C.H.WILLIAMS

When did it all start?

For the longest time, I didn’t know I could be a writer. I didn’t realise I was “allowed” or “able” to write a book at all. In fact, I genuinely thought such things were only reserved for … well … writers? I felt like, if I were a writer, I’d inherently know that somehow, and since I didn’t, then I couldn’t be.

I know that sounds weird, but it’s true.

I was the grand age of 21 when my parents asked me what I wanted to do with my life (like, any ideas? At all?) – I had just graduated from university, with a degree I was proud of, but had no idea what to do with, and all I could answer, was that, I wished I could write a novel …

And you’ll never guess what they said to that?

That’s right. “Do it then!”

And it was pretty much all uphill from there!

How many books have you written?

Technically, ‘Sign Me Up’ is my seventh novel. Though it’ll be the first to make it to publication!

My first novel … yeesh. That will never again see the light of day! Being a total newbie, I somehow managed to “pants” my way to having a 120,000 word, triple POV manuscript set in three different countries. Ambitious much? I’m also pretty sure I sent it to a few agents after barely doing an editing pass … which makes me cringe SO HARD when I think back to it now! However, I’ll give myself a little grace, since I was fairly young, and entirely naive about the whole querying process back then.

My second novel was a weird one. Not in terms of content, but more so in terms of how I went about writing it. I spent around four years tinkering with a manuscript, and reached 40,000 words in that time (which, would be about half the suggested wordcount for an adult contemporary – which was my preferred genre at the time) and after discovering the joys of Booktube and authortube (before TikTok even existed! Shock, horror!) I decided I needed to finish the novel, and quick if I ever wanted to actually do something with it.

At this point, I was bingewatching author success stories, and was starting to feel super envious of anyone and everyone who was getting a literary agent, let alone a book deal.

So, I cracked on! After taking four years to write the first 40,000 words, I wrote the second 40,000 words (to finish the draft) in a month! Boom!

And having gained more knowledge about self-editing and beta readers etc. I really worked on this manuscript, and on one fine day in 2019(?) I managed to hook a small press during PitMad (a now-retired Twitter pitch event where the aim is to hook an agent or indie press with a single twitter pitch summary of your novel!)

Naturally, I thought that was it! I was gonna be a published author. I had hit the big time, baby!

But then 2020 came along, and kicked everyone’s butt, including that of this particular small press, which were unable to keep up in such stressful times.

Sadly, I decided to part ways and take my story elsewhere, but after querying some more, I shelved that story. Another one bites the dust.

On to book three! I LOVE book three! This was a story, which I still hold so close to my heart. It was my first young adult novel. My first novel featuring a queer protagonist. And my first time writing in first person, present tense.

I queried it. Had a few nice replies, but no full requests, and soon my beloved book three joined the shelf crew.

Book four. (Can you see a pattern emerging here? haha)

Book four was actually only technically a book as it hit the word count. Book four was a 50,000 word product of my first ever NaNoWriMo!

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and the aim is to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. Not an easy feat I must say! – Especially when you have a small person depending on you for most of the day (and night!) But I did it, on my first try – and … I can’t be too smug about it to be honest, since I hit the word count, but it’s not really a cohesive story at all!

Binned it. Didn’t even reread it once I passed “Go” and collected my NaNoWriMo certificate! Wump wuuump.

Book five however, was another “real novel”. Another queer YA contemporary. I feel like, with this story, I really found my voice. I found my style of writing, and I learned a lot about how I like to write, and what stories I really care about.

This story, I thought, would go all the way.

In fact, this story took me all the way to The Writers’ Digest Conference in NYC!

I pitched this novel in a face-to-face pitch event, and had six on the spot requests from agents/editors. And I was CHUFFED.

(I’ll save my BTS writers conference/nerd camp stories for another time though)

But sadly, yet again, this novel died in the query trenches.

Woe is me.

But also … another!!!

