Ello everyone! Here with my final blog post for this week is an interview I had with the amazing Jaidie Philips! Jaidie's new book, This Gray Canvas, just hit Amazon three days ago, and I'm so excited to share about it! Without further ado, here's the interview! C: Hello Jaidie! It's so nice to have you on the blog! Let's go ahead and get started. First question: How did you get started writing? When did you begin to seriously write? (As in, with the mindset of, "this could be published"?) J: I started writing when I was ten with my sisters (Kayti and Rissy). We would always come up with the most wacky storylines to play out with our toys and as our dad was passing our room one day, he stopped and watched us play for a minute before saying, “Hey, that's really cool! You should write that story down.” And we did, on a Kindle Fire 7…lol… It was terrible but we really enjoyed it so we kept writing books until finally we wrote Unfortunate Events: The Dragon Prince Chronicles 1 in 2021! That was the first book we felt satisfied with, that we read and didn't cringe, so after much, much editing we finally published it and the second book in the series Prince of Vengeance and are currently working on publishing book three in the series Trail of Assassins! It was right around the time that we wrote Unfortunate Events that I started to take my own personal writing seriously as well and have published GT and TGC and have also completed another project recently, am about half-way through another WIP, and have written tons of short stories one of which is published in the Heard in Silence Anthology :) And have so many other ideas I can't wait to write and some partly, very badly written manuscripts are stuffed and forgotten somewhere in a drawer of course XD C: Yes, same! I have a lot of old stories shoved away under my bed somewhere. So what genres do you primarily write in? J: YA and MG Fantasy and Contemporary. C: Cool! I write in similar genres. We may have already touched on this, but what was your first ever completed writing project? (And where is it now?) J: Um, Protect WK, that I wrote with my sisters (Kayti and Rissy) when I was ten on a Kindle Fire…lol…It was really bad, it was about horses with swords…haha! Currently it's in a forgotten Word doc waiting to be rewritten yet again at some point. It had some cool concepts (obviously not not horses with swords part tho XD ) we've already rewritten it about five times through the years (it's about humans now…lol…) but it's still really bad, one day we get it right, hopefully XD C: What was your first ever published project? J: I'd love to say it was Unfortunate Events: The Dragon Prince Chronicles 1…but we (me and my sisters) actually *coughs* published a book before that when I was like twelve, for about a month before we unpublished it and stuffed it in a drawer to die…lol… I'm not saying the title, so you can't look it up and it was under pen names so no one will ever find it! All I have to say is, it was really bad XD So, yeah, let's say my first published book was Unfortunate Events ;) C: Of course, now that you've told us it exists...I mean, I love a good challenge. XD Alright, so let's talk about your newest book! How did you get the idea for This Gray Canvas? J: I got the idea from Pinterest actually…lol…I saw a select color photo of black and white pencils…with one green pencil. And that got me thinking, what if you were an artist who only saw in black and white… and green? And Ethan was born! And the research began. I thought I was looking for Color Blindness, like in the movies, you know? Well,, it turned out to be way more complicated than that, see I thought I was looking for simple Color Blindness, but that actually means you just see on a different color spectrum (red is green, green is red ect.) And I was looking for complete black and white vision, like the movies you know? (Except for the color green of course!) Well, months more of research, I found what I needed was Monochromatic Vision or Monochromacy. Well, Monochromatic Vision is super rare meaning only 1 out of 30,000 people have it, and those who do can most of the time only see in black and white, period. But there are a very select few cases of people saying they could see say orange as well. Well, I took that small string and ran with it, and we'll, the rest of the book just sort of fell into place after that :) C: Wow, that's super interesting! I had a relative who was monochromatic, but I had no idea how rare it is! So, how long did it take to write This Gray Canvas? What was your favorite (and least favorite) parts of the process? J: Um, about two months of actual writing if I remember correctly (probably the slowest I've ever written a book considering it's tiny size…lol…) Favorite part was probably writing about the art side of things, since I'm an artist myself it was fun to write about my other passion! Least favorite part was definitely all the research it took to make this book possible and written realistically. *wipes brow* C: Yeah, I can imagine. For those of you who didn’t