Name: Emilie Cynthia Mingallon
Major: Creative Writing
Graduation Year: 2012
Hometown: Lexington, Ohio
What is the premise of your novel and how did you come up with the plot?
The main story is about a girl [named] Alice who is looking for her escaped and crazed sister while trying to deal with her dark past, caused by [that] sister, and maintaining life as a normal high school girl, which is in fact anything but normal. The book, titled The Rose Clock, is a cross between silly high-school shenanigans and a fantasy filled battle to prevent war in Alice’s home world.
I started coming up with the plot when I was seven, imagining the person I wanted to be going on these magical adventures, and then started writing it down during high school. Also, if there was anything I didn’t like in my life, I would change it in my stories, even if my evil English teacher is then portrayed as a dragon in need of slaying. In the book are several friends of mine, doing the same things we do in real life: marching band, studying for classes, etc. I then combined my actual life with the fantasies I had growing up with Alice taking her role as the main character in the book, making it semi-real, (but still mostly fictitious.) I’ve always wanted to be a hero, and Alice is my chance to do it.
How does it feel to be a college student having a novel published?
It’s a really great and yet almost bizarre feeling. My friends talk about goals they have and things they want to accomplish that will take them years to do, and yet I am sitting there having already accomplished one of mine.
Have you had trouble balancing life as a student and your responsibilities that go along with having a book published?
Yes. Oh very yes. Revisions have taken much longer than they should have because schoolwork has gotten in the way. Writing the sequels and various stand-alones has been near impossible as well.
Were you nervous presenting your book idea to other people at first? I was quite nervous, but understood that if one person doesn’t like it, there’s always the next one. That, or revising a few more (hundred) times.
Are there any other projects you’re working on right now? If so, what are they? I have five more novels in the process (two being sequels to the first one) and three short stories. Hopefully all will be finished and on shelves soon… or at least within the next decade. Fingers crossed!