I was lucky to get an interview with Lily Anne Crow, the author of If Light Above, and a semifinalist in this year’s #SPFBO9.

Please, tell us a bit about yourself…
I consider myself a quiet, thoughtful woman who loves animals, music, and everything to do with fantasy. I’m from Ontario, Canada, where I live with my husband and son, along with our seriously silly number of pets. No, really. We have two big dogs, five cats, four goldfish, and a snake. It makes for a noisy, hectic household sometimes, but I wouldn’t want it any other way!

My current day-job is teaching music at an elementary school in a nearby city, but my dream is to become a full-time writer. I love the idea of working from home, being creative, and generating enough income from that alone. I tried getting into music many years ago (I actually made a four-song demo CD!) but it just wasn’t in the cards. The author biz seems far more lucrative these days than the music biz, though I know it will take a lot of work and perseverance!

Why should I buy your SPFBO9 entry?
If Light Above is the story of a royal conspiracy, and the aftermath of a single horrible night. The focus is on the characters who get caught up in it, from the former soldier to the wayward noble, and from the innocent seamstress to the mysterious killer. These four, who each tend to be lone wolves in their own way, are thrown together during the course of the investigation. They must learn to collaborate in order to save their kingdom from the unexpected darkness that threatens it from within. 

What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?
I’ve been writing as long as I can remember – mostly stories about fairies, horses and dogs. I really only started writing seriously in the last few years, after I read Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series. I was just so enamored with his often humorous writing, his characters, and his world, I decided I wanted to do something similar. Now, I’m in no way comparing my writing to his! But I find his work extremely inspiring. Whenever I have a writing slump, all I have to do is listen to a bit of the First Law or Age of Madness audiobooks narrated by Steven Pacey, and I’m right back on track!

Have you participated in the SPFBO before and where did you hear about the competition?
Yes, I was in SPFBO8 with my novel Dreams of Dust. I greatly admire the work of Mark Lawrence and I follow him on social media. When I saw him mention it back then, I knew I had to try it out and see if my writing could stand up to the other amazing writers involved. Dreams of Dust was cut in the first round, but that didn’t dissuade me from entering again this year. 

Why did you choose to write fantasy?
My sixth grade teacher read The Hobbit out loud to my class and that sealed the deal! From that point on, I was hooked on fantasy, and I read a wide variety of authors throughout my youth. I was always fascinated with alternate worlds, where magic was real, animals could speak, and there were amazing creatures like unicorns and dragons. It was just natural that when I wrote, it was in the fantasy genre.

My work tends to have some darker elements, but it wouldn’t be considered anywhere close to grimdark. In fact, a lot of standard fantasy these days has more violence and spice than my writing, so some have even called it Young Adult. I wouldn’t personally categorize it that way, due to the themes, but I feel like younger adults could enjoy it just as much as us more mature folks.   

Which other author has had the biggest influence on your writing?
For a long, long time, my favorite author was Tad Williams. I think his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series is absolutely fantastic. I’ve also been influenced heavily by Guy Gavriel Kay, David Eddings, and the duo of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. More recently, I’ve been delving into the works of George R. R. Martin, Mark Lawrence, Scott Lynch, Brent Weeks, and Patrick Rothfuss. But above all, Joe Abercrombie’s writing style and character development have been the inspiration for my own writing. I actually read his Shattered Sea series first, and while I enjoyed it a great deal, it didn’t strike me with the same lightning that The First Law did.

If you were to win the SPFBO, what impact do you think this would have on your writing career?
I’m not gonna lie – having more eyeballs on my work and more potential sales would be absolutely fantastic! And if winning SPFBO allows that, I would be supremely grateful. I really do want to turn this passion into a career. An achievement like winning would probably bring me a lot more exposure than I’ve had so far.

It will also encourage me to keep writing! The positive reviews I’ve seen are spurring me on to keep creating stories in my world, knowing there’s an audience out there eager for more.

