In a recent interview with Bookish Brews, Angel Eye author Madeleine Nakamura talks about the concept and her experience of defensive writing—the anxiety over imagined criticism that can cause writers to constrain or minimize their work. She shares how this challenge was especially present early in her writing journey and how she began to move past it while working on Cursebreakers and Angel Eye. Focusing on “writing for people who like what I like and understand what I’m saying,” Nakamura discusses the importance of embracing one’s creative instincts.