Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Corinne Fox. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Corinne, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Growing up, I always had a passion for the performing arts. I was a theatre kid, choir kid, and band kid throughout grade school, but when it came time to choosing a college major, I chose history. During my college years, I spent hours reading and writing historical essays and loving it (for the most part). I took a break from theatre but found a new passion in dance. After college, I started working for an aerospace engineering company (where I stayed for 10 years) as an executive assistant. Although I worked with some amazing people, I still lacked a fulfilling creative outlet. I spent my free time performing in local community theatre shows while using my free time to write historical fiction. At the time, I was too afraid to show anyone my writing. It was more just for me than for the world to see. After about 10 years, I decided to switch careers. I went back to school and got licensed to teach high school theatre, history, and english with the goal of teaching high school theatre. For the past 7-8 years I’ve taught theatre, film, and dance, but I found myself missing history and still searching for a different type of creative outlet. From 2015-2020, I wrote as a hobby, but in 2022 I came up with an idea that inspired me so much, I had to see it through. I published The Mission: A Quest for Truth and Absolution in Post-Genocide Cambodia in 2024 after spending two years researching and writing. In the summer of 2024, I revisited the novel I wrote during the 2020 pandemic, and I’m so excited to publish The Overseer’s Daughter in May 2025.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As a theatre teacher, performer, and historian, I love storytelling. I love it in all mediums. Live performance. Film. Fiction. As a teacher and stage director, I get to help craft a pre-existing story through moving performances and colorful staging. As a historian and author, I get to create my own stories. I love finding a new history that introduces readers to something they’ve never known before, or finding a new perspective on a known history. The best compliments and what I’m most proud of as an author are when a reader says that my books are both well written and well researched. As a historian, I know the importance of getting your history right. As a storyteller, I have a responsibility to write in a way that connects with readers. I want my readers to know that they can expect the unexpected from my novels. They are fresh and unapologetic in the topics they cover and characters they create.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

When I wrote The Mission, my goal was to simply educate people about this horrific time period in history. As a student of history, even I knew very little about this tragedy that happened in my parent’s lifetime. If I talked to anyone about Cambodia, they would spout a few know buzz words: Pol Pot, killing fields, etc. But unless they actually traveled to Cambodia, hardly anyone knew anything. That astounded me more than anything else, and I knew this was a story the world had to know. It was hard though because it’s not exactly an easy topic to share and talk about. I struggled to give away copies. People even shied away from a free copy. But I knew that once people read it, they were incredibly moved by the interwoven stories. People wrote such wonderful and heartfelt reviews which I found very inspiring. The Overseer’s Daughter is a more known subject, so I’m hopeful that will have a wider audience draw, but my main goal and mission is for people to read and respond to my work. Now that I finally found the confidence to put myself out there, I want to share my stories.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The process of being an indie author is not for the faint hearted. I assumed I would write a book, post it on amazon, and then wait for the royalty checks to come pouring in. No one tells you that writing a 90,000 word novel is the easy part. While there are a lot of resources available for indie authors, they’re not cheap. Finding people to read and review your book, building a healthy social media presence (and sustaining it), and physically marketing yourself and your product is so difficult and costly. I guess you could say that I’m still looking for resources to help with this creative journey. I even created my own independent publishing company: Bright Fox Tales LLC to help get past the red tape that requires indie authors to have a publisher. There is a large divide between authors who publish their books through “traditional” means and those who go the indie publishing route. Us indie authors have a voice too, but finding our audience is infinitely more difficult.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://corinnefoxbooks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corinnefoxbooks
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Corinnefoxbooks/61555002332935/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@corinnefox889