An Interview with Ligia de Wit, author of Touch of Faete

Ligia de Wit is a quirky bilingual writer residing in Mexico City. An eternal romantic who’s loved fairy tales and swashbuckling stories all her life, she blends both with fun language and a hefty sprinkle of romance while she’s at it. Her stories are full of personality with endearing characters.

You can find her short stories with Palamades Publishing, Backchannel Magazine, and WordCrafter. Three of her short stories have received an Honorary Mention in Writers of the Future. She has published a fantasy romance novel, Touch of Faete, with Cursed Dragon Ship Publishing.

When not concocting stories, she works at a global leading distributor company. Chat with her at ligiadewit.com.

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

This is a fun story. Like any other writer, I have been a devoted reader since a tender age, and happy to be on the receiving end for many, many, many years. Then these little people invaded my brain and played stories night after night. Year after year. And I thought I was losing it! “Hey, all these books have affected my brain and it thinks it’s a cinema of sorts for these imaginary people who are taking over.” So I had to let those little people loose and they happily jumped into the page. Once they found the path, they wouldn’t stop! That’s when I realized I was a writer.

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

I was pretty good at martial arts when I was young. A woman fighting against men in a time when it wasn’t common (don’t look at me odd, it was on the “tatami”). I was the one to beat and man, it felt good! But then studies took over and sadly I didn’t keep on. I love martial arts for sure but no more practicing it. I’m also an engineer, and it feels good to balance the logical part of my brain with my creativity.

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

It took me some drafts to nail the title, but it felt obvious once I found it. It makes so much sense to the story, since it’s a word play involving two main elements: fae and fate. The FMC is a young woman, touched by fae—which basically means the fae are her mentors and gave her a touch of their power—and fate plays a hand for when she meets one of the worse enemies of her beloved fae mentors. Hence, Touch of Faete 🙂 The next two books in the trilogy also use “Faete” in the title.

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

I feel so lucky with this cover. When the designer sent it to me and my publisher, we both fell in love with it. Neither of us wanted to change even one element, that’s how much in love we were. And so lucky too when I received the author copies, since I had my two best writing friends next to me, writers who’ve been with me during this journey, and opening the box with them at my side, it’s the best feeling ever.

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

A huge smile on their face as they read the last sentence and a faraway look as they sigh a perfect sigh. A perfect reader loves a fun fantasy adventure sprinkled with romance, and has patience to understand the world building.

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

Reading the reviews from my readers. Seeing how they’re loving it, how they enjoy the journey of my beloved characters, that’s just the best thing ever!

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

This is book one in a trilogy. Book two will be published March 2024, and I’m currently working on the last book and it’s oh so exciting! My main goal is to make my readers happy by delivering a great story, and one that they could say, “Now I want to read it all again!”

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