I was lucky to get an interview with Helen Rygh-Pedersen, the author of Waking Ursa Minor, one of this year’s #SPFBO8 entries.

Please, tell us a bit about yourself…
I am British but live in Norway with my husband and two children. I used to be a teacher in the UK before that and have lived in many countries such as Germany, Canada, France, Italy and Austria.

I’ve always loved learning new things and have had a whole string of hobbies over the years, but I have always come back to reading and writing. I love being creative and when I have time around a busy family and writing life, I enjoy knitting, sewing, drawing and painting. In fact, I started my author career with a children’s book that I wrote and illustrated myself called A Whiff in the Woods.

Why did you decide to take part in the SPFBO?
I published my debut novel: Waking Ursa Minor earlier this year. I have been following this competition since I heard about it 2 years ago. Knowing I was going to go down the Indie publishing route, I wanted to read more indie fantasy but was struggling to find it. SPFBO has helped so much with that. I have a lifetime of books to read now from the previous years’ entrants. Since being swept up in the excitement of the competition it has been a dream to enter it, and as I published my debut novel earlier, Waking Ursa Minor, this year I thought…why not! It’ll be fun (the very scary, nerve-wracking kind of fun) and I hope to make many new author friends along the way.

Why should we buy your SPFBO8 book?
Waking Ursa Minor is the first book in my debut epic fantasy series, Riverda Rising. Spanning different countries and cultures, it will take you on a journey of love and loss, the search for identity and a thrilling fight for survival.

Fans have likened it to Mask of Mirrors and The Bone Shard Daughter, so if you loved those books, then you should definitely give Waking Ursa Minor a go!

As Gesland swelters in extreme heat, Serakela watches the nomadic clans make their way across the plains on their annual pilgrimage and resigns herself to the monotonous life of servitude at the institution which raised her. But Serakela is not the orphan she always believed herself to be. On the night a crazed assassin tries to kill her, her heritage is revealed catapulting her into an island-hopping fight for survival, and the search for the fabled Stone of Riverda.

The sundered islands of Riverda are dying. The earth magics that protected and sustained them before the Rivening are unbalanced; dwindling in some areas whilst stifling others. As time runs out and tensions rise, countries teeter on the brink of war, starvation and extinction. A way to save them has just arisen from the realm of rumour but Brother Okrafkus of the Separamus cannot allow this to happen.

Not only will Serakela’s quest lead her to her long-lost family, rumour has it that she who wields the Stone will restore the islands of Riverda to their former glory. Rumour also has it that in doing so, she will unleash the evil that split them.

What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?
According to my mother, I have been writing since before I knew the alphabet, writing my own strange hieroglyphs in a notebook and telling the story back to the grown up’s multiple times after. It’s just something I did as a child; I always had a notebook or piece of paper. When I was about 7 I was given an old typewriter and my friend and I wrote stories on it about our beanie babies. Yikes!

Creative writing was my favorite class and the thing I was known for at school. I don’t know why; it just soothes my soul (sounds cheesy I know but I don’t know how else to say it) and the years after university when I had to “get a proper job” I always felt that something was missing. It was such a joy to return to it when I moved to Norway about 6 years ago. However, I then had to actually learn the craft of writing and more importantly, finishing a book.

Why did you choose to write fantasy? And why pick this particular fantasy subgenre?
The last half hour of primary school on a Friday, we would sit on the floor and listen to the teacher reading. When I was about ten years old, she started reading The Hobbit. I was hooked. I’d never imagined such a world, such a story was possible and I had to have more. Then of course, not long after that, a rather famous young man with a lightning strike scar came on the scene. When my letter to Hogwarts didn’t arrive by owl post, I knew that the next best thing was to write my own magical worlds.

Its also the genre I have always gravitated to when reading so it is hardly surprising that my debut novel is epic fantasy.

What’s the best thing about being a writer?
Being able to create a whole world, just as you want it. I have also been so fortunate to receive feedback from readers who have loved it and my characters just as much as I do! There is something so indescribably special about that.

What’s the hardest thing about being a writer?
Getting enough time to do it as often as I want to. With a day job and two small children, it can be very hard to develop a decent writing habit, but every little helps!

Do you have a tip, app, tool, or resource you recommend to authors?
I have recently discovered Trello and it has really helped me to get my thoughts and planning into order.

Other than that, I have found Brandon Sanderson’s lectures incredibly helpful as well as a whole host of Booktubers and authors on Instagram. Of course, it is important to stress that while there are lots of people out there giving advice, it’s up to you which bits of it you listen to.

The writing community and the support offered there is beyond a doubt the best “resource” I have found, as I don’t think I would have finished my book without the wonderful authors I’ve met there.

What new projects are you working on?
Well, I am of course working on Book Two in the Riverda Rising series, but I have a whole folder full of shiny new ideas that I’ve plotted out to various stages that calls to me from the cupboard in my office. It’s very hard to ignore it at times and I have tentatively dipped my toe into a new WIP recently, more of a fantasy romance, fairytale retelling, so watch this space, I guess.

Anything else you would like to say before we close?
Thanks for the interview opportunity and for letting me be a part of the SPFBO community! I am so grateful for the support from so many indie authors and readers!

Interesting answers! Best of luck in the competition, Helen, and with sales.
Thanks for doing the interview.