I sat down with Lexie Hancock for coffee and it was just like talking to another friend… except this friend is a published author. She is going into her third year of University for Forensics & Criminology and is turning 20. Lexie is the author of the fantasy quadrilogy Enemies of the Dark, which she started when she was 13, is published in The Treasure Ship, A Poetic Landscape for her poem “Nightmares”, and has published the children’s book “Emily Fox Makes Friends” on Lulu.com. She was born in New Zealand but grew up in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Like any other writer, Lexie uses her art as an escape while also being a musician and an entrepreneur. She is the president of the 5 Pillars club on campus which focuses on community involvement and random acts of kindness.
How long have you been writing for?
I’ve been writing since I was 11. I wrote my first short story – well, I did one chapter for a short story- in my seventh grade class. The teacher actually wrote on the paper, “I can see you writing a lot of novels and becoming a serious author when you’re older,” because it was really good. Then, from that one chapter, I created a whole book, and I still have the original of that book too.
What inspired you to start writing and to continue to write?
I have a mental illness, so [writing] is kind of my therapy. It’s a way to calm myself; it’s a way to relieve myself, sometimes just to get away, to create a whole new world where my friends are all my friends… I don’t have to worry about the outside world when I’m inside my books. I just love being with the people I created; they’re really good people to be around.
Who are your top 3 favourite authors?
This is a tough one. I love the old ones like Emily Bronte and Charlotte Brontë, [Jane Austen]. I have to say I love L. J. Smith, like Vampire Diaries. I was really inspired by her books; [they were] the first reason I got into books. I love Kristin Cast, for House of Night books. I think my top, though, is Rachel Cain. She wrote The Morganville Vampires books, which have inspired me all the way through.
How did you stay motivated to complete an entire series while still experiencing your teenage years?
I isolated myself. During my teenage years, I was severely bullied; I was the outcast. I really wasn’t someone anyone wants to hangout with. So, instead of focusing on socializing, which I do now, I threw myself into another world… I threw myself into my books. I find it very beneficial for myself to have alone time, so it wasn’t like I was missing out on anything. It was great to just get away, isolate myself and just write books. Every night just headphones in and typing away.
Can you tell me about what you’re working on now?
I currently have an idea. It’s about four girls who are called “the Seasonals”, and each one runs a different season of the year. I haven’t gotten names or anything, and I haven’t quite worked out the details, but it’s coming along! It’s going to be hopefully a novel, somewhere around 200-300 pages, and I’m not quite sure yet, but I think it’s going to be good.
Are you going to continue to write for tweens and teens, or as you get older are you going to write for more mature audiences?
I definitely think I’m gonna grow up with my books. I started writing for 13-year-olds when I was 13, then I was writing for 15-year-olds when I was 15. I think the experiences I gain each year is what I write about. Right now I’m going to start writing about kids that are in university and what they’re going through. You’ll notice in my books that it’s real life things that could happen, just in a fantasy world. So there’s all the drama of normal teens, but just in a fantasy world between vampires. I find [it’s] a really unique twist to all of the supernatural in the books.
What experience did you gain from publishing a series so young?
Definitely just life experience. People come up to you and they’re like, “Hey you wrote that book,” and you’re like basically your little own celebrity. It helped me manage my own finances. I had to buy the books, sell the books, and appear in public places. I have to do book signings. Basically I just had a taste of the professional life when I was younger. It was empowering. It made me feel better about myself. I can do all of this, and a lot of people can’t, so maybe I’m special.
What is one piece of advice you have for an aspiring author?
This is what I have always said and I will always say: always have multiple series going at once. So always write maybe three or four books at a time cause writer’s block can kill one book, but if you go back and read another series or write another series, everything just comes back to you. So I always, always, always tell people to write multiple series at a single time. I currently have nine series on the go right now. I swear it helps. Whenever I get stuck on my current book I go and read “Enemies of the Dark” and I feel better. I just know what to type.
Forensic Science is very different from writing, why did you choose to take that path?
Since I was 11 I’ve always had an interest in biology and the way things work in your body. My major is Forensics and Criminology now; I’m going to work with homeless people hopefully when I’m older [with] a degree in addiction studies. I feel like, because my books were basically just therapy for me, I didn’t want to go for that. I already know how to do that, so I wanted to move away to something more challenging.
Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?
Hopefully in Toronto. I want to be working the streets. I want to get published by a big company. I want to be with people. I want to be on the streets everyday learning stories and getting to know life. You don’t get a lot of that in small towns, and I feel like that will help me a lot.
Lexie has a passion for helping those in need. She wants to take her career to the streets where she can help the homeless by understanding their story and what they need. Her one piece of advice she wants to share when talking with a homeless person is to “remember their name. Just remember their name and I promise that will make their entire day”.