Fantasy Book Critic: SPFBO Finalist Interview - Stephanie Gillis, the Author of The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Stephanie Gillis is a vlogger, writer, dog trainer, and dinosaur-enthusiast living in Colorado with a very load and obnoxious parrot. She has two Bachelor's degrees in Linguistics and Japanese. When she's not staring at a bright white computer screen for hours on end you may be able to spot her in her natural habitat digging through thrift stores or seeing movies at ridiculously early hours of the morning. If seen in public, approach with caution, puppies, and musical song lyrics.

Find Stephanie online: website

The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids links: Amazon, Goodreads

Thank you for agreeing to this interview. Before we start, tell us a little about yourself.

I’m Stephanie Gillis and I call myself a writer, reader, dork extraordinaire. I’ve been a youtuber since 2007 and a published author since 2013. I go by Qwordy on the internet there where I make bookish content and host productivity sprints to help other writers get their words in or just people needing support getting whatever they need done. I live in Colorado and recently became a dogmom to a mastiff mix puppy named Pawl.

Do you have a day job? If so, what is it?

Yes, I have a boring day job as a billing administrator for a coffee equipment company.

Who are some of your favorite writers, and why is their work important to you?

I have so many but I think my top authors I’m a fan of are Marissa Meyer, Elizabeth Lim, Margaret Rogerson, Rebecca Ross, and Andy Weir. They’re all masters of world-building and amazing character craft. They’ve given me some of my favorite worlds and characters that I often feel recharged after reading one of their books.

What do you like most about the act of writing?

I have these moments where I don’t even realize I’m writing, my fingers just kind of go faster than my brain and before I know it I’ve got characters doing what they want and completely deviating from the outline but it’s a fun challenge to figure out why inevitably those were better choices. My idea often changes so much from the original concept it’s a wonder I even bother to make outlines anymore. For example, in The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids, there is a character named Darius who sort of just popped up, I hadn’t planned on him in the outline but found he was one of my favorites to interject into the sisters’ storyline and was a great addition to the cast I didn’t know I needed until I was writing.

Can you lead us through your creative process? What works and doesn’t work for you? How long do you need to finish a book?

It depends on the book, I’ve changed my attack styles over the years. I used to plot out in beats but then discovered Katytastic’s 3 Act, 9 Block, 27 Chapter method and found that was a really great method for how my brain works in terms of creature, even if I don’t fully stick to it by the third act, it’s a great method of sorting out all the arcs. I usually do a basic plot one and then I do character specific outlines just to be clear on where everyone is at any time even when they’re not in the chapter, it helps keep up with continuity for the most part. I do write linearly and can’t just write a scene for later and bring it in because too much can happen between now and then and by the time I get there that scene doesn’t seem to fit anymore. Depending on the book it can take me a couple years before it’s a finished project, HSFCAC took about a year to draft and then several years of edits before it came out in Oct 2023. I like to take my time on edits to make sure I’m producing my best version with the messages I want to convey being my biggest priority. I’ve learned a lot about my process since my first novel so you may see a drastic change in style from my first book, Search for The Phoenix vs. The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids.

What made you decide to self-publish The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids as opposed to traditional publishing?

I’ve been self-publishing since my first series, The Ashport Archives, mostly because I just wanted to check it off the bucket list and now it’s turned into 80% of my personality. With HSFCAC I did want to try out traditional publishing so I did query it but not extensively. If I was going trad I wanted to make sure I was going to work with agents that I liked so I didn’t query hundreds like many others but the feedback I mostly got was that it was great but too long and I’d spent so long on editing it to what it was, I couldn’t fathom cutting anymore with how much the story has to say. I like the control that I have over self-publishing and thanks to an amazing kickstarter campaign I was able to produce a lot more with the book for those backers.

What’s your favorite and least favorite parts of self-publishing?

It’s definitely the control over my work. I can market it correctly as I find lately the trends of publishing aren’t things I can claim to and often times can even be misleading to what the content is in a book over what sells in traditional publishing that I feel oversaturates the market. I like that I could hire people I know and trust to edit (Zoe Plait) and do my cover/interior art (Tycho Dwelis, author/illustrator who is amazing). My least favorite part is also the marketing, the amount of time and money that has to be allocated to it, I’m terrible at that because I have so many other things going on in my life that it’s hard to balance that while not burning out.

