Q&A With Author of What If Stars Don't Die, Ivy Oakes.
Q&A With Author of What If Stars Don't Die, Ivy Oakes.
What if Stars Don’t Die is a young adult novel released in November 2020, starring a young adolescent during the process of grieving the loss of both his parents in a car accident. Ivy Oakes accepted to answer a few questions for us to get to know her and her book better. This interview has been slightly edited for length to better suit our readers.
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Tara Emmanuel: Tell us a bit about yourself. Who is Ivy Oakes?
Ivy Oakes: Well, hello everyone, I am a writer. I love books and traveling. I like wine. I also love my friends and family; I feel like I'm the luckiest person on the entire earth because I'm surrounded by such amazing people. I know people usually say those things but they are really amazing and they are so supportive. And talking about books, I think I was able to write and publish because I had the support from them to do it. I speak five languages and I love learning. I actually love learning about anything and everything except mathematics. I hate mathematics. I hate numbers, except if it's money.
I'm very stubborn and clumsy. I'm always surrounded by sounds and music, although I am a terrible singer. I'm surrounded by books and by amazing people, so I can say I'm a very lucky and happy person.
Tara Emmanuel: In the first pages of your book, there is a dedication to your mother who “understood pretty soon you would’ve been a terrible doctor” which spiked my curiosity; I felt there is a story there and would love to hear more about how it’s shaped who you are today.
Ivy Oakes: So basically, my mom wanted her daughter to be a doctor and we kinda talked this through. I think it was a dream of hers she couldn't fulfill and, as a daughter, I wanted to make my mom happy. I just showed up one day and said, "Hey mom, I'm actually going to drop out of college and I'm going to be a writer." But my mom is my biggest supporter; she's always encouraging me which is actually funny because she's always like, "Oh my God, your books are the best books I've ever read in my entire life!", and she is so proud of that.
It's so beautiful to see, and thinking as adults we can put so many expectations on other people on what we want them to do, so it was very special to me that she could walk out of those expectations and say, “I just want my daughter to be happy” instead of saying, “I want her to do what I want her to do.” I always dedicate my books to my mom because she's the first one to read them, and she's the first one to know when there's a story coming because she's always asking about it. She's my number one reader.
Tara Emmanuel: What genres do you love reading and how have they influenced your writing?
Ivy Oakes: Well, the question here really should be ‘what genres don't you read?’ because I read literally anything and everything. If I can grab a book I'm going to be reading it and it really doesn't matter if it's a good book or a bad book. So, many authors have influenced me and so many authors I love, such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Neil Gaiman, the Bronte Sisters, Jane Austen, Tolkien, CS Lewis, Stephanie Mayer, and Nicholas Parks.
I read romance, horror books, Webtoons (I love comics). I love science fiction, and this is actually a problem and my manager can talk about it pretty loudly because nowadays when I'm writing, I can't stick to just one genre. For example, with romance or Young Adult, I can't stick to just an audience. I have written books for kids, for teenagers, for adults, books for older people, and it's a mess. My manager really has a hard time putting a marketing strategy because of that.
I am heavily influenced by the books I read and I'm so proud of becoming a writer and being able to give back what I received. So, that's beautiful.
Tara Emmanuel: What If Stars Don’t Die is a book in the Halley series set in a small town with the same name. Looking closely at world-building and the focus of the story, what made you pick a small town for setting as opposed to a big city or even space where a lot more could take place?
Ivy Oakes: Well, I'm going to tell you a little secret. I actually wrote Halley because I'm lazy. That's it, I said it out loud. When Dan was telling me his story, I didn't know where he was based, and at the same time, I didn't want to have to research the name of the streets in order to write it. I wanted to be more flexible because I'm lazy since if it was a real city I would have had to stick to that. And in the series, Dan was the first character, not Sarah.
Dan was in a big city that I actually named Big City when I first wrote it, then he goes to this small city I named Halley because of the comet. I'm not American as you can tell. I know I could make more with a big city, but he was coming from a big city to a smaller city so that’s how the story goes and I couldn't change it.
