Get ready to learn more about the book The Creche Keeper’s Guild in this discussion with sapphic authors Ware Wilkins and Faith Anthony.
Join us for an exclusive peek behind the scenes as we quiz Ware Wilkins and Faith Anthony about The Creche Keeper’s Guild, writing, reading, and more.
This book is part of the Fantasy category in the 2024 IHS Reading Challenge.
Why did you write The Creche Keeper’s Guild?
After reading Legends and Lattes, we knew we wanted to write a cozy fantasy. The idea started as “What if Babysitter’s Club but Dungeons and Dragons” and then grew from there. We are both parents and have experience working in childcare, so we just started writing and followed the ideas that made us laugh to see where it took us.
Who is your favorite character in the book?
When we made our character sketches, the children were our favorite to create. Ware is particularly partial to Snoop Doug, not just because his name is a pun, but also because he was where we put all of our experiences with mischievous children who are too smart for their own good.
What was the biggest challenge writing this book?
Writing with our families around. We wrote the majority of this book over summer break and had to get creative with three elementary kids running around.
What part of The Creche Keeper’s Guild was the most fun to write?
Any time we got to give voice to the children. They all have such different and vibrant personalities.
What is your favorite line from your book?
“The walls were painted the sunshine yellow of nightmares.”
What is your writing process like?
This was our first co-write, so our process was very loose and evolved a lot. We outlined together and then one of us would write a chapter and the other would edit behind them. Some of these were done dictation style, which worked great until the person dictating got distracted by random things and suddenly was talking about things like a weird squirrel in the middle of a chapter. We joke regularly that if we ever release a special edition of this book we will include those random tangents as notes for others to enjoy.
How do you celebrate when you finish your book?
Tacos. Always tacos. Preferably with a margarita and queso, but the tacos are the essential element.
Do you have a pet who helps/hinders your typing?
We both have pets that love to interfere with our writing. Ware’s cat loves nothing more than to stick his giant fluffy tail in her face so she cannot see the screen. Faith has a larger old man dog who thinks he is a lap dog, which makes writing more than a bit complicated.
What has helped or hindered you most when writing a book?
Writing together! Having a writing partner means you have a built in sounding board, which helps keep the story moving. Of course we can become a bit of an echo chamber together, which is when we usually go talk to one of our spouses who are both big readers and able to offer a different perspective.
What do you do to get inside your character’s heads?
Ware narrates aloud in different voices, Faith makes playlists.
What type of books do you enjoy reading the most?
Ware loves horror. The more trigger warnings the better. Faith, on the other hand is a giant chicken, but is trying to get more into the genre with a detailed list of things she will not read about.
Do you only read books in one genre or do you genre hop?
We both genre hop, because we love a good story above all else. Also because we both write multiple genres and don’t want to read, say, contemporary romance while writing a rom com.
