An Interview with Belinda Kroll: Author of The Last April, Winner of the 2017 SPR Book Awards

Belinda Kroll is the author of three historical novels. She is also the author of non-fiction and children’s storybooks under the name Binaebi Akah. With a masters in Human Computer Interaction and a minor in English, she helps make websites and software intuitive by day, and puzzles away at her writing by night. She lives with her husband and two dogs in Ohio. Go Bucks!

Tell us about your book.

Spontaneous, fifteen-year-old Gretchen vows to help heal the nation from the recently ended Civil War. On the morning of President Lincoln’s death, Gretchen finds an amnesiac Confederate in her garden and believes this is her chance for civic goodwill.

But reconciliation is not as simple as Gretchen assumed. When her mother returns from the market with news that a Confederate murdered the president, Gretchen wonders if she caught the killer. Tensions between her aunt and mother rise as Gretchen nurses her Confederate prisoner, revealing secrets from their past that make Gretchen question everything she knows about loyalty, honor, and trust.

The Last April is an entertaining, thoughtful novella of Ohio after the Civil War, meant to encourage readers to reflect on themes of fear and hope in uncertain political times.

Why did you want to write a book?

I’ve realized that writing doesn’t feel like a choice anymore, it’s a compulsion. Something starts to bubble up, some sort of theme about identity and personal expression that cannot stay inside anymore. I specifically like to write for younger teens and children, because books can be such heavy influencers for your lens on the world, how to choose to interpret and process events around you. I feel a lot of my empathy came from reading about characters who were unlike me as a child (from a demographic perspective), but at their core, were very much like me, personality-wise.

Why did you choose to self-publish?

Honestly, because I’m impatient, and I want to control my product. I know people who have struggled for years to be published in the time it took me to publish multiple, solid-quality books with collaboration. I’m ok with not “making it big” with the big publishers, I’ve never intended writing to be my bread-and-butter. This is meant to be an outlet for my writing passion, a hobby that should pay for itself so I can keep doing it, and maybe make it my full-time thing once I eventually retire.

What tools or companies did you use, and what experience did you have?

I used PressBooks for the interior formatting, and it was a pretty easy experience! Much better than making a template from scratch in Indesign, or even trying to use a pre-formatted Word document. PressBooks is built on a WordPress platform, allowing you to churn out print-read PDF files as well as every major eBook format.

My one suggestion would be to make sure you don’t copy and paste your book into PressBooks until you’re absolutely sure it’s the final draft. Even then, a friend found a typo in the last chapter when she read it on Kindle. Thankfully, I hadn’t submitted the print books yet, so I was able to swap out the word, republish on Kindle, and avoid costly reprints for the on demand copies.

Would you self-publish again?

Of course! I love learning about new and better ways to publish, and the control of my brand. I’m comfortable in knowing that if something doesn’t sell, that is a direct correlation to something I chose not to do, rather than always wondering what happened behind the scenes in a larger publishing company.

What do you think are the main pitfalls for indie writers?

Going to market too fast. The Last April is probably my fastest turn-around; because it was historical fiction, it took me three years to research, and over a year to write and edit. Don’t cut corners or think people won’t notice that little thing… I’ve discovered readers notice EVERYTHING.

What was your steepest learning curve during the publishing process?

The time it takes to create a quality product. When I first began self-publishing, I thought I could do everything except the editing. Now, I use a tool to format my interior pages rather than making a template from scratch in InDesign. I hired a cover artist. I read the back cover copy to my writer’s group to get feedback about whether it “hooked” enough.

This is also the first book where I used beta readers… previously I relied on my editor only, so it was nice to get consistent feedback that highlighted the big problems in the story I needed to fix.

As a writer, what is your schedule? How do you get the job done?

I’m the worst at keeping a scheduled writing time; it’s so easy to let other things get in the way. So I keep a journal by my bed, and I have a writing app on my phone so I never miss the opportunity to capture an idea when it comes to me. The important thing is to always type everything back into the manuscript, even if it isn’t good, because on a re-read, it might spark something that is really great that you’ll want to keep.

What are your plans now your book is published?

Write another book! I’m thinking about my first ever sequel, to my Victorian gothic comedy, Haunting Miss Trentwood. I’m also toying with another children’s story book.

Why did you write about this particular subject?

I was shocked to discover that my hometown, Columbus, Ohio, had the largest Confederate cemetery outside of the Confederacy. As much as we learned about the Civil War in school (it’s the majority of our history lessons in Ohio since, as President Lincoln said, “Ohio helped win the war”), I didn’t learn about Camp Chase until I was an adult. It was fascinating to think that at the beginning of the war, Confederate officers walked Columbus streets freely… but midway, the climate changed.

I believe that as a nation, we haven’t really “moved on” from the Civil War, as evidenced by our continued discussion about how to properly memorialize what happened. The era is so interesting to me, because it changed so much about our national identity. It was the Civil War that changed the perception from a federation of states, to a nation. In this current political climate, I felt compelled to write about another time in our history where we citizens were deeply divided… and we managed to make it through.