Author Interview With Emilia Ramos Samper!
This has been something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time—about six months? (I know, crazy right?)—and last week I finally did it! I was able to interview Emilia Ramos Samper, author of ‘Crown of Scales and Wonder’. She is so sweet and kind, and I definitely had a lot of fun with her. So without further ado….
(The text in bold is when I’m talking, and normal text is Emilia) (and if there is italic text in these things [ ] then this is me interjecting as I’m typing up the interview)
Okay, when did you start writing ‘Crown of Scales and Wonder’?
I started writing ‘Crown of Scales and Wonder' in… fourth grade? So right when the pandemic hit. I was just so bored, and I had nothing to do, and I sort of retreated to my little world of dragons and queens and martyrs and all that good stuff.
Awesome! And what inspired you to write it?
What inspired me to write it… There’s a long history of writers in my family. So my grandpa, he translated ‘The Odyssey’ from Greek to Spanish and my dad and my sister they all write poems so there’s always been this idea, this friendliness towards writing. Everyone does it a little bit. And when the pandemic hit it was, I guess a way to express myself, a way to escape a little bit, and yeah! I’d say that my family and everything around me was sort of my inspiration.
That’s so sweet! How did you come up with the plot?
Oh, this is kind of a funny story! We have a little trampoline in the backyard of our house, and—the trampoline is a little broken it’s been through some rough times—and so I was jumping on the trampoline and I hit my head against one of the, like, bent and destroyed poles. It didn’t jump too well since it was unused for about fifteen years. So I hit my head really hard on this pole and I saw this like… golden dragon in my head. I don’t know why it happened, and I guess that’s where it came from.
Whoa! That’s awesome! Also… terrifying.
A little bit, yeah!
When you’re having a bad day, what do you do to cheer yourself up?
I either put on like, a really cheesy really fun dance workout to Barbie songs or musical theater (I’m a big theater kid). I’ll do that, definitely. And I like journaling, that makes me feel better, along with little meditations and things too. And spending time with family, that’s like on the top.
And how do you write through writer’s block?
I just sort of sit down and then I set wordcount goals and I set a time that I want to write and I tell myself that it can be absolutely awful. I don’t let myself press backwards unless I know exactly what I’m going to write next. And I just tell myself to go, go, go. And usually what happens is that the first three paragraphs are just trash! But then the more words you get and the more into the flow of it, then you’ll look back on it and you realize that even though you were ‘in writers’ block’, you actually wrote some pretty good stuff.
Yeah, that’s happened to me before and it’s like… I actually have a harder time writing through writer’s block because I get too much in my head.
Ugh, I totally understand. The editor in me sometimes just wants to… * punches inside of her hand *
Yeah, it’s pretty bad.
What kind of stuff do you write?
I write fantasy, and the book I’m writing right now I actually started it three years ago and I’m working on draft number three. It’s about these three girls who come from two different kingdoms and their kingdoms are going to war… (I told her a little bit about my book)
If you could be any fictional character, who would you be and why?
Oo! I love Hermione Granger, I always have, and Annabeth Chase. I know those are sort of basic ones but, they’re the sort of books I grew up with, and so they’re the characters I always envisioned myself as, in a way. So that would be really cool to be the smartest person ever or to be able to do magic. That would be really fun.
I love Annabeth, she’s so… [indescribable, I suppose, since I never finished my sentence!]
Ugh, so cool. What do you think of the new series?
The new series? I actually just read the first series, like in the past few weeks because I never really wanted to in the past… mostly because my older sister wanted me to… :) I was like “No, I’m not going to do it.” But then I was experiencing a little writer’s block because I was having a hard time writing male characters. I mean, I have no brothers, I don’t really know many boys, so I was like “How do you do this?” So I read Percy Jackson and now my male characters are all mini Percys. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing… 😁
No no, definitely not a bad thing! You should watch the tv show if you get the chance, I don’t know if you have already, it’s really good.
I’ll keep that in mind. Do you have an ‘escape’ side story?
Do I have an escape… Wait. Explain. I’m sorry, I don’t get the question. 😅
When I’m writing my current WIP and I hit a bump in the road, sometimes I get this Shiny New Idea for a book [sometimes its an old Shiny New Idea] so I start writing a short story and it helps to take my mind off of my WIP so that when I come back I have fresh eyes. Also so that if I do take a pause from my main project, I’m still writing so I don’t get out of touch.
Oh, that’s really smart! I do this contest every year called La Plume and I usually end up writing—well, it’s this contest for young writers, it’s really fun you should totally look at it it's really fun. And the girl who organizes it, Bridget, she’s the sweetest person ever. So I do this contest and I’m working on it almost the whole year (when I manage to do it on time) and I guess that would be my little escape that I’m constantly working on.
That sounds fantastic! I’ll definitely have to look into it. ;) What was one of your favorite readers’ reactions to meeting you?
Hm. I do a lot of school things, so I will go and I’ll read to children at different schools around the place where I live, and seeing their expressions is so much fun. Because even for some of them that haven’t heard of my books or haven’t heard of me, when I really see someone my age coming to talk to them about writing and about having published my own book and they see the cover their faces just sort of light up it’s the most beautiful thing.
