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 Sophia Krich-Brinton!
Sophia Krich-Brinton (she/they) lives near the Rocky Mountains with her partner, two kids, and two cats. They write fantasy stories in the pre-dawn hours while the world sleeps and anything seems possible. When not work or writing, she reads, boxes, plays the banjo, and backpacks with her family.
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?
One of my strengths is consistency. I have a routine of writing each morning, before anyone else (i.e. the kids) wake up, and I do it almost daily. Even if I only get 20 minutes in, it happens, which means my projects move forward. I don’t often do writing exercises, so if there’s something I want to get better at, it happens through my routine of just always working on something. Each book or story is better than the last.
What are your thoughts on the book industry today, or more importantly, about the book community?
I have found a great writing community on Twitter, and of course through my own real-life writing friends and critique partners, and they have all been incredibly supportive. They celebrate my wins and comfort me when things don’t go as we’d hoped. It’s such an odd world, the writing world, so I’m grateful to have found some people who understand it. Of course there’s always online drama, and pile-ons, which I don’t love and which make me nervous, but I don’t get involved in those. At least, I try not to.
The book industry – that’s a big question. I guess my main thought is, I wish it was more daring. I wish there wasn’t such a call for repetition of what’s succeeded in the past. But I’m really happy to see more diverse stories getting picked up, especially now in the time of book bans and political upheaval.
Do you feel it is getting harder or easier to make it as an independent author these days?
I can’t really answer this, since for me my entire writing experience has been querying my long-form books and submitting stories, which feels pretty much the same as it did when I started years ago.
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
I have a few stories that I feel really, really good about. Oddly, all of them center around the death of a child, which tends to be a theme in my writing. My greatest fear. These are the stories that flew out of me easily, almost fully formed, and which make me cry when I re-read them.
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
I just signed with a new literary agent, so I’m hopeful that my novels will soon find homes. And I plan to keep writing and submitting short stories forever.
KANDISHA PRESS 
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