Welcome back to Alchemy for Authors!
In this week’s episode, I chat with author Kendra Vaughan about her debut novel, The Plymbury Witch. Kendra also shares the pros and cons of doing an MFA, why she chose Indie Publishing over Traditional Publishing, and how a magical life has shaped her author career.
Visit Kendra’s website here: https://kendravaughan.com/
Grab your copy of The Plymbury Witch here: https://kendravaughan.com/the-plymbury-witch
Listen to Kendra’s Spotify Playlist for The Plymbury Witch here.
Connect with Kendra on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/authorkendravaughan
Connect with Kendra on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/kendravaughanauthor
Other recommended resources:
- Buy Relax to Riches by Renee Rose here.
- Buy Write to Riches by Renee Rose here.
- Looking for writerly gift ideas? Visit my Author Resources page here: https://jobuer.com/author-resources/
- Join the Money Magic Membership and get one month FREE when you use the coupon code JO at checkout, here.
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Find the full transcript of this episode below.
Episode 95: Behind the Scenes of The Plymbury Witch with Kendra Vaughan
Jo: Hello, my friend. Thanks for joining me again on the Alchemy for Authors show. I have an interview with special guest Kendra Vaughn to share with you today to celebrate the recent release of her debut novel, The Plymbury Witch.
This was a fascinating interview. Kendra is a practicing Wiccan who shares through her novel some of the prejudices Wiccans and Christians can come up against in present day, drawn from her real life experiences. She also shares with us how doing an MFA helped her get her book written, why she chose Indie publishing over Traditional publishing, and her advice for new authors.
First though, in my personal news, probably like everybody, I’m in the midst of the chaotic busyness of wrapping up the year. My day job wraps up this week and I’m in a race to try and get everything done before I can actually allow myself to breathe out and start thinking about the holidays. I cannot even express how much I am looking forward to having a bit of normality and downtime again, with a little more time to invest in my writing.
2024 has been a tough year in a myriad of ways, including and almost specifically, in my author career. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be looking at getting a novel ready for my ARC Readers and getting a couple of short stories written for an anthology later in 2025. On top of all that, I’ll also be spending the next month or so unfortunately having to consider the very real possibility of finding alternative employment for 2025, which is a real shame because I really do love my day job and for the moment at least, it’s been essential for keeping bills paid, and for financing my books, and for keeping this podcast going. Unfortunately, I’m in that horrible position right now where I’m not really knowing what my employment situation will look like and probably won’t know until the end of January, but I’m also trying to plan ahead for both the worst and the best-case scenarios. But regardless of what happens on the job front, as 2024 was such an appalling year for me book wise, I am committed to being much more prolific and author career focused going into 2025.
This is also the time of year where I start reflecting on what has and hasn’t worked in my life and thinking about what changes I can make to bring myself closer to my goals. Maybe you’re doing the same. I feel like it’s a timely reminder then to remind you that Renee Rose’s book, Relax to Riches: 9 Energetic Tools for Manifesting 2. 0, is available for pre order and launches on the 21st of December. So if you’re interested in manifesting with ease, I recommend you check it out along with her previous book, Write to Riches. I’m slowly working my way through Relax to Riches now, and I’m finding it so thought provoking, inspiring, and actionable, so I do recommend that you check it out. Also, if you haven’t already, make sure you go back and check out Episode 94: Relax to Riches with Renee Rose to hear from Renee herself about her new book.
Being the season, too, you might want to consider gifting it to another author or writer in your life. Or if you’re looking at other writerly gift ideas make sure that you do go check out my Author Resources page on my website. It’s in the drop-down link under Alchemy for Authors, and I’ll make sure it’s in the show notes as well. And, of course, after listening to this episode, you might want to treat yourself, or a friend, to The Plymbury Witch by Kendra Vaughan. The link will be in the show notes to do just that. And it is a book that I really enjoyed reading myself, so I do recommend it.
For the moment though, I suggest you grab yourself a drink, find a comfy chair, sit back and enjoy the show.
Hello, my lovelies. Welcome back to Alchemy for Authors.
Today, I am chatting with the wonderful Kendra Vaughan. Kendra began her writing career as a nonfiction New Age author and editor with Simon & Schuster, after founding the first church of Wicca in Duxbury, Massachusetts, and starring on The Learning Channel’s The Witches Next Door. She is the author of Handfasting: A Pagan Guide to Commitment Rituals, and has lived a life steeped in magic for over 35 years. Recently, Kendra fulfilled her lifelong dream of writing fiction by earning an MFA in creative writing from Southern New Hampshire University. Her indie published debut novel, The Plymbury Witch, was released on October the 1st.