That’s amazing. Actually, speaking of, when I first found your book I was ten—so that was like three years ago—it was about the time that I’d started writing my book. I was so inspired because you were pretty much exactly my age. You were born in, what, June?
Yeah. [By the way, she’s starting to get glassy eyed ❤️]
And I’m in October, so we were so close in age and that was actually when I first started taking writing seriously as a career that I could pursue. So I just wanted to say thank you for that.
Oh my God, you’re going to make me cry, that’s so sweet. Ugh, that makes me so happy. You have no idea. 🥹
If you were stuck in a loop like in the movie Groundhog Day, what are some of the things you would try?
If I were stuck in a loop… Well, I haven’t seen Groundhog Day, that’s on the list, so I have to see that one. So I’ll take loop as like…?
So you start the day, and then when you go to sleep, you wake up to the same day over and over. And nobody is experiencing it other than you.
I feel like I would just do something wildly different every day. Just try to mess with the universe as much as I can. [we snickered in unison]
Oh, and how old were you when you started writing for fun?
How old? Ever since I can remember, maybe six, seven-ish—when I could actually form coherent sentences. So I’m bilingual, so I’m fluent in Spanish, and my teacher in my Spanish class would always make us write short stories. I guess that’s where the passion came from.
You know, I started writing when I was six years old as well! Me and one of my younger sisters had to go to our grandma’s house…
When I wrote the first chapter of ‘Crown of Scales and Wonder’, I don’t even know how this happened it was not supposed to be a book. It was just for fun I just sat down and wrote something I definitely didn’t imagine that it would end up being two-hundred pages. But then I read the first chapter to my parents and my brother and sister at the dinner table (it was still Covid so everyone was in the house) and they loved it! And they wanted the second chapter so I would read them a chapter every night and that’s sort of how I got it done.
That’s insane! [How did she write a chapter every day?!?! #AuthorGoals!] When do you plan to be finished with the second novel of the series?
Okay. I plan to be finished somewhere around mid-summer, and that’s when I want to publish it. That’s the goal.
I’ll read it when you do!
Aw, thank you! So it’s definitely—like the books have grown up as I’ve grown up. So I think it’s really fun. Like it’s defiantly elevated from the first book and has a lot more romance, a lot more of like the nitty gritty, violent fantasy—not violent! But… um I’m trying to think of the word…
Like intense, epic fight scenes?
Intense!! Yeah, exactly. And even in the first book I sort of grounded it in things that felt real, because war is something that, though we’ve never experienced it, is something very real, so. Yeah, I’m really excited for the second book, ‘Thieves of Time Forgotten’!
That’s a great title, by the way!
Thank you!
Well I was going to ask are you the oldest, youngest, or middle child, but you seem like the oldest right?
* smiling * Youngest, actually!
Youngest? Oh!
Youngest of three.
I didn’t know that!
My sister is in New Haven right now, for college, so that’s super fun. (Missing her though.) And my brother is a junior now so he’s going to leave in one year.
Oh, okay. Who’s your favorite author? If you can pick just one.
Who’s my—oh, Marissa Meyer, easy.
Marissa Meyer… What kind of books does she write?
So she does a mix of fantasy and sci-fi and then she also released a cute little rom-com. So I’m actually currently writing and producing a musical based on her novel ‘Heartless’. So I emailed her and everything thinking I would hear back with a bunch of songs I had worked on with some Broadway people and she was like “Yeah, totally! Go ahead, do it!” And so yeah! I’m working on that. I also do musical theater professionally so I’m going to a school called Interlochen in the fall, which is specifically for performing arts, and I’m hoping I can put it on there!
That is… awesome, by the way! What’s your favorite book/series?
‘Heartless’ by Marissa Meyer but I’ll give you another one since I sort of already answered with that. Let me think… oh! ‘Six of Crows’ by Leigh Bardugo.
I haven’t read that one.
‘Six of Crows’?! It is fantastic! There’s also a series based on it called ‘Shadow and Bone’ which isn’t exactly the events but it’s with some of the characters, which is fun. And it is one of the best books I’ve ever read. It is just so, so incredibly good.
I’ll have to read that! So I realize that you’re into Broadway musicals, so which one is your favorite?
My favorite? Oo! Usually my answer for that is ‘Les Miz’ [‘Les Miserables’, for those of you—including myself—who didn’t already know]. It’s just so beautiful, the music is gorgeous and it makes me cry every time I watch it. But currently my favorite is ‘Anastasia’ because that’s what I’m doing right now—I actually have rehearsal for that in a few minutes! Super fun. So that’s my current fave and then my all time fave is probably ‘Les Miz’. And then I also love ‘Mamma Mia’ I think it’s just, ugh. Such a good-timey, vibe-y fantastic movie.
I’ve watched ‘Mamma Mia’ and I’ve also watched ‘The Sound of Music’. But my all time favorite is definitely Hamilton, and I’ve actually memorized the whole play!
Oh my gosh, yes! Me too. Hamilton is just one of those musicals. You just get it, and you memorize it, and you fall in love with it… and then you pass your history tests!
That’s actually all the questions I have today!
Oh, really? Thank you so much!
No, thank you! I’m glad we were finally able to do this! And… I had a lot of fun!
Oh my gosh, me too! Bye Leah!
Bye Emilia!
A picture of thirteen-year-old Emilia!
If you want to visit her Instagram page, click here!
