Skyler DeGrote is the 22-year-old author of two books in the Soul Collection triology—and she’s working on another. A 2010 Maple Grove Senior High graduate, DeGrote recently finished a degree in advertising and graphic communications at the University of Minnesota-Moorhead. How does someone so young manage to make a mark in the literary world? Read on to find out about her books and what she’s up to now.
MGM: When did you begin writing?
SD: I started writing when I was very young. However, in my junior year of high school, I started to write stories using my own fictional characters.
MGM: When did you start the books, and how long did it take you to finish?
SD: I started writing my first [book of the trilogy] during my freshman year in college in 2010 and completed it at the end of my freshman year. The second book took a little bit longer to write, from June 2011 to February 2012. I have started to write the last book of the trilogy, but have run into some major writer’s block.
MGM: Tell us about the process of getting the books published.
SD: The first two books were fairly simple because of my decision to self-publish. The longest part of the process was researching and coming to this decision. My books are available on amazon.com [for Kindle e-readers]. I also went through Create Space, which lets me have them available as paperbacks as well.
MGM: Was there an inspiration for the story?
SD: At the time I started writing The Soul Collection, I was really into reading about vampires and supernatural type of stories. I got the idea for the plot through a series of dreams. For a couple weeks in a row, I had dreams that overlapped with the previous dream’s theme, and it became the plot line of both [books] of the series.
MGM: What are you doing now?
SD: I am living back in Maple Grove and am a seasonal school photographer for Lifetouch. Right now, the book I’m working on is one that I actually started in junior high school. I went back through all of my old writing notebooks and found the plot line to be interesting.
My inspiration for the book is the world around me. I like “people watching” and coming up with background stories for the people that walk by based on their attitude and posture and looks, and then create a character from that. I always have a pen and paper with me.
The working title is Night’s Window, and I am still in the very early stages, but each day I write for 10 minutes or more. I plan to put a lot of research into this series, and therefore it may take a year or more to even get the first draft done.
My goal is to become a designer for an advertising agency. I would like to eventually open my own agency and possibly my own coffee shop.
Excerpt from The Guardian of the Souls (Book Two in the Soul Collection series):
“Basically you have to explain to the gods and goddesses that are through this gateway why you should be the Guardian of the Souls.”
“What? I don’t even know what that is. How am I supposed to do that if I don’t know what it is?”
“It’s up to you now, Julie, it’s all on you now.” Jaris pushed Julie through golden gates that appeared out of nowhere.
