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

Hi EM Jeanmougin, thanks for joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

The best way to be successful is to first define “success.” Second, make sure that definition is realistic.

A lot of writers will set their definition of success as “I want to be the next Stephen King” before they’ve even finished their first draft of their first novel. Then they constantly feel they’ve failed during every painful step of the long, arduous writing process. This is not the correct way to go about it.

If you finished a first draft, you should celebrate the success of finishing.

Then you can move the goal post to “I want to finish a second draft.” Or “I want to get beta reader feedback.” Or “I want to see a properly formatted and printed version of my book.” Then, when you succeed at that, you move the goalpost again. But always remember that celebration step. Even if its something small, like buying yourself your favorite candy bar or sending a loved one a YAY emoji.

In our experience, not only will you get much further that way, you will also FEEL more successful. Success begets success. You can really go very far, but you have to take baby steps.

On the flipside, someone else could be the richest person in the world, and still feel like a failure. Because their definition of success is so out of this world.

EM Jeanmougin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Our main focus is on Queer literature, horror, and urban fantasy. EM also produces art in the form of illustrations and toymaking, as well as dabbles in poetry, blogging, and beta reading. Jay enjoys painting and photography, and has also worked with few independent filmmakers.

One major preoccupation of both is folklore and mythology. Much of our work is influenced by this preoccupation. We have always loved supernatural monsters, especially those who are imagined to live amongst us. Vampires and werewolves. Angels and demons. Giant spiders. The Jersey Devil and Mothman.

The list goes on and on and on.

Even though these entities aren’t living creatures we can see in a zoo, they are engrained in humanity’s collective imaginations, so much so that they bridge generational and cultural differences. Many of these monsters have been with us for time out of mind. Most will outlast us as individuals. They are a part of our present, our future, and past. No, they aren’t real, but they still exist.

We strive to incorporate these entities into our writing, while still maintaining a grounded sense of reality.

We are most proud our ongoing “The Hunter and The Spider” series, which takes place in a world we have written on-and-off together since we met on the internet as teenagers.

Jay lives in Canada and EM lives in America. We have different tastes in many things, but the monsters are a constant touchstone.

In our books, we explore the struggle to find identity and cope with mental illness in a morally gray world where strife is the only certainty. Our characters are not perfect people. Many could even be considered “evil.” None could be called strictly “good.” However, through the eyes of these “monsters,” we hope to highlight the humanity, in the characters, in ourselves, and even in our readers.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

We met online around 2003. This was back during the Wild West of dial-up internet, in ye olde Myspace days, when Neopets and Geocities and things of that ilk were all the rage. We discovered one another on one such website, through our shared love of a (truly terrible) movie called “Hangman’s Curse,” which was based on a (less terrible but still mediocre) book we had also both read and adored.

By happy accident, Jay had “Hangman’s Curse” listed on her profile. EM, who had literally never met anyone else who had ever even heard of it, messaged to chat, and from there a friendship was forged.

Our shared interest in books and the supernatural eventually led to us writing back and forth as our own original characters. Occasionally, we would go in and out of touch, and as we got older platforms changed, but the story (and the characters) always brought us back.

In many ways, the characters had grown up with us. We had influenced one another’s styles. We were each other’s best fans and favorite audience. By this point, over a decade had elapsed, and we had never met one another face-to-face. We weren’t teenagers in school anymore. We both worked retail and loved to complain about our jobs.

We still wrote back and forth wherever we found the chance. Oftentimes, one or the other of us spent our whole lunch break crafting a few paragraphs. Our world had grown considerably by then. It was the sort of place you could walk around in, if you wanted. Eventually, it occurred to us that maybe we should try to publish a book together.

We shopped around for agents and editors, but it turned out a Queer Urban Romantasy about a gay demon Hunter and a pansexual werespider was what you might call a “niche” market. So niche, it was difficult to even find someone to be rejected by.

After a few years of desperately scouring the internet and spending hours putting together carefully crafted submissions, only to be told “no” or be outright ignored, we decided to go into business for ourselves and act as our own publishers.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

It can be really hard for non-creatives to reconcile the idea that creativity is not a 9-to-5. While many creatives have to have some sort of deadline to keep them from procrastinating indefinitely, even the most militant everyday writers will usually confess to being unable to schedule creativity. You might go several days without writing more than a few sentences here and there. You might not write at all. Then suddenly, you’re working for twenty-four hours straight and can’t bear to be parted from the story, even to eat.

Another thing non-creatives struggle to realize is that writing is not just about writing. There’s a lot more to it than that. There are so many other ways to work on your craft. Everything you do acts as input.

When a writer is reading, they might be working on their craft.

When a writer is binging a series, they might be working on their craft.

When a writer is walking, jogging, riding a bike, or lifting at the gym, they might be working on their craft.

Crafting a story can be like leaving a computer program running in the background. You might be doing other things, but that program is still working. Sometimes doing something else in the meantime might even be a necessity.

But for people who are used to more traditional work settings, this can sometimes seem confusing or even downright lazy. The irony is that oftentimes creatives are working many more hours a week (and for less pay) than their counterparts. Their work just looks different.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hunterandspider.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thequeenofsleepy/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Emj772
• Other: Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/jeanmouginwrightGoodreads:
  EM – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19533685.E_M_Jeanmougin
  Jay – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19511846.Jay_Wright

Image Credits

Book Spread Photo: Cassie Thomas (insta: cazziedanajo)
Cover Art Book Spread: (Strangers, Friends, & Only the Good Die Young) Claudia Caranfa
Author Photo: Jessi Roy
Elysium Painting: Jay Wright
Wish You Were Here Coverart: Alicia Henson
Jasper and Crimson Pier Stroll: Allie Jacques
All other images & Products: EM Jeanmougin