We recently connected with Aa Dasilva and have shared our conversation below.

AA, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

This is such a great question, and one I’ve asked myself many times before!

Occasionally, I regret not pursuing a writing career sooner, but then I’m reminded that so many things I’ve experienced in life helped me pen the novel that I did, when I did. If I’d penned my debut novel sooner, say in my early twenties, perhaps I wouldn’t have pursued my degree in clinical laboratory science, and I wouldn’t have yet had the life experiences gained by being part of a military family—both of which played a huge role in the inspiration (and content) of my debut novel, Periphery.

So, while there are fleeting moments in which I regret not being on this amazing journey sooner, it’s overshadowed by the fact that I’m proud of the experiences and education that shaped my views, my imagination, and my writing, into what it is today.

AA, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m an introvert, a wife, a mother, a clinical laboratory scientist, a writer, and a non-stop dreamer. Might I add, I’m also a Capricorn, so that hard-working and stubborn nature probably applies here as well.

I’ve been writing my whole life—my first publication was in The Anthology of Poetry by Young Americans at age nine. Through the years I’ve dabbled in medical writing, poetry, blogging, and have several unfinished manuscripts hiding out on my computer. What got me to finally finish my first manuscript? To put it simply: an existential crisis.

I work in a hospital laboratory, and when the pandemic hit, life changed significantly. Schools were shut down, I was balancing my job with homeschooling my children, and as my thirties faded and I faced down my forties a thought struck—What will become of all the dreams I never chased if it ends here? Where had all the magic and possibilities of my wild imagination gone? So, as I performed hundreds of COVID PCR tests under a biological safety hood during those tumultuous early days of the pandemic, I quite literally thought: perhaps it’s now or never.

That night, I began typing out Periphery. I’d spend nights with the laptop open building the story between cooking family meals and tending to the kids. I’d write on the patio while the kids played in the yard, and the words spilled from me with a passion like never before.

I took all the emotions that swirled through me as a medical worker during a worldwide pandemic, all the fears I wasn’t allowed to speak, and feigned courage I wore in front of my husband and children, I took life ruminations and regrets, and poured it into a speculative romance story steeped in existential undertones with a huge focus on whether choice or fate determines our destiny.

Then, the pandemic faded. The world moved on, my medical career continued, but I was different. The trajectory of my life forever changed by a story I had to write during a time in life where I was so desperately seeking the magic in our universe. After finishing my manuscript for Periphery in 2021, I insisted to my family and friends it was a personal project only. I didn’t know anyone in the publishing industry, and from what I’d researched, landing an agent or publishing contract was nearly impossible. Despite dismal odds of publication, I kept dreaming that maybe—just maybe—the story could be an escape for readers the way it was for me during a tumultuous and dark time in life. That’s the thought that pushed me to send out my first batch of queries.

After a few rejections, I pulled back and made some edits. A year passed before I sent out another batch of queries, and that’s when I landed a publishing contract with a small publisher in 2023. I’m so glad I pursued the dream, and I’m thrilled that my story is now out in the universe. When a reader tells me they enjoyed my story, or that it resonated deeply with them, or that I’ve inspired someone to begin pursuing a passion project, I can’t help but feel I’ve finally found the path I belong on.

Adulthood has a way of taking our dreams and whittling them down with a heavy dose of responsibility and reality, but following through on a project my heart needed really helped me find the child-like wonder and magic of the world again. And through it all, I’ve learned a valuable lesson that I’m so happy to be able share with my children (and the world!)—never underestimate the magic in our universe. Chase your dreams relentlessly, even in the dark.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

With social media, it’s easy to feel plugged in, but completely disconnected. While we peruse socials, we’re only getting a glimpse of what others want us to see. And, by viewing other’s lives through that fake filter of feigned perfection, we can begin to feel lonely, disconnected, perhaps even envious or angry if what we’re being shown is inflammatory.

So, here’s where I fall in love with art in all forms–it connects us on a deeper level.

This desire for a deeper connection drives my creative journey. The beautiful simplicity of bonding over great books. As both a voracious reader and an author, the world will always need wonderful stories, and I want to be a part of that.

Whether I’m reading them or writing them, I want to be part of the stories that inspire, that feed our imagination, that connect us, that help us feel the full spectrum of human emotion. I want to create stories that allow us to live more than one life, to experience the hero’s journey and character arcs beyond our own, or that offer us an escape from our own universe for a while.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative writer is being able to offer an escape to those who may need it. Life is beautiful and messy and busy and hard at times. A great book has done me the powerful favor of offering a mental reprieve from the day-to-day, and knowing I can give that back to others is highly rewarding.

In a society that commends productiveness and a go, go, go mentality, I hope to offer someone a reprieve or escape for a while in one of my books.

Fiction can allow us to feel the highs and lows of the hero’s journey, while we take a break from our own. After losing yourself in a great book, you may return to your world more empowered than ever to face your very own character arc.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://aadasilva.com
• Instagram: @aadasilva11
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authoraadasilva
• Twitter: @aadasilva1
• Other: Purchase links for Periphery

  Bookshop.org (where every purchase supports local, independent bookstores): https://bookshop.org/p/books/periphery-aa-dasilva/21812641?ean=9781509257713

  Amazon: https://a.co/d/cCdJSgS

  Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/periphery-aa-dasilva/1146224882