Bio

Did you always know that you wanted to be a writer? That’s a question that fascinates me and I thought about it a lot over the years.

No. I always saw myself as a forensic scientist who’s working with really dark people. I always loved writing though and started writing books and stories when I was about 12. (My aunt claims I wrote my first story when I was six or seven but who knows, right?) Anyways, my first real draft was terrible, of course! But I always loved books! I grew up with Harry Potter and I think I survived my teenage years mainly because of Twilight— yes, I’m definitely an Edward girly—and because of Cat and Bones. Does anyone remember those two? 

That said, after I finished school I was quite lost for a while. A little bit adrift but I guess that’s normal. I tried to study law and ultimately ended up studying opera singing. I picked up writing again when I was 19 and wrote a not-so-bad crime novel I keep locked away in my drawer. 

I then wrote a very gory, brutal Cape Town thriller where the protagonist Willaim is a detective and also a contract killer. Oh yes, my obsession with morally gray men started early. 

And yet: No—I still didn’t know I wanted to be a writer. I just wrote down stories I thought people might find interesting because I tried to write what would captivate me. What always fascinated me in stories was less the action but more the personality of my characters and the many, many different shades of gray.

Writing really gives you the opportunity to dive into the darkest minds. I can explore what drives my characters, what makes them tick, what they want and desire and also how they interact with their environment and the people around them.

There is action too because you need a story but long sword fighting scenes bore me so you won’t find extensive ones of those just to fill the pages. And whether they can love is always a big topic. 

Yet still, my “I want to be a writer” moment finally kind of hit me when I finished Sweetbitter in one solid swig. I don’t know what it was about that book but I thought “I want to write something similar but darker.” Something that involves food and wine and haute-cuisine but also a dark villain and a young girl who falls in love with him. So I sat down and wrote down STILL STRANGERS in almost one go. And this book landed me my agent Mel Berger, who was as obsessed with it as I. But publishing is hard and even with the best agent, we couldn’t sell the book—not without major changes on the plot. Publishers were interested but they didn’t want the genre cross between literature and thriller and I didn’t want to change my book.

So the real question is whether I ever believed myself to become a fantasy-writer and the answer to this is no. Definitely not! I only  decided to write fantasy because really, it just gives you more freedom. You can create dark men in brutal worlds and still weave in some romance (there is always romance in my books!). To my surprise I loved it. I loved it so much I wanted to create a whole universe. 

So this my dear beloved reader, is what came of it. My book “Kingdom of the Two Moons.” 

Writing advice? 

I didn’t want to pack everything into my bio but I see that a lot of people are curious of how I work. I will say every writer I met has her/his own way. And also, for me, every book is different. Sometimes I’m a pantser as I was when I wrote Still Strangers. Sometimes you need more crafting and outlining or you will just get lost. My advice—try it out and see what works for you. But once you start a book, try to finish it and please, don’t listen to people who tell you writing their book took five years. 

Do I write every day? 

Hells no! I’m really a mood writer. Sometimes I will work on a book from sunrise to midnight and then I will just let it sit and not work at all. I will take walks, or drive while listening to my favorite music (that works wonders!) I really need this natural state of “the desire to write.” And sometimes, often, when I want to start a new book I feel this tingling in my fingertips but when I sit down, nothing will come. So I wait. Because it is like a pull, or a flow and it will come sooner or later. And I often wait long but there’s always a moment where the story suddenly kicks in, everything clicks into place and it literally streams  out of you. Trust this process because this is your inner creativity and the best state you can have when writing a book. 

But then, again, this is only me. You need to find what’s right for you. The most important thing is that you keep doing it. And keep getting better and better because this is what happens. My first draft of the Cape Town thriller took so long because I wasn’t as skilled as I am today. Many books later I write as I write now and it is very different. But you have to learn to write and I believe the only way to to do this is by doing it and then showing your work to really critical minds. Embrace and love feedback because it makes you grow! And a draft, no matter how good it is, is still a draft. I believe it needs more people to turn it into a real book. 

Sending you love, Alexandra!