Hi folks! We’re back on the blog! Things, if you haven’t noticed, are mixing up a little around here and we are excited for the changes and we hope you will be too! For now, we have an author interview to share with you from Sydney Witbeck! So, enough of us….everyone, welcome Sydney!
Hey Sydney, it’s great to have you on Sisters Three today, and we’re super excited that you’re letting us pick your brain, we mean, ask you some questions!
Tell us a little about yourself.
I am a writer, reader, dreamer, and daughter of the King of Kings <3 I’ve been blessed with an amazing family. They are the reason I really started writing professionally, and I don’t know where I’d be without their support! I’m an avid bookworm and will happily pass the time absorbed in fictional worlds. As a teenager who devoured any book she could get her hands on, I ran out of new books to read – books that were adventurous and exciting but still promoted themes of faith, books that I could read without worrying about the content. That’s really what started me on my writing journey as just like so many other authors, I started writing the type of books I wanted to read myself.
Oh, and a random fun fact about me is that I own a miniature horse named Sunny, and he’s the sweetest little guy ever! 💖
This is your third book, correct? Tell us a little bit about what that’s looked like for you?
Yes, it is! I self-published my first two books, and I am traditionally publishing for the first time with The Faithful Exile. I’ve learned a lot over the years, as I started my first book when I was around 15 or 16. There are pros and cons to both self-publishing and traditional publishing, but I’ve enjoyed both routes so far. The biggest thing I learned from self-publishing was the importance of outside editing. With self-publishing, it’s basically up to you to decide when the manuscript is ready and then you send it to a company to print (I used BookBaby). I knew someone who was a professional editor, and they were willing to go through and edit my first book for me. I am so glad they did as there were several changes plotwise and even smaller things in general (like grammatical changes) which made the book more polished as a whole.
Since I am traditionally publishing this book, editing was included as part of the services (among other things like interior and cover design and formatting). The main learning curve I experienced with The Faithful Exile was marketing and how to promote a new book. Of course, the publishing house I work with has a marketing team who will promote my book and help me with connections, but I am also trying to push myself to learn more about marketing as a whole and really work to use that for this book. For my first two books, most of the marketing was done via word of mouth. Now, I am working on using other avenues like social media and reaching out to other authors and writers (such as you all <3) to help me along the way!
What did your writing process look like for this book?
Well…The Faithful Exile was actually a work in progress for about three years…it kept being put on the back burner and then being redrafted and rewritten haha. As far as I can tell from sorting through the plethora of documents in the folder for this book on my desktop, I started writing it in 2023. I wrote the prologue and that first page is pretty much the only thing which has remained the same throughout various redraftings. To start any new story, I begin by dumping any and all random ideas into a single document and then rifling through it for a plot (very professional). Ever since I got stuck halfway through my first book because I wrote it with no outline, I also make sure to have an outline of each new story. I wrote about half of the story with that outline before I realized one of the side characters (Torryn) would be really fun to write as the main character, so I rewrote the outline and redrafted the story. Honestly, I’m glad I did because I had so much fun writing from his POV, and I hope my readers enjoy it too!
What can we expect from you in the future? *pulls a chair up and leans forward with interest*
Well…okay, so I don’t want to spoil too much, but I am currently writing (or attempting to write – in my free time) a sequel to The Faithful Exile. And let’s just say I may have to issue an apology in advance (if things continue on the trajectory I have planned at the moment, but it’s a bit up in the air haha) That was… *blinks* a vague answer which wasn’t really an answer, was it? I guess, I should say – you can expect more stories with adventure, twists & turns, and characters learning to grow in their faith and trust the Lord with their life.
What was one of the hardest parts of writing The Faithful Exile?
There is a scene which requires one of my characters to come up with a clever escape plan…which was all good and well for them. The hitch was that I, the author, had to devise said plan before it could be put into action. (Actually this happened on more than one occasion *glares at Torryn*) Sorry if that’s not a very deep answer 😅
What is your biggest tip for other authors?
Don’t worry about making your first draft perfect! This is something I share every time I get the chance because it’s something I have to constantly remind myself as I am writing! All writers start out as readers, and because of that, I feel like it’s really easy for us to compare that rough first draft of our own story to the polished, final manuscript of our favorite author or other writers we know. But that story we are looking at has gone through several redrafts, editing, beta reading, and lots of changes before we hold it in our hands. Every story starts out messy – and that’s okay! You can always make edits and changes, but you have to get the story on paper first!