Why did you enter SPFBO?

I learned about SPFBO a couple years ago because I subscribe to CoverswithCassidy on youtube and thought this was a great way to find other indie books. As a book reviewer myself, I love lifting up indie voices and finding the hidden gems out there in the world so I started by just adding books to my endless TBR. I was in the midst of writing HSFCAC then so I promised myself I would enter it when it was finished. I think it’s a great competition that even though has an elimination process still promotes great works that people can find regardless. I even did my own livestream series called “Will it TBR” where I went through ever single entry this year and decided if it would go on my personal tbr and also helped my audience find books they might not have otherwise heard of.

How would you describe the plot of The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids if you had to do so in just one or two sentences?

It’s about three sisters who take care of magical creatures in a small town trying to drive them out because they suspect them to be witches, all while each is processing their own trauma (both personal and generational) and learning to rebond as sisters in order to defend their livelihood.

What was your initial inspiration for The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids? How long have you been working on it? Has it evolved from its original idea?

Initially I got mad at an episode of either Monsterquest or Finding Bigfoot, I can’t remember, but they kept referring to Bigfoot as “he” and I was thinking, you don’t know if Bigfoot is a man. I’m a woman with big feet, she could be a girl so thus Harriet the Bigfoot was born for the book. The rest of the book came from my own experiences in processes trauma, so each of the sisters is kind of a different part of me at different stages in my life and was a therapeutic way of overcoming things that have happened to me in the past, especially with Calliope’s story being the most close to home overall. Like her, I was SA’d and kept silent about it for many years and it’s really only since writing the book that I’ve been able to talk about because writing her journey of healing was in a way, also my journey. I started writing the book in 2019 and finished the first draft around the end of 2020. This was the first time not a whole lot deviated from the original plan because all of the arcs were so close to home for me that it was very easy to stick to the plan. It took several years of edits because it was so long 162k at the first draft, and I could only pay my editor per chapter as I was working at a grocery store at the time and did not have the means to pay at full price. Luckily my editor was phenomenal and understanding and worked with me through the whole process.

What genre does it belong to?

While it’s fantasy, I consider it a contemporary fantasy. It’s the real world but while there are these fantastic creatures in it the core heart of the story is about the sisters and their journeys and relationships so that to me gives it a more contemporary vibe with fantastical elements. Though there is plenty of fantasy for those who just want to delve into the cryptid side of the book.

If you had to describe it in 3 adjectives, which would you choose?

Wholesome, Romantic, Tumultuous.

Is it part of the series or a standalone? If series, how many books have you planned for it?

It can be read as a standalone but I do have two more books planned in the series, however, they are more companions with different main characters and appearance from the Lambros family.

Who are the key players in this story? Could you introduce us to The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids’s protagonists/antagonists?

There are four main POVs and four others I consider in the main cast. We have the Lambros sisters: Melpomene, Calliope, and Thalia as well as the new girl in town, Asha. Melpomene is the eldest sister, she is struggling to keep the house together with many a DIY repair project and the financial stress of having parents MIA and leaving it up to you to feed your younger sisters. Calliope is the middle sister, she is the best with the creatures and dropped out of high school in order to fully be the caretaker of roughly 30 animals, she refuses to leave the grounds due to her trauma with the townspeople though her sisters don’t realize how severe that agoraphobia really is. Thalia is the younger and just wants out. Her plan is to graduate and be gone from the tiny town that hates her family but that is overturned when the new girl comes into town and completely steals her heart. Asha, the new girl, is the heiress to the new resort opening up in the mountain town, she struggles under the pressure her parents put on her to always be thinking of how her actions will reflect on her parents business so she has a rebellious streak when it gets too tough with them.

Then we have Liam and Owen who are sent by the Lambros’ absent mother to help bring in a new acquisition for the house. Though their reasons for going to Lambros House may not be as good-intentioned as they seem. Darius, is new to the town and working as the handyman for the new resort and meets Melpomene in the local hardware store where he is then embroiled in town gossip and a curiosity for the sisters. Our main antagonist is known as Mr. Underwood who works for a secret society that would like to exploit not only the creatures but the mysterious power the Lambros sisters seem to have over the cryptids.

