S02E17-055 Building in Layers with Selina Shapland

Guest Bio

Selina Shapland is a certified fiction book coach who uses her developmental editing knowledge and skills to guide aspiring authors through the shadows of storytelling. She has studied fiction since 2008, and she writes paranormal mysteries, romance and horror too. 

Angels, demons, ghosts, psychics, spirits, vampires, witches, werewolves and monsters populate her stories. Gods and Goddesses grace her fiction pages and she loves sprinkling magic throughout her fictional worlds.

The worlds Selina creates often intersect with our world, but there's always something lurking on the other side of the veil to be discovered by her lead characters. 

In Selina’s writing world, the paranormal is normal, mysteries plague her latest work in progress, and sweet to medium heat romance connects enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, and old crushes with new levels of love with a dash of spice. 

She lives in Holbrook NSW with her leading man. She’s a poodle mumma, a cat servant and an art dabbler.

Links

Contact Selina

Website: https://empoweredwords.com.au

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/selinashapland_dev_editor

Substack: https://empoweredwordsfictioncoach.substack.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/selina.shapland.empowered.words 

Things you can enter

WHATS IN THE CHEST

From Selina: Tarot reading for character development on zoom.

From Angela: 2x Ebooks for 2 winners (both books each)

Elanor and the Song of the Bard and The golden dragon awakens.

From Jessie: Access to her Book Blurb Magic Course. From BCP:2 x $25 Voucher

Treasure chest Give-away 2: (open 17/06/2025 closes 19/07/2025)

 https://www.bushlandcastleproductions.com/treasure-chest

Otherworldly emergence Novella: (Open 05/07/2025 Closes 27/07/2025) https://www.bushlandcastleproductions.com/emergence

Contact the Team

Finding Elara Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FindingElara

Discord : https://discord.gg/Ap8EWpPn

BCP Website: www.bcpcreative.com.au

BCP Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bcp.creative/

BCP Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bcpcreative

Contact Dianna

Website: www.dlnix.com

Facebook: (DL Nix) https://www.facebook.com/Faepatriantales

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/findingelara/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@findingelarapodcast

Sponsor Info

Book Reality https://bookreality.com/

Shadow Lair: https://ko-fi.com/findingelara

Show Notes

• World Building: What is the universe the character is in.
• Starts with the character first and their history.
• Writing contemporary – still need to worldbuild.
• Worldbuilding is layered
• Play: Sookie entering her office
• Talked about the trauma you need to give your characters.
• Has a soft spot for parallel world stories.
• Pre-Plots her stories
• Explores different genres depending on her mood.
• Likes to have pictures of settings for inspiration.

Quotes By Selina

Every Character I write starts out with a little bit of me

The world needs to serve the story

Fast Fire Questions

1. What is your favourite Colour? Red
2. What is your favourite thing to draw Sun or Moon? Moon
3. Would you prefer to live near a Beach or River? Beach
4. What is your dream Holiday destination? Scotland
5. What is your favourite Fairytale? The ugly Duckling

Linking to Elara

Garry: Can a zombie and a ghost come from the same person? Yes, she thinks they could. Because if the person at the time of passing the soul separated from their physical form, so you would be able to have the ghost and then body is reanimated then it could definitely be a zombie.

Ari : What’s you’re go to advice when people are stuck in the shadows? Depends on the scenario. Recommends reaching out to a coach and having that conversation. Check you haven’t written yourself into a corner by writing a tangent. Tangents are often where you end up in the shadows.

Ari: What’s your favourite monster and Why? Vampires. Because they are romantic and dangerous. Complex characters.

Joel: How much of your storyline is dictated by the lore of the creatures? Depends on the character position in the story. If it is a main character it is super important.

DL:  What is your favourite otherworldly emergence storyline? Fan of Harry Potter. Loving the Dark Gothic at the moment, but enjoys a mix of different Genres.