So welcome Kendra, it is so wonderful to have you here with me.
Kendra: Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.
Jo: This is just so fun because we’ve connected through socials and everything and I’ve recently read your book, so it is so nice to actually have you here to be able to talk about it. It’s wonderful.
Kendra: Yeah. Thank you. I’m so glad you read it. Thank you for reading it.
Jo: Of course. So I would love to start with you just sharing a little bit more of your background as to what your writing journey has looked like up until today.
Kendra: So most of my writing journey started when I was knee deep in the First Church of Wicca. So we were very active. We had grown quite a bit at that point. And I was contacted almost at the same time by Simon & Schuster as I was by, um, I forget the name of the company that worked for the TLC show that actually, I think it was Authentic Entertainment, contacted me about our TLC show. So I was kind of not sure what I wanted to do, because I seemed so overwhelmed. It was doing all the stuff for the church, and then thinking about writing this book, and then thinking about doing this television show. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it, but my husband’s my biggest cheerleader, and he said, you know, you can do it, I’ll help you, I’ll take care of the kids. Our kids were so small. And he did. And I said, yes, I would do it. And I did all these things. And so I think my writing started there. They had contacted me and asked me to write for them. They asked me to edit for them. They asked me to do all kinds of new age articles for them. They asked me to do my hand fasting book for them. And then I got into other books that they wanted me to do for them. So nonfiction just kind of is where I fell, even though I really always wanted to write fiction. But it seemed like, okay, well, I’m an author, I’m writing. This is pretty cool. And I just kind of put the fiction on the back burner. Never really thought about it for a while.
But then I guess things kind of changed during COVID. We decided to close the church because it was just too much for all of us. It was unfortunate, but we had to. And then my kids had just finished graduating school. Both of my kids had gone through college and my husband said, well, now’s your chance. Do you want to do it? And I said, Are you kidding me? Are you serious? I’m like, I don’t even think I would get accepted at this point. He said, Why don’t we just apply and find out? So I did, and I got accepted and I said, okay, I guess I’m just going to take the bull by the horns and do this. So I got my MFA and wrote my first fiction novel. So it’s… I’m excited. It’s great.
Jo: Yeah. It’s fantastic. So I am curious because I’ve heard from a lot of different people who are very pro doing an MFA and then other people that are like, yeah, nah. So what was it about the idea of doing the MFA that appealed to you, that drew you?
Kendra: So I had been trying to write fiction for a while prior to applying, and my husband was always saying to me, you know, go up, just write, just write. But when you don’t know craft elements, and you don’t know story arc, and you don’t know character arc, and you’re trying to read books to teach you this, and you don’t have a literary community, it’s really hard to figure out how to actually write a book. And I think a lot of people write them innately, but it’s not necessarily publishable, because we’re not following the rules, I guess, even though I hate to say rules, of the way a book is really supposed to be written.
So it’s kind of really complicated and really hard, and I think that’s why the majority of people don’t even finish their novels. So one of the things that I decided to do was, you know, I want to go to school, I want to learn how I’m supposed to write a novel, I want to learn all my craft elements, I want to learn character arc, I want to learn story structure, and all of this so that I can put it together and potentially write a novel.
I honestly had no idea at that point that I could do it. I really thought I couldn’t. And I also thought that no matter how much education I had, it would be years before I could actually publish a novel. So I guess I surprised myself.
Jo: Oh, that’s amazing. So, you began writing then, what is your debut novel, The Plymbury Witch? Did you start writing that during your MFA?
Kendra: Yeah. So The Plymbury Witch is my thesis novel and it wasn’t, I think I was four or five classes into my thesis when we had to say what we wanted to write our novel about. And I tried to get around that because I was so afraid to commit because I knew as soon as I committed, I really actually had to write this novel. And I had had this swarming in my head for probably 10 years before I even started my MFA, but I was just so afraid to write it. So one of my professors just nailed me down and said, it’s time. You need to say what you want to write your novel about, and don’t worry, we’re going to help you through this.
And I think the most shocking thing for me about my MFA was that I really thought the professors were going to actually help me write it. Don’t ask me why, I just did. And so when I learned that they’re not helping you write this novel at all, they’re just literally teaching you craft elements and all of these other things so that you can put the story together and they’re holding you accountable to your word count. And, you know, they’re obviously critiquing you along with other students. Once I realised that then the panic really set in. But I did it, you know. I just somehow, it just worked out and I did it, but imposter syndrome is real.
