I was inspired to write by my own love of stories! I have always wanted to dive into writing, but it wasn’t until I got back into reading that I decided I was ready to put the pen to paper. When I first started I didn’t think I would ever finish a whole book, but here I am nine months later with six completed drafts!
2) Are you a reader? What are some of your favorites?
I’m mostly an audiobook listener, but I really love any type of fantasy romance, especially retold fairy tales! Anything by Kenley Davidson, Melanie Cellier, or Camille Peters are usually my favorