Meet Ligia de Wit
We’ve added more purple to the team. Meet Ligia de Wit, fantasy romance writer.
Author Bio
Ligia de Wit is a quirky bilingual writer, residing in Mexico City. An eternal romantic who’s loved fairy tales and swashbuckling stories all her life, she blends both with fun language and a hefty sprinkle of romance while she’s at it. Her stories are full of personality with endearing characters.
You can find her short stories with Palamades Publishing, Backchannel Magazine, and WordCrafter.
When not concocting stories, she works at a global leading distributor company. Chat with her at ligiadewit.com.
Author Interview
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? Fun question, because I didn’t realize I wanted to be a writer. I had stories swirling in my head for years, banging to get out, but I thought I was a little crazy, until one day I gave in to the little people living inside my head and my fingers kissed the keyboard to hush their voices. It didn’t work. I got the virus.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk? Not really a writing quirk per se, but I’m a late bloomer. Or how someone else referred to it, a “right” bloomer. My main characters, though, are usually young (except a certain 300-year-old pirate) and that is because I feel nostalgic about that time. I loved that time and I love to recreate that feeling in my stories.
What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books? To know I could actually write a full book! I never thought about it even as I wrote some things back in the day. To have a coherent plot and characters that readers want to follow. That’s just crazy, and yet, I can’t stop now. I concoct stories about everything, and I wish one day I can pay the bills as a writer so I can write all the time instead of pushing back the little voices to the detention room, where they (sadly) vanish into the Dark Hole of Forgotten Stories. Hey, I should write that story!
What do you think makes a good story? One where you can shut down your door, sit down with your favorite drink and snack, and immerse in that world, worries be damn. That is a good story. It doesn’t matter if it’s profound or light, if it provokes or entertains. If it makes you shut down from the world and read more, then it’s a damn good story.
What do you hope readers get from your books? A grand adventure and characters to love. To laugh problems away and get immersed in the reading, wanting to know what they will do next.
As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? A cat. Or any feline. I absolutely adore cats and have had the pleasure of having cats as my landlords since I can remember. They make my world brighter and better.
What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters of the opposite sex? Interesting enough, I love writing characters of the opposite sex. It’s so easy to get into their minds though sometimes I need to double check with my husband to make certain I am doing things right!
But then, the most difficult thing would be when they’re with friends in a bar. In a pirate ship, that’s fine. But don’t give me a bar because I’ll draw a blank.
How do you select the names of your characters? Sometimes they just come in a snap, like Titus. Others I think about what roots I want my character to have, then google names, then look for their meaning (sometimes) and see which fit. I say them out loud to see if the name fits with the personality.
Why did you choose Cursed Dragon Ship Publishing? I had the pleasure of meeting Kelly in a writing seminar and we clicked well. And you know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but CDS has brilliant covers that pull you in. Besides, who doesn’t love dragons? Ask Ryanne!
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process? To have time for myself. Since the pandemic, I have practically lived in my living room. It gets boring. And too noisy. Even my cat keeps begging for attention. That can be hurtful for my creative process (the noise, not the cat).
About Touch of Faete
How did you come up with the idea of Touch of Faete? Ryanne and Bricius woke me up at 6 a.m. one day a few years back. They wouldn’t let me go back to sleep, even if it was a Sunday, until I agreed to write them, so I did. I was so excited about her introduction that I could hardly wait to wake up my daughter and read it to her. Then I pictured Titus walking inside a coffee shop, and from there I didn’t stop until I finished it all. So you can say that the characters demanded me to write the story, and I didn’t have a say in it. They can be quite demanding.
The Dresden Files also inspired me. Jim Butcher is my absolute number one contemporary author, but I wanted to make it lighter and more romance-y. So you could say that all the Jane Austen books I’ve devoured might have influenced it a little as well.
Why pirates? Just because they’re cool and hip and everyone wants to be a pirate? One writer who shaped me when I was young was Emilio Salgari. The full 60-volume collection was at home, and I hungrily devoured each book. Salgari is best known by Sandokan, a fierce pirate who scourged the Malaysian waters alongside his good friend, Yañez. I loved them. I loved the fierce loyalty Sandokan and other corsairs professed to their loved ones, always a prohibited love. He made me do what I’d love to do to my readers: immerse in the reading and live the story as if it was my own.
So… Pirates and Fae. How does that work? Pretty well, thank you very much for asking! Actually they’re not really pirates, but immortal creatures disguised as such to avoid being detected by the fae back in the 1600s when they first appeared. Bradaís—the name of this immortal race—are the fae’s unnatural enemy, created solely for the purpose of destroying fae. Fae don’t have natural predators, so the combination is a killer. Literally. But worry not! Fae are fighters and not easy to kill, especially when met face to face. Throw a human into the mix and see how sparks fly.
What was your aim with this book? Which readers will it appeal to? I love Fantasy. I love Romance. Adventure and action excite me. I wanted to balance all of this in a book, since there’s been lots of times when I read a fantasy book that I love, but the romance part is barely there and that always creates a hole in my reading-self. Same thing happens with romance and adventure. They can be great, but I always feel something’s missing. So I wrote what I wanted to read: a mix of romance, fantasy, adventure, and a hint of mystery. Gotta love some mystery.
I also love slow-burning, so this will appeal to those readers who like the same and enjoy the interaction between the characters.
Who is Ryanne? What type of heroine is she? Ryanne is a young woman who has visions of the future thanks to her touch of fae. Unfortunately, those visions show who her dates are going to end up with. Hint: it’s not her. She’s caught between the world of humans and the world of the fae. In the world of humans, she has friends and a job she tolerates, with a lackluster love life. In the fae’s world, she’s an apprentice being groomed for a future she’s never really understood.
As a heroine, she’s not experienced, she doesn’t know how to fight, and she’s human (most of the time), so how can she even help immortal creatures in a task where she’s clearly lacking? And yet, that inexperience and bravado sprinkled with some ignorance (Titus’s words, not mine) will help the fae find the answer regarding the danger they’re in.
Can you tell me a bit more about Titus? Titus is a bradaí, a supernatural being created for mindless evil by the god Anord, and yet cursed with a shadow of human emotion. At least, Titus considers it a curse, even as he longs for the elusive fulfillment these feelings seem to promise. When Titus meets Ryanne, a fae-touched human with too much bravado for her own good, he resolves to do what any reasonable bradaí would do in his situation: kidnap her and sell her to the highest bidder.
He’s a conflicted guy, torn between the goal his creator aimed for, and his own conscience, which he doesn’t fully understand. Who is he? Is he meant to kill fae and pursue gold as his only goals? Or is there something else between heists that sets him apart from the other bradaís?
It has troubled him since the first day he woke up, off the coast of Ireland.
A young human and a very old immortal creature. How on Earth do they relate? Excellent question, if I may say so myself. People with twenty years difference have issues. Almost 300? But then, he’s a guy and guys mature slower than women, right? Ask my husband.
Bad jokes aside (I’m known for that), they do have something in common and when get to know each other, they realize that.
But then, he’s a pirate. Pirates aren’t exactly known by their code of honor, and bradaís lust after gold. If you want to know what will happen … read the book!
March 2023
Touch of Faete launches in March 2023. Follow Ligia to keep up with its progress.
https://www.instagram.com/ligiadewitauthor/