Jo: Oh yeah. And so you got the feedback from your peers and from your instructors and everything as you were doing that. How did you find getting the feedback? Because like you said, imposter syndrome is real and I didn’t do an MFA or anything, but I took creative writing classes at university and I remember how daunting it was having my work shared and critiqued by everybody as well. So how did you feel about that?
Kendra: Yeah, I guess my take on it was a little bit different. I’m older and I guess I just kind of felt like this is my chance now. Right? So I wanted the feedback because, I guess what I hoped the MFA would do was avoid me from having to write for 10 years before I felt like I could put something out there. And so I knew the more feedback I got and the more, I kind of hoped I’d get some really mean feedback, because then I’m like, okay, well now I know what I really have to fix. But I didn’t really get any of that. I definitely got help and guidance, and I got a lot of positive feedback. I think probably my writing experience in the past really helped me more than I thought. But I loved it. The more feedback, the better. I don’t mind it. It doesn’t bother me. I know it does other people. And of course, there were several people in the program that were like, Oh, please be easy on me. I have really thin skin. But, you know, you can’t run the First Church of Wicca in a conservative Christian community and have thin skin.
Jo: Oh, exactly. Exactly. Well, I think that is fantastic. And so were you, am I right in understanding, just from what you were saying, that when you went into doing the MFA, was there a part of you that was thinking, well, this will put off for a little bit longer having to write the actual novel and doing that?
Kendra: I don’t know if I thought that. I just thought maybe I could. You know, there are other classes you had to take. It’s not just writing your novel. So I just figured I could just take those other classes and eventually write a novel, you know? But they were not going to let me eventually write a novel. So they just pin you to it early.
Jo: Yeah. Awesome.
Kendra: And it’s hard because you’re doing, like I said, you’re taking other classes at the same time. So it’s really hard because you’re writing fiction, you’re writing nonfiction, you’re editing. So your brain is shifting all day long. So it’s a hard program.
Jo: Yeah. Yeah. I can imagine.
Kendra: So I mean, the MFA program was fabulous. I do not believe I would have a book published right now had I not taken it. I think it would have taken me a lot of years to get to this point. But I do think that with practice and like you said, you took some classes. I think if people take classes here or there, they figure out how to put their own MFA program together. They can do it.
Jo: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I love that. So for somebody that is on the fence about taking a MFA program or something like that, what kind of advice would you give to them if they were considering it?
Kendra: You know, it comes down to money, I think. You know, if you have the resources to do it, I think it’s well worth it. But if you don’t, I’m not sure it’s totally necessary. I think you can figure it out on your own and just get involved in the literary community. The more involved you are, the more you learn and the more connections you make. And that’s really important in this business.
Jo: Yeah, absolutely. Oh, I love that. So you’d already done lots of nonfiction and you had a nonfiction book published, Hand Fasting: A Pagan Guide to Commitment Rituals. And my understanding that was traditionally published. Is that right?
Kendra: Correct. Yep. That was with Simon & Schuster.
Jo: Yeah. And so with The Plymbury Witch though you decided to go the Indie route. So can you talk about what was behind your decision to do that?
Kendra: Yeah, so one of the things we learned in school, which was really great, is they explained the whole entire publishing ecosystem to us on both ends. Now, of course, I had the experience with Simon & Schuster, so I already kind of knew that, but it was a nice refresher. And then, of course, they go through the whole, you know, Indie publishing route. So, the things that stuck in my mind were, uh, I still have, I think, 15 or 16 copies of my hand fasting book from 15 or 20 years ago, I think that was written. And those are the only print copies that I know of that are in existence. So, what happens when you go traditional is your book has a life span. Right? And that lifespan is generally six months. Sometimes in the stores, it’s less than that. Sometimes in the stores, it’s maybe a month or two months. If that, if it’s selling well. If it’s not, it goes back a lot sooner. And when you sign your contract, even though you still own the copyright, they own the publishing rights. And they own the publishing rights usually for your life plus. So you’re never gonna, I’m never going to get the rights to that book back. So I can’t sell a backlist. I don’t have a backlist to sell. So it kind of was a real reality check for me to be able to say like, wait a minute, I want control of my intellectual property and I want control of my backlist. And if that means initially I have less sales or if that means, you know, I’m not making millions of dollars, which who does and so be it. I mean, I’m writing because I love it and because I want to get my work out there in the hands of people. That’s more important to me than anything. So I’m not going to be able to get it into more people’s hands if I don’t have more time to be able to publish it. So that’s kind of what drove my decision.
