Interview with Author/Illustrator Isis Sousa:

1) Tell us a little bit about yourself and
how you came to be a writer.

Hi Anthony! First of all, I want to thank
you for the great opportunity! I never know what to tell about myself… But I
can start sharing about the things I do. I work as professional illustrator doing
most book covers nowadays and before that I have worked as graphic designer in
the heavy metal music industry. I also do photography as hobby, most
nature/landscapes, I am a woodcarving apprentice and ornament painter and on my
scarce free time I also enjoy climbing/hiking on mountains and nurture a
passion for languages. I begin to write by accident. I had an idea for a story
one day and by the time it was the self-publishing boom… And then I asked myself,
why not publish it? Just for fun? Then, I did it and the story was “The Night
of Elisa.”

2) Where did the inspiration for “The Night of Elisa” come from?

It came from a dream I had 13-14 years ago.
I was there, in this place where the twilight was eternal and discovered the
people around me were all dead… I had a warning about the death of a friend/co-worker
in that dream. Which came true about a week later, and this experience has been
imprinted in who I am to this day. Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the book and Francis
Ford Coppola’s movie were also very remarkable to me. Music has also a great
influence in what I do and. I’d say those were the main sources of inspiration
for the story 🙂

3) What other writers or artists have inspired your work?

Oh boy! This list would be endless! I am an
art nuts, I collect art books and images, fiction and a loooot of music. I can
say writers such as Stephen King, Mary Shelley, Clive Barker, Allan Moore, Bram
Stoker, Oscar Wilde, to name a few. (Yes, I am all about classics, both the old
school and the modern.) I love the works of illustrators painters such as Mark
Simonetti, Pierangelo Boog, Corrado Vanelli  and Raphael Lacoste and many, many names of
the classic arts.

4) What do you find is your best creative outlet: writing or artwork, (i.e.
illustration, graphic design, etc?)

Artwork, no doubt! 🙂 Writing is too
tiresome, too slow, and full of letters 😉 Doing art is so free, colourful,
flows like good music.

5) You mention in your bio you are a metal fan. What bands do you listen to
when you are working on your next book or piece of art?

I love many Metal bands and also the
classics in Hard Rock. Some of the most inspirational bands for me are Paradise
Lost, Moonspell, Therion, Lacuna Coil, Within Temptation,  and Crematory to name a few.

6) What is your favorite genre to both read and write in?

Gothic, classic Gothic stuff 🙂 I am attracted
to the Dark and the Fantastic, and the Romantic aesthetics.

7) How do you feel social media has impacted your reach as an artist and
writer?

To be honest, it has impacted tremendously.
Art communities such as CGScociety, Sketchoholic, IAMag and Art Station (which
are the social media for digital artists/illustrators) together with Facebook, connected
me to great names of the industry and clients.

As an author, my best social media is
GoodReads and recently, Twitter. Goodreads, specially, has enabled me to
connect with most of my readership and helped me spread the word about my work
and come across a lot of cool authors, such as yourself! And now Twitter is
putting me across a lot of interesting people with common interests.

Without social media, it would be extremely
difficult to show the world the work that I do…

8) What do you find more rewarding when
writing: developing plot or creating your characters?

Characters, characters and characters 😀
Developing plots give me headache 😛 Characters are fun, I can imagine what
they are made of, what do they like, what they look like and how they would
react in given situation… This is such a cosy part of the process.

9) What is one genre you would never write in and why?

Hm, I am kind of an “anti” person, so it
would be most genres! LOL Don’t get me wrong. I love to read most genres and I
like to add a pinch of romance, horror, mystery and anything dark in my work as
a general rule. I think perhaps the least attractive genres to write, would be
in my opinion, a “romantic romance” or a “sweet romance”, also erotica. these genres are just
not me, but I respect  and root for those who write them. Oh and I almost forgot – Young Adult. I dislike 99% of YA stories out
there and I see no fun at all in writing about teen years, ew! 😛

10) What are your future plans for your writing and art careers?

The most selfish of all!!!  – To be able to live out of my illustrated
books someday and to paint ONLY for myself (meaning, as an artist, I would not
need to make commissioned work for any clients, anymore!). I love my clients,
they are smart, fun, great minds to work with, but every artist’s dream is to
paint for him/herself! ^.^