You are in for a real treat today. I’m delighted to have special guest indie author Miri Castor on hand. Her upcoming release is Opal Charm - The Path To Dawn. In addition to giving us sci-fi and fantasy thrills, her character reveals poignant interpersonal struggles while making some stringent social commentaries. Many will find this to be an eye opener.

Q. Miri, thanks for joining us. Let me start with the basics. Where do you live?

A. I live in Brooklyn, New York, but I travel out of state for school on the East coast.

Q. Oh, a big city girl. Do you have a family?

A. A pretty big one, yes! I have my mom, my uncle, my older brother, and my great aunt with me in Brooklyn. My grandparents are in Florida, and my dad lives in the US Virgin Islands, along with distant cousins.

Q. How did you become a writer?

A. It occurred to me when I was a fourth grader and I wrote a picture story on Powerpoint. It was about my “complicated” life as a ten year old. My mom said it was the cutest story she’s ever read. Then my best friend told me how hilarious it was and the seed of possibility was planted. I wouldn’t touch upon it until sixth grade when I first started Opal Charm: The Path to Dawn. All the kids and teachers in the schoolyard were calling me a writer since all I did during recess was sit against the fence and write my story. I’ve gone with the flow ever since.

Q. Wow, you were writing already at ten years old. That’s amazing! What was the first thing you wrote that you could take seriously?

A. I wrote a story for my high school’s literary magazine club in junior year as the co-editor. It was about a teenaged boy who recently died in a car accident. From the grave he watches his girlfriend, a new teen mom, struggle through life without him. He remains in purgatory, where he has to do XYZ, and then he makes it into heaven. Even though I wrote and finished Opal Charm before I published this story, I consider it to be my first serious story. I was like, “Woah, this is deep. This kind of stuff is what I really wanna do. I’m actually a writer.” Writing that story made me want to revise Opal Charm, and make it into something more serious than it was originally.

Q. Opal Charm - The Path To Dawn, is quite an accomplishment. How many other stories have you written to date?

A. I’ve written more than fifty short stories. Before there was Wattpad and Tilbo, Fanfiction was my haven. I wasn’t popular at all. I really shouldn’t be counting those embarrassing stories.

Q. Do you have stories published on Wattpad now?

A. I have chapters 1-5 of Opal Charm up on Wattpad now. I plan on publishing some short stories related to Opal Charm after it gets published, too.

Q. What was your motivation for writing Opal Charm - The Path to Dawn?

A. At first, it was to create a badass, takes-no-crap persona for my timid self. I was influenced by a lot of adventure books, Marvel movies, and Square Enix games. I really wanted to create someone who not only spoke her mind and cursed everyone out, but who had powers like the characters in my favorite games. She also had to actually look like me. Although I loved black superheroes (Storm was the boss) I felt that there weren’t enough who looked like me and had more on their mind then kicking ass.

Jonra: I’m always glad that Gene Roddenberry showed sci-fi fans a multicultural team with intelligent members from each race. You’ve got to love Lieutenant Uhura. I know I do!

Miri: It’s a shame I didn’t know she existed until my freshman year of high school. I fell in love with her and her existence in a sci-fi show. She was before my time obviously, but that doesn’t mean I still can’t admire her. Same thing with Garnet (but not quite), a femme presenting cartoon from CN’s well-known, sci-fi show Steven Universe. In case you don’t know, she’s the leader of the Crystal Gems and the ace on the team. Shoutout to both Uhura and Garnet for adding diversity to sci-fi shows!

Q. What sort of reaction are you hoping to get from your readers?

A. I’m hoping that they can’t get enough of Opal! My readers should be on their hands and knees begging me for a sequel. Jokes and ego aside, some of the themes of Opal Charm are truth, lies, light, and darkness, which are open to a lot of reader interpretation.

Q. Your protagonist is a young girl with some special abilities. Tell us about her…

A. Opal’s personality changed many times over the years. I’ll talk about the Opal you’ll read in my novel. At her core, Opal is a lonely and sad kid who pretends that she’s a heartless being. She’s a passive-aggressive, self-deprecating thirteen year old who struggles with depression. She doesn’t really care for anyone or anything, besides passing eighth grade. But she contradicts herself as she tries to maintain her “I don’t care about anyone” facade. She’s emotional and takes everything to heart. Her hidden power has a lot to do with her facade, so she’s gotta work through it. Truth plays an important role for her.

Q. Are any of the actual situations and struggles that you experienced while growing up referred to in the events of the novel.

A. I struggled with socializing in my early college years. I moved from Brooklyn, NY, one of the country’s melting pots, to a PWI where I could count on one finger how many black people were in my chemistry classes. I’d felt lonely as child of divorced parents, but this was a whole new level of loneliness. As many writers do, I exaggerated my own struggles with reaching out and keeping friendships through Opal’s struggle to face her truth and scrutinize a part of herself she pretends she doesn’t have.