Who is your favorite character in the book? And why?
Torryn. It’s funny because first of all – he was supposed to be a side character, hanging out somewhere in the background but apparently, he never got that memo and became the main character. Secondly – he is very different from the characters I have written in the past, most of whom are made up of bits and pieces of me (as characters often are). And Torryn…isn’t. I don’t know where he came from, but he showed up one day and never left. He’s reckless. He’s a total extrovert. He’s got a lot of charisma (and he knows that). His idea of a good time is a swordfight, throwing daggers, or attempting some kind of crazy scheme for reasons of his own. But once he came into the story…it all fell into place, and I honestly had so much fun writing from his POV (hence the sequel. I couldn’t leave him with just one book.)
Do you prefer writing from a female or male POV best?
This is actually kind of a funny question to me because I grew up with just sisters. When I wrote my first book, the main character is a girl because that’s what I was used to, and it flowed more naturally for me. I was worried that if I wrote from a guy’s POV, it wouldn’t sound as natural or that I’d portray an MMC inaccurately. Then I wrote the sequel to my first book – and the main character was a man this time. I think that’s when it really clicked for me – the difference wasn’t in whether I wanted to write a girl’s POV or a guy’s POV…it was in which character’s perspective my story needed to be written from, and as long as I could put myself in their head, I really didn’t need to worry as much with “how natural” it sounded, which freed me up to write instead of worrying how I was writing. (I hope that makes sense!)
Last question, what is your why as a writer?
Oh, I love this question! I have come to realize God’s purpose for writing and literature: to glorify Himself and to strengthen both the author and the reader in the process. My hope in writing these stories is to share truth, light, and beauty with my readers and to encourage them in their own relationship with the Lord. I’ve drawn on my own experiences in my Christian walk for several of my characters, especially in areas such as wrestling with assurance or wondering if you’re good enough for God’s love. I pray that by writing about real-life struggles like this and showing my characters working through these struggles and overcoming them by God’s grace, it would help someone who is also going through those things and provide them with encouragement and point them back to the everlasting love and never-ending grace of our amazing God and Savior!
Thank you so much for letting us interview you!
You’re welcome! Thanks for having me!! 🙂
About the Author:
Sydney Witbeck is a Christian self-published author. She has a strong love for the Lord, her family, church, and friends. She has been blessed with supportive parents and two sisters and often helps out at the family business, Learning Cycle Homeschool Store. An avid bookworm, Sydney is happiest curled up with a good book. She has always enjoyed reading and rereading her favorite stories – a passion that soon transferred to writing books of her own. Her writing journey began when she heard how many moms were looking for fiction novels for girls that were both clean and Christian. In her free time, she likes drawing, spending time with her dog, and caring for her miniature horse, Sunny.
About the Book!
Zander Hvalman does not bend. As Chief of Sedarkia, his word is law—and no law is more absolute than the prohibition of Christianity. So when his own son, Owain, chooses his faith over his birthright, Zander makes the only decision a man like him knows how to he disinherits Owain and banishes him from Sedarkia forever. But in doing so, he leaves his kingdom without an heir—and his wife without her son.
Driven by grief and guilt, Zander sets out to find Owain and drag him back to reason. Meanwhile, Torryn Velgard—a sharp-edged sailor turned smuggler with ambitions far larger than his station—sees the vacant throne as an opportunity he was born to seize. Alongside his older brother, Ivor, Torryn hunts for Owain with a very different agenda in mind. But the journey forces questions Torryn never expected, as Ivor’s quiet revelations begin to unravel everything Torryn thought he knew about himself.
Three men. Three colliding paths. And one unsettling truth spreading like wildfire across the Christianity is no longer so easy to silence.
As faith, power, and identity crash together, the future of Sedarkia hangs in the balance—and no one walks away unchanged.
PRE-ORDER LINK:
In Conculsion
Thank you so much for reading this post! Do you have anything in common with Sydney? Are you excited about her up coming release? What do you think of vikings? Let us know in the comments below!
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