Whelm follows a young woman who is struggling to overcome mental health issues and escape expectations to be her authentic self. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?

I’ve had people close to me deal with a variety of mental health struggles, and from time to time I’ve dealt with depression myself. The book is overly dramatized for the purpose of storytelling, but I wanted to push the message that the perfect life of material excess that most people idealise isn’t necessarily perfect for everyone and that sometimes it takes walking away from everything to gain a new perspective. I also hoped to help normalize these types of mental health struggles to help take the stigma out of them.

Audra is an intriguing and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?

I think at some point in our lives, most of us struggle with expectations. Audra’s development came from learning that less was more, and learning to trust herself to know what she wanted in life and make her own decisions. She didn’t need the glitz and glamour, and in the end she learned that happiness comes from love and friendship not materialism.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

Expectations may hold you back out of fear of judgment or failure but if you find the inner strength to do what’s right for you, the people you want in your life will be the ones still there for you in the end.

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

I’m currently about 20,000 words into my second book, entitled Conation, which is defined as an inclination to act purposefully. The story is a little darker than Whelm, with thematic elements focused on overcoming abuse and building community to find one’s place in a world where people are becoming increasingly isolated by technology. At this rate, I would hope it should be ready for publication by 2023.

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