Today we’d like to introduce you to Emma Reen.
Emma, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My name is Mary Rosas, but I go by Mary, Mary Jane, and professionally known as Emma Reen. I have been a daydreamer for as long as I can remember. I always liked making up stories, acting them out, performing them, singing as if I were in a musical–really anything that would help me escape from the routine of the day (school and homework as a kid, and work or other responsibilities as an adult). As a child, I always loved reading either fictional stories or just science books/encyclopedias and looking through the pictures. Anything I read, I felt I was a part of or in that world; even when reading a science book about supernovas and black holes, I always liked to imagine what it would be like to have the ability to fly into space and view it with the naked eye.
I realized I liked escaping into daydreams when I wanted to be in a world that I could fully control. The older I got, the more complex my make-believe worlds became. When I was in college, I had a long break between classes. I went to the library to study; instead, I found myself daydreaming more than ever and doodling new ideas and characters that would eventually evolve into the characters of my now-published novel “Immortal Essence.”
It took eight years of writing, world-building, character development, and breaks between classes and work just to finish a 200,000-word manuscript. Then it took another year to edit the manuscript down to roughly 120,000 words. During the eight years of writing, I went through career changes in school, relationships that changed my life (at one point, I was living and writing full-time in The Netherlands), went through financial hardships, and my immediate family went through emotional hardships (even as an adult, these problems affected me more than I wanted to admit at the time) that kept pushing me into the world I had been creating, and giving me fuel for the characters I wrote about.
I find writing as my favorite way to escape the world. I am a person who prefers to run than confront problems, unfortunately, but it has given me a fruitful outcome in the form of literature.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road. As I mentioned in the previous section, I went through financial hardships (through fault of my own as well as my family’s), relationship problems where I would make drastic and impulsive decisions which changed my way of life every 6-months to a year, and family issues (my siblings and I grew up in a toxic environment, and we didn’t learn until our adulthood that our biological father was clinically diagnosed as a narcissist). All of these problems were interconnected, and while they put a stop to my writing process once in a while, they also gave me ideas and push me into my fantasy world. Writer’s block is not exactly a struggle I have dealt with unless I am being forced to write something. Usually, I write what I feel, moving from a fantasy novel to a romance novel, or from poetry to cartoon comics, and even short scripts. I like to switch it up based on the emotions I am going through.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I love collecting information, ideas, emotions from different people in my hometown, in different cities, from different cultures and countries. A lot of the information gets lost in my head, however, and a lot of my thoughts usually end up getting melded and erupt back as something new in me, as part of my personality, which I then transmit back into story form. Many times that I have had conversations with people, I forget who tells me what or how I learn certain things; I have been described as “air-headed,” but I always felt that there was just so much in my head that I can’t think like other people expect me to think. What I think this has helped me with is being a creative. I am not an organized person when it comes to creativity, another reason why I think it took eight years to write a YA fantasy novel, but that is what I am most proud of now: having written it, published it, getting artists to contribute with me and get into shows and events like Comic-Con San Diego. I am also excited because I am currently working on an illustrated novel with an artist from Tijuana. This is not an illustrated novel in the traditional sense but more of a short story with a few images. This story is part of the series of the YA world I have been building these past ten years.
What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
I have learned to take all forms of feedback, including criticism. It hurts. It hurts because a very intimate piece of you is out there for people to either love or to stomp on and hate on. It is still something I have to deal with, but I am glad I know I can handle to, at least so far.
Pricing:
- Hardcover book $30
- Paperback book $20
- Upcoming illustrated short story $20
Contact Info:
- Website: immortal-essence.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worldofimmortalessence/?hl=en
- Other: https://linktr.ee/emmareen
Image Credits
Mauricio Lopez
Analei Moran
Kristian Rosas
Alberto Sanchez
