Please help me welcome Celyn Kendrick to the LGBTQIA Author Spotlight. Celyn comes to us from their comfy couch.
Describe your books/your writing for the readers.
One reviewer called it “weird fantasy.” I guess that works. I feel like it follows traditional literature ala Don Quixote, Arthurian Legend, Aesop, The Brothers Grimm, Dante, etc., but definitely not “genre” fiction, even though there are genre elements of humor, low-fantasy, romance, mystery, horror, satire, historical, and LGBTQIA+ themes are baked in, even if it’s more a circumstance of the characters and plot—i.e. I don’t write romance to fulfill a sexual-preference or kink—I write literature about what it is to be your true self in the face of a world that would define who you are based on the morality of the day. I feel like this is an idea any reader can get something out of no matter what their rainbow status. The series is all about relationships—with self, with partners, with family, with community, with society… and so there are inherently relationships and romance (some more awkward than others).
What is something that makes you unique (personally or within your writing)?
No filter. Be prepared for bawdy humor, questionable observations, bizarre twists and other things you won’t find anywhere else. There’s a lot of WTF in my writing, but hopefully you’ll laugh.
Tell us about your writing process. Where do your ideas come from? Do you plan/plot or totally wing it?
Pantser, 100%. But then I go back and refine and refine and refine to make sure there’s a cohesive idea, message, and all the intricate plots line up, the phrasing and imagery is very specific and may take on many different meanings or foreshadow… readers can read any book in the series as a standalone, the whole series, or the whole series several times and still pick up easter-eggs and ah-ha moments and jokes. I don’t expect everyone to get 100% of it 100% of the time. I’ve gone through it more than 50 times forwards, backwards, in circles, gone a few rounds with my editor, forwards and backwards some more, and every time I read it, I find new things even >I< hadn’t noticed before.
What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
As someone who’s neurodivergent, I have struggled with vocabulary and words, oddly. I’m a terrible speaker, because four or five words will try to all come out at once. Some words strike me as “funny” sounding or they invoke images that have nothing to do with their meaning. Spoonerisms, homonyms, double-entendres, puns, tongue-twisters, mouth-music and other oddities a la Lewis Carroll tend to invoke a lot of weird stuff. It made math especially difficult, not because I had trouble with math, but because some of the terminology just sounded so strange to my ear that I couldn’t get over the funny word “quadratic” going through my head a million times when I needed to be paying attention to the math. This has also been an issue in coding, yet was where I ultimately found my professional calling—helping to standardize nebulous computer terminology that everyone in the industry used differently, and as an editor for developing a language to describe complex phenomenon through semiotics. So, yeah, I’m kind of an etymology and language nerd.
What is your favorite childhood book?
Fox in Sox
What is one of the best feelings in the world?
Synchronicity
If animals could talk, which would be the rudest?
It’s a toss up between Mr Culhwch (the piggish politician mayor of my fairy village) and Mr Swan, who hurls Shakespearean insults at people and accosts joggers.
What’s a sound you absolutely love?
The song of a bellbird (NZ). Absolutely ugly little bird, but it has the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard.
Favorite snack while writing?
Whatever keeps me from wanting to snack
Favorite drink when writing?
Peach iced tea
Favorite scent?
Stewart, lol. Clean ocean breeze? Preferably without the rotting seaweed and fish.
If someone is new to your writing, which book would you suggest they start with?
That’s always a trick question. Most who have read the whole series recommend starting at the beginning with Green Hills and Daffodils (book 1). I agree with this, but also feel like the writing gets progressively stronger with each book in the series and book 7 is where my heart’s at. But I suppose everyone who’s a perfectionist will look at their older works and see all the things they didn’t know then that they know now. But, I just released a 2nd edition for Green Hills and Daffodils, so hopefully some of the more amateur stuff is smoothed out.
Where can readers find your books?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFC7DFDW
Big thanks to Celyn Kendrick for stepping into the spotlight today! Check out Celyn’s books; you may find a new favorite author to read.