What challenges did you face during the writing or publishing process, and how did you overcome them?
My husband is my developmental editor. He makes sure I stay consistent with my world-building and especially my magic system, but he’s also great with character arcs and poetic descriptions. As you can imagine, a married couple working together can make for some challenges. We had quite a rough go with If Light Above, since it was our first novel together and we hadn’t figured out our process yet. There was a lot of arguing about what made sense, what should go where, who should do what and why. Ultimately, we muddled through and got it done to the satisfaction of us both. Now every time we work on a book, our process gets a little bit smoother.

I do the lion’s share of the actual writing, which is why my name ends up on the cover, but we both contribute to the plotting. If I tell him about some new notion that I really, really want to put in a story, he usually finds a way to make it work so it fits with the world lore we already have. Most of the time, though, we find ways to compromise.

Do you have any tips or an author app, tool, or resource that you can really recommend we try?
My advice to new writers is this – listen to the advice of others, but only follow what works for you, and what feels right. I’ve tried several things that were recommended by (many) others, but they just didn’t work for me.

For example, lots of people say, “Just write your first draft, no matter how crappy. Get it down and come back to it later to edit.” I tried that and hated it. Now, I edit the previous section before I write a new section and I’m much happier that way. It takes me longer, sure, but I end up with a pretty clean “first” draft.

As one of my inspirations in the author community, Craig Martelle, says, “We all have our own path up the mountain.” Listen and be gracious, but don’t think you need to follow every piece of advice. There’s only one right way for you to be a writer – your way.

And now it's time to yank out your Palantir! Let’s talk about the future. What new projects are you working on?
Now that I have four books released in my series A War of Whispers, I’m going back to the mythic past of Erlahain and writing a third book in my Will of the Wayfinder series. It takes place in the same world as A War of Whispers, but hundreds of years earlier in the timeline. I actually prefer writing that series because it feels broader and more epic since the world itself has barely been explored by humans. There are tons of mysterious places, magical creatures, and scary monsters that don’t exist in my other series. Since I tend to write my stories in pairs, I’ll be writing and releasing two books in Will of the Wayfinder before coming back to A War of Whispers. I imagine Whispers will take at least another two books (probably four) before it’s finished.

At this point, I don’t have any plans to start a third series, which means this will likely be my last time being in SPFBO for quite a while. Although, my son and I have discussed a possible YA series about young mages and their dragoncat familiars…

Apps that are based on artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGTP and Midjourney, along with apps aimed specifically at authors, have caused quite a stir. Do you expect these new technologies will make your life as a self-published author easier or harder, and do you expect that they’ll mean you’ll earn more or less?
I’m really not that worried about AI writing. From what I’ve seen, it’s not very good. Technically, I suppose it can improve a lot over the next few years, but I’m not worried that it will ever have the same level of character or creativity as a real author. As for its impact on earning potential, I’m not really worried there either. Chances are anyone willing to settle for an AI-written story won’t be that interested in my style of writing anyway. It’s like the piracy thing – if people are looking for stolen books they can get for free, they likely would never pay for a legit copy. You can’t lose money that was never there. I suppose it’s more concerning for non-fiction authors, as I understand AI-written copy in that area is much more convincing.

Do you have any dreams you’d like to share?
If I’m able to earn enough from my writing to become a full-time author, then my dream is to have a home in Canada and another in the United States. My husband’s family lives in the U.S. but my family is all in Canada, so it would be amazing if we could spend part of the year with each. He already works remotely, so me being able to work from anywhere is the last piece to that puzzle.

Anything else you would like to say before we close?
To the readers – thank you for giving indie authors a chance!

To my fellow contestants – if you’re still in it, best of luck! If your book has already been cut, I wish you amazing success from here on out!

And to anyone wanting to start writing, do it! Even if it’s just for yourself. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of reading back your own words and being proud, connecting with your characters, and feeling those big emotions that keep readers coming back.

I hope you get to go to the SPFBO finals and that lots of readers discover your writing.
Thanks for doing the interview!