Brittany Eden is the winner of The Unicorn Writer’s Third Flash Fiction Contest! As such, I had the honor of interviewing her (Read her winning story here). Brittany resides in Canada where she is a writer and mother to her littles, ages three, five, and seven. In her free time she enjoys reading, writing, and tea-drinking. Read our full interview below to learn more about Brittany!
Q) What inspired the piece “Thirst”?
A) My good friend (and member of my Realm Makers critique group) Kaitlyn Carter Brown’s story Queen of Shifting Sands was on my mind at the time I found out about this contest, and the theme of deserts, drought, and difficulty were rattling in my mind in terms of fantasy worlds as well as the real world. I love the desert metaphor for how life can feel, and I had been experimenting with my own style of poetry at the time, so I used this opportunity to try a story in verse, no pressure, just for fun, and it turned into something deeply emotional for me. I love it! (Kaitlyn just announced her story is being published by Uncommon Universes Press—go check it out!)
Q) What do you like best about flash fiction?
A) I love how flash fiction demands the writing be crisp and details dense, and I love the satisfaction of a story arc in that short a written work! If I’ve learned anything by reading and writing flash fiction over the last few years, it’s been that the medium itself is a unique way to hone my writing skills so that in longer works of my fiction, my scenes become tighter.
Q) How long have you been writing?
A) I’ve been reading longer than I can write, I’m definitely a reader first. Though I wrote incessantly in diaries since around age seven, then writing papers in university, and speeches and policy documents in politics, I didn’t write fiction until after having my second baby! Ironically, staying at home with my kids gave me the freedom and courage to go from being a lover of stories to a writer of them. It wasn’t intentional, at first, it was for enjoyment and pure fun, and then I realized that all my years of writing all sorts of other things had given me my own set of skills.
Q) Why do you write?
A) To remind myself (and my someday-readers) of True Love, and that He is real.
Q) Describe yourself in 3 words.
A) Vintage. Loyal. TEA+JESUSLOVER (that’s all one word, promise).
Q) What song would be your life’s theme song?
A) Oh, my life has a playlist. But if I had to pick one, I’d say Hallelujah from Handel’s Messiah and Messiah/You’re Beautiful by Phil Wickham (yes, that’s two, sorry).
Q) Who is someone, real or fictional, that inspires you?
A) C.S. Lewis. Cinderella. Queen Esther. Princess Leia. All my aunts.
Q) Can you tell us about your books/stories that are available or that will soon be available for readers?
A) Yes, through Quill & Flame Publishing House, the Heartbooks series is starting this fall! First…
- WISHES—lyrical and poignant, Wishes is a vintage winter novella with all the lush royal romance and swoony Cinderella + Pinocchio vibes you could ask for, where an aspiring newspaper columnist is assigned the story of a lifetime but finds her fate and that of the Crown Prince connected by a much more personal story—one that could upend the upcoming coronation and change the future of the Royal Family forever. (Releasing November 2, 2022)
- HEARTS—dreamlike and poetic, Hearts is a whimsical and romantic retelling of the classics Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Sleeping Beauty where Alice, Wendy and Aurora are the same girl—a secretive pencil artist with a dynastic feud destined to end on her cursed birthday. (Releasing Spring 2023!)
Q) What goals do you have for your writing?
A) To find joy in the writing, and uplift other authors and their amazing stories.
Q) What mythical creature would you like to have as a pet?
A) A cleaning robot.
Q) What are your favorite book tropes? Least favorite?
A) I love tropes. All of them. I’ll even take a good love triangle, if necessary. And not to get too deep (you gave me a blank space to write so here were go) but honestly tropes are things—you know, it’s a thing, a THING, in all-caps—because they are these honest reflections of the everyday, the cycles of life and the happenstance we see in our lives and others… and just like in real life, in fantasy they remind us of the eternal, the unseen, and the wished-for, not-yet. I always say, Jesus is the True Knight coming on a white horse (Revelation 19:11). The truest love story, the real love story. That’s why I love//stories. That is why I don’t disdain tropes, because there’s something there, something sort of indescribable, and things that are mysterious and difficult to describe are what I’m drawn to, in reading and writing.
Q) What was your most recent 5 star read?
A) Once Upon A Wardrobe by Patti Callahan (read it, you will not regret it).
Q) What advice would you offer other writers?
A) Read! Read read read. Enjoy reading, enjoy stories, because that’s the best way to learn from them. Remember why we write and why stories matter, by drinking in the wonderful works of others.
Q) Is there anything else you would like to add?
A) Thank you so much! And, P.S. This is the way [I’m also a Star Wars fan].
Be sure to follow Brittany on Instagram @brittanyedenauthor AND subscribe to her newsletter here for Brittany’s favorite things, secret writing updates, and for the application to join her street team!