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Branwen OShea writes books exploring humanity’s potential to change, often through connecting with nature or other species. In addition to humans, she has lived with an opossum, skunks, raccoons, a crow, salamanders, and the more usual dogs, cats, and horse. She is also a lifelong student of mysticism, meditation, and indigenous healing. Branwen has taught workshops on the human-equine bond, and presented on Equine Facilitated Learning at the 2015 CT National Association of Social Workers Conference. She is a licensed counselor, a yoga teacher, a sound healer, and writes books with stardust and magic. She holds a B.A. in Biology, a B.S. in Psychology, and an MSW. Her books include: The Calling, The Cords That Bind, The Chasm, and Silence of the Song Trees.
I have never read a story like The Calling. What was your inspiration for writing the book?
The inspiration for The Calling started at my job as a therapist for teens. I had a week where nearly every one of them said the same thing – they couldn’t even imagine anything positive in the future for our planet or humans. They were convinced we were destroying ourselves and that everything was hopeless. That weekend, I went to the movies and every single movie trailer was set in a dystopian or post-apocalyptic world. I realized we needed some different types of stories that could entertain us with high stakes, but also show us eventually getting our act together as a species. No more chosen one saving the world, but all of us working together to do so.
I came home thinking about this and stayed up late meditating on it. That night, the star being character, Rana, came to me in a series of dreams and gave me the entire story of The Calling. The next morning, I started writing my first book. I had no idea what I was doing, but trusted the process, and loved the story.
Writing a nearly 500-page book is quite the undertaking. How long did the process take you from start to finish? How did you keep yourself on track and organized?
It took me ten years to write and edit The Calling. During that time, I also wrote four other books, and each book taught me something different about the craft. After each of the other books, I then went back and rewrote The Calling. The story and characters never changed, but my skills in the writing craft dramatically improved over the years.
Somehow, the story was always organized in my head, so whenever I had time I wrote. My love for the story and characters kept me on track and I never really doubted that the book would get out into the world.
I love that your characters, including your heroes, are depicted with flaws. I saw characters who are reckless, unforgiving, jealous, impulsive, and just downright evil. How do you approach character development?
Traditional character development has always been a bit of a mystery to me. As I said, Rana came to me in a series of dreams, and her character was clear from that moment forward. The next morning when I began to write what I remembered from the dream, it was a very weird experience. Inside my head, each Pov character stepped forward and simply introduced themselves. There was never any conscious creation. You could say my subconscious created them all that night, or look at them as spirits who wanted their story told. I have no real way to explain it.
The only character who gave me any trouble was Bleu. Bleu had many secrets, which he didn’t share for years. I knew I was missing stuff and certain scenes never worked properly until he finally shared everything in what I believe was the eighth year of writing.
Do you have a favorite scene in The Calling? If so, what is it?
That’s a tricky one. I think the scene that affected me the most after writing it was the conversation that Neviah and Bleu have with the star being children regarding games and sports. I had never really thought about how competitive most human activities are until I wrote that scene and experienced the same confusion that Bleu and Neviah experienced. What the star being children said has changed my life and made me rethink how we do things.
I think one of your strengths as a writer is building anticipation in your reader. There were times when I found myself unable to put the book down because I just had to know what was going to happen next! What are some other strengths that you think you offer as a writer?
I’m not going to take credit for the ideas, because as I said they were given to me, but I worked very hard to accurately show how differently the star beings think from humans. Writing their points of view has been life-changing and I’d like to think that if anyone cared to, they could also possibly learn from some of the stuff the star beings say and do. I know I did.
I also worked really hard to show both sides of whether or not violence is necessary in life. As humans, there are things we can’t do that star beings can do (like shield) that makes it easier for them to avoid violence. There’s a scene where Rana and Educator Girak argue about whether or not they need the guns for what they’re doing, and writing that scene really made me think hard about that issue. By having all the star being and human points of view, I tried really hard to explore all angles of that, and still continue to do so. I don’t think there are easy answers to some ethical questions like that.
I thought it was interesting that you chose Japanese culture to be of great significance to one of your characters. Why that specific culture? What drew you to it?
Atsushi is a long story. As I explained above, the day after I got the story in my dream, all the point of view characters introduced themselves. When I first met Atsushi, I told him I wasn’t in any way qualified to write a character of Japanese descent. He laughed, shrugged and basically told me he couldn’t change who he was.
We went back and forth over this for months. He insisted he was Japanese, and that his story must be included. In the story, all races have long since intermixed and blended in the havens, but he was the last frozen embryo from before humanity descended into the SHAST Havens. Since all that remained of all original Surface cultures was the database that they had, he thought it was quite fitting that I only had the internet to do my research with. He thought it would help me understand his character’s difficulty in understanding himself. After months of going back and forth, I finally agreed, but told him I would be using Japanese sensitivity readers to check my work. That’s how I ended up writing Atsushi, and meeting some great Japanese sensitivity readers in the process.
I have always had powerful connections with animals. The star beings live in close connection with all of nature, so it made sense that animals would play a role. Rana told me of Digga in the original dreams, and the white lions introduced themselves in later dreams.
I know the second book was recently published. What can readers expect in book two?
They can expect even more adventures! The second book, The Chasm, just got published in June. In this book, after narrowly avoiding an all out war, the humans and star beings become reluctant allies for a particular mission. What happens between them and what they discover together on the expedition puts them all at greater danger than ever.
There is also a side novella that’s already published about the star being Eka, and occurs between the two main books. The Cords That Bind isn’t necessary reading for the main series, but still contains important information about what’s coming later in the series and how star beings view trauma and the afterlife. I have a lot of these side stories that give more depth to the world that I hope to write. They will all have decimal points in their titles to show readers where they fit. So, The Cords That Bind is subtitled Book 1.1 because it falls between The Calling (Book 1.0) and The Chasm (Book 2.0).
What advice do you have for other indie authors?
Learn the craft. Trust your story. Find a writing group. Realize writing rules have a purpose and a place, but can be broken. Find an Indie author mentor, if possible. There are lots of great authors who are happy to help others just starting out. Also, start learning about marketing while you’re still writing your book. I tried to read one or two marketing articles every week while writing. After ten years, lol, I had lots of ideas to try.
What is the one question I didn’t ask that you wish I had?
Maybe secret character quirks? :)
Bleu- a bit too comfortable always being in his friend Stamf’s shadow.
Atsushi- loves to listen to old dance music saved from the ancient Surface.
Ayanna- more intuitive than she lets on.
Educator Girak- a hopeless romantic.
Neviah- obsessed with choco (artificial chocolate).
Commander Savas- enjoys playing the games at the holographic Gaming Arena.
Rana- a foodie.
Kahali- loves stargazing.
Eka- anxiety since his cousin’s death.
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