AUTHOR LINKS:
Website: www.allyaldridge.com
Instagram: @redfae https://www.instagram.com/redfae/
Facebook: @authorallyaldridge https://m.facebook.com/authorallyaldridge
Twitter: @redfae7 https://mobile.twitter.com/Redfae7
YouTube: @authorallyaldridge https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtb57ts-qOm8jKTh_ucj78g
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8108229.Ally_Aldridge
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/ally-aldridge
Litsy: Redfae https://www.litsy.com/web/user/Redfae
Book Sniffer: https://booksniffer.com/ally-aldridge/
All Author: https://allyaldridge.allauthor.com/
Amazon Author Profile: https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B08KNGFZDC
“Ocean Heart” by Ally Aldridge
Being a mermaid brings a new depth to ‘it’s complicated.’
High school teen Mariah’s life is anything but simple. Between a crush on her best friend and a rivalry brewing with the swim team star, her powers awaken early. When Mariah’s guardian meddles in her life with magic, she causes more harm than good. The soul reapers are coming and there’s a werewolf hungry for merblood. All secrets wash ashore sooner or later, and Mariah’s about to discover hers. Mixing a messy love life with deadly powers will whip up a storm of trouble. Can Mariah contain it or will she be swept up in its wake? A gripping story about a mermaid, self acceptance, and romance that literally sparks.
Where available:
▶ Ebook: https://books2read.com/u/mlWvaW
▶ Paperback: http://getbook.at/OceanHeart
▶ Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/Redfae
▶ Ko-Fi Shop: https://ko-fi.com/redfae/shop
What sets your book apart from all others?
Ocean Heart is set in my local town. Felixstowe is a small British seaside town, with a large container port, surrounded by Suffolk countryside. There are other books set in Suffolk, and even in Felixstowe, but none I know of that are like Ocean Heart.
When I first drafted the book, there were two high schools in the town but I decided to merge them together and make Felixstowe High School. A few years later, the town did the same thing but named the new high school Felixstowe Academy. You could say my book predicted the future, so keep an eye out for mermaid shifters…
Who is your target market, who should be reading your book?
My target market is young teens, although anyone that enjoys magic set in the real world would enjoy it. People who know Felixstowe will have fun recognizing places in the book.
What authors inspired you most and how so?
Ocean Heart was inspired by Rachel Vincent’s werecat shifter series. I loved her world building, and how she made the shifters’ world work within our existing world. So, I decided to write a shifters world set in the UK for a younger audience.
I was also inspired by J.D. Groom, author of Sorceress of Truth. She was very open about her publishing journey and encouraged me to believe in myself. Seeing her go indie encouraged me to do it.
What advice do you have to offer in support of other authors?
Don’t compare yourself to others. We all write differently, have different processes, and resources. It’s much better to focus on your progress. Set yourself goals and celebrate when you achieve them. Every little step adds up.
What is your genre of choice and why?
I love reading and writing about fantasy set in the real world. I find these stories more relatable and enjoy seeing how magic could exist in our world. My favourite genre is Contemporary Fantasy, but I also like Uban Fantasy. I keep meaning to try Historical/Futuristic Fantasy as I think I’d love those too.
How’d you come about discovery of your writing talent, gift or ability?
It’s been a part of me for so long that I can’t remember how it started. I was always in trouble for daydreaming, and I wrote fan fiction for the Magic Key series as soon as I could put together a sentence. My English teachers gave me extra exercise books for writing. Somewhere, there’s a box full of my terrible first stories, but we all had to start somewhere.
What are your future writing endeavors? What’s next on your authorship agenda?
My top priority is finishing my draft of Sky Heart, book 2 in The Soul Heart Series. It’s following a different character than book 1, and has darker themes.
I’m also working on short novellas for the series. My plan is for the first to be free to my newsletter subscribers and it’ll be a Historical Contemporary Fantasy set in the 1990s. I will be tapping into my teen memories as that was my era.
One day I’d like to write a dystopia but trying not to let it distract me. I have a page on my website called the Plot Bunny Vault of my top story ideas on hold.
I blog a lot about my writing journey to help other writers. I have plans to turn this into a product and I’ve played around with some ideas. Maybe one day I’ll have something people will want to buy on writing, but for now, it’s all free in my blog posts.
Is writing for you synonymous with living and breathing, or just something you do as a hobby, and how so and why?
If I don’t write, I feel like I’m going crazy. It makes me feel more stressed not writing, than trying to solve a major plot hole. I definitely need to write.
What do you feel we need to hear or read more of, that is rare today in a book?
I’d like to see more books tackling difficult topics. I was blown away by And The Stars Were Burning Brightly by Danielle Jawando. I’d like to see more books like this.
I think domestic trafficking is a big issue that many people aren’t aware of and is happening in our own country, and that concentration camps still exist.
What changes in the literary world would you most like to see?
I’d love for there to be more recognition for indie authors and all the jobs they do. So, much work goes into taking a book from first draft to publishing, and indie authors have to try to afford it all before they’ve even made a penny. They are writers, publishers, marketers, and make every hard decision alone. For some reason, some people think they are less valuable.
I’d like to see real journalists investigate stories and report unbiased. There is a trend now to write inciting headlines to generate sales, or are biased towards whatever agenda they have. Many of the news outlets are owned by the same people at the top, so you feel like you are getting the narrative from different sources, but you aren’t.
Indie/Self-Published Author and/or Traditionally Published? What do you favor more and why?
Originally I wanted to Traditionally Publish. I don’t think people realize how hard querying is. It’s a lot of work, very time consuming, and crushing whenever you get a rejection. You also don’t have as much control over your book.
Self publishing scared me as I didn’t know where to start, but I made friends with members of World Indie Warriors and hearing their stories on how they did it, helped me work out how I would.
I’m so pleased I went indie as my book Ocean Heart is exactly how I imagined it. It’s a dream come true. I would consider a traditional deal if the right one was made but I just don’t have time to query, and every agent wants it presented slightly differently. In addition, the indie author community is so supportive, and I don’t see traditional authors collaborating in the same way unless it’s with their own publishing house.
How is your writing controversial, profound or mind boggling, or how would you describe it?
People have said that my voice is very authentic, that reading Ocean Heart took them right back to when they were a teen feeling socially awkward.
What do you hope to accomplish with your literary creation? What change or enlightenment do you want to bring about in your reader if any?
There is a hidden message. My MC, Mariah, doesn’t feel pretty or cool. As a redhead myself, I struggled with this growing up. Later, I found out lots of people felt they didn’t fit in too.
Mariah finds out she is a mermaid and learns to accept she’s different. I hope my readers subconsciously realize they are beautiful too in their own unique way. It’s okay to be different.
I think the theme of accepting yourself is one I am going to try to carry throughout the whole Soul Heart series.
What’s the greatest compliment that you ever received regarding your literary accomplishments and what did this remark do for you, how did it transform your life or your writing?
My husband always believed in me, telling me I should publish, but I thought he was biased because he loves me. Since publishing, every review of Ocean Heart has made me so happy.
Hearing people ask, “When can I get the next book?” Makes me feel like I better get writing, but frightened too. Now, I need to keep writing amazing books.
What’s the most memorable criticism you received regarding your literary works and how did this remark transform you as a writer or influence your writing if at all?
People close to me told me not to write. They referred to my novels as “those silly little stories.” I was told to get a real job, and give up on writing.
And… I listened.
For a while, I only wrote for myself. The idea of me being published was a joke. But, even though I replayed their words over in my mind, my heart couldn’t let go.
Eventually, I changed my mindset about my silly little stories. I had a novel I knew was good, and I listened to my husband encouraging me. I edited, I queried, and… long story short, I finally believed in myself enough to self publish.
If you could ask a question of your favorite author of all time, what would the question be? How would you answer that question -yourself?
Can you mentor me? I would love to be mentored by Rachel Vincent. She has been traditionally published and self published. I love her writing and there is a scene in Stray that I think is really clever and wondered if it was intentional. I could learn so much from her.
If someone asked me the same questions, I’d have to say, maybe, one day. On my blog I share writing tips as I learn them. Currently, I am still learning new things every day and wouldn’t feel confident enough to mentor someone else. Once I’ve published more books, and found out more about being a good mentor, I would love to help another author.
What have you sacrificed, if anything, to be a writer, or to write as you do? What have you gained from writing, how has it rewarded you personally?
I have sacrificed a lot of time on my writing projects. I try to do as much as I can myself to save money, this often involves research and learning. I’ve paid professionals for jobs I can’t do myself like editing and this cost has meant not having certain luxuries like going away on holiday.