Jo: Yeah. I think there is so many people out there that don’t realise that short shelf life of a book, particularly if it’s your first book and you know, through traditional publishing. Many, many years ago in Canada, I worked in some of the major bookstores, their Chapters and Indigo and whatnot. And, yeah, it was really sad that new authors and that would have a short window to have their book kind of displayed and then they’d go out the back and I can’t even tell you what they do to the books out the back, but they get returned to the publisher and yeah. It was heartbreaking. It was horrible, but yeah, there’s such a short window to make your mark and you’re right. There’s no building that backlist unless you’re a big name.
Kendra: Exactly. And so I just thought about it and I said, you know, who knows where my career will go, but I want control of it.
Jo: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I mean, I’m an advocate for Indie publishing. I love it. So I think it’s fun.
Kendra: But yeah, I’ve really enjoyed this ride. It’s been great, so I can’t complain and I would definitely keep doing it. So I see no reason to go Traditional for me. I mean, I’m lucky I have the credential under my belt already. Yeah, I think some people like the people I went to school with a lot of them really want that credential under their belt. And I totally understand that, but I still wouldn’t give my first book away for that.
Jo: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think you made a great choice.
What have you enjoyed about the Indie journey the most then? Because there’s a whole lot that goes in behind the scenes and, you know, independently publishing your book. So what part was maybe the most enjoyable and maybe the most challenging or surprising for you?
Kendra: Yeah. So I think, well, one of the most challenging parts for me was that I had a copy editor lined up almost eight months prior to when I was, when I actually had it done and she did half of my book and then quit. So it wasn’t because of me. It was because of her. She left the business. And I was, I didn’t lose any money. I got refunded. It was fine. So that wasn’t the issue. The issue was that I missed my publication deadline. So it was incredibly stressful and literally brought me to tears because you promise your readers something and then you can’t deliver that. It’s different to say, Hey, it’s the publisher’s fault, but I am the publisher.
Jo: Yeah.
Kendra: Right? So, and I have my own publishing company, Cranberry House Publishing, and I want to look good, right?
Jo: Yeah.
Kendra: So, that was really, really upsetting. So, I needed to find another copy editor. Thankfully, I did. It’s kind of a long story, but thankfully I had a connection with a copy editor from when I had done my nonfiction, and she agreed to do it, and she did a fabulous job, and she had it, she got it done really fast, and I found a new cover designer, because my cover designer couldn’t do my work, because the timing didn’t work out at that point, so I needed a new cover designer. So I found a new one, and I lucked out, because I found one that was way better than my original one, and we published this book literally in three months. Like, between copy editing, cover design, getting it out on the floor, three months, and that was an unbelievable whirlwind. So I don’t recommend that anyone does that. I recommend you take a good six or eight months to publish your book because you want, you know, it to be done right. And even though mine was done right, it was crazy stressful to get it done. So I don’t recommend that. But I think on the positive side, you know, when I saw my book and it was in my hands and I said, wow, you know, I didn’t just create this book, I published this book. This is something that I can really be proud of. It’s beautiful. I love the cover. I think they did a fabulous job on it. We collaborated for a long time on it. And I just think that everything about it is exactly the way I would want it. And I don’t think I would have gotten such a great quality book out of a publisher. I just don’t.
Jo: That’s awesome. And yeah, I love your cover too. I think it’s absolutely beautiful. So these things obviously, you know, happened for a reason. So that’s cool. So let’s talk about your book then, because I’ve read it and I really enjoyed it. But I did find that it was quite different than what I was expecting. Like it dealt with issues and things like that, that I haven’t really seen dealt with in fiction that I think was fantastic, but I would rather, can you share with our listeners and that what your book is about?
Kendra: Yeah. So the book basically, well, you know, we can break a book out into what it’s about, like the story, and we can also break it into its themes, right? So do we want to talk story or do we want to talk themes? I guess I’m asking that.
Jo: I kind of want to talk about both. Maybe if you can just give an overview of the story for our listeners without maybe, yeah, yeah, give an overview. And then let’s talk about some of the inspiration behind what led you to write it.
