Interview of Author Margarita Felices
I live in Cardiff, Wales. It’s home to castles, waterfalls, mountains, beautiful coastlines, rugby, Doctor Who and Torchwood, and I used to work for a well-known TV broadcasting company.
I love living in Cardiff because, even after most of its modernisations, there are still the remnants of an old Victorian (and older) city.
When I can, I go out to the coast and take photographs. We have a lovely castle in the centre of Cardiff and a fairytale one just on the outskirts, so when I feel I can’t write anything, I take a ramble to those locations, and it clears my head.
I have a TV production background. I used to be a professional photographer and decided to move into the TV world. I started off by working on our local news programmes and then moved on to Arts, Factual, Drama, back to Factual, back to Drama (Torchwood, Dr Who and a few regional shows) – a fascinating journey! Before taking voluntary redundancy in 2022, I worked for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales who produced some of the music for well-known TV shows, Doctor Who for example! I learnt so much from working there about Marketing and Promotions. It was an absolute blessing when looking for ways to promote my work.
I suppose it was inevitable that someday I would begin to write novels.
My teachers at school used to limit me to write no more than ten pages. I was a reporter on the school magazine and later I became its Editor. When I left school, I paid my way through college by writing short stories for magazines. I later moved on to scriptwriting and came third in a BBC writing competition (that was before I started working for them).
I am Gothic. I love its fashion, the architecture, and the music. The club in my novel Judgement of Souls 3 is real. While writing it I got all my club material and clientele ideas from there. I wouldn’t have finished that section without it.
• At which age did you come into writing?
No specific age to be honest. I started to write in junior school, I loved writing fan fiction, and it went from there. In secondary school I wrote pages and pages in my English class, and I was then limited by the teacher to write no more than ten pages - it was hell. My frustrations were put to good use, and I was put to write for the school magazines and the blog sheets. I later wrote short stories while at college and I sold them to various magazines. I wrote columns for indie newspapers and then I stopped doing it all. It was a few years before I decided to write my first book. I wrote about 50 pages and stopped again, something just wasn’t right with it, so I started again, I rewrote the whole story and brought in new characters. I no longer had my female lead, Rachel as my villain as I did in the first draft, but now as the hero and I’ve never looked back. I was signed up by Books To Go Now in 2012.
• At what hours of the day you enjoy writing?
I enjoy writing at night. I feel that I’ve had the whole day to create new scenarios and get them written down by the evening. I’m at my most creative and I find it easier to put myself into the world I have created and be able to join my characters on their journey. It’s funny that a lot of the ideas also come from the exhaustion that you might have by 1am!
• Who are some writers that inspire you?
I have always been a fan of Anne Rice and Stephen King. I tried to style my books on their work although I’ve always put my spin on the stories. I contacted Anne Rice ten years ago about a movie contract I’d been sent because she wrote a post on Facebook about how Interview With The Vampire was made and the problems she had later with Queen Of The Damned. I privately messaged her with my concerns about my contract and she messaged back! After that we chatted quite a lot and she was an inspiration to me and my work. It was reading her Vampire Chronicles that inspired me to write my own vampire books and to take – as she did – a different look at the species. I’m sure without her advice, I may not have moved to the second book and to the others. Her advice to me was invaluable and I will always cherish her kind words to me. I will always miss our chats.
• What inspire you to write
If you have a story in your head and its dying to get out into the world, then you have to get it down on paper. I hope that my stories entertain and perhaps inspire others and make their day a little better. I try to incorporate places that are real so that anyone who recognises the places I describe can feel connected to the characters, as if they are walking in their footsteps. I have scenarios play out in my head during the day and I have to write them down otherwise I’m sure those voices would torment me!
• How do you get published?
As a beginner I contacted so many publishing houses. I had my fair share of rejections too that at times made you feel like giving up. I even had a reply back once that had been written on the back of my introduction letter – which was rather unprofessional. It can force an author to just give up. I was lucky, I managed to find a publisher that wanted my work and was eager to get the books out there. I’ve been with this publisher since 2012 and although I’ve been offered contracts elsewhere, I’m fiercely loyal. I’ve been offered a contract by a popular publishing house in the UK, but they weren’t interested at the start when I needed them, so I’m happy where I am.
• A surprising lesson you have learned through your journey of writing.
I find that getting to the end of a new story is always a surprise! I guarantee a good percentage of experienced authors have a moment where they think what they’ve written is pure rubbish. I’ve learnt that writing styles change with each book however hard you attempt to stick within the rules, and that the time you spend writing changes. The biggest surprise was learning that reading isn’t as popular as it once was. Trying to convince younger people to pick up the book instead of watching the film version for example, falls on deaf ears. I hope that we are not in a decline with books, as it feels that we aren’t selling as many as we used to and that was a devastating surprise. We desperately need to convince a new generation that books are still relevant and that the practice of reading should be encouraged on their social media accounts. I always thought that books would be here forever, but I see sales falling each week, even for the more popular authors too. I’m surprised and saddened that the practice of buying books or even downloading them is declining.
