mind was at that time, I guess!
3) What's the most unique part of your writing process?
I'm not sure if this counts as unique, but my writing process is pretty heavily informed by chronic depression. I used to try and force myself into a strict writing schedule involving a set time and a word count, and I quickly burnt out doing that. Over the years I've been practicing a gentler approach. I do work on my writing every day, but it doesn't have to look as regimented as I'd envisioned previously. If I'm having a good day, I might chip away at that word count or outline a new project. If I'm having a bad day I might just freewrite some ideas or do light research. Some tasks, like research, can be adapted depending on my energy levels and mood (because of my history and mythology inspirations there is ALWAYS research I can do!). I've found that focusing less on output and more on building a regular writing practice has been much more sustainable.
4) Do you have any favourite craft books or resources?
Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird and Stephen King's On Writing are great. Even though it's not strictly a writing craft book, I also liked Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic. In it she talks about creativity as a collaboration between you and the idea itself. It really helped me to reframe my own relationship with my writing and understand why doing some sort of work every day, even in small amounts, is beneficial.
5) What made you choose to seek a publisher for The Quiet is Loud? Had you considered self-publishing?
I did consider self-publishing early on - the idea of having control over the process and the relative quickness of it appealed to me. I spent a lot of time researching the indie author world and ultimately realized that all that control would actually be too much for me to manage. (And, as you've written about before, there can be a significant cost to self-publishing.) Learning to identify and respect my limitations has been a tough process, but in this case I can honestly say I don't think I'm cut out for self-publishing novel-length works.
Of course, traditionally-published authors do have to shoulder the task of marketing alongside their publisher, and I was thrilled when my book found its home with Invisible Publishing. They're a smaller traditional publisher and I'd been a fangirl of theirs for years. I wasn't let down! The entire team really advocated for my book and made me feel supported in all ways, not just with marketing. I was in great hands.
6) What drew you to fantasy and sci-fi? Do you think you'll ever branch outside of those genres?
I actually started outside of fantasy and sci-fi, and wrote fully literary fiction short stories and poetry. I enjoyed it well enough, but when I switched to fantasy and sci-fi something in my brain absolutely lit up. I've always loved reading and watching SF/F books and movies, so perhaps my imagination is pretty well-tuned to those sorts of worlds. I love being able to examine real-world ideas and historical events through a speculative lens. It frees me up to go deeper into these ideas and say things that I can't say as elegantly with fully literary fiction. And it's just a lot of fun! I can't say I'll never go outside fantasy and sci-fi again, but it's looking pretty unlikely at this point.
7) What's your favourite part of writing and exploring themes like identity and belonging?
My favourite part is probably that there's always something to say! As a mixed-race person raised in a country neither of my parents come from, identity and belonging have always been in the background of my psyche. That need to define one's own life informs the way I look at the world and at people, and makes for loads of interesting scenarios to write about. And for someone whose writing is quite character-driven, there's honestly nothing better.
8) What were your publishing expectations? How did they differ from your experience?
I knew that the traditional publishing world was slow, and that my manuscript would get rejected more often than not. I would need patience (something I'm terrible at). I queried lots of agents before finally landing with my current agent, so in that way the expectation lined up with reality. However, I don't think my agent submitted my manuscript to very many places before Invisible picked it up. That happened quicker than I was expecting.
My experience with my editor at Invisible was also more collaborative than I'd imagined it would be. I'd previously had a sense of editing as somewhat "version-based": the editor makes suggestions and gives feedback, the writer creates a new version and sends it back, the process repeats. But I worked quite closely with my editor Bryan in a shared Google Doc that we tackled piece by piece rather than in a series of separate version-based documents. Of course, the final decisions and writing were my own and he respected my time and my vision, but it really was more collaborative than I was expecting. I loved it. It was invigorating to brainstorm ideas and talk through plot points with someone who understood my book almost as intimately as I did.
9) What advice would you give to those just starting out with the goal of publishing?
Be pragmatic and find a support network! Traditional publishing can take a very long time, and there are high highs and low lows. You might spend a lot of time waiting, and it's important to keep your mind and spirit occupied during that time - whether it's starting a new project, talking it out with friends, or something else that's healthy and grounding. Additionally, remember that you are the biggest advocate for your work. Be willing to adapt and pivot but don't make sacrifices you don't believe in. Your story deserves to be out there!
10) (Without spoilers) What has been your hardest scene to write?
Is it cheating to say many of them? I got my book deal for The Quiet is Loud at the very end of 2019 and did all my work with my editor during the pandemic lockdowns. We developed a second storyline taking place in the main character Freya's past. Because Freya grew up in Kelowna, many of the chapters in the second storyline were set there - very far away from where I live. I've been there but not for years, and not in the time periods the chapters were set in. If there hadn't been a pandemic going on I may have travelled to Kelowna to get a better sense of how it felt, investigate some local history. Thankfully I was able to do good research online but it probably took me much longer than it would have if travel were possible at the time.
11) How do you balance writing, marketing, etc. with other life stuff?
My husband is endlessly supportive of my writing, which makes it easier in those times where inspiration hits on, say, a Thursday evening when he's home and we're eating dinner. I'm also self-employed so I'm lucky to be able to slot writing into my days without too much disruption. I do have hard limits on not writing too close to bedtime, though - I definitely have weird dreams and disrupted sleep otherwise!
12) What do you do for work outside writing? (Or what would you be doing if not writing if your writing now supports you full-time?)
Writing is my day job too, actually! I'm a freelance copywriter for creative entrepreneurs, which I've been doing in some form since 2009. For certain clients I also do a bit of light website maintenance, updates, etc, which is fun too.
13) What would your author mascot be?
A magpie for sure. That whole thing about them being easily distracted by shiny things is largely a misconception, but I highly relate to it all the same. Because my work incorporates real-world history, mythology, and language, I'm always off down some research path that inspires one thing which inspires another thing and so on until I realize I haven't moved from my desk or blinked in hours.
Bio
Samantha Garner’s debut novel The Quiet is Loud was shortlisted for the 2022 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. A Canadian of Filipino-Finnish background, Samantha’s character-driven fantasy and science-fiction novels explore themes of identity and belonging. She loves writing nuanced relationship dynamics, atmosphere over action, and outsider characters doing their best. You can find her online at samanthagarner.ca or on most social media at @SamanthaKGarner.
To purchase The Quiet is Loud, you can head to Invisible Publishing's website or order from The Book Wardrobe, a local indie bookshop.