We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Adrielle. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Adrielle below.

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

This is an interesting question because even though I began writing at an early age, I didn’t pursue writing professionally until my late 20s.

I began reading around age four, which was so pivotal for me and how much of my worldview was shaped. As soon as I could, I began writing my own stories and even won Young Author’s at my middle school when I was around twelve.

Eventually, I started writing fanfics to gauge people’s interest in my writing and had one pop off on Fanfic.net and Wattpad (which I initially joined to support my friend). After some success with fanfiction, I began sharing my original work. I took a creative writing class in undergrad to further help me improve my skills (under Carter Sickels, who made such an impact on me and I felt encouraged again to really pursue things, but wasn’t comfortable leaving Wattpad yet).

Eventually, after winning awards through Wattpad and having some success there, I felt comfortable enough to query my debut, A Ballad of Inferno and Ruin. After 80 or so rejections, I finally got my yes.

So, do I wish I would have started earlier as a professional? I’m not sure. I think I needed that time to work on myself and my writing before I felt courageous enough to try to turn this into a career.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Of course! I’m Adri. I’m an author from Appalachia that dabbles in various genres from dystopian horror to historical fantasy to paranormal romance. I got my push, so to speak, from fanfic.net and Wattpad before pursuing writing on a more professional level.

I think a large part of my brand (I hate referring to it like that but semantics) comes from being myself and open with people about who I am. I speak up a lot on important social issues and causes even though I’ve been told to tone it down (lol, I won’t), autism and living with it (again, I’m an autistic author), supporting my fellow creatives, and books, obviously, and how reading is a political act.

One of the things I’m most proud of is following this dream of mine while also remaining true to who I am as a person.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I’ve talked about this here and there, but I had leave my first publisher, who had the first rights to my book, due to the head of the publishing house not. . . fulfilling certain legal commitments. This went on for months. I tried and tried to reach out to ask about my royalties that weren’t paid, for example, and there was a lot of unprofessional behavior in general. It was an absolute nightmare and this was my first experience in the publishing industry. I had never felt so down and defeated and depressed. I stopped writing for a while and couldn’t shake how awful I felt. All I wanted was to get my book out there into the world. It just beat me down mentally and emotionally. At first, I was too afraid to do or say anything, but I did end up advocating for myself and my book. I got my rights back.

So typically, in the overarching book/publishing world, once you lose your first rights, another publisher won’t pick your book up. However, my book has a new home with Cloaked Press and I’m very grateful to the team over there, as well proud of myself for standing up for not just me, but my book. That took so much out of me. But it made me that much more resilient, especially in such a hard industry.

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

This is a great question.

I guess I’ll start broadly first:

Stop defunding the arts in schools. Children need creative outlets and that should be encouraged. We put so much emphasis on sports and academics, which have their place, but artists and creatives are also important. The arts help build empathy, connection, and teach us to think outside the box and challenge us and our worldviews. I have this hypothesis that people will cut the arts before anything because the arts challenge them in ways where they have to confront themselves or pieces of themselves that perhaps, they’re not so proud of.

Everything really comes down to supporting creative endeavors. Go to art shows and pay an artist for their work. See plays. So much comes down to funding and engaging with creatives, as well as being open about that engagement.

Less broadly, if we are talking strictly authors:

Sign up for newsletters.

If you can’t buy a book, then request ARCs (advanced reader copies).

Buy books.

Engage with authors on social media. Comment on their posts, share them, repost.

Recommend books to your friends and family.

Write reviews on Goodreads, Storygraph, Tome, socials, etc.

Don’t pirate anyone’s work.

Request books at your local library, bookstores, and things like that.

I hope this is somewhat helpful (:

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.adriellereinaauthor.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adriellereinaauthor
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@adriellereina4429
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Adrielle Reina