We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hallah Wolfe a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hallah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Earning a living wage from my writing is definitely the goal but I am no quite there yet. Creating art is expensive and Self publishing is an expensive project to take on. Everything that I have made in book sale’s has gone back into the book to either pay for editing, PR, Marketing, Printing etc. However in the last month, I did take the leap to write full time and quit my job in the corporate world to pursue this career and it has been incredibly rewarding. I was only able to do this because I live in a two income household and I am lucky enough to have a partner that supports my dreams and goals as an author. I am projecting with the release of the second book in my series coming next year, that I will start to see actual income coming in, so fingers crossed!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Hallah Mikaela Wolfe but I am an author who writes under the pen name of H. M. Wolfe. All my life I have written stories. Whether it’s in the form of music, shorts or poetry, I have used writing as a way to express the things I never felt I could say. I have novel after unfinished novel tucked away in the corners of notebooks and hard drives that will never see the light of day. But then, my sister reintroduced me to fantasy novels and something clicked. I was finally able to put my story onto the page in a way that I felt would do it justice. My heart and soul are in the characters I write. They hurt, they grow and they heal with me. I strive for my writing to be inclusive, for all communities. I myself am a queer Woman of Color who struggles with mental illness and is two and a half years sober, so I understand how important it is to see yourself of the page. To see yourself in the characters and think, ‘they are just like me’ and ‘if they can do this so can I’. The heart of my work is helping the reader understand how much they matter to the world, showing that strength comes in all forms and that no matter how deeply you may feel it sometimes, you are truly never alone. My only hope is, when you close my books after that last word-you feel a little magic and a little stronger to step back out into the world as the warrior that you are.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Creating community. The community that I have built while going through the writing and publishing process has truly blown me away. Not only with other artists and authors that are so incredibly supportive and want to see you succeed in your art, But with the readers. I would not be where I am without the overwhelming support I have received from readers. They are truly the beating heart of this community and at so many times have said things to me, or shown love to The Book of Cin that has pushed me to keep going through the hard days.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Embrace us. At the end of the day creatives, authors and artists need to be embraced for their work. I often see that if a piece doe not resonate with one person it is often demoted from the title of “art” because of their opinion of it when in reality, art is art no matter the reaction it brought out of you. It takes an artist to pull out emotions when engaging in with their work, whether that emotion is hate or love they were still able to pull it from you which in my eyes is art. Embracing creatives as who they are, and giving them the safety to showcase that art to the world is so incredibly important. I also believe that there needs to be an end to the stigma that if you do not have an agent your work is not valid or good enough to get one when in reality, there are just not enough agents in the word in comparison to the number of creatives. Not having representation should take away from the worth of an artist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hmwolfe.com
• Instagram: hm.wolfe
• Twitter: hm.wolfe

Image Credits

H. M. Wolfe @hm.wolfe