Kendra: Okay, so the short elevator pitch of the story is that there’s a witch who has a magical legacy with her family and she inherits a sea glass apothecary from her family where they do wishes. Well, actually, basically what happened was stars. It was told in this folklore, that stars turned to glass and fell into the ocean. And then they were used by a witch with one green and one brown eye to grant wishes. One wish in a person’s lifetime. So she inherited the sea glass apothecary to be able to do these wishes.
But there’s a new pastor that comes to town that causes all kinds of problems for her family and wants to just get rid of this whole magical legacy in the town. And she, by default ends up renting a room in his church, and they fall for each other. So she’s in a position where she has to decide, do I want to follow my family’s legacy, or do I want to have love?
So that’s ultimately what the book is about, but there’s so many other things happening in that book that it’s kind of hard to say that’s the story.
Jo: Yeah. So I think you summed it up really well there for the basic kind of gist of it, but yeah. So let’s talk about your inspiration behind the story because I know when I was reading it, I knew that you had had obviously experienced… because as I was reading it there were things in there that were a little bit triggering because I’m like, Oh, I’ve been there. I’ve felt that. I’ve had that kind of discrimination thrown at me and that prejudice and that. So can you talk a little bit about your inspiration behind that?
Kendra: Yeah. So the prejudice is real. And so, you know, they always say, write what you know. Well, of course the story isn’t about my life, but it is about experiences, right? So it’s about things I’ve seen, things that have happened to me in different ways. So yeah, I mean, one of the things I wanted to do when I wrote this story was I wanted, for the first time, to depict a witch as a real person, as opposed to the way Hollywood depicts witches. So I chose to make this person a real witch, a real Wiccan, and to experience life through a Wiccan lens. However, I did decide to keep it whimsy and light-hearted, even though we did touch upon some really serious topics, because I wanted it to be a fun, good read that anyone could pick up and enjoy. So I think if it got too heavy and too deep, I think it would have been specifically just for a very, very small audience and I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to open it up a little bit, you know? We still need our niche and my niche is definitely Wiccan New Age, but open-minded people also, right? So I chose to go for that.
But, you know, the struggle is real about how Christians view Wiccans, how Wiccans even view Christians. I thought it was really important to show both sides of that prejudice because it’s so easy for a Wiccan to say, Oh, they hate me. They hate me. They’re throwing Bible tracks at me. But the reality is that there’s prejudice in the Wiccan community too. And I want it to be fair. I wanted to show that in the story. So that was one of the issues that we wanted to address. The other issue we wanted to address was how do these families act and react when there’s somebody that’s not the same faith as them, that’s infiltrating them or becoming, you know, close to someone in their family, how do we deal with that? So I think we tried to take those issues and show those in reality, whereas some people were more accepting and understanding and others just never were. And that’s the reality of the way that it works in the Wiccan and Christian community together.
So, the reason that I was inspired to write the book was because when I was in the First Church of Wicca, of course, we had a lot of these things happening, and we had people that would come, and they would complain that they were happening in their life, too. But then I also became such excellent friends with a born-again Christian minister at the Duxbury Interfaith Council. We became fabulous friends. And in fact, there’s a quote from him in my hand fasting book. So that’s like how long we’ve been friends. And we just hit it off and we started talking theology and faith and what each other believes and it just was such a beautiful open sharing that I could see easily how a Christian and a Wiccan could fall for each other, you know. So I just figured like what would happen?
The reason why I made it a Christian Minister with a Wiccan who was kind of famous was because I guess that’s a little bit of how I experienced my life. And even though it’s not our story at all, we didn’t fall for each other. We’re just friends. I just thought maybe it would be interesting if they did, you know. What if these two characters did fall for each other, what would it mean for everybody else and what would it mean for the community? So I kind of went with that.
Jo: Yeah, I just found it so interesting, because, yeah, in my 20s and that I went through something similar. I was a practicing Wiccan and everything at the time and met a guy who was very strongly Christian and we didn’t know how we were going to work, make it work, but we were both very determined. And yeah, and it was a crazy ride that. Yeah. I mean, we were together, I think three, three years or so, but it was a crazy ride.
