Snowfall follows a cursed ice witch who must find true love within a year or melt into a puddle of water. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I design my covers using and purchasing pictures from Shutterstock. When I stumbled upon what became the cover for Snowfall, I was mesmerized by the ice forest. I immediately thought of a cursed ice witch and her quest to find love and break the spell. Readers who have read Snowfall may associate it with Frozen and Beauty and the Beast. I do not deny I was inspired by both and decided to combine the elements of a frozen heart, true love as a cure, and death as a penalty if Pristina the ice witch fails to win true love. However, there are far more complications entailed in this book. Pristina must battle with her conscience and must determine whether it is moral to interfere in Gabriel and Marleigh’s dysfunctional and abusive relationship.

Pristina Cardin was resigned to die when she unexpectedly found love, unfortunately, things do not go smoothly and she is faced with a difficult choice. What were the morals you were trying to capture while creating your characters?

I used to love preaching to readers because it made me feel important to be listened to, but now, I believe a good writer pinpoints issues and invites readers to think and debate instead of telling readers what to think. 

In Snowfall, the morals and themes are:

1) Manipulation and deceit in a relationship.

2) Whether it is moral to intervene in a problematic and toxic relationship.

3) Sacrifice and letting go.

4) The value of life and cherishing it. 

What were some goals you set for yourself as a writer in this book?

1) To capture the essence of the characters. Pristina is one of those protagonists who’s very different from me. She is lonely and craves love and companionship. Therefore, it was important for me to put myself in her position and think like her to make her realistic. Being an author, empathy is a must-have trait if we are to create a character whom

2) To convey moral messages without sounding like a preacher.

I’m always worried about over-preaching the readers and boring them, yet I insist on having certain scenes in my books that lead to some life insights. For example, here’s an excerpt from Snowfall:

“What did being alive mean? Did it mean living and breathing and watching each day come and go like a flowing river? Or was there something more to it? Fighting the tides of mundanity that threatened to numb one’s senses? Breaking the routines one set up for themself? Experiencing new, exciting things and going on adventures to expand one’s horizons? Embarking on different journeys that gave one a brand-new perspective on life and allowed them to view the grand, sublime, and sometimes terrifying universe in a whole new light?”

To me, writing novels means striking a balance between focusing on the morals and (hopefully thought-provoking) themes and making the storyline intriguing enough to not make readers slam the book shut before turning the last page.

What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?

I have finished twenty-two novels as of June 2022. Snowfall is my seventeenth-written but my ninth-published book. My eighteenth-written novel is titled Stars, Clouds, and Shadows, and I’m seeking an agent to represent it right now. My tenth-published book, available since May 15th, is Helen’s Tale, a companion novel to my Otherworld Trilogy. 

I just finished another novel (YA literary) recently, and I might start the next book in September. It may be an adult contemporary romance titled Romantic Endeavor, focusing on the protagonist Katharina and her handsome, brooding neighbor who possesses a melancholic secret. However, I also have many other story ideas clamoring for my attention, so I am not certain if Romantic Endeavor will turn out to be my twenty-third-written novel.

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