The Lily Cafe is thrilled to welcome YA fantasy author Celinka Serre! She is the author of Stardust Destinies I: Variate Facing, the first book in her high fantasy series. Last month I was thrilled to share an excerpt, and now she’s back with a wonderful guest post about writing her novel.
Title: Stardust Destinies I: Variate Facing
Author: Celinka Serre
Publisher: Binky Ink
Publication date: May 3, 2019
Genre: YA, Fantasy
My Stardust Destinies Were Written Backstage
When I was in CEGEP, I was in the theatre program, and back then, I had no idea I would end up writing a book, let alone begin an entire series. I loved daydreaming, I loved reading fantasy, I enjoyed writing dinky stories, but at that time, I was more preoccupied with the fact that I was getting only small roles in plays. I wished I could have a role with more lines.
One night, I had a dream; it was very specific. In fact the dream turned out to be Chapter Nine of Book 1, Variate Facing. I wrote it while I was sitting in the bus, in between classes, while I was sitting backstage waiting to be called to rehearse my few scenes. Afterwards, I wrote the beginning of the story up to Chapter Nine.
I also began writing lists of characters’ names, timelines to keep track of events. I even drew my own map! Next thing I knew, I was writing the chapters following Chapter Nine, and I had over 200 pages of looseleaf with a bunch of other pages of notes for future events in the story.
At first I was content with what I had written and didn’t know yet what I wanted to do with it. I was however overwhelmed by how much time I put into Stardust Destinies and on developing my characters, and I wanted to focus on nothing else. I had my story read by some teachers who all told me to keep writing and that I had something there I could develop and work on to make it publishable some day. The encouragement was certainly a nice boost to my confidence as a writer.
After realising that Book 1 wasn’t a standalone and that there would be more, I found myself not wanting to be on stage as much anymore. I was content with the smaller roles, and had fun with the characters, but what I truly wanted to be doing was write. And write I did. While in the stage pit, waiting to be called, while learning lines, setting the play aside to write more notes on events in the book, while sitting backstage during a performance. What? My scenes were done anyway, I was just waiting for curtain call to take a bow. I had an hour to spare!
I just kept on writing, and writing, proofreading, adding notes, making changes, and working on the story over the course of many years. So many that I’m still writing the Stardust Destinies series.
My characters’ destinies may have been written in the stars, as they say in the books, but mine, were basically written backstage, and I’ve been on this path ever since.
About Stardust Destinies I: Variate Facing
About Celinka Serre
Celinka Serre is an indie writer and video producer, working in freelance and having fun sharing content on YouTube. She believes in the freedom of creativity and has never let up in pursuing her dreams. Having begun Stardust Destinies at age 19, the novel series is but one of her many endeavors, being also a writer of fan-fiction, various indie film screenplays, and a few collaborations as well. (photo credit: Michael Cojan)
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Thank you so much, Celinka!
The author, Celinka Serre, retains all rights to the guest post published above, which may not be copied, reproduced, modified, sold, or distributed without the author’s express permission. To contact Celinka Serre to request permission to utilize the above guest post, please send your inquiry to Kat via the Contact page.
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