Tara Emmanuel: Who is your favorite character in the book?
Ivy Oakes: I like Dan. He was the first character I've ever talked to. He taught me how to be a writer. I didn't know before him that I was a writer. Nowadays I have written 12 books after Dan, but still, to this day Dan has a special place in my heart. I just love how much he grew in the story and how much he learned as a human being, like he went from being so scared and lost and broken, to really taking the chance to be happy and to help others. Not even going to mention the fact that he opened up to heal.
Healing can be so hard and I'm just so proud of him. I was not going to publish books but then I thought it was unfair that he had such a beautiful story to tell, that I wouldn't publish it because I was scared of criticism. What made me publish was I needed the world to know his story. So, Dan is my favorite character. And after him, I love Julien, I like Maggie kinda sorta, And I love Mr. Tinkle.
Tara Emmanuel: Is there a character in the book with whom you share an experience or a personality trait?
Ivy Oakes: There is and there is not. I haven't based a character on myself. Like I have never done that. However, I am a hidden character in the book. Yeah, you didn't know that, huh? There's a scene where Dan and Maggie go to the ball with some elders and they get to dance, and Dan is even offered a cigarette, which doesn't take, but they have fun and they get to meet Sammy. Well, I am one of the ladies that get to dance with Dan. This is actually a very funny story because when I was writing Dan I didn't even know I was a writer yet.
There was this character that was whispering his story to me and I remember he started talking about astronomy and I panicked because I didn't even know the name of any stars. Like I don't know anything about astronomy. Of course, it took a lot of research but I also had a lot of help. I joined an astronomy group and I received amazing help and amazing support from them about six years ago, and to this day, I'm still friends with those guys. They were so supportive and Dan is alive today and the book is here today because of their help.
They were so excited about the book and as a way of saying thank you, I put all of them in the book. When I was writing the technical astronomical parts, they were the first ones to point out mistakes. I remember when I inserted that scene, I didn't say a word, and they read their names and were like, "Oh my God, we are characters!" and they were excited. So, this is very dear to me. And it's fun that I'm in the book. Let's see if you can guess my name!
Tara Emmanuel: Why write about death, especially when it’s a triggering subject for most of us?
Ivy Oakes: This is a very good and important question by the way. Thank you for asking this. So there are basically three reasons why I write about Death, and I think it's because one of the reasons is death is a part of life, just like life itself. I believe it's important to acknowledge it, be aware that it is going to happen, and that we need to live while we are alive.
We can get caught in small things and may lose sight of what is really important but when we acknowledge that we are eventually going to die and that our loved ones will also pass away, then we live life to the fullest; you get to do the phone calls that you never do. You get to visit your parents more often. You get to hug people you wouldn't hug otherwise. You get to enjoy foods you wouldn't.
The other reason is the process of grieving in most books and movies I’ve seen is usually this perfect thing, where the characters know exactly what to say in the perfect moments and grieving is actually not like this; it's messed up. It's very messed up and it's very hard. And of course, in the movies, it's sad, but it usually goes on for three minutes. And then the person is okay or has moved on or, uses this to kill half the city because the dog died. When in reality, death is not like that. It comes sometimes very silently, very suddenly, and we don't know how to react and we don't know what to do.
And it's okay, which leads me to the third point because I've seen some people grieving. We all have, especially with the times that we're leaving that are such hard times. Sometimes I've witnessed people pointing fingers and judging other people's process of grieving. "Oh my gosh, she's not crying,” or “she's crying too much" or "does she feel guilty?" when actually nobody should tell us how to grieve. No one should tell us how to heal because it's a personal process and you don't have to have the perfect reaction just like in the movies or the books.
