Ask the Author: Em Lyons Bouch
Answered Questions (4)
Em Lyons Bouch
I have two things that I'm dabbling with. One is an historical fiction that takes place during the industrial revolution in both America and England. I am taking inspiration from Dickensian stories where everyone is interconnected in mysterious ways!
I also wrote a fantasy trilogy in high school that I want to edit. It was my first real writing project, and it got better as it went along...but the first book is quite a mess!
I also wrote a fantasy trilogy in high school that I want to edit. It was my first real writing project, and it got better as it went along...but the first book is quite a mess!
Em Lyons Bouch
I got the idea for "Moving the Chains" from my own life experiences with anxiety and depression as well as from talking with people who have similar experiences, especially through the mental health organization Recovery International. One common thread that we all felt was the stigma: people didn't want to deal with their own mental health issues or talk about them because they were too ashamed. Writing the first draft of this novel was a way for me to work through my own feelings about being a nervous person. I found a lot of healing by writing the book down, traveling with Abby through her own journey, and then talking about the book and my own struggles with others. Polishing it, publishing it, and promoting it was inspired by the pain that I saw in other people. I wanted people with mental illness to know that they weren't alone, that mental health should be taken care of just like physical health, and that there is hope! I also was inspired to publish because of ignorant people are about the issue if they didn't have mental health conditions or live with someone who did. What is normal for me, was unimaginable for them. I wanted to bring to life the experiences of a group of people who are misunderstood.
Em Lyons Bouch
Just start. A first draft or first story doesn't have to be good, or be grammatically correct, or even make sense. Just get a draft down on paper and then worry about polishing it. People tell me that they want to write a book. When I ask them how far along they are, they say they haven't even started! Just start.
Em Lyons Bouch
Creating a whole new world and people who live there, and then going to that place and visiting those people in my imagination. When I am in writing mode, I think about my characters and their stories during any and all quiet time: brushing my teeth, waiting in line at the grocery store, before I fall asleep at night. I think about these people and what makes them tick so much that they take on a life of their own and start to feel real.
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