Kendra: It’s tough. And I mean, my community, I used to say, if I can be successful with the First Church of Wicca in Duxbury, I can be successful anywhere because they are so straight and conservative. So it was like, it was, I don’t even know how to explain when we came into that community and we opened that church. It was just not good for them. You know, they just didn’t know how to quite deal with it. Like their whole world was being upturned and it was, we weren’t trying to, it just was not what they were used to. And they didn’t, they were afraid of us and they didn’t know how to deal with it. So we did make our ministry public for that reason so that anybody could come into our church and experience it and see that we weren’t doing anything like weird or bizarre or anything. But you know, to them, it’s still weird and bizarre. So it just, it was just kind of a crazy, crazy time, but we made a lot of allies too. And I just thought that that was fair to put that in the book because that’s really what, how it happens. Some people just gravitate and they’re accepting and other people aren’t.
Jo: Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. You really do have all types in the world. So yeah, I thought that was really cool. So with people reading your book, what do you want them to come away with?
Kendra: The first thing I just want them to come away with is just a little bit of a better understanding of Wiccans and who we are. I really did want the Wiccan community to be seen. For the first time, I wanted them to be seen for who they really are. So, even though there’s a little bit of fantastical elements in the book, and that’s not really what Wicca’s about, that was for entertainment purposes, but all in all, the personalities, the temperament, I wanted it to be seen. Even some of the faith beliefs I shared in the book that I loved the idea of sharing it in a fiction book because you’re not knocking people over the head with it. You’re just saying, Hey, here’s what I believe. And this other guy saying, here’s what I believe. So it was very benign. And, I have had a couple of people that have reached out and told me that they did learn a little bit about my faith through the book and they were really, surprised and happy about that. Who knows? If it goes in that direction and that’s what people get from it, then great.
The other things I just wanted to get from it was just, uh, I just wanted people to enjoy a story, you know? The entertainment factor, you know? I think my characters are fun. I think some of them are funny and but they’re real and I think a lot of people can identify with the realness of them.
Jo: Yeah, yeah, I really love that because there’s so many books out there with witches and the magical and all of that, but very rarely from what I’ve seen anyway, are there characters that are Wiccan, you know, that actually talk about it in the real world. So I thought that was really cool. I really, really enjoyed that. That was really refreshing.
Kendra: Thank you. It is. That is one thing in my MFA that I said to my thesis professor was that I really wanted this book not to be about fantastical witches. I wanted it to be about a real witch. And I mean, there is nothing out there like that right now. Who knows if this will start something? I don’t know, but there isn’t right now. And I just wanted to be able to do that.
Jo: Love it. I just absolutely love that. So I have to ask, I’m not sure if you’ve said this anywhere else, but is there going to be a book two?
Kendra: Yeah, so a lot of people have been asking me that. I actually have two ideas. I have an idea for a sequel, but I also have a series that I’m working on, but it’s a shoot off from this. So, if you read this book, then you’ll completely understand where the series is going, but if you don’t read this book, you can still read the series without reading it. So, that’s what I’m working on, but a lot of people have asked me for a sequel to this book, so I’m very seriously considering that now.
Jo: I definitely feel like you could have a sequel in here because there are definitely like, yeah, personally, I want to see what happens to, I can’t remember his name, but the best friend, Ravenna’s best friend.
Kendra: Yep, Clay.
Jo: And yeah, there’s just, there’s so much room for more to happen.
Kendra: There is, there’s a ton. And of course we have the whole Skye story and we have the whole Ashley story. I mean, there’s so many characters that the book could go in so many different directions. So yes, I have, I am working on that. I promise.
Jo: Yeah. Oh, that’s exciting. That’s awesome. So back into the real world, because your book was inspired by your background and your beliefs and your experiences and things like that, with your actual writing process and everything, are there certain things that you do? Like a lot of writers have kind of writing rituals, whether it’s sitting down with a hot cup of tea, I usually have a playlist that’s specific to my novel, but is there anything that you do that helps you get into that writing mode or to set yourself up?
Kendra: Yeah, so, just to touch on that playlist, I do have a playlist for this novel. However, I did write that playlist probably about a quarter of the way into it. And, I put that playlist together because I wanted to have certain emotions evoked as I was writing. So, I did do that and I do have that. It’s on Spotify. And I can share that if you’d like. Yeah, but for rituals for me, I, this is really interesting. I find that I write really well when I’m sleepy, so I tend to set my alarm pretty early and I have a Remarkable, I don’t know if you know what a Remarkable is, but it’s like, okay, so I have my Remarkable and I basically just, I write for two maybe hours in the morning in my Remarkable just to get that sleepy dreamy state to get out all those emotions and feelings and thoughts and whatever before I actually start my day. Then I’ll go and I always take a walk in the morning, get ready for my day and then I sit down to actually do my writing off of the notes that I wrote while I was in bed. So I know it’s crazy, but that just works for me and that’s what I do. And I do meditate every day and of course meditation helps. I mean, I get so many ideas when I meditate.
