by Sunny Solaris
Blurb
Aiden Strong can see dead people. As far back as he can remember, Aiden interacted with the Others. But no-one else can see them. Why?
Aiden is connected to these ghosts by Trancey Strings that wrap around him and sprawl out through to the Dead World of Quiziria.
Aiden doesn’t like his ability and thinks it is a curse. He desperately wants to be rid of these ghostly connections.
When Aiden meets Vincent, his fate will change forever.
Can Vincent help Aiden to restart his life with the living, or will everything he loves be destroyed forever?
Purchase the book here.
As a part of our initiative of uplifting young people and their stories, our content writer Sunny Solaris recently conducted an interview with indie author E. D. Bridges. Continue reading for the full transcript, and check out @eddie.writess on instagram to learn more about the author!
Sunny: Hello! Could you please introduce yourself in your own style, and describe your book? Edison: My name is Edison, I'm 17 years old and have been creating stories as far back as I can remember. I started writing my debut novel at 14 and did work experience with a publisher when I was 15, which led me to publish under them.
My novel, Strings On Me, is about a 15 year old who has the ability to see the dead. Aiden hates his powers and believes it is a curse - mostly because he is unable to distinguish the difference between the dead and the living. One day he is given the opportunity to get rid of his powers once and for all. Aiden had eight strings attached to his body which are each connected to a ghost. In the book, he travels back through time to figure out how these ghosts die, in order to cut off the strings to get rid of his powers. But along the way he starts to question himself: Is getting rid of his powers something he truly wants?
Thank you for that! Who are some of your favorite authors? Rick Riordan, Neil Gaiman, Yoshihiro Togashi, Kafka Asagiri, Koyoharu Gotouge.
Most of what I read and watch nowadays comes from Japanese media because I really like their stories!
That’s very interesting! Now first, I’d like to ask about your writing process. When you were first drafting your novel, did you have a set timetable of a certain number of words per day?
It took me a total of 2 and a half years to write, edit and publish this book. Since I was at school during that time, my school subjects at the time were my top priority. Writing is something I can do whenever I want but I can’t go back to school once it’s over. Essentially I wrote whenever I had free time. To make time for writing I got rid of most social media, and sometimes I would write in class when I was finished with an assignment. I was also moving around a lot at the time, so I would write wherever I was: in a car, at home, on a plane, etc.
I didn't have a set timetable, or a set word limit to meet. I just wrote scene by scene and focused more on how far along in the story I was, as opposed to how many words I had. But I'm pretty sure I wrote over 1000 words whenever I sat down to write.
Did you ever experience writer’s block, and if so, how did you deal with it?
Of course! All writers experience writer's block, even the professional and most famous ones. To get past writer's block I would suggest listening to music that reminds you of your WIP. Or when you head to bed, dream about the part you are at in the book to work stuff out. If possible, write it in a journal, then expand upon it in the morning.
Do you have any tips for young writers out there who are just like you when you started?
If I could go back in time and tell younger me a few things, this is probably what I would tell him:
You don't have to make every sentence perfect the first time you write it down. Your first draft can be horrible, messy, incredibly poorly written - it doesn’t matter. Because at the end of the day it's better than having a blank page, and you'll get the story done a whole lot faster. You can always go back and edit it later on in your second or third draft (or however many drafts you would like to do.) The first draft is not your final - so don't treat it like it is.
Go at your own pace. You don't have to have a goal of writing a certain amount of words per day. Write whenever you're in the mood to - don't force yourself to write if it's becoming a chore. Writing should be something you enjoy, and if you're not enjoying it, step back and get back to it another time.
Quality over quantity is always a good approach to writing.
Focus on one section at a time. You don't have to write your story chronologically - in fact if you have a scene in your head, write it down! It is so much easier to write what you have in your mind, as opposed to waiting until you reach that scene in the book - because by that time you may have lost the original optimism you had when you first thought of it.
I’m sure our young authors will find those very helpful! Now let’s talk about your book itself. Where did you get the inspiration for your book?
At the time I kinda just pieced together what I was interested in: the main things being, time travel, ghosts, and mystery. I was 13 when I came up with the story idea, but I didn't really take inspiration from anything in particular; most of the stuff just came from my head.
Is Strings on Me a stand-alone book? Or will there be more?
Strings On Me has a sequel in the works! At this moment I'm writing a light novel called Restricted Freedom, but once that's done I plan to go back to writing the second addition to Strings On Me (because I left the first one on a cliffhanger :))
Did you do any sort of research for your book?
I did quite a lot of research, but not as much as I would have liked to - with most stuff I just left it up to my imagination haha.
Because of the time travel aspect in my novel I had to do a lot of research on how things were in certain time periods. These include the clothing/hairstyles people wore, what inventions existed at the time, societal aspects and the events that took place during that time. But I mostly ended up using my imagination with what I thought the past was like. Looking back, I wish I did do a bit more research into certain things, because I wasn't as knowledgeable with the past as I am now (I'm doing modern History and Ancient Studies as subjects - when I began the book I only had very little knowledge about the past). So I wouldn't say the past is incredibly accurate, though I did as much research as I could and did try my best to understand what I was writing about.
How long did the research take?
I don't really know how to answer that. I kinda just researched whenever I came across something I wasn't quite sure about, or if I wanted a general idea on the events happening in that time period. I don't have a set time. I kinda just did the research here and there.
How did you select the names of your characters?
For most of them I did use the 'looking through baby name websites' method, though sometimes I also chose names that I liked from books, movies and shows, etc (whether it be an actor's name, a character's name, or a real person's name.) Now that I'm thinking about it, I got one of my characters' last names from a street sign I used to go past a lot, and also got one of my characters' names from a store clerk’s name badge.
Haha that’s very interesting! Were there any scenes you struggled to write?
Some of the death scenes were particularly difficult to write. I did as much research as I could on them, but it was still quite challenging. Another worry I had was being insensitive - a lot of the fictional events that take place in my book could and do take place in real life too, especially certain deaths and scenarios I write about. So I tried my best to write with empathy and understanding on these deaths.
What point of view is your book written in? Is there a particular reason why and does it help you write it that way?
Strings On Me is written in third-person limited, mostly focusing on the protagonist Aiden Strong and the struggles that come along with being able to see the dead. It was written that way because the story is central to the protagonist (with all the other characters being ghosts). I wrote it that way because it was fundamentally important to show his perspective and point of view, with the reader following his character journey/development over the course of the story.
What tropes can a reader expect in your book?
There's found family, character development (for multiple characters), enemies to friends, survival situations and more. Most of my books revolve around the found family trope and close friends. There is also a tad bit of romance in the story, though it's not a focal point.
A little romance never hurt anyone. Are any of your characters a self insert?
Not really. I feel like some characters have small bits of my personality. The characters I most relate to are probably Curtis and Varian. For my characters, I really tried to create different types of people and used some traits that were the complete opposite of mine. I just really wanted to diversify my characters’ personalities, because I find writing about different types of people (from different walks of life) really fun.
I think that’s about it! Thank you so much for letting me interview you! I look forward to checking out your book :)
Oh alright! No problemo! I enjoyed it! And thanks :)
To learn more about the author, check out @sunnywithasideup on instagram.
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