Wren Kingsley Interview Published on: 18, Sep 2023

I grew up in a very creative family. My mom is a potter, my dad is a blacksmith/welder, my maternal grandpa was a cabinet maker, my maternal grandma is a seamstress, and my paternal grandma was an interior designer. When I was little, my parents would call me their little scribe because I was always drawing and writing stories. During my school years, I wrote a handful of poems that were published and participated in gymnastics, tennis, soccer, dance, band, choir, and FFA. In my college years, I was a writing tutor and on the student newspaper team. I originally planned on going to NDSU to become a racehorse trainer, but my parents saw my skill in graphic designer and encouraged me to get my degree in communication art and design.

I graduated with my graphic design degree in 2009 and started my graphic design business in 2017. I joined Logos, Web, Graphic Design & More. | 99designs where I entered book cover contests. I always enjoyed manipulating images together to create something new, so I found creating book covers to be a great avenue to put my skills to use. I started posting the book covers that didn’t win contests on Etsy to sell them as pre-made covers and received an inquiry from a Wattpad writer to do a cover for her. Her book ended up going viral and she hired me to do the cover to the book sequel. Then, I was asked by another author if I had any experience in formatting books. I had a little experience helping a startup magazine business format their entire magazine as well as graphic design work. I have now been designing covers mainly for self-published authors for five years now and formatting books for three years.

I actually started writing The Chronicle Keeper back in 2015, when the title was actually called Forever, I switched the title a couple more times before sticking with the current title. I used a couple of different writing platforms as an avenue to share my story; Inkitt and Wattpad. Because of some personal life issues, I put my writing on hold for three years. But when I got pregnant with my first child in 2018, I picked up where I had left off with The Chronicle Keeper and finished it in 2020, with my second pregnancy. In 2020, I hired a professional editor to do a developmental edit and then worked on the edits for another three years. To help with the edits, I used ProWritingAide and some final touches with an AI software program. Once I finished the edits, I did some research to find the best time to release a new book and decided to aim for May of 2023.

As a child, I didn’t read much. It wasn’t until sixth grade, when my dad offered to pay me per chapter that I got hooked on a book series called the Thoroughbred Series, by Joanna Campbell. I flew through the series and soon my dad had to quit paying me. But my favorite book series is by Bruce Coville, The Unicorn Chronicles. Into the Land of the Unicorns was the first book I remember purchasing at my elementary school book fair in the second grade. I remember waiting years before I was able to purchase the second book and then the third and fourth books. I still read books, just not as often as I would like. I have had the privilege of receiving books from my author clients whom I did the covers for. The book I am currently reading, The Lost Redeemer, is by an acquaintance of mine from Wattpad, David Musk.

Managing my time effectively is not easy. It comes with lots of challenges that I assess one day at a time. Being a single mom of a four-year-old (five in September) and a two-year-old (three in October) comes first and they require lots of attention. I work on client projects during quiet times and mainly at night. Being an author fits in-between those times.

The Earth’s Guardian series was inspired but my religious beliefs. The series starts with The Chronicle Keeper and introduces Aislin (Ash•Lyn), a young adult who faces questions from her past that supposedly only someone known as Destiny can answer, and Nolan, the only one who can help Aislin find Destiny. In Book 2, Aislin finally finds Destiny and receives some answers to her questions and the truth about who Nolan really is, and then is informed of the journey she must embark on to fulfill her destiny. Books 3-5 Aislin faces many obstacles and life-threatening truths about her family. In book 6, Nolan goes missing and Aislin goes searching, only to uncover more family secrets that will test their loyalty to each other or their families. Finally, in book 7, Aislin fulfills her destiny, but not without paying a huge sacrifice first.

I do lots of research to find out book covers that attract the audience my books are written for. I am attracted to covers that use symbolism or objects rather than people. I like my readers to be able to conjure up how they envision the characters looking. Also, by not using people on the cover, it allows for more creative freedom with not worrying about character and location/background specifics. I don’t have any specific design principles I follow. It all depends on the outcome I am aiming to achieve. There are seven design principles and they all come naturally now, with my years of experience using them.