Q. Why did you write this novel? Are you hoping to gain anything by doing it?

A. The stereotype of black people, specifically black women, is that they’re emotionally strong and independent. This can also be applied to other PoC as well. It’s become a jaded trope now, the black girl as the supportive, most of the time sassy or funny, minor character to the white protagonist’s main story. I want to get out the message that black girls are not all strong and independent. We’re not all loud and sassy. We’re multifaceted people who are more than stereotypes and tropes. We struggle with mental illnesses, we have body issues, we’re not mammy figures who are always taking care of other people. Long story short, I want people to realize we’re not superhumans who never feel pain. There’s more to this, but I’ll save it for another time.

I’m hoping to get myself out of my own rut. I wrote this as a way of coping with my depression. I changed my protagonist completely from the wild child she used to be to the sullen, bile teenager she is now.

Q. Do you have to be in a certain environment or mood to write?

A. Yep. My ideal spot is in my bedroom. Doing the “I’m writing a novel” thing in Barnes & Nobles cafe or Starbucks is not my scene. I need to be alone with my thoughts. As for my mood, it depends on the scene. I can’t be thinking about the latest Archer episode or American Crime when I’m writing about a character’s death or it’s not gonna be written well.

Q. Do you ever play music while you’re writing or editing? If so, whose music helps you to write?

A. It depends on the scene, again. Sometimes I can put on some Azealia Banks and power through a chapter with a sad piece of Opal’s backstory. This only happens when I’m in the zone. For a scene like that without being in the zone, I usually listen to Lianna La Havas or Purple Ferdinand. I’m also gonna show my nerdiness and add the Kingdom Hearts soundtracks to that list. For more intense, nitty gritty stuff I listen to some Kanye West (before Yeezus), SZA, Kelela, Azealia Banks, and FKA Twigs. For the nonchalant parts, I mainly listen to Janelle Monae, Nujabes, spazzkid, and The Internet.

Q. Do you have any role models or authors you look up to?

Not necessarily, I pick and choose qualities I want to emulate in “role models.” There are some authors whom I strive to be similar to, like Audre Lorde and Octavia Butler when I’m trying to write deeply. I pick traits that I’ve noticed in author’s stories and use them when I’m writing about something funny or heart-wrenching. I believe you should try to be your own person, or in my case, writer. While it’s great to have people who influence you, they are themselves and you are yourself, if that makes sense.

Q. Opal Charm - The Path To Dawn is a sci-fi work. Do you write in any other genres?

A. I write literary and speculative fiction. I do poetry while I’m in school and don’t have time to invest in an actual story. An actual story for me is more than 300 pages.

Q. What genres do you like to read? Who are your favorite authors from these genres?

A. Fantasy, sci-fi, spec and literary fiction are my favorites. I do have paranormal as my guilty pleasure ever since I was a little girl. I grew up on R.L. Stine books from my school library. Then I got into books about demonic possession, which says a lot since I spent twelve years in Catholic schools. I regret to say I went through the Twilight phase, but thankfully it was brief. Christopher Moore was my favorite author for vampire love and other paranormal books. George R.R. Martin is hands down my favorite fantasy author. I don’t think I have one for scifi yet, Nova Sparks’ The Dome is a close contender. Many of the sci-fi books I read are YA and can be too tropey for me to fully enjoy.

Q. What do you do when you’re not writing?

A. While at school, I do scientific research and work in the lab in between classes. Now for the fun stuff… I go to the movie theaters frequently. I’m inevitably drawn to Marvel movies and frat guy party movies. When I come home from school, I go to NYC Street Poets in Brooklyn with my friend to listen and enjoy the atmosphere. All that costs money though, so when I submit to the broke college student atmosphere, I’m playing video games and watching documentaries online. I also tend to watch the more thought provoking movies at home.

Q. What are you working on now? Will Opal Charm be a series?

A. Opal Charm will most definitely be a series. I’m working on the next story now, Hope in Nautical Dawn (a tentative title.) This adventure will be something to look forward to. My thoughts are still a bit scattered on it, but the main idea remains the same: Opal will be learning how to harness her powers and will be fighting the bad guys. She’ll also try to keep her best friend, Aaron Reyes, out of the new villain’s grasp. She will be exploring more of Athre, the alternate world, and encounter many more characters whose lines of morality are pretty blurred, and then she’ll see that this follows for a few of the “good guys,” too. It will be much darker than The Path to Dawn. I’m excited to explore new themes with this story!

Q. That’s great. We’re excited to see the first Opal Charm release, The Path To Dawn, come out. She sounds like the kind of character we can all learn something from. When is the projected launch date?

A. Winter of 2016.

That’s great. We’ll certainly be on the lookout for that. You can find Miri Castor on          
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Thanks again for joining me, Miri. I wish you all the best!

And as always, thanks for dropping in

- Jonra Springs