the real dream

an interview with Firefly Nights poet Lauren White

It’s May! The bookiversary celebrations are over, and now it’s back to regular life. It’s kind of funny, I put together all these bookiversary celebrations on a whim because I wanted to celebrate my book publishing accomplishment, and then it ended up feeling almost like a second chance at a book launch! And a pretty successful one, too. :) Thanks for everyone who joined in the celebrations in any way.

Participating in the Indie Author Spring Spectacular this past month was definitely a highlight. The 14 e-book sales I made that weekend were awesome but the best part was collaborating with so many different indie authors. It was so lovely to feel like we were in all in it together, and feel the relief of knowing there are other people riding the highs and lows with you. Writing, and definitely publishing, really can’t be solitary if you want to make it sustainable. Anyway, one year later, and making new connections is still the best part of having my book out in the world.

Speaking of new connections… I came across Lauren White’s poetry collection Firefly Nights on Instagram, and the cover and story captured me immediately. I reached out to Lauren ask if we could exchange books and if I could do an interview with her, and she said yes! There are a lot of difficult things about being a small author, but one of the pluses is that every small connection is incredibly meaningful.

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Firefly Nights is a short poetry collection about heartbreak and feelings and the poems completely match the cozy, summer night vibe of the cover. I loved it and I’m so excited to see what Lauren does next. I feel kind of lucky to have gotten in on the beginning of her author journey because I know she’s going to do amazing things from here.

In our interview Lauren talks about the desire to put stories out into the world no matter what, the folklore inspiration behind her work, and what she’s learned from the publishing process so far.

Isn’t this cover adorable?? It’s a book to read in the dim light of evening…

featured storyteller: Lauren White, author of Firefly Nights

Tell me about yourself and your writing! Introduce yourself :)

I’m Lauren, a Scottish-Canadian and Haudenosaunee writer from Southern Ontario. I’ve been writing ever since I could, I remember writing stories on paper and stapling them together to create a little book and drawing illustrations with crayons. I started writing poetry when I was about 12 and I self published my first poetry book using Amazon KDP in March 2023. 

What kind of story did you want to tell with Firefly Nights? Why was it important to you?

Shortly after I graduated high school I had my first “serious” heartbreak and avoided actually dealing with it for a long time. So originally the poems were just an outlet for me to let out those feelings that I’d repressed. But once the entire story was crafted, I discovered that the true meaning I wanted to tell all along was to not hide from those darker or uncomfortable feelings. I wanted to tell a story of acceptance and vulnerability. So many times in life we try to kinda avoid painful topics, brush them off, or hide from them. It was important to me because what I was going through, I really had to face those feelings and sit with them by myself. So I think I really needed to write that for myself, but I also wanted other people to be able to do the same as well, in a healthy way of course. 

What themes are you often drawn to in your writing?

I love telling stories with my poetry, that's been something I’ve been doing a lot more lately. So I’m really drawn to stories about Greek mythology and my Scottish and Indigenous folklore, even writing about fictional stories. In Firefly Nights I touched on a little bit of this, but I was more focused on my personal experiences of heartbreak, healing, first loves, nostalgia etc. Lately I find myself writing more poems about stories of culture, spirituality and abstract moments that are not always from my own perspective. 

I love that and could definitely glimpse elements of that folklore influence in Firefly Nights. What made you decide to self-publish? What were your goals in sharing your writing with the world?

I honestly self-published because up until the time I got my author proof copy, I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to publish my book. I had a lot of imposter syndrome and self doubt at the time, so I didn’t want to go and make a big deal about it before I knew it could actually happen. I was scared to traditionally publish because I knew my confidence as a writer was too fragile for any criticism. I just wanted to get it out right then, when it felt right and I knew I had written what I needed to, without the influence or criticism of others. I’m still to this day learning more about my own book and why I had to share it. But I think all along, my goal for sharing it was to help people to learn the same lesson that I had: that it’s important to sit with our feelings in order to heal and not to run from them. I wanted people to understand that these feelings are supposed to hurt, but we can embrace them and let them out in a healthy, sometimes creative way. 

