Being someone who enjoy fantasy and a bit of (hey, don’t judge me) dark twisted action in stories, I was hesitant to read this book when I came across a unique proposition by Sydney Faith who has been organizing a blog tour for her new release: The Delinquent Crown, a YA novel about two out of placed children (Miri and Nick). However, any doubts I had about this book simply evaporated shortly. So without further ado, let’s begin with this tour, by which I hope to give you a glimpse into Sydney’s mind and book.

Virtual Reading – Part 4/ The Delinquent Crown

The Delinquent Crown – Review

Checkout my in-depth review here.

Author Interview – Sydney Faith

MG: I’d like to start this interview by saying: Hi Sydney! Thank you for agreeing to do this! I’m honestly excited to be interviewing an author who I seem to agree with all of their advice on YouTube (haven’t watched all the videos, but I’m getting there. So, my first question would have to be this: Would you mind telling us your Zodiac? What inspires you (in life) and how the hell can you pull off creating awesome content on YouTube, write and publish a book, AND have enough time to sleep?

SF: Hey M.G, thanks for having me! Sure! I’m a Pisces. What inspires me in life is my goals. I’ve got a lot of stuff I want to do and only a short time to do them! The secret is that I don’t sleep. Kidding! Sleep is actually very important to me. As my life has gotten busier and busier over the last year or two I’ve started taking my organization very seriously, and I think without being hyper-organized I wouldn’t get nearly as much stuff done.

MG: Before going into more technical questions, I’d like to ask you this: Why do you write?

SF: Honestly, I write because I have to. Writing is how I express myself and sometimes I think that it’s what keeps me sane! And it’s, like, the coolest job ever, so I guess there’s that too lol.

MG: What was it like to sit down and write this book? I ask this because a lot of authors create their own environments when they write a particular story. So did this apply here? Were there any secret ritual you would do prior to start writing?

SF: So for every project that I write, I have a playlist. If it’s a short project it may only be a few songs, but the playlist for writing TDC is almost 3 hours long, which is perfect in my eyes. The songs included either contribute to the “mood” of the story or go with a specific scene. I have a really difficult time writing without music playing in my headphones. For TDC I wrote probably 75% at my desktop computer and 25% on my laptop sitting on my deck or on the sofa. I don’t have any special rituals, exactly, but I do try to “create a good writing environment” before I sit down to write, just doing things like making sure the dog has gone out, that my desk is clear, and that I have a drink and snack. And I do these things to minimize distractions while I’m working.

MG: What were some of the hardest obstacles that you needed to overcome when writing this book?

SF: One of the biggest obstacles was probably just deciding if I was ready to start this project. As you can imagine, this series will be at least a few books long. Don’t get me wrong, I’m in love with this project, but I wasn’t going to let myself skimp out on it or do something else after the first book. It had to be all-or-nothing, and that was scary to commit to.

MG: How long did it take you to write this book, from start to finish?

SF: I think it’s right around 3 years for this one, from the first draft until now.

MG: The names behind the world of TDC were very interesting. Olexia, Kayta (not sure if it would be considered a spoiler, but she is called after a certain festival) and lastly Miri and Nick. Did the names come to you naturally? Or was there some kind of a process behind naming characters, locations and all?

SF: No worries, that’s not a spoiler at all! The names were kind of a mixed bag. I had the name “Olexia” from pretty much the start, as well as “Miri”. “Nick” was actually a placeholder name but by the end of draft one it fit him so well that I kept it! Kayta had a couple of names, but I settled on “Kayta” without too much change. I tried to keep the names sounding similar depending on the characters’ background. (Royals have name themes, Fangra have name themes, and so on.) I do use google translate to come up with sound ideas, and some of the names are even loosely based on words in other languages.

MG: If you had to choose one of the following (when describing TDC)- inspiration or hard work, which would you choose?

SF: Hard work, for sure. I’m not actually a big believer in “inspiration” in the sense of “waiting for the muse to strike” and other such ideas. I think that maybe some people are predisposed to find writing easier, but really I think that “talent” comes down to a hell of a lot of hard work and dedication. (And this is, of course, just my personal opinion formed by my personal experiences.)

MG: Thank you so much, Sydney, before I let you go, I like to ask every author I meet this question: What was the worst thing you Googled when writing this book?

SF: 😂 Oh my god, that’s an awesome question! Um… well besides spending more time on baby-name websites than an expecting parent, I’d say the worst thing I googled for this book was burns, how to treat them, what they look like, and the different kinds. That was super gross, but I had to do it to make a certain scene realistic!

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Here are some useful links that I think would be of interest to you:- The Delinquent Crown: On Goodreads
– The Delinquent Crown: Pre-order now On Amazon
– Sydney Faith – Official Website
– Sydney Faith – YouTube Channel