What is your favorite writing and reading genre?
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but I have to say high fantasy.
Where and how did you get your idea for your books?
It’s always a number of things… but my core muse is ZEDD – yes, the EDM artist. His song “Clarity” inspired the Air Awakens series by helping me develop and define the central romance between Vhalla and Aldrik. His song “Transmission” off his next studio album helped inspire the Alchemists of Loom by constructing Arianna’s backstory. Naturally, I’m excited for his next album!
If a movie or TV show would be created for your books, which actor/actress would you like to see playing the lead roles for your books?
I actually don’t have any in mind. I’m the worst at this and I’ve never tried to get better at “casting” because I’ve always enjoyed seeing who my readers come up with. The closest thing I can think of is Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and Tom Hiddleston’s Loki because they helped inspire Princes Baldair and Aldrik when I was working on the story. But I imagine Baldair and Aldrik to look a bit different and quite younger than either of these actors.
When did you decide to become a writer?
There’s two ways I can answer this… I’ve always enjoyed writing, so in that respect I’ve been a “writer” all my life. But I assume you mean full-time author/professional? That decision came when I’d written the Air Awakens series and I didn’t want to give up on it. I didn’t go full-time until I was confident it could pay the bills, I’m boringly pragmatic that way.
How did you get your book published? How long did it take for you to get it published?
I ended up self-publishing Air Awakens. I queried 111 agents with it over about a year and didn’t receive an offer of representation. After making the decision to self-publish it, it took about another 8 months for editing, cover design, and all that.
Do you ever get writer’s Block? If so, which book did you get the worst while writing?
The first time I ever got bad writer’s block was with The Crown’s Dog, an upcoming Air Awakens prequel. I think it’s because I was so focused on writing the Loom Saga it was really jarring to jump back to the Air Awakens world, since they’re completely different.
What is the average time for you to write a book?
For the first draft of a book about 100,000 words long is 6-8 weeks. But that’s just first word to last word of the draft. The time doesn’t take into account world building, planning, editing… All of that together and it’s much closer to 6 months to a year.
For your own reading, do you prefer kindle or paperback books?
Kindle, because I don’t always have my Kindle on me but the iPhone app makes it really convenient and saves my spot between devices.
How are the covers made for your books?
For both my series, I found the artists (Merilliza Chan for Air Awakens. Nicholas D. Grey for the Loom Saga) on Deviant Art. After discussing the project and entering into an agreement I send over my ideas and sketches. They prepare a few thumbnails that I choose from to decide on what will be the final cover layout. Then, it’s illustrating out the few image and I get to add a bit of input here and there along the way. After that, I take the final image and prepare it for print by putting it on a printer’s template and setting up the text.
What advice would you give writer wannabes and future/young authors?
Write every day. It’s like anything else… The more practice you have the more you’ll improve. You’ll also end up writing faster and longer because you’ll get used to it.
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