Over the past week, I have had the pleasure of interviewing Ynes Freeman, author and co-founder of 2 small publishing companies: Balance of Seven Press and Memento Vivere Press. It was my honor to be published alongside Ynes in the Dragons Within: Embracing Her Fire anthology from Balance of Seven Press, and have been involved in another project with Ynes that has not yet been publicly released. So I was thrilled when my fellow author, respected publisher and - dare I say friend - announced she was releasing her first full length novel, Beautiful Serpent, Restless Embers, on July 26th! I just had to interview her about what that process looked like for her and support her on her big day.
Me: What made you want to become a writer?
Ynes: I think I’ve always been a writer. The earliest I can remember, I was five years old and in first grade. I was asked to color a Halloween picture with ghosts, witches, mummies, and pumpkins, and then write three sentences about it. Instead of doing just that, I ended up drawing a door into the picture, and then writing a story about a little girl who found a magic portal that let her witness a monster party. I’ve always loved to tell stories, and I’ve had a plethora of inspiration throughout my life.
Me: We share that in common. I began telling my family stories when I was 3 and began writing them down when I was 6. All my first stories had magic in them, too. But I didn't consider myself a writer until I was in my mid-20's, but didn't publicly call myself one until I actually had something published in my 30's.
Ynes: A lot of people think that you need the word “writer” in your job title or your bio to be a writer, but I disagree. I’ve written all kinds of things over the course of my career, sometimes in roles where I had the word “writer” as part of my title, but some in jobs in which I did not. I’ve written technical manuals, website content, press releases, meeting summaries, corporate presentations, blog posts, speeches, email copy – and much, much more. All of it is relevant and interesting. All of it makes me a writer.
I’m thrilled to make my debut in the world of fiction. It’s a new adventure for me.
Me: What does your creative writing process look like? Are there rituals that help you get into the writing zone, or things you feel inspired by?
Ynes: When my son was a newborn, my husband, his grandmother, and I each took “shifts” to look after the baby. I was still healing from an arduous surgery, so grandma took the day-shift, my husband took the night-shift, and I took the “in-between” hours. What that looked like was 5 to 8 AM. It was one of the toughest experiences of my life. I held my son, fed him, and he fell asleep in my arms – and I knew I had to stay awake, no matter what.
I started blasting heavy metal music in my earbuds to keep myself alert. After a while it became a ritual I began to enjoy quite a bit, because I found my mind wandering freely as I listened to Avenged Sevenfold, Opeth, Disturbed, Katatonia, and more. Eventually, I figured out how to hold my son in one arm and pluck away at my phone keyboard, one letter at a time – and I ended up writing thirty-one short stories over the course of 8-12 weeks, which eventually became the foundation for Beautiful Serpent, Restless Embers.
To this day, I’ve kept my music ritual. It’s how I find my peace, my creativity.
Me: It's amazing how you were still able to channel creative energy even while recovering from major surgery and caring for an infant! I admire that kind of strength and commitment. I couldn't imagine writing 31 stories in only 12 weeks.
How would you describe your book?
Ynes: Beautiful Serpent, Restless Embers is a book for empaths, dreamers, highly sensitive people – artists, gentle people. I wrote it for those who have been crushed by a harsh and relentless world that does not have a place for dreamers, or that will not let them have the autonomy or freedom to express themselves the way they want to, or seek the things that bring them true fulfillment.
I wanted them to know that they have power; they have worth beyond what the world thinks they should be doing.
They are the great healers of the world.
Me: Absolutely, I couldn't agree more. I think the greatest thing about art, maybe even it's primary purpose, is to share our humanity with the world and each other: our joys, our sorrows, our pleasure, our pain. It's how we connect to the world at large, to our subconscious; to cope with our traumas or bond with shared emotions. The first thing humans did as soon as they began walking on 2 legs was create art, and it has forever remained our strongest compulsion.
Me: What inspired Beautiful Serpent, Restless Embers and the main character Laurel?
Ynes: Laurel isn’t your typical female fantasy hero. She isn’t a Marvel-type superhero: she isn’t strong, brave, clever, daring, or plucky. She’s a lovely, sensitive dreamer with a power based in her deep empathic skills. They often cause her to have night-terrors and breakdowns. Laurel is frightened, overwhelmed: trying to figure out who she is and make her own choices, while others seek to weaponize her gift. I based her experiences around what it’s like to live with trauma. I wanted the world to know that we can be heroes, too.
Me: And I think that's a message the world very much needs to hear right now. There is so much trauma the world over right now, and so much effort to diminish people and make them feel powerless. It's important to remind people it's their qualities as a person and their determination to overcome obstacles that make them heroic.
What excited you the most about this story and the world around it?
Ynes: I love that I’ve written a fantasy story for gentle, sensitive readers: one that has a different kind of female hero, and a unique magic system based around the origins of Tarot.