Jo: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I love that. So those first couple of hours of writing, is that more like a stream of consciousness kind of whatever comes comes kind of writing, or is it you just like brainstorming for your story.
Kendra: It’s not like, it’s not like morning pages, right? Morning pages are more just write down whatever you’re thinking. This is definitely story related.
Jo: Okay.
Kendra: So, I focus on the story I’m writing. I think about the characters, where they are, at what time, and then I just kind of let myself write whatever. It’s, you’d be amazed. There is, like, one of the characters that showed up, Faith, who showed up in my story, I don’t even know where she came from. I was literally just sitting and writing and then all of a sudden there she was on the page. And I said, okay, I’m going to give you page time. And I just let her tell me her story and there it was. So I think a lot of my writing comes that way in the morning. So just because I’m kind of dreamy and I’m kind of letting these characters blow in and out and of my consciousness and letting them do whatever they’re going to do.
Jo: I really love that. I think that’s, yeah, when we can let go and kind of get out of our own way and let the characters tell us what’s going to happen in the book. I think that is the most magical feeling. That’s amazing. I love it.
Kendra: Yeah. It was incredibly stressful in my MFA because when I finished the novel, we were supposed to submit all this work. And one of the things was our outline that we had done way in the beginning. And I said to my professor, my outline does not look anything like my novel. Like it is none of the beats or even this, it is completely different. And she said, that’s okay. Just try to find beats and make it work. So I just kind of reworked my outline to submit it, but it was nothing like it. And I have to tell you, I literally have always believed I was a diehard plotter. And I just thought I would just plot every single chapter and every single section, what’s going to be in every chapter all the way down until I sat down to write it. And that’s how I started this novel. And I wasn’t even a quarter of the way through when I realized I am wasting my time right now. I’m telling these characters what to do instead of letting them tell me what they’re doing. So I’m a pantser. Totally.
Jo: Yeah, it’s so interesting, isn’t it? Because I find that too, like in all other areas of my life, I like to be really, um, plan everything and I have day planners and everything, you know, really well organised and that. But I cannot plot a book. Like I literally just have to let go, and I’m a discovery writer like what happens happens and it’s usually not what I have, if I have any intentions of what’s supposed to happen, that normally doesn’t happen.
Kendra: Yeah. So somebody asked me if I knew what the ending of the novel was before I wrote it. And, you know, I had to answer yes, because I did. However, I really was questioning it all the way through. I was wondering maybe it’s not going to end this way. Maybe I just have to let them figure it out, see what really happens. And when it ended the way I thought it was going to end, it was very surprising to me.
Jo: Yeah. So isn’t that the best feeling?
Kendra: Yes, yes, it is. It is. So, I did my character arcs and all that stuff. I mean, my character arcs stayed pretty true to what they were, where they started, the middle, the end. They were pretty true to where they were, but not the story. The beats and the story and the scenes were so different than I thought. In fact, I was trying to make, I don’t want to give the story away, so I won’t say specifically, but I was trying to make something happen so much sooner because I thought it had to. And then all of a sudden it showed up way, way later in the book and I was like, Oh no, I hope I have enough time to end this. But I did. I did. It just totally worked. I did. Yeah.
Jo: Yeah. So good. So what advice would you give for somebody who’s maybe considering writing their first fiction novel?
Kendra: I think the advice that I would give is, first of all, like I said earlier, make sure you get involved in the literary community. It’s so important. I mean, even going to author signings or author speeches, or joining groups on Facebook, or just connecting with people on social media, like, you just want to make those connections. Don’t feel like you’re not worthy enough, because if you find the right authors, we’re going to love you. It doesn’t matter. You know, we’re going to recognise that. We were in that place too. And it’s, I mean, not so long ago, right? So it’s really okay. You can reach out and just make friends with the people who care and don’t worry about the people who don’t. And that’s really, really important because if you kind of want, you know, they say in business, dress for the job that you want, not the job that you have. And I think that the literary world is a lot like that, you know, follow the people that you want to be like, but don’t worry about where you are.
Jo: Yeah.
Kendra: You know, and that’s what I would say. And I would say, obviously, write.
Jo: Yes.
Kendra: And read and read a lot. Read a lot. Yeah.
