Interview with Cambria Williams

The one where I talk to Cambria Williams, author of the debut dark fantasy novel "The Befallen."

Hey, everyone! There is another author interview today. I hope you all enjoyed the interview with Natalie Brianne and her process. Today, we have an interview with Cambria Williams.

Cambria Williams believes that storytelling is a collective experience that is both limitless and timeless in its transformative nature. Cambria writes fantasy fiction that emphasizes the magic of hope and is the author of The Befallen, her debut dark fantasy novel, released in August 2023. Cambria loves traveling, reading, and taking walks with her husband and dog. Cambria has a Master of Fine Arts in Writing and lives in Utah. To learn more about Cambria, find her on Instagram, Facebook, or her website: www.cambriawilliams.com

Enjoy the interview!

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So the question I’ve been asking every author who comes this way is . . . What got you into writing? Did you always know you’d be a writer?

Yeah, I have been writing since I was a child. and I think I can thank my mother for that, because she read to me a lot. So I think when kids are fed stories early on through that that bond that we have when we read with other people. I think that that gives us that innate desire to want to create stories ourselves. So I always wanted to be a writer. I've always scribbled stories in notebooks.

So yeah, it's been a lifelong dream to become a published author, for sure.

How do you find time for writing in the midst of your busy schedule? Because obviously you're a teacher, parent, you’re married and with all the things that life requires, how do you fit writing in the midst of your busy schedule?

Yeah, absolutely. It’s really hard to find that time and I think that when you do want to make writing something that's more than just a hobby. It's a matter of will and discipline. So for me I work best when I write in the mornings, so I usually write I try to write first thing in the morning. If not, you know, sometime before lunch.

What I do to kind of keep myself honest is I have a word count goal. And so I try to reach that word count goal when I sit down to write.

Is there a specific time period? You said before lunches? But is there a specific time period in the morning that you try to shoot for?

I usually try to between like 9:30 and 10:30. That is usually when I try to start writing. I find that for me my word count goal is usually somewhere between like 1000 to 2000 words depending on what I'm working on. So to be able to reach that goal, I usually need at least an hour and a half to 2 hours to be able to get to that goal.

What are some of your writing inspirations?

As I said, my mom read to me a lot so I’ve always been an avid reader. As a child, I loved The Little House on the Prairie series. Charlotte’s Web was one of my favorite stories. I love that kinship between friends. The ideal of creating a bond, despite differences that that two people, or two animals in that case, can have.

I read a lot of fantasy fiction as I am a fantasy writer myself. That's a different thing. But yeah, I read a lot. I mean you have to.

I read a lot, too. So I think you have to figure out, “Okay, this is kind of the thing that I want to do or like. Oh, this could be better. How could I make this better and do this into my story.” Fantasy offers you so many avenues to do that.

Yeah, absolutely. I couldn’t agree with you more. I think that good writers are good readers. When you're reading as a writer, it really is true. As you just said, you fall in love with, sentences and words in the structure that the authors use. You [can then] use that as a tutelage for your own writing.

Are there any recent authors that you're just like in love with these days?

I do love V.E. Schwab. She writes both adult and young adult fantasy. She just published a new book which I haven’t read yet. But I really admire her. She does a series of different tutorials for writers as well. So if any of your audience is interested in that she has a really unique way of going about her drafting, which really resonated with me.

I love Samantha Shannon's book, The Priory of the Orange Tree, which is a big one. I love [Brandon] Sanderson. Let’s see . . . what have I read recently? I might have to turn around and just glean my books here. I read new things, but I also love classics as well.

I’m also a huge fan of Sanderson. I’ve been trying to get into Schwab, myself.

Yeah. She’s great. The book that she just oublished is an add-on to her Darker Shades of Magic trilogy, which is a really interesting setting. If you’re interested in concepts of worldbuilding, she has a really interesting setting within that world and it’s really fun as a reader and writer to kind of pick at what she’s done to make that world successful.

You mentioned reading as a writer several times. What’s the difference between reading as a writer versus normal reading?

I’m a writer and it is so hard to kind of just get lost in stories, so to speak. I don’t read a lot of mysteries but since it's it's October, I'm kind of getting in that spirit of things. I think what “reading as a writer” means is you do take that time to say [within yourself] “This author just did something that was successful. And what can I do to emulate that? So I can incorporate these successes within my writings?” I find that I love to write down, you know, unique verbs and adjectives that authors use within their within their pros, and when when things surprise me, or they resonate with me as a reader, I always tend to pause and ask myself, “What did they do to build up to that?” So I think that’s what I mean by saying “Reading as a writer.”

Well, *I* know what you mean. My brother is reading Warbreaker right now and he was telling me “It’s really bothering me how this character is kind of just wandering.” I said to him, “Well, you have your ‘all hope is lost’ moment,” so it didn’t bother me too much.

Yeah, absolutely. I think sometimes writers when they're first starting they tend to want to protect their protagonists because we love them so much, but when actually opposite is true. It’s our readers are who need to be worried about our protagonist. So to make that successful. It really is a matter of “What is the worst possible thing I can do to my protagonist[s]?”, or “How can I keep not giving them what they want?” Because that really is what what makes the story successful and makes those readers want to turn those pages.

