GREETINGS, BOOKWORMS! I’m Aisha Kandisha, Head Librarian at Kandisha Press. Join me in the dusty stacks of the library I will never leave again as I chat with some of my favorite Women in Horror. Today we feature author Wendy Cheairs!
What do you believe are your strengths in writing? And when you feel you need to improve on a particular writing skill, how do you go about it?
My strengths in writing is the ability to write in multiple genres and keep conversations flowing well within the stories. I enjoy being able to cross genres, expressing myself in a variety of stories without being locked step in on place.
Places I need to improve, sometimes I get lost in having too many ideas, and hop from one story to another without finishing what I started. It gets me in trouble. I have to make sure I keep on task with making sure I have a strong schedule and keep to it. I learned this early on with writing, but sometimes it gets away from me with new stories ideas. I also sometimes mix my genres a little too much where my editors have to remind me to stick to one instead of too much mixing.
What are your thoughts on the book industry today, or more importantly, about the book community?
I think the book industry today is in a constant state of evolution and will continue, which I believe is healthy. This has its ups and downs for authors, publishers, and everyone else involved in the community as a whole. Right now, with all the changes, several opportunities have arisen such as self-publishing becoming a much easier platform for authors to get noticed to a wider audience. This also has had the rise of places like Amazon to become a dominant force within industry.
Some of the original big six publishers are starting to change, but are slower to adapting to the evolving landscape of the fast-paced world of Book-Tok, where they often now need writers to have a following, already have a successful book or more to pick them up, which twenty years ago would have been unheard of. This has led to more diverse led writers and stories pushed by mainstream publishers, which is wonderful for the publishing world. Which might not have been possible without some of these changes.
This also means a lot of writers are left behind since they don’t know how to market well, their books might be wonderful but if their author isn’t great at being seen in such an environment with a flood of books it is hard to stick out.
Do you feel it is getting harder or easier to make it as an independent author these days?
I think it is getting harder in certain ways to be an independent author, especially on the marketing side. A lot of authors dislike marketing themselves and that is such an important part of breaking out an author now. Self-promotion is so important and so hard starting out, and a lot of author dislike doing it. And getting someone else to do it for you runs the risk of running into scam artists or just wasting money.
One of the ways I have seen to get the name out there is to be part of anthologies, be part of smaller publishing houses or contests just to get your name out there helps a lot.
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
My work, I have been writing for several years now under two pen names. Several paranormal works as well as horror, romance, and historical. I have really enjoyed writing in the genres I like to read. If interested, my website is: https://indigowriter.com/
I think one of my favorite books is “Staghelm”. It is a book that is historical fantasy, and it was challenged to write since it has been one, I wanted to write for years and took me so long to write. And then of course, it is so hard to market. I have no idea if there will be a second book. But I found out while at a signing in Waco, Texas it sells well while I talk about it to people. I sold more copies while talking about it with people in person than online by so much. It was weird. I guess passion about the book did better than the whole here is this weird fantasy like historical book I love on Amazon. And in persona people were like this sound awesome, let’s buy it.
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
Right now, I just finished a short story for an anthology out right now for “Villains Need Love Too.” This is a Dark Romance about villains needing love, and mine is a vampire. I am working on a story with a powerless supernatural werewolf in search for her powers, with no suck luck that will be out in May of this year. That story is a prequel to a main book about her be the heroine in a shapeshifter story in book called Brax later this year.
This seems to be my year so far about shapeshifters for some reason, I am not sure how that worked out. I have several other stories and novels lined up for the rest of the year and into 2026 as well. If you want to keep up with what I am up to, I do have a newsletter: https://subscribepage.io/DoEHd4
KANDISHA PRESS 
This is a great interview!
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