know, Jaiden Philips has published another novel called The Guild of Thieves. How has writing This Gray Canvas, a realistic middle grade story, been different from Guild of Thieves, which is young adult fantasy? J: Um, very. Honestly TGC was harder, just because of Ethan's condition, but contemporary as a genre is actually easier for me to write because like people know how a car works and what a fridge looks like, so you don't have to explain as much as you do in a fantasy. Like people know what New York looks like, but they have zero clue what Darrenton might look like. Tho I do like the freedom of fantasy like I can come up with some random mountain range whereas with contemporary I have to find a real mountain in the exact location where the story is currently at. So TGC was definitely harder to write than GT, because of Ethan's condition and all the research about New York I had to do. But other contemporary projects I've done have been easier, so it just depends. Sometimes I like building new worlds and sometimes I like having the ease of already having (this sounds weird, but) ‘pre-made’ locations so to speak…lol… Also, I usually write YA fantasy and MG contemporary, so fantasy is usually my heavier projects with more complex characters and stronger themes, and contemporary is usually my more light and fun projects to rewind after a rocky fantasy adventure ;) C: Cool! Can you give us the scoop on any upcoming projects you're working on that you can tell us about? :D J: Currently I'm working on a top secret WIP called Project CP, but it's top secret so I won't say much, except that it's another YA fantasy, and there may or may not be some pirates involved ;) And I'm working on editing the second draft of my next MG contemporary story, officially titled Brothers Divided. Again can't say much as of now, but it's about twin brothers, Diego and Steffen, who have never met each other until the book takes place. And tho they're identical twins, they couldn’t be more different, Diego barrel races and Steffen skateboards. The story takes place on a ranch in the mountains of NM, with horses, crazy dogs, endless banter, and themes of brotherhood! And that's all I'll say for now ;) C: It all sounds so exciting! Can't wait to learn more! Okay, final question... Does pineapple belong on pizza or not? J: Definitely not! Tho, I don’t like pineapple in general so I might be biased…lol…. C: We are of the same mind! I don't either, tbh. Okay, that's all for today! Thank you so much for letting me interview you, Jaidie! About This Gray CanvasBecause how did one explain the gray canvas I was trapped in? Ethan was born into a world of black and white a medical condition known as monochromatic vision, but with one exception—he can see the color green. After moving from the Colorado countryside to New York City, Ethan struggles to adjust to the busy and colorless atmosphere. When encouraged to join a local art contest by his grandfather and a peppy bookworm named Sophie, Ethan considers it. But when the bullies at school get a hold of his sketchpad, and make fun of his colorless art, Ethan wonders if he has anything worth sharing at all. Because how could anyone understand the gray canvas of his life? Add This Gray Canvas to your Goodreads here! Buy This Gray Canvas here! About Jaidie PhilipsJaiden Phillips is a teen author residing in the mountains of western North Carolina. She has six older siblings and one set of amazing parents! More often than not, you can find her sketching one of her wild ideas, writing out a scene for a book, or giving her sisters a healthy dose of sarcasm. Her debut novel, The Guild of Thieves, is available on Amazon! Find out more about Jaidie via her LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jaidenphillipsart Free Character Art!For those who order and submit to this form between June 25th and July 9th you will receive a hand-drawn character card of Ethan, the main character of This Gray Canvas. The picture is digitally colored using only colors Ethan can see, so you get to see him the way he sees himself! Physical cards are available for US residents, international readers will receive a digital card that they can print on their own for themselves. Tour Schedule!Monday, June 24th
Sisters Three - Blog Tour Launch Announcement Rhys-Marie Whitnell - Spotlight Emma Crooks - Spotlight and review Tuesday, June 25th Issabelle Perry - Character Interview Kristina Hall - Spotlight Kylie Beevers - Spotlight and Sneak Peek Virginia Henderson - Book Spotlight Wednesday, June 26th Jaiden Phillips Art - Character Art and Spotlight Lorelei Angelino - Spotlight Thursday, June 27th The Introspective Introvert - Author Interview, Sneak Peek, and Spotlight Writers’ Vision - Spotlight Friday, June 28th Old Fashioned Book Love - Review and Spotlight Southern Story Scribbler (that's me!) - Author Interview Saraina Whitney - Review and Sneak Peek Sisters Three - End of Tour Post
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Cate V.Peter Pan fangirl and latte drinker. Archives
June 2024
Categories |