Does your book feature a magic/magic system? If yes, can you describe it?

It’s a very subtle magic system which is also the series title, Terraglossa. It’s the amount of ability one has to communicate or even control the magical creatures in the books. The sisters all have varying degrees with Calliope being the most talented on her own but there’s also an element of working together that makes them more powerful. Since all the creatures are magical in their own right, it goes that utilizing things they produce (feathers, fur, blood, etc) can also be utilized magically and that is what Thalia is most skilled at doing, somewhat mad scientist style to help create remedies and potions as needed.

Have you written the book with a particular audience in mind?

First and foremost, I really wrote the book for me. It’s also why traditional publishing wasn’t the way to go because it’s not strictly young adult and it’s not strictly adult either. It’s a book that readers from probably 12 and up could enjoy. I classify it as YA because Thalia and Asha are both teenagers but Calliope and Melpomene are both adults dealing with very adult problems. I just wanted to make a book that I knew I needed and maybe others can appreciate what it has to say as well.

What’s new or unique about your book that we don’t see much in speculative fiction these days?

Somewhat what I’ve sad before with the varying ages of the protagonists. It makes it hard to classify where I see a lot of others being very easy to tell if it has adult content or not. I know the three many popular categories in fantasy right now appear to be “spicy romantasy”, “grim or epic fantasy” and “cozy fantasy”. I’d say HSFCAC fits more so with cozy but because there are heavier plots happening, it’s hard to fully commit it to the subgenre so it just kind of exists outside of the realm of what I feel is the norm. Not that those genres are bad, I enjoy all three as a reader but find it difficult to write within genre standards.

Cover art is always an important factor in book sales. Can you tell us about the idea behind the cover of The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids and the artist?

My wonderful cover artist is a fellow author friend of mine. His name is Tycho Dwelis and I met him while tabling at a convention in Fort Collins. We just hit it off, stalked each other a bit on twitch streams, and now he’s one of my best friends. He’s so talented in his writing and art and I was watching one of his art streams where he did some fantastic lighting on a piece for one of his books, One Pale Reflection, and knew I had to have him do the art. He not only did the cover but all the interior art because each chapter starts with a faux journal entry about one of the creatures so he did all these amazing creature sketches. We often trade skills for each other because I can’t draw to save my life but I’m a great editor so I tend to help with edits on his work and in return I get great art for my works. It’s one of my favorite things about the indie community is building friendships where we can support each other, rather than treat other indie authors as competition. You’ll often hear me hyping up his stuff because I truly believe him to be so talented and I’m so blessed for his friendship.

What are you currently working on that readers might be interested in learning more about, and when can we expect to see it released?

I’m working on quite a few projects right now, not only the sequel to HSFCAC lovingly currently acronymed as HSOBO. I also have an anthology of short stories hopefully coming out at the end of the year. I did a project in 2022 writing in a different genre short story every month and have been publishing them individual and then the final bind up with everyone should be out in December. I also have what I call my “cozy ogre romance” I’m working on and expansions of some of the short stories I did starting with a middle grade series called Sweet Pea & Sniffley about a girl in a fictional western style world but with lots and lots of dragons. And I have a superhero book as well exploring a superhero who has lost their powers and is dealing with that aftermath. So just a little bit…definitely not overwhelming at all…

Thank you for taking the time to answer all the questions. In closing, do you have any parting thoughts or comments you would like to share with our readers?

Thank you so much for inviting me to this. I’m so honored to just be in SPFBO and have this opportunity. The indie community is so great I’d like to take time to shout out some other authors that have written some of my all-time favorite novels who weren’t in SPFBO this year but you should definitely check out their work: Tycho Dwelis, Kendra Merritt, Lena M. Johnson, M.M. Ward, E.J. Dawson, Caroline Logan, and O.E. Tearmann. Thank you again! If you’d like to check out my other works or find me on the internet elsewhere, you can check out my ko-fi page ko-fi.com/stephaniegillis or find me on youtube as Qwordy and on twitch/instagram I’m QwordyQ.