Jo: Absolutely. Write and read. And just following on from what you said about the networking and putting yourself out there and immersing yourself in groups and things like that, my experience has been that, particularly in the Indie author world, people are so supportive of each other. Whether that’s just my experience, because that’s how I’ve curated it, but that’s what I’ve known. Everybody’s so willing to help each other and look out for each other and support and cheer each other on.
Kendra: We learned that in school too, was they said that, you know, nowadays literary community is really lifting each other up. If someone else is successful, you’re successful. So you just need to just keep helping others get successful and the success will eventually come to you. That’s kind of how you have to look at it that other people are really equally as important as you are.
Jo: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. So you’ve talked, just as we’re kind of wrapping up here, you’ve talked a little bit about the fact that you’ve got a series in the back of your mind and potentially a sequel to The Plymbury Witch. So what, for the next few months anyway, are your big focuses, what are you focusing on?
Kendra: So my big focuses right now are actually, so, you know, we all have strengths and weaknesses in our writing, and my big focus is to work on my weaknesses, and I really, I tend to write a lot of dialogue. I love dialogue. I think you really get to know characters through dialogue, but it could be a little too dialogue-y, right? I think I want to work on how to really blend in exposition. I think I want to learn description a little bit better, although I think that this book did well, I just think I could have more of it, you know. So I want to work on that. One of the things I committed myself to at the beginning of this year was to write a short story a week and to pitch them. So I’ve been doing that, but because of this book, I got slowed down for about four months worth. So I’m going to pick that right back up and keep writing them and keep pitching them. And that helps you work on your craft elements too.
Jo: Yeah. Absolutely. Wow. That’s awesome. I love that. That’s so cool. Very ambitious. That’s lots. Awesome.
Kendra: It’s nuts, but it’s fun.
Jo: Yeah, exactly. As long as you’re enjoying it. That’s all that matters. That’s awesome. So where can people find you? Where can they purchase The Plymbury Witch?
Kendra: Okay, so The Plymbury Witch is pretty much available where any book is sold, but if you buy it from my website, it’s KendraVaughan, V A U G H A N, dot com. You can, obviously if you buy it directly from me, it helps me out more. The more you can help me out, the more I can write, obviously. So, the hope is that people will love my writing so much that they’ll want to help support me and help me write more. So that would be greatly appreciated. But if you go to the fiction link on my website, it will take you to The Plymbury Witch at the bottom of the page, there are multiple places where you can purchase it.
Jo: Wonderful. And I’ll make sure that that link is in the show notes. And if you want to send through to me the link to your Spotify playlist, then people can listen to the music as they’re reading. So that’ll be fun.
Kendra: Yes, I will. Thank you. Yes. It was so fun putting that list together. So I think they’ll enjoy it.
Jo: Yeah. Oh, that’s wonderful. Well, it has been so wonderful chatting with you today, Kendra. Thank you so much for coming on the show and I’m just wishing you the best of luck with the continued success of The Plymbury Witch.
Kendra: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. It was great to be here and I wish you success too.
Jo: Takeaways from today’s episode:
1. Imposter syndrome is real. Not even an MFA can save you from that.
2. An MFA can be hugely beneficial to your author career. However, consider the monetary investment. It is still possible that you could piece together similar learning through alternative routes.
3. Consider imbuing your story with experiences and feelings from your life. Write what you know.
4. Get involved in your literary community. They offer a wealth of support and resources.
I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. You can visit the show notes for links to connect with Kendra, purchase The Plymbury Witch, or listen to Kendra’s Spotify playlist.
If you enjoyed today’s episode and want to support the show, I would deeply appreciate you sharing the show with others, tagging me on social media or leaving a review. You can also support the show by buying me a coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/jobuer. For a few dollars, you’re contributing to me keeping this show going, and it really does mean the world to me.
You can expect the next episode to be a solo as I wrap up the year, and I foresee a few more solos in early 2025. But also stick around in January for an amazing guest interview with J.D. Barker. I was seriously fangirling over this one. And he is offering an amazing competition for those of you who, like me, enjoy spooky, suspenseful fiction. So do make sure that you stick around for that interview. I also have some other fabulous guests lined up for the show for the new year as well.
But for the moment, I’m wishing you a wonderful festive period if you celebrate, and the wish that 2024 ends with the wonderful positive plot twists you’ve been waiting for.
Happy writing, my friend.
indie author, Indie Publishing, MFA, Traditional Publishing, Wicca, writing a book