Book six, was another first. My first contemporary YA novel, written in verse.

Now this, was truly, TRULY my calling! No, seriously. I am OBSESSED.

My wonderful writer friend Jenni (the one fantastic thing which came from the short and bittersweet time with that small press) convinced me to go to the WD conference with her, and her two writer friends, Rachel and Claudia. (we now collectively call ourselves the nerd camp besties, and I utterly ADORE these humans!!)

But yes, Claudia, had written and had published a novel in verse at this point (she’s now got two awesome verse novels out in the world, and a third on the way!) and she suggested I try my hand at writing one myself!

So I did. I wrote book six.

I pitched it to her publisher, and within my pitch, I mentioned my love for roller derby.

And they replied, something along the lines of – We like your writing, but how about a roller derby book?

To which I replied to them – heck yeah! I can do that!

Book seven enters the room …

Tell us about your upcoming novel, “Sign Me Up”

Sign Me Up is a YA contemporary novel, written in verse. I have pasted the back cover blurb below!

Alyssa is an ice-skater who prefers to skate alone. She lives in rural Alaska, where a quiet frozen lake is her happy place. But now she’s moving to sunny, loud Los Angeles. As the new girl in town, Alyssa isn’t sure if she’ll ever fit in. When the local roller derby team takes Alyssa under its wing, she’s not sure she wants to trade her ice skates and solitude for roller skates and teammates. Will she find her place or will the pace and volume of roller derby be too much to handle?

What made you want to write this story?

I have been playing roller derby, on and off, for a decade now, and it weasled its way into books 2, 4, and 5, but this time, the subject matter was at my now editor’s request (and of course I was more than happy to oblige!)

I love playing roller derby, watching roller derby, and I blooming ADORE writing about roller derby!

So … I figured, if the wheely-boot fits …

What do you do when you’re not writing?

Well, I used to play a lot of roller derby. However, I sustained a wicked shoulder injury during my last open game. I went down after a big hit (I was jamming) just before the half-time whistle. Then, when I went back to the bench, I was in agony. I could barely move my arm without excruciating pain! Yikes! But, I went to the bench with my teamies, and I even went on as a blocker in one of the last jams. I powered through!

The next day I went to hospital, and was told I’d torn a ligament. They put me in a sling, and told me I couldn’t drive for two weeks … and it would take “a while” to heal properly after that.

Naturally, I thought – no big deal.

But unfortunately, it was.

After 10+ weeks of intense physiotherapy – I started to feel stronger, but my shoulder was still tender in certain positions i.e. when I was trying to sleep on my right side (which happens to be my favoured sleeping side! – WEEP.)

So, I thought long and hard about it, and after all that, I decided it would be too hard to go back to training. All I could think was, I will always have a weakness in that shoulder, and as a jammer, I would always be testing that, no matter what.

Roller derby is a full-contact sport, and for me to play in a way I would feel happy and fulfilled, I’d need to play without worrying, and wondering, if the next hit I gave, or received, or the next slip or fall, would take me out for good.

So …

Right, yes. So, my hobbies now, are playing PokemonGo – with my 5yo – though I admit, it’s a cracking nostalgia kick, and I have been known to play without her! Haha.

I love walking, and listening to podcasts!

I am currently alternating between “The Sh*t no one tells you about writing” podcast – which, in my humble opinion, is THE BEST writing podcast around! … and “The Rewatcher” – which is a podcast where a Buffy superfan, and a brand new fan, watch/rewatch Buffy together, and discuss each episode afterwards! – This is especially awesome for me, since I am watching Buffy for the first time, with my husband who is rewatching for the first time since he was a teenager!

I still skate. I get down the skatepark when I can – and go on the ramps while my daughter rides around on her scooter, or her own little roller skates. (So sweet!)

I read. Duh. Though not as much as I’d like (I know, I know. That’s what everyone says – but it’s true!)

Aaaaaaand I’m sure there’s more I can’t think of right now, haha!