A Young Wordsmith’s Journey: An Interview with Aiyanna Lockett, author of To Sacrifice It All

Aiyanna has just finished high school with a book under her wing, excited to write more material soon! She enjoys reading (and writing) romance as well as exploring the outdoors, cooking, baking, and spending time with her family, friends, and boyfriend.

You can buy To Sacrifice It All here.

Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

Oh my gosh, it took me forever! When I began writing the book, I knew that I wanted the key takeaway to be about sacrifice, but coming up with a title that displays those sacrifices was incredibly difficult. Eventually I started throwing words together and came up with To Sacrifice it All!

How did it feel when you first saw your book cover? Or when you first held your book in your hands?

When I first held the book in my hands and looked at the incredible cover, I was in love! The cover was exactly what I was looking for and displayed the whole idea of a romantic sunset perfectly!

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

When I was younger I used to write lots of little stories and share them with my dad who, even though he couldn’t decipher what it really said because of my terrible handwriting, loved reading my little stories. When I was in eighth grade, I wrote my dad a story for Christmas about all of our trips down the shore we shared together growing up and the story brought him to tears! Since then, I knew that writing and moving people with my writing was something I wanted to do!

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

Something my readers wouldn’t know about me is that I began writing this when I was in the eighth grade! It was right around Christmastime and I started writing the book (which was intended to be a short story) and kept writing it up until my senior year of high school! (Another thing is I LOVE pickles but that’s less significant.)

What was the most rewarding/meaningful part of publishing your book?

The most meaningful part of publishing my book was all of the help and support I got along the way. Occasionally I’d have a friend read a page and tell me what needs to be changed and I’d be told it’s a great page and to leave it as is, and that support was so meaningful.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

Let it Go by James Bay, Everything Has Changed by Taylor Swift, and Volcano by Emily Hearn.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from reading your book? How do you envision your perfect reader?

The number one thing I hope readers take away is to not be afraid to love (even if it is with a criminal mastermind) and to not be afraid to sacrifice yourself for those you love most.

What new writing projects are you currently working on? Or, other projects that are not writing?

I am currently working on the sequel to To Sacrifice it All, seeing how it was left on a bit of a cliffhanger!

How was working with Atmosphere Press? What would you tell other writers who want to publish?

Working with Atmosphere Press was super helpful; they gave me great tips and tricks on how to come up with different ideas for the book and were very patient with me, since I was just finishing up high school when I was published!

You can buy To Sacrifice It All here.

Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.