Welcome to Five Questions With—An interview series where I talk with some of my favourite writers, publishers, agents, and other industry folks. This week, I’m excited to talk with Tasneem Alam about werewolf heroines, emotional world building, and how characters can surprise you into writing your best work.
I’m excited about your series WolfGirl. What can you tell me about that series as a whole, and specifically about Truths Collide, the next book in the series?
Thank you! I’m thrilled you’re excited about WolfGirl! This series follows (will follow) three shifter women, each finding themselves at a crossroad between what they expected life to be and the reality of who they are becoming. It plays on the idea of we plan and the universe plans, and we ultimately end up where we were always meant to be.
In As Worlds Tilt, we meet Rose Craving—the first female shifter to turn into a white wolf, a form historically reserved for men of royal blood. Though she’s a princess and a direct descendant of the very first shapeshifter, Rose’s transformation sparks a change in the supernatural world. Her story sets the foundation of my supernatural world.
The next book in the series, Truths Collide, shifts focus to Scarlett Belmont—a former high school cheerleader from a Beta bloodline who’s caught in a storm of betrayal, secrets, and ancient powers. This book pushes everything further to a darker storyline, the heartbreaks, and the ongoing supernatural war that was introduced in As Worlds Tilt. Truths Collide touches heavily on self-discovery and rebuilding an identity for your own self. Scarlett was always the golden girl, the perfect daughter, girlfriend, and found herself entering a life to please everyone around her. She convinced herself that’s what she wanted too, until her transformation night when a ghost from the past resurfaces, making her question the life she’s set up for herself. Truths Collide takes place ten years after Rose’s story so we also get to see how Rose and other characters from the first book has evolved.
The third book is still to come 🙂
Do you have any advice on world-building? What do you prioritize when it comes to creating a strange world?
I like to world-build as the story unfolds. You can’t create an entire universe in an outline—at least, not one that feels alive and real. Sometimes the best parts of a world emerge while writing: a new idea sparks, a plot thread takes a different turn, or an origin story evolves into something far more compelling than what was planned. It’s part of the magic and one of my favorite things of being a writer. Sometimes the story, the world, tells me where it wants to go.
Series are especially powerful for this because you don’t have to confine everything to one book. You get space to build slowly, through different characters, timelines, and layers of lore and pages to explore.
What I prioritize most is how my characters feel about the world. Their perception creates emotional grounding. WolfGirl is a great example of that. In As Worlds Tilt, we see the world through Rose—a royal with access to supernatural politics and inner knowledge. But in Truths Collide, Scarlett’s perspective is completely different. Her world feels more threatening, more guarded. The shifts in viewpoints shapes the tone, and the way readers experience the world.
Is there a moment from Truths Collide that you can’t stop thinking about? A certain character you fell in love with more than any others?
Oh there are many! Truths Collide is a story that’s lived with me for a long time, and some scenes genuinely brought me to tears as I wrote them. The moments that stay with me most are Scarlett’s interactions with her family and best friends. They’re tender and full of love. She has a deep relationship with each of her family members and you can tell she’s deeply loved. Also the fierce loyalty between her and her friends and the way they have her back is really sweet.
If I’m being honest, the character I truly fell in love with was Scarlett, herself. When my editor read the first draft, she told me she wanted more from Scarlett—more depth, more vulnerability, more growth. So I dug deeper and the more I wrote, the more I realized how much strength, grace, and resilience she carried. She’s raw, she’s grieving. She was a girl who had everything, lost it, and then rose from the ashes into her own power.
Marketing is so hard. What advice would you give other writers on how to build an author brand and create buzz for their work?
Marketing is so hard! I’m definitely not an expert and I’m learning every day. But one thing I’ve realized is how important community is. Networking, finding author friends, supporting each other’s work. It really does go a long way!
It helps to pay attention to themes, stay up to date with what other authors are doing, and notice what gets readers excited. Content creation for marketing can be a chore and so time consuming where we would just rather be writing! But when I need a break from writing, Canva is my best friend. Having a theme and templates created around it can make the process smoother. But more than anything, you have to have fun with it. Show up as yourself. Be genuine and build real connections.
At the end of the day, yes our books are our products. But we are the brand as the author. Readers connect with us just as much as the stories we tell. So don’t be afraid to share the process, your passions, or your personality. The followers and sales will come but don’t forget why you started writing in the first place. Don’t ever lose that in a world of algorithms.
Bonus question: Have you ever taken a picture of a weird bird?
It was too pretty and aesthetically pleasing not to take a picture of this guy chilling. Birds are inspiring.
Tasneem can be found on Instagram
To buy:
Finnian Burnett 