Author Spotlight with Heather Grey
Introducing Heather Grey, whose debut book 'Inky Water' is out now. Heather writes irresistible characters, who push just the right buttons for the reader to fall in love with. Combined with a stunning small-town setting and compelling storyline, ‘Inky Water’ needs to be on your TBR. Keep reading to catch up on what inspires this writer and where to find her book.
Can you share what made you want to write? Did something or someone inspire your writing journey?
“I’ve loved reading and writing for as long as I can remember. As a child, I had a very active imagination. I had loads of imaginary friends I would go on adventures with, and since I was a shy kid, this was very fun for me. Stories have always existed in my head. Sometimes I would write them down, but more often than not, it would just be a storyline I would run through my head to help me fall asleep. Sometimes it kept me up instead when I wasn’t sure where it was going but I always found it comforting. I’ve always had creative outlets, but my career took me into the world of numbers and data, and the creative part of my brain started to get louder and louder until I needed to write a book. Writing helps with my mental health. It keeps me more level and happy, so that’s why I do it.”
Tell me about your newly released book, ‘Inky Water’: How would you describe the theme?
“‘Inky Water’ is a romantic suspense novel that takes place in a small beach town situation on Lake Huron, in Ontario, Canada. In the novel, we follow Lillian and Jackson as they navigate their love and professional lives. Lillian is coming out of a long-term relationship and is having issues finding inspiration in her job as a children’s book author. Jackson is taking on a job at his father’s construction company and needs to prove himself worthy of it. This brings both of them to the small and quirky town of Bluefield. Early on we discover someone isn’t happy with Jackson being in town, so while Lillian and Jackson develop their friendship-turned-more, they have many obstacles in their way. Inky Water includes small-town romance, suspense, found family, opposites attract, reformed playboy, anxiety and therapy representation, and is dual point of view.”
What is your favourite part of the writing process, from start to completion?
“I’m a ‘panster’, which means that I don’t create a whole outline or plot-out my stories before I start writing, but I do some background work before I get into the story, and that can be really fun. While reading romantic suspense the reader is often trying to figure out “who done it” before it’s revealed and it’s quite fun figuring out where I’m going to drop the hints and clues, or who I’m throwing in there to direct the reader and characters’ attention away from the actual problem.
I also love it when the story gets to a point that the characters and setting is established enough that I get to add in more personality to the supporting characters. Because the Bluefield Beach series will be comprised on interconnected standalones, I get to develop some characters multiple books before they will get their spot as the main. They are like fully formed people in my brain so letting people meet and fall in love with them bit by bit is so exciting to me.”
As a self-published author, what difficulty have you encountered and how did you overcome it?
“Honestly, a lot of it is hard. Writing the book may as well be the easy part. Outside of taking courses on how to self-publish a book, which I’m sure exists somewhere, it’s a lot of making it up as you go. This can be hard when everything is on a timeline. My biggest piece of advice is don’t be afraid to ask questions that feel silly or stupid. I’ve got some of my best advice posting a random question to threads because Google doesn’t know the book/author community like social media does.
It can also feel very lonely at times. Getting into a group chat with other authors helps a lot. Shout out to ‘Literary Poutine Posse’ (It’s a Canadian thing). Being able to go to a group of people growing through the same things as you, maybe they’re further in their publishing journey, or a couple steps behind you, everyone has such great advice, but sometimes it’s the funny memes we send each other that are the laugh you need in the middle of a mental block. The author community is amazing and I’m so happy to be a part of it.”
What is your favourite kind of character to write about?
“That’s hard to say because I feel like I’m picking a favourite child out of my current characters. I love writing Lillian and Jackson because they were both so pure and warm that there was a comfort in that, but Lillian’s best friend Aspen knows how to steal a scene. She’s a very strong character, sure of herself, unapologetically her. She’s also very complex, there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes that she doesn’t let people see and I love setting the complexity of that. If it wasn’t already obvious, Aspen will get her own book in the series and it is constantly swirling around in my brain. With Lillian I felt like she politely asked me to write her book and we were partners in the journey. Aspen is fully in charge of me at this point, she’s telling me what’s what and I’m along for the ride.”
“…letting people meet and fall in love with them [characters] bit by bit is so exciting to me.” — Heather Grey
Thank you Heather! Find the links to her book and socials below if you want to stay up-to-date with future releases from this author.
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