To wrap up Pride Month, here is an author interview with the one and only Neen Cohen!

To begin, tell us a bit about yourself – who you are, where you live, a hobby / passion you have outside writing.
I’m Neen Cohen and I live in Brisbane Queensland. A hobby/passion outside of writing is being a taphophile, which for me is being excessively interested in graves and cemeteries.

What do you write, and why?
I write Sapphic Speculative Fiction, mostly focusing on dark fantasy/urban fantasy. These genres call to me because I love being able to examine humanity through the lens of dark beauty and the eternal question of what if. 

What does Pride mean to you?
Growing up in a religious household pride was always seen as such a negative thing. Pride goeth before the fall etc. Now, after years of surrounding myself with incredibly supporting authors, friends and other members of the writing community as well as the LGBTQIA+ community I have redefined Pride for myself. To me, Pride means acknowledging the efforts and work I have put into who I am and what legacy I leave behind. I also believe the difference between Pride and Arrogance is whether or not you acknowledge these things about yourself without using comparison to bring anyone else down. Supporting others and helping them find pride in their own achievements is entirely vital. We are all on our own path and helping others does not bring us down, it rather builds us up instead.

How important is it that LGBTI / Disabled / ND authors identify themselves proudly as such?
It’s important to feel seen, for everyone. But identifying oneself as anything proudly is an extremely personal choice. Differences in all of us plays a part to this, but so does the environment. For example, it is not safe for everyone to identify in all areas of their life as a minority. There is no shame in ensuring authors keep themselves safe. Representation in characters and in authors who wish to identify themselves as any minority is a step in bravery that can help them find their best audience and to help readers feel that need to be seen. As long as an author doesn’t usurp a minority identity that is not their own.

We’ve  been lucky enough to publish a number of your stories in our anthologies, including Stories of Hope, and several of our Zodiac anthologies.  Thanks for submitting your wonderful pieces. From the stories published by Deadset Press, which one do you think best captures your writing style?
Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve looked at those stories. But I’d have to say they all capture a little of my voice and my then emerging writing style. I guess the one closest though would have to be Orphan Day’s, a short story published in the Leo Zodiac anthology. It shares a lot of the themes and tropes I love to write about. Including mystery and self discovery.

Can you let us know about another book or story (in any anthology) that you’ve written which you’re particularly proud of, and what you like about it?
I recently released my first self-published novel Coffee, Cars, and Necromancy. I am super proud of this book. It was a huge step in trusting myself to be able to get this book out in to the world in the best version it could be. There’s snark, enemies to lovers, sapphic and NB representation.  As well as found family and quirkiness all wrapped around a murder mystery. Oh yeah, I’m hella proud of it  

You’ve been writing for a while now – how has your writing process changed and developed in that time?
Oh it feels like it’s a forever changing process. Each book I write I discover something more about what works for me. I’ve slowly believed more and more in my abilities as I’ve pushed myself to write longer pieces. Having started as an insatiable discovery writer, I’m finding a manageable balance between plotter and pantser. For me, with longer pieces it’s vital to have some idea as to where the characters are heading without knowing every detail before I start writing.  But with each new book there seems to be a new process that specific piece of work demands. For example I’m just starting my first draft of a new book about gargoyles, humans, and jungle shifters and I’m writing it with pen and paper instead of on the computer. The computer will be used to transfer the written to the digital using that transfer as a first round edit  

What are you currently reading?
About to start diving into The Pilfered Quill by Rachel Rener and David Green to kick off the Summer Reading Challenge with Indie Fantasy Addicts  

Who are your literary heroes?
There are so many from when I was younger and being an author was a pipe dream and even more now since following that dream.  I grew up reading white men writing horror and fantasy – Stephen king, Brian Lumley, Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman and they will always be heroes to me. But my praises lean more to the female Authors these days. Jae, Cari Hunter, S D Simper, Lee Winter, Pamela Jeffs, Aiki Flinthart … and the list could go on and on. 

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, Neen!
To find out more about Neen Cohen and her wonderful stories, go to her website!