Amy Anthony, pen name A. L. Slade, is the 19-year-old author of The Bloodshed Of The Betrayed, the first book in the anticipated series The Mercy Chronicles. The book follows the angel Laramie who, after falling in love with the human Maggie, gets banished from Heaven and is left to spend her final days on earth. There, she encounters Lucifer who asks her to join him and who, after her refusal, sets out to make Maggie's life miserable. The book explores sexuality, religion and abuse through a realistic and emotional storyline that has the reader hooked throughout the entire book.
Slade brings this skillfully adapted tale to life with her endless creativity and descriptive story-telling, as her hopes to enlighten readers and portray young authors in a bright and intelligent way is the backbone of her writing career. She has been writing for as long as she can remember, as her craft has always come very naturally to her, and it is undoubtedly her greatest passion in this world.
The Writing Process
There are variations in A.L. Slade's writing process depending on the book she's writing, but she usually prefers to create a storyline on paper. “It’s easier for me to make a timeline and establish the goals I have in mind for the book on paper,” she explains. She creates a “story bubble”- a visual map that establishes the entirety of the timeline and the base of the story- which she later uses to build upon. “[...] Generally, I just like to see where things take me when I start something new, and I go with the flow,” she says.
When it comes to creating characters, sometimes the idea for a character comes first, so she establishes their personality and character before even beginning to consider the rest of the story. However other times, her ideas are more about the plot and she finds herself developing the characters as the story goes, while making revisions to establish them as she writes.
Finally, we noticed that A.L. Slade designed the cover of her debut book herself. When asked about her art, Slade told us that she prioritizes her writing over her art, however, she enjoys both digital and traditional art. Considering she was self-publishing her book, she couldn't afford to hire someone to design the cover art for her, so she decided to do it herself. “The wing illustration on the hardcover edition is probably the art I’m most proud of,” she mentions. She also explains that ever since she started writing The Bloodshed of The Betrayed, she had that specific image in her head. “Seeing it actually come to fruition was a really amazing moment for me,” she adds.
Inspiration and Change
A.L. Slade has taken inspiration from a few authors over the years. “Rick Riordan is probably the reason I started writing,” she claims. His works The Kane Chronicles and the Percy Jackson series have been great sources of inspiration for her. She also mentions “falling in love” with Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows and she expresses her adoration for Madeline Miller's Circe and The Song of Achilles. Sophia Slade and Casey McQuinston are also two authors who have inspired A.L. Slade. She even jokes, “There are so many more that I could name, but that would probably be too long of a list”. Either way, all the authors mentioned above have had a significant impact on her and her writing.
Slade has evolved as a writer since she started taking writing seriously. “When I started, I was a lot more sensitive about people’s opinions of my writing,” she confesses. She paid attention to the people who didn't like her work and that's an obstacle she's struggled to overcome. She's learned, however, to accept constructive criticism and she's decided not to pay attention to reviews, but instead to focus on how she feels about her writing and “hope[s] it has the same effect on other people too.”
Books 1 & 2
While the second book is still not fully ready for release yet, A.L. Slade has shared that the writing process has gotten easier, but she still needs to do a lot of research, much like for The Bloodshed Of The Betrayed, both for unfamiliar identities and religions. While she grew up in a Christian household, she does not consider herself Christian and has to do further research, alongside getting to know more about Muslim customs for a new character.
In The Bloodshed of The Betrayed, the reader encounters two women, an angel named Laramie, and a human called Maggie, who is bisexual. Slade is reluctant to label the angel, as she is a celestial being, however if she had to put it into words, she would probably label Laramie as pansexual.
In the second book of The Mercy Chronicles, titled The Crusade for the Creator and planned to be released in early 2024, A.L. Slade will introduce more characters of different identities. These include two lesbians called Hadiya and Vaya, the latter also being transgender, and Lang, who is gay and asexual. Alongside that, the second book will also give a closer look at Maggie's brother, Oscar. Although it hasn’t been detailed just yet, Oscar is gay and his experiences of trauma due to that will be explored more in depth, alongside exploring Maggie's past. Overall, Slade plans each book to continue where the previous left off, although she has thought about experimenting with different timelines in the same universe.
LGBTQ+ Representation
These past few years, LGBTQ+ representation in writing has come a long way. However, there's still a lot of progress to be made. A.L. Slade, as a queer author herself, is trying to reduce the stigma around LGBTQ+ identities through the diversity of her works. She believes that, despite the changes that are yet to be made, there are already some great examples of queer characters that have made an impact in the LGBTQ+ experience becoming better represented. “These characters,” she mentions, “have been developed and are not simply defined by being the gay best friend”. She gives the examples of Wylan Van Eck and Jesper Fahey from Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo and Jane Su and August Landry from One Last Stop by Casey McQuinston. All in all, Slade thinks that there’s still a long way to go before the LGBTQ+ community can be considered well-represented in writing, however positive changes are being made, and the more people start writing developed, complex LGBTQ+ characters, the more the queer community will benefit.
When asked to point out some flaws of the already existing LGBTQ+ representation, Slade had quite a few things to say. Firstly, she mentions the authors who write LGBTQ+ characters when they, themselves, don't identify with them. “This can be tricky,” she says, “because I’ve always aimed to represent the underrepresented in the most respectful, accurate way possible, but as a cis white (gay) woman, I don’t understand a lot of other LGBTQ+ sexualities and identities.” In order to properly handle the identities she doesn't identify with, A.L. Slade has reached out to sensitivity readers to ensure any identity and sexuality she writes about is represented without perpetuating any offensive or harmful stereotypes. Her goal is to be respectful of all identities and not contribute to the various examples of offensive and inaccurate representation that actually does a lot of harm, however unintentional.
A.L. Slade believes this representation is very important, so she's trying to make an impact in the way the world views queerness, through well-represented queer identities in her works. She’s mostly only written LGBTQ+ characters, and she makes sure the characters’ personalities and motivations are established before their sexuality. That way, they become actual complex characters with substance beyond being queer in any capacity. Slade does her research when needed and also draws insights from her own experiences, both as a lesbian and as someone who has experienced homophobia from a young age due to having grown up with two moms. “I do all this because I think there are so many identities out there that have so little representation,” she explains, “but [they] deserve to see themselves in the world.”
Advice to Aspiring Authors
A.L. Slade's advice to aspiring authors is to not give up and let fear prevent them from doing something they love: “As long as you keep working on what you love, you’ll find the people who love it just as much as you do.” However, in order to find your audience you'll need to work hard; to push yourself -just not too hard- and to keep moving forward. Her final words are an encouragement to authors who struggle with accepting criticism: “Write for yourself, and if you happen to find other people who like it too, even better”.
Ultimately, A.L. Slade's commitment to authentic storytelling and her passion for giving the LGBTQ+ community -and any other community- the representation it deserves are qualities that every aspiring author would be good to cultivate in order to grow as a writer with respect for all of the different aspects of the identities and the characteristics they're writing about.