There’s lots of similarities in our writing and publication journeys, although of course every author’s journey is unique! What was your process of publication like? What reflections do you have on that process one year later?

Once I had learned to navigate Amazon KDP - it was confusing at first- it was kinda smooth sailing. I announced the book on March 13th and it was released on March 31st. When I look back, I think about how that wasn’t really enough time for promotion and advertising and all that good stuff. I think now I’d probably let a little more time between the announcement and the release, just to allow for more people to find out and get excited for it. But then again, at the time, I wasn’t really expecting to try and make a career out of this. I was really just hoping for some people to read it, you know, my family or whoever wanted to buy it. Then when I started realizing how independent independent publishing is, (shocker I know), I quickly learned how much I would have to work to promote my book. So I started doing book signings with Indigo and this wonderful local group called Cambridge Local Authors, as well as trying to build a brand for myself on social media. I don’t think I really expected that when I started, but I’ve got a little bit of a handle on it now. I think I did what I could’ve then, but I’d definitely do things a little differently now. Maybe try ads haha. 

Marketing, the bane of every indie author’s existence! But selling books is only a piece of the puzzle. What do you hope to achieve with your book? 

I’ve always wanted to be an author, but I dream of that being sustainable for me as a full time job. I’d love nothing more in life just to be able to write as my full-time career, to live comfortably. I’d be lying if I said sales and a wide audience didn’t matter to me. This really is my dream career. But just as equally, I want people to feel understood and seen with Firefly Nights. I love listening to music and seeing people on social media dissect the lyrics and interpret them differently according to what they need to hear, or make trends with them connecting the words to their own life. I’d love for people to find that sense of being understood within my writing, that’s the real dream. 

What are you working on now? What's next for you?

Right now, there’s definitely a lot of stuff going on. I’ve been really working on promoting my book; through social media and what not. I think that’s something that I’ll never stop doing. It kinda comes with the business, you know? But in terms of writing, I’m actually almost done with my second poetry book! I’ve been writing so many poems that I’m proud of lately, story-based poems that I feel really encapsulate my personal writing style and ability. I’ve been enjoying doing a similar process of what I did with Firefly Nights where I just gather all those poems together and let the project form itself. It’s definitely a different vibe from Firefly Nights, but I’m so proud of it. It won’t be ready for quite a few more months, it honestly doesn’t even have a title yet. But that’s where I am right now, lots of promoting and writing. I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

I’m so excited for what comes next! Thanks, Lauren.

Lauren White is a Scottish-Canadian and Haudenosaunee poet from Southern Ontario. A writer for as long as she can remember, she published her first poetry book, "Firefly Nights", in March 2023 at the age of 19. Drawn to themes of mythology, folklore, nostalgia and nature, Lauren enjoys telling stories with her poetry. You can find her book on Amazon and at select stores in Cambridge, Ontario. 

Find all of Lauren’s social media and links to buy her books here.

in other news

• Stephen J. Alff
  has won my newsletter subscriber giveaway! You win a paperback copy of my book. Thanks Stephen for always leaving thoughtful comments on my posts.

• Crystal hosted a very successful giveaway of this is a love story on her Bookstagram page and the turnout was awesome! I definitely want to connect with more bookstagrammers for promotion in the future, they are the best.

• I’ve reorganized my Substack page a bit! I have three links to the three different kinds of posts I find my newsletters fall into: love letters to storytellers (these kinds of interviews), writing reflections, and self-publishing behind-the-scenes. You can click those links to see all the previous posts in those categories. I’m also very happy to finally feel like I have some sort of structure to this whole mess.

• Friendship love story novel revisions are going well! I’m actually getting quite close to the end, which is exciting, but of course that means right now I’m completely STUCK.

I have so many more things I want to talk about but I don’t want to drag this on too long, so until next month!

Happy May

xo

Alyssa