It's important that we acknowledge that people grieve differently, that we start talking about mental health issues that are related to grieving and to death. For example, at Dante's parents' funeral, he does not cry. And for a good part of the book, in the beginning, he doesn't even want to talk about it and he just acts as if his parents are still alive, that they were going to show up a pick him up and he was just there. And some people grieve like this; some people are so shocked by what happened that they can't react…
Tara Emmanuel: As an emerging writer who’s still in the phase of getting my draft ready to be published, I like to know what’s ahead of me. Based on your experience, what is the biggest issue to tackle for a newbie who wants to publish a book or series?
Ivy Oakes: Focus on finishing your draft, focus on the book, then you're going to think about being published. And why am I saying this? Because when you finish your first draft, it's going to take a lot of editing, two to three rounds of editing, depends on the genre and the length of the book that you're writing. I would say get some critical readers; they're very important because you're going to need someone who can point out the mistakes, the error, the things that you're not seeing, the plot holes, to tell you that this characters' behavior's off, or this line's not spot-on…
And when I say critical reader, I'm not talking about your mom nor your best friends, because they're going to say that everything is amazing and it all looks great when in reality, it can look better. Getting criticized hurts, especially when you're too involved with the book and you love the characters and you love that line that you just wrote and you spent five hours writing that small line, and then the critical reader just points and says it's shitty and you have to edit it. But trust me, it's important.
My advice to you would be to focus on finishing what you have in hand, and then as you go through the process of editing, when you are about the second round of editing, start growing or building your audience. Get yourself some social media account, Tiktok, Instagram, a newsletter, and connect with your possible future readers. I made those mistakes like I published a book and there was literally no one waiting for it. No one even knew about me, just my mom.
Tara Emmanuel: Which one do you think offers more advantages for a debut novel between self-, independent and traditional publishing? And why?
Ivy Oakes: Well, I think it really depends on what you want to accomplish in your budget and how much time you have in your hands. Because if you choose to go self-publishing, then you have to have time and budget. If you can pay for editing, getting your cover done, for formatting, and for everything, it's great but it's expensive. You have full control of it, you decide what you write and what you don't, you decide to pick the genres, you own everything and also you get more from the sales because it's all yours.
However, if you choose to go traditional publishing first, you may spend a lot of time looking for an agent, just to get the feedback that, "Oh, we're not interested," while you could be already publishing your book. And the second thing is that you don't own it. You do own it, but you don't, if they tell you to change something, you have to change it. Also, you get a small percentage of the sales. They're going to do the cover, the formatting and the editing and everything, you just have to have the book written. So, that's an option if you don't have the budget, and if you don't have the time to learn.
If you don't have a budget and time, I would say traditional publishing.
Tara Emmanuel: What do you wish someone told you before you started writing books?
Ivy Oakes: Well, I wish someone had said to me "do it because you love it and not because of what people might think, because yeah, it's not easy." Also, there is impostor syndrome. Sometimes I write and I look at it and say, ‘this is the shittiest thing someone has ever written,’ then I read some hateful reviews and it kind of confirms what I just thought. But then I wish someone had said, “do it because you love it". After all, at the end of the day, that's what matters; that I love doing it.
Tara Emmanuel: Who is another author you absolutely recommend?
Ivy Oakes: So I'm going to go with Neil Gaiman and Patrick Ness about learning how to write. Those guys are great writers. I love their writing style and I think it's really worth checking on their books.
Tara Emmanuel: What can readers look forward to, this year, in Ivy Oakes’ world and where can they get in touch with you?
Ivy Oakes: You can find me on Instagram; Ivy Oakes (@authorivyoakes). You can also subscribe to my newsletter. In my newsletter, I usually send some exclusive books. What can readers look for this year? There's a book coming out; it's the third book in the Halley series. It's actually a small book. I don't know if you guys know, but the Halley series is made of three big books and three small books. That's a great one and the cover is gorgeous. It's going to be published next month. And two more books are coming.
We're going to publish the books in Spanish and Portuguese, so you can also look forward to that if you speak Portuguese and Spanish, or if you know someone who speaks Portuguese and Spanish, or if you want to learn.