Tarot originated somewhere around the 15th century in Italian high courts, and in its early days, it did not carry the mystical or esoteric symbolism that it does today. The decks were used to play a game called Trionfi – a game of fortune and luck in which the cards and their unique pairings and characteristics help one to gain an advantage over their opponents. When I was working on the magic in this book, I asked myself, “What if the cards were personifications, like they were in the early Tarot decks, and even in the major arcana of our modern decks? What if instead of cards these were women who had special gifts, and they were shuffled around and given to the men of the high courts to bring them fortune and power?” That is how Laurel – and the Damica – came to life.
I also had the distinct pleasure of working with Eben Schumacher (ebenschumacherart.com), a mega-talented, award-winning illustrator, on my cover design, character art, and keyframes. Words cannot express how beautiful and brilliant his work is. I feel a bit like a noblewoman myself, having received such gorgeous personifications from Eben of the characters I worked so hard to bring to life. I hung them all by my office so that I could look at them every day when I needed extra encouragement to finish this project.
Me: That would be inspiring! And I love how you developed a whole magic system around the origins of Tarot. Playing the What If game is my favorite method of brainstorming.
Now, I’m going to switch over to the publishing side of things. You have worked in both traditional publishing and indie publishing. What convinced you to move over to indie publishing and what do you like about it more than traditional?
Ynes: Oftentimes people will ask me: “Ynes, what’s the best path to publishing? Should I go indie, should I go traditional, or should I look for small press, or what?”
My answer? All of them!
I had the distinct pleasure of working in traditional publishing – as an editor, and then on the marketing/sales side, and rights and permissions – for many years. When I decided to go into fiction publishing, I contemplated for a while whether I should continue along a traditional path – in which the most natural route for me would have been to become a literary agent – or whether I should take the plunge and dive into the world of small independent press.
I chose indie press because I wanted to be able to publish stories that had never been told before…by writers who did not feel they needed to follow the traditional rules and constructs of fiction. A lot of the work I have read and published in the past probably would have struggled to find a home in the traditional market because it was too experimental, didn’t fit neatly into genre categories, and quite literally – there is nothing in the world quite like it.
One of my biggest accomplishments in small indie press is that I took a chance on a brilliant story. An author, Dr. Nyri Bakkalian, had written a beautiful, poignant short story that combined her PhD-level expertise in military history with science fiction, romance, and LGBTQIA+ literature. I asked her, “Can you develop that into a book?”
Her book, Grey Dawn, is recognized by the Queer Armenian library as the first book in history to be written by an Armenian-American lesbian. I am a first-in-history publisher, but more importantly, she is a first-in-history author.
There is no better feeling in the world than helping an author come into their own and achieve greatness.
Me: That is absolutely amazing!! That is a fantastic accomplishment to be involve in. Congratulations to you and Dr. Bakkalian. There's no better feeling than knowing your work had an impact on the world.
What do you hope to accomplish with Memento Vivere; what would you consider to be the mission or goal of Memento Vivere?
Ynes: When my press partner and editor-in-chief, Leo Otherland, and I talked about starting Memento Vivere Press, we looked at a coin that Leo kept in his travel satchel. One side of the coin had the words “memento mori,” and the other side read “memento vivere.”
Many of us have heard the phrase “memento mori” without realizing that there is another half to it.
In Latin, the full phrase is “Memento Mori, Memento Vivere.” It loosely translates to “Remember you will die, so remember to live.”
We must live, even when we don't want to, even when it's hard. Stories give us a reason to live, and our press publishes these to keep them alive.
We choose to live in color, even when the world feels gray. When it seems like everything is colorless, we choose to be our own color.
Me: That is a beautiful motto and one I can 100% get behind. Mixing humor and lightheartedness with dark subjects is my own way of adding color to a gray world.
You have a professional 9-5 that keeps you busy, a young child, and a budding publishing business. How do you balance Work Ynes, Publisher Ynes, Writer Ynes, and Family Ynes?
Ynes: I’m no stranger to hard work and long hours. Once there was a time when I worked a day-job, and then I ran a small indie press in my evening-and-weekend-warrior hours. In total, I was working 90+ hours a week. Trying to show up for everything, and do it all.
I think Memento Vivere Press came into my life during a time I was seeking balance. When Leo and I started the press, we made a promise to each other that each of us would live by the very philosophy that was the underpinning of our press. We would remember that our time is short, and we needed to make sure we were making the most of it – which meant pursuing our press, but also making sure that we were giving time and space back to ourselves, our writing, and our respective families.
Me: Finding that balance can be difficult, but so important to our wellbeing and security. Thank you so much for answering my questions and I look forward to reading your much-anticipated release - I have it on pre-order!
You can find Beautiful Serpent, Restless Embers by Ynes Freeman here , and you can follow Memento Vivere and Ynes Freeman on Instagram.
Until next time, Stay Magical!
Comments