Sherri: Nieya Glen is a non-binary author who writes for the love of beauty and hope. They are the neurodivergent mother of two children, who assure them they don’t know enough about their mother to help write this bio. Nieya has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a lifetime of experience as an actual human. They are from San Diego, California and currently long to go back there.
Welcome Nieya.
Nieya: Thank you for inviting me.
Sherri: Nieya Glen is the author of Journey Through Eden, a dystopian novel with a strong female protagonist.
Nieya, tell us about Evelyn Morrison, the main character in your novel. How did you create her? Is she in any part you?
Nieya: A large part of myself is in Evelyn. Her awkwardness and insecurities are very much based on my own, and a lot of her attitudes are very similar to mine when I was younger. She formed a lot from my own past. I created her, in part, to honor the me that used to be and the growth that I’ve experienced. She holds a lot of beliefs and perspectives that I grew up with, but no longer hold.
Sherri: Where did the idea for Journey Through Eden come from? Was there one spark or many that ignited the idea?
Nieya: Actually, the idea was born from insomnia. When I have trouble sleeping, I try to create little stories in my mind to help fall asleep. I tend to think in pictures – still images like a single shot from a movie. One night an image came to my mind of a group of people waking up in a forest with no idea how they got there. Most nights I don’t remember the things I think about while I’m trying to sleep by the time I wake up, but this one image stuck. It kept coming back night after night, and I found myself asking questions about it. Are they alone? Where were they before? How would they react to this situation? And the story built from there. It percolated for several weeks before I even sat down to outline.
Sherri: Is Journey Through Eden your first published work?
Nieya: It is. I plan to write more books in this series.
Sherri: How was your experience working with Tea with Coffee Media?
Nieya: Tea with Coffee Media has been wonderful to me. I’ve been struggling with some other life issues and they’ve been very supportive and understanding. They have all been very enthusiastic about my work.
Sherri: What do you wish you’d known before publishing this book?
Nieya: I had tried to write for a long time before I wrote this book. I kept hitting a wall with everything and I finally realized that I was trying to write what I thought would sell. When I let myself write what was in my heart rather than worrying about what other people might like I was able to really immerse myself in the world that I had created. Being boxed in like that really killed my creativity. Some people can write by formula and create really popular franchises, but I think most of us just need to write for ourselves. I could have saved myself a lot of frustration if I had known that sooner.
Sherri: What advice would you give a writer who is just starting out?
Nieya: Experiment with your process. As a teenager, I would come up with these vague ideas that sounded awesome, but when I sat down to write I had no direction and everything just went nowhere. I had to learn how to plan my stories just enough to give them structure, but not so much that it kept me from exploring the world I had created. Every writer has a different process that works for them, and most of us have had at least one person try to tell us how we should write. Absorb the advice, try it out, but if it doesn’t work for you it doesn’t mean you can’t write. You just might need to try a different approach. And also, whatever process you use, be prepared to edit. A lot.
Sherri: What are you working on now?
Nieya: I have been working on a few essays for some outside projects in addition to the sequel to Journey Through Eden.
Sherri: Thank you Nieya for taking the time to talk to me. We enjoyed having you here at my Creekside Café.
If you enjoyed this interview with Nieya Glen then check out their book link and social media links below. Thank you for joining us at Creekside Café. If you are an author who wishes to be interviewed, you can contact me at suspenseshewrites@sherrilhollister.com.
If the entire civilized world suddenly disappeared, how would you survive?
Evelyn Morrison, a social outcast, is thrown into this same scenario when a quake changes the way things were Before. Evelyn must learn to survive as our earliest ancestors did: with cunning, strength, ingenuity, and – most difficult of all for Evelyn – complete faith in oneself and one’s group.
With the coming of winter, increased tensions and a sense that the wild earth is about to swallow them. In this harsh new world, will Evelyn find the strength to believe in herself? Or will her long-time rival, Taylor, be able to bully her into submission?
She has to learn quickly because mother nature doesn’t provide do-overs.
Tags: apocalypse, friends to lovers, post apocalyptic, prehistoric, primitive, survival
Sherri Lupton Hollister, author 
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