Today’s interview is with Rebecca Lemke, an author, podcaster, public speaker, and YouTuber who wrote a memoir about growing up in a purity culture cult.
LQ: Tell me a little bit about yourself.
RL: My name is Rebecca, I’m a 23-year-old housewife and mom. I’m a hybrid author, Youtuber, public speaker, blogger, and podcaster.
I published a memoir called The Scarlet Virgins in 2017, just after my 21st birthday. It is about having grown up in a religiously-based purity culture cult. My subsequent nonfiction book called Content that was published in November of 2019 and talks about self-care and navigating different forms of content creation from more of a holistic perspective, not just how-to’s. It also talks about how I got into content creation and how my journey has progressed. In between those two books I also worked with a publishing house and had an essay on anorexia printed in an anthology with them.
What does your writing process look like?
RL: My writing process can only be described as chaotic. I like to write by hand, so I have more notebooks than should be humanly possible. I’ve found that if I write on the computer, I have a completely separate writing voice, style, and tone.
My first book, novella length, took nine months to write. I was very, very sick while writing it and had an infant to care for. I would typically write during naptime, but there were a few nights that the muse visited at night and I ended up writing more than half the book in two nights’ time.
My second book took a year to write and edit because it was a full-length book. I outlined it beforehand. It was much easier to make it linear and organized due to the topics involved and lack of emotional attachment to the manuscript.
I’ve had a fiction series I’ve been working on since 2017, but it has been pushed to the back burner so that nonfiction could be front and center. I have several discovery drafts that are either completed or close to. The writing process for fiction for me is definitely chaotic. If I try to outline the entire project in the beginning, it just falls apart. I’m still figuring out the best way to deal with that, truthfully! I’ve tried scene flashcards, typical outlines, partial outlines, etc, but the only way things get done (so far) is if I discovery write most of the manuscript.
After finishing writing things by hand, I go through the rather tedious process of translating what I’ve written and typed it into the computer. A lot of the editing happens during that portion
LQ: What was your favorite book to write so far?
RL: I wouldn’t say I have a favorite per se. All of my fiction projects are enjoyable, but my first one is my “book baby” so to speak. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be that one. It is a biohacking/shifter YA series. It deals a lot with physical limitations and trauma, so it has been very therapeutic to write.
LQ: Who is your favorite character to write about?
RL: My favorite character is hands-down the male protagonist from the book baby, we’ll call it “Titanium.” He is an irritatingly loveable character that unconditionally loves and pursues the main female protagonist, in spite of past and current trauma for both of them.
LQ: Who are your favorite authors? Have any of them influenced your work?
RL: Mark Regnerus is my favorite nonfiction author. When I started college, my now-husband introduced me to his work on young marriage and it became the subject of my first major college paper. His work was very influential in my writing my memoir, as someone who got married young and had an abnormal experience within purity culture. His work also influenced my decision to pursue sociology and statistics in college.
Margaret Peterson Haddix is my favorite fiction author. While I’ve read a lot of her books, the first one I read was Among the Hidden and to this day it is my favorite fiction book of all time. It helped me get through an extremely difficult part of my childhood as I grew up very isolated in some ways, like the main character. She is the only reason I have traditional publishing on my bucket list. I have a pipedream of working with her publisher, Simon and Schuster, someday.
LQ: How are you doing during the current pandemic?
RL: Everything comes in waves. The first week I wrote four articles in four days for my Medium profile, but then I hit a wall. Every time I sit down to write now, I either get nauseous or fall asleep. Grief is a funny thing, it looks different for everyone.
I was wearing a medical mask outside daily for two years before all this began, so it has been a huge emotional toll to see how well people wearing masks are being treated now as compared to before the pandemic.
LQ: What are you currently working on?
RL: I’m diversifying my time right now on several different things. Connecting with other authors in the genres I hope to release in, trying to grow my social media accounts, starting from scratch on Facebook, and am also currently in the research phase of building up an email list for fiction readers.
The main thing I’ve already been doing in quarantine is working on saving up earnings from Medium to fund book covers and a formatting design I have had recommended to me. I currently have one book cover already purchased and am writing on that when I can. It is a multi-dimensional thriller, a new genre for me.
LQ: Anything else you would like to share?
RL: My husband likes to tell me to “eat the elephant one bite at a time” when it comes to book writing and publishing. That is, one step at a time. I think it is apt advice for everyone right now, not just authors. We don’t know the future of what will happen with this pandemic and we can’t control it beyond what measures are already in place. Taking things one day at a time, one step at a time, is the way to go.