Just as I do research for how a cover should be designed, there are many ways to go about designing the interior of a book. I follow industry guidelines, like starting chapters on the left page, and using even page numbers on the right and odd page numbers on the left. Not all books need a table of contents, or have a table of contents, but I use one because it’s traditional and I personally like knowing how many chapters the book has, the contents contained within the book, and if the chapters are titled, the chapter titles can also give a reader an overview of what to possibly expect in each chapter. I also think having the page numbers in a corner, whether it is at the top of the page or bottom of the page, makes it easier to find where you left off or where to find something you are looking for, rather than having the page numbers in the center of the page. There are lots of things I consider when formatting, including spacing in-between lines and paragraphs, fonts being used, how big the text should be, etc. I first use industry standards for the foundation, and then use personal preference, how I as a reader, would prefer the pages to look, when formatting.

There are Friesian horses in the book, used for traveling because the book takes place after WWIII, which was caused by a world-wide blackout. The one-world government banned guns and the majority of automobile use.

I grew up around horses. My parents worked at two summer camps and I would help with the ranch/horses. I also owned a few horses growing up and was part of the horse-judging team when I was in FFA. Horses have been a big part of my life growing up.

Animals/Horses/Dogs have influenced my writing through personal experience but I also believe being a pet owner or working with animals develops a different level of compassion and responsibly in a person that those who have not experienced can’t understand and I believe it affects how artists in general view the world.

In the series, it is Aislin who is deemed as the Earth’s Guardian (coming in book 2). I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but the message I hope to give through this series is that everyone has a purpose in life. And if you accept that purpose, you will best tested and you will encounter obstacles in life that either seem impossible or unfair or both, but that the obstacles you face are never more than what you can handle. They make you stronger to face the next challenge that arises. And that during these times of tribulation, you can experience the joys of life.

When I initially started writing the book series, I was planning on three books. But as I mapped everything out over the six years it took to complete the first book, I realized it would be best to divide the series into seven books. The first book, although is fast paced, I had one reviewer mention that there wasn’t any diversity in the events that took place in book one. And although I agree with their assessment, in future installments there will be more diverse events that take place. The series is already completely mapped out or outlined. I don’t like to have everything completely written in stone, I do like having flexibility and letting the story tell itself. But if I don’t lay out a direction for the story, I tend to go off course when I write. I have the summary for each book laid out on my author website with a placeholder book cover that readers can view to get an idea for what coming next.

This is a tough question to answer because while writing The Chronicle Keeper and mapping out the rest of the series, I used personal life experiences/emotions that were present at the time. I can’t say the writing experience was transformative except in a way where I could use my writing as therapy.

My girl who is four has expressed interest in the liberal arts in the form of dance/gymnastics/theater, while my son who is two, is showing advanced mechanical skills and interest. So, they are both showing creative interests, but I don’t think writing or design will be in either of their futures. My girl has been in dance since two and a half and my son spends time with his grandpa (my dad) in his workshop filled with all sorts or mechanical things to keep him busy and hone his mechanical skills.

When I asked other authors for advice, I remember being told to ease into writing and not to start with a book series…lol Well, by the time that advice came around, it was too late. The advice I would give is don’t procrastinate in starting. If you have an idea, write it down. Everyone is different in how they plan things out. If you have an idea that you believe will take a series to complete, and are passionate about the story, then do it. Don’t ask questions, just do it. Even though it took me six years to complete the first book, my passion for the story has not gone away. Write about stories that interest you. That you are passionate in telling. We are blessed with the interest and so you don’t need to be an expect in the field you MC is in. If you MC is a surgeon that travels to Africa, you have the freedom to research both those subjects and if you really wanted to, talk to real life people who have real-life experienced in those areas. Also, don’t give up. Don’t let real-life get in the way. Real-life may detour your writing, but think of it as an opportunity. You may learn or experience things while you’re writing is on hold that you will need or want to use to finish your book.

Family and pets both offer mental/physical support but they also help you experience love and loss and how you choose to react to those scenarios. They can also offer great character-building models. As for creativity, it allows me to express what I need to and how I need to. On Wattpad, I had a friend comment on a chapter one day she could feel the emotion was stronger than in previous chapters, and I confided that while writing that particular chapter I was going through a very rough patch, but I needed an avenue to release my emotions. Authors, I feel, have stronger emotions that they can’t verbally communicate. In general, creative people are more emotional. But that is why we have writers/authors. It is because their talent is in constructing words and putting them together to communicate. Whether it be through fiction or non-fiction.

I joined AllAuthor in January 2023, but I have known about AllAuthor for the last few years. In fact, a cover I designed for an author won 3rd place in AllAuthor’s monthly cover contest. My experience on AllAuthor has been wonderful. The features offered for authors is amazing. I’m grateful to have joined the community and hope to share more wonderful books in the future.