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

Virginia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you walk us through some of the key steps that allowed you move beyond an idea and actually launch?

Story telling has always been something I’ve loved. It started with me telling my little sister stories before bed, which eventually became me writing my stories down in journals, and after that typing them up on the computer. I think I’ve known for a long time that I wanted to be an author, but I wasn’t sure how to go about it, that’s why after high school I joined a program for aspiring authors. This program was and is great for many writers and I think the guidance and community they provide are amazing, however, it wasn’t for me and the kind of writer I am. This program forced me into a creative box that ended up making me hate my writing and question if I was really on the right path or not. In the end, I had to drop out of the program after a year to remind myself that I still loved writing and wanted to be an author. That did take some time, because I had trouble finding my creative process again after that. However, even though that was a hard time in my journey I think being in that writing program for a year was an important step. I learned that I had to maintain complete creative control over my writing for this to be something worth doing for the rest of my life. That is also what ultimately pushed me to pursue independent publishing. I looked into both traditional and independent publishing, and independent publishing was what allowed me to maintain complete creative control over my stories. I certainly did not realize when making this decision, how many more steps go into it than just writing a book and then uploading it for printing and distribution. As an indie author I’m both the writer and the publisher, and for me I’m also the artist. Deciding to independently publish included hours and hours of research, only to still ended up making mistakes and missing things. I had to get an editor, learn to use social media for marketing, figure out printing and distributing, start an author newsletter, create a website, find where to buy ISBN numbers for my books, figure out how to translate my traditional art skills into digital art, learn how to format the book, and probably at least a dozen other things I can’t think of right now. Before I really realized it, I was a small business owner trying to sell my books. I still make mistakes from time to time, but that’s all part of the learning process, and even when I feel frustrated for not doing everything perfectly the first time, I’m so glad I decided to pursue this path.

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?

I write speculative fiction, mostly in the science fiction and fantasy genres. Right now I’m half way through publishing a four book series called Gateway to Arisha. This series follows a teenage girl named Genesis and her little brother River whose parents went missing when they were little. Their only clue to finding them is the name of a mysterious school that is not only hiding the existence of strange elemental abilities but also a gateway to another world. Once at the school, Genesis must wonder if she is getting closer to finding their parents or if she has walked them both into a trap that will continue to take so much more from her. The mixture of modern Earth technology with a falling apart fantasy world has given the story a bit of a science fiction vibe, sort of mixing the two genres to a degree. I also like to keep my books free of any explicit sexual content so that more readers can feel comfortable reading it.

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

Yes, one of my goals is to provide people with more fiction that highlight on noble characters, healthy relationships, and good overcoming evil. My books in no way shy away from the hard topics, but I try to address them in a way that doesn’t glorify darkness and negativity. Fiction is a way to escape reality for some people, so I want people to finish my books feeling hopeful afterwards.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

It’s taken a lot of patience, trial, and error. I think the main thing is to make sure you’re projecting confidence in all your posts. Even if you don’t feel confident you have to fake it. People seem to enjoy content more when the creator displays confidence. The best part is that I’ve found I enjoy creating content far more when I’m being myself and confidently posting the things I want to post. I also think it’s super important to take breaks from time to time. My audience is far more forgiving than I thought they’d be when I’ve merely said I need to take a couple weeks off from posting to focus on mental health. Posting consistently is good, but mental health and avoiding burn out are definitely important!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rosewritergal.wixsite.com/mysite-1
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosewritergal?igsh=MTR3dGxwanoyOWlkMg==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555360195105&mibextid=ZbWKwL
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Rosewritergal-rk8rd
• Other: Etsy: https://sketchybobud.etsy.com

  Threads: https://www.threads.net/@rosewritergal

Image Credits

Whitney Norko Photography