The Befallen, Cambria Williams’ debut novel, released on August 8, 2023.

So what is your goal when you when you write a book like, what do you want to do with a story like those are types of stories you want to tell? Or is there something a goal that you have, or what?

So for my debut novel, The Befallen, I wanted my protagonist to be somebody who did not fit that stereotypical persona of what we would say is a hero. She’s very sheltered as you know, because you’ve read the book. The main character, Sloane, has a disability with her leg. I don’t have a physical disability but I have OCD. I’ve also worked with students as a teacher who have had physical limitations as well as limitations wmotionally and learning disabilities. So, it was important for me to want to bring somebody into the spotlight who wants what we all want, which is to be seen.

That was a line in one of the opening chapters too. One of my personal favorites. It really resonated with me. “I just want to be seen.” It was how I knew the book was going to be a great one.

Yeah. It’s what we all want. So, when I’m starting a book, it’s kind of the question that pops into my mind “What’s the point here?” What do I want to have come across within this story?” The sequel to The Befallen, that I’m working on right now, my main character is still seeking redemption as has some lessons to learn about what it means to be able to forgive as well.

That’s super interesting. At your book launch, you mentioned you were working on a sequel to The Befallen, I was just like “How?”

Well, we’ll see. It should be out in about a year so we’ll see.

That’s actually a great segue into what I wanted to talk about. Your book, The Befallen. This was a great book. I really loved it. I read it in about a few days.

Oh, thank you.

I love this this idea of of a fantasy world that's like revolving around lunar cycles. Now, obviously, we've seen different kinds of fantasy worlds that revolve around. You know the things that we take for granted like with A Song of Ice and Fire by George, R. Martin, have revolved around the weather. Sanderson has played around with that a little bit in The Stormlight Archive and some other works. What inspired you to create this kind of fantasy world where all the different moons affect the world like that? Where did that come from?

Well, the short answer is I sort of just fell into it. The long answer is I’ve always been enraptured with the moon myself. I've always been very fascinated with the, with the phases of the moon. I love the night sky. I love the idea of you know the the stars in the sky connect us to the ancients of history. I wanted my main character to be somebody of faith so for her culture in this society, the Goddesses of the Moon are their deities. [The moon is] what their theological system in this kingdom is wrapped around. So, for the different phases, the Moon Goddesses are protectors but also very symbolic.

So, for instance, we’re in October. So we're headed towards the season of what's called the “Falling Leaves Moon” where the line between life and death is very blurred. Because you read the book, you know, that does have some symbolism within the story itself.

So, all the different moons in the book. Are they things that occur in our world and just happened and you just decided to implement them into the book?

Yes. I did give most of the moons unique names. They already have pretty unique names. They’re not the same terms that we call our moons. So they do behave just a little bit differently. But, as you know, the moons are also key to the the ancient prophecy within this story. It is very important, as we find out, to keep that faith within within the the Goddesses.

I love that you created a fantasy story that involved like almost a faith journey. A faith journey for you know not only the main character, Sloane, but the secondary character. Tolvar, who is the complete opposite of Sloane. Sloane is really rooted in her faith. But Tolvar is jaded. He doesn't believe and stuff. What inspired you to create a kind of faith crisis in a fantasy setting?

Yeah, so Tolvar wasn't originally supposed to be in this story. He he came to me as a a flash fiction story that I wrote while I was going to grad school while I was writing this novel. He was so interesting, and, as you said, he was so jaded. He's he's a very tortured soul in that. He's had this horrific past that he lays a lot of self guilt on. He's seeking redemption. His priorities are very different from Sloane’s. And so they were such an interesting pair to put together.

Within this story to show this juxtaposition between this faith and somebody who who really just does not have any kind of belief system.

So I guess my big question is What inspired you to create a faith journey for these characters in a novel? It’s not something you see to often. I mean there are fantasy novels where characters do have a faith crisis but it isn’t a driving point like it is in The Befallen.

Oh. thank you. So for me, I think part of that faith is that you know, with everything that's happened, especially within the world the last few years, We've seen a lot of of loss of faith if you will. A lot of of loss of faith in institutions and in other things that have happened. We’ve had a lot of crisis of faith within ourselves and within our own societies. Also, with how we want to go out about our daily lives during lockdown with COVID.

I think we're all put into a very unique position where we had to really reassess who we were and what was important to us. Everybody kind of had the this moment of pause and reflection with with things. “If I can’t go anywhere, what am I going to do with my time? Who am I if I can’t go to work? Who am I if I can’t go and do the hobbies outside of my home that I usually do?”

I don’t know if that impacted that or not. I don't think that when I set out to to tell this tale that I had a a specific idea that that this was going to be a journey of faith. It just kind of ended up that way. And as you're a writer, you know that sometimes it's just what is what we're internalizing ourselves that we want to get out. We tell our stories to ourselves first. So for me, It was just this beautiful journey of a character who, despite what is going on in the world, and who is against her, she clings to her own convictions.

And how those convictions just affect everybody around her.

That’s right. If we could all be like Sloane.

So you mentioned with The Befallen, you had all these ideas about the moon, did you have to do much research? Was it actually research or was it knowledge you had already internalized within you?

So it's funny that you asked that because I actually created my own little graph while I was writing this story to make sure that I was keeping . . .

Now, sorry to interrupt you is that graph available?

Yeah. Actually on my website, CambriaWilliams.com, you can see a graphic that you can follow of all the moons of Deogol (the world of The Befallen). So people can look at those if they want to.

So it was important that the time elapsed coincided with the moons and because we take for granted the cycles of the moon. We know that there's a full moon once a month. But how much time elapsed before we go into a half moon and when we're in a new moon. So that was kind of fun just to kind of to incorporate passage of time against the moons. That's how everyone in the book keep track of their days and their weeks was with the moon.

The lunar cycle of The World of The Befallen as found on CambriaWilliams.com

That’s so cool. So what are some personal stamps that you like to put into into your books, into the things that you write? Are there like little things that that are uniquely you, or do just set up to tell the story, and that's it?

That's a really interesting question. I absolutely love medieval history. I love ancient history. So if you read my books, that will become very clear. I love open landscapes. So I like to incorporate that kind of beautiful setting within a book. Not to say that there's there's not some other settings as well. And then language is also something that I'm pretty enthralled with. I think there's a lot of vernacular within within my books that that harkens back to kind of a medieval age, which is just perfect for fantasy.

And of course it's really hard for me to write a story without just adding a little bit of magic, because I think that life can throw a lot of curveballs at us. So having a little bit of magic in a story is never a bad thing.

What surprised you the most about this book as you were writing it and as it was put out there in the world?

I would say the biggest surprise of the book was the incorporation of putting Tolvar into the story. This was originally just supposed to be written as a a perspective just from Sloane, and adding that second POV character really [deepened] the story. It fleshed out a lot of different conflicts within the story and just enriched how dire the situation was within this story.

But, as I said, he wasn't supposed to be in this story. So, I would say that was probably the most surprising thing that happened while I was writing it.

But really though, the most surprising thing, I suppose is how fast this book came out. I drafted this book in nine months. As I got close to the end and it was getting to that nine month mark, it really drove me. Because I think I wanted this symbolic birthing of the book.

Well, it is your baby.

It is my baby. It’s my book baby. So that was surprising as well. My sequel is not coming out in 9 months so it’s been interesting to have to reflect on what was happening with this book. What’s happening now? As a writer, you're always constantly having to go back to your drafting board to see “What can I try?” when something isn’t working.

What has surprised you since the book has been released?

It's been such a surreal journey so far. The Befallen has only been out for 2 months. It's just been amazing to connect with readers. I've loved connecting with readers and speaking to them and hearing how other people resonate with with words that you put on a page and that you work so hard on is is pretty amazing. It's a pretty amazing journey to have gone through so far. It's been really awesome to see it well received and I'm excited to to see what we're going to keep doing over this first year.

I can’t believe the book has only been out for two months. This book was amazing. I really liked it. Anyone who checks it out is in for a treat because it’s just wonderful.

Thank you.

My last question is what advice do you have for new writers who are starting out and who are intimidated by the process. There’s just so much work involved in this. What advice would you give them?

My goodness, you are not wrong, There is so much work involved. And so the first thing that I would say is don't shy away from the work.

I think that when we're we're first starting out, we have this idea that it's just going to be us cozying next to our our keyboards, and that it's just going to flow out. Writing is a tremendous amount of work. When we are working, when we are sittin in our cars driving around brainstorming because I don’t think your writer brain ever really turns off once we get it going.

I would say it never turns off when it’s not going.

I know, right? So I think my biggest advice would be to : quiet those voices of doubt within our heads. We all have them, and I think when you realize that you are not the only one, it is easier to maybe not quiet them, but maybe just turn them down just a little bit. Know that that you are part of a bigger community. Writing is a really lonely job and so I think when we, as writers, understand that there's other writers out there, I think that's when when we can better ourselves and understand that that we're not alone.

Absolutely. You make community happen, and you'll find, you know, help along the way. II think that's what we could take from that.

So I guess that wasn’t my last question. So you mentioned you're working on the sequel to The Befallen. Are there any other things you're toying around with while The Befallen is out. Or is it just the sequel?

The sequel is really what I'm working on right now. Because I wanna make sure that I can can get that to my publisher by my deadline. So that should hopefully be done fairly soon.

The Befallen is a longer book so the sequel is going to be longer as well. But I think that fantasy readers never really mind much of a long book. So I think it'll be okay. After that I am going to take a little break from that world. I'm kind of toying with with something else right now. It’s pretty early, so I won't say too much.

Then I have a six book series that’s coming after these two novels, this duology if you will, that will take place 500 years after The Befallen.

How fun. Thank you, Cambria, for your time. I really appreciate it. Is there anything else you wanted to say to anybody who is looking into writing?

Just like we were talking about earlier, it is a lot of work. The voices of doubt can be so strong and so heavy, and and don't give up. It's a long game, and you're playing for the long game. But it's so worth it. Once you get into writing, and I’m sure you can agree with me, there’s nothing I’d rather be doing.