Just as we’ve all just realised (with our usual October shock) that the year is sneaking on and getting away on us (“How is it nearly Christmas?!”), this week we want to draw attention to someone else who might have been quietly slipping under your radar: Annalise Azevedo. One of our newer family members at Ouroborus, young adult author Annalise is best described as tenacious, committed, and just the right mix of playful and serious. She lives and breathes the supernatural, paranormal, fantasy and fictional world, knows what a deadline is, and whenever we don’t hear from her for a while, we know it’s because she’s devotedly working on her paranormal Sacred Stone series. Book 1, Reflection of Fire, is out now, with book 2 on the way. We interrupted this busy writer to ask our usual pertinent questions.
Tell us about yourself: My story is rather simple, I always had an active imagination and loved magic. I am the second youngest in a family of six, but I was the only one who decided to write for fun. I was often a bit of an oddball and sometimes I find myself thinking about different scenarios to life. My early stories were English projects, mainly about dogs and wolves. Soon enough, I was a teenager who obsessed over TV shows and I was determined to give people the same feels as TV gave me.
Favourites
Favourite book: Don’t really have a favourite book, but recently preferred book is Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen
Favourite films: Avengers, Hachiko, Mulan
Favourite television series: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Vampire Diaries, Lucifer, Once Upon a Time, One Day at a Time, Friends, Game of Thrones and anything David Attenborough
Favourite colour: Blue
Favourite subject in school: Drama and Multimedia
Ideal holiday destination: New Zealand is my current goal, then I would like to go to Europe, Portugal in particular
The best birthday party would be: I already had it. Just a quiet moment with people I care about. But it needs cake. Always needs cake.
Dislikes
Food you can’t stand: Salads, mushrooms, seafoods, I’m a picky eater
Something you’d never be caught dead wearing: Bright clothing, or crop tops
Least favourite sport: Running related – or tennis and golf
Quirky questions
An age you are not: 22
Third favourite fictional character: Emma Swan
A Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavour named after you would be a combination of: Chocolate, caramel and white chocolate.
A job you definitely wouldn’t have been suited for: Marketing
A random hobby you had for like five minutes once: Martial Arts. I mean, it’s still pretty cool
The most attractive punctuation mark is: !
Writing related
What inspired you to write your current work: My friends were the primary focus. For those readers of Reflection of Fire, you probably realised that friendship is a strong theme of the story with little to no romance. Another inspiration was myself when I was in a dark place, I won’t go into massive detail in it, but bloodlust symbolises four major reasons to kill – misery, vengeance, rage and thrill. I always wanted to write a story where a character tries to be an average person (someone who wouldn’t kill, no matter what) but in reality, feels like an outsider (because they want to kill, for any of the four reasons)
What genres do you read and write: Supernatural, paranormal
When did you start publishing with Ouroborus: 2018
What do you hope people associate you with: That awkward girl who wrote a book
Current work-in-progress: Editing Eye of the Storm and writing Book 3
What can readers expect from you in future: A full series, and solo novels. Lots and lots of solo novels.
Which of your own characters do you relate to most, and which is your favourite to write: A piece of me is in each character, but I feel the closest with Tahani Rosa. A lot of her mannerisms are like mine, but magnified. She was also one of my earlier characters, who changed constantly through the versions. But my favourite character to write is a character not revealed yet.
Either or
Hardcover, eBook or paperback? Any really. I’m not fussy on books.
Chocolate or chips? Is that a trick question? Chocolate.
DC or Marvel? Marvel
Blue ink or black? Black
Indoors or outdoors? Both
Spotless work space or is there a desk under all that? In between, but I do prefer it spotless.
Coffee or tea? I like both as iced.
You can find out more about Annalise Azevedo at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and on her website, and the books can be purchased from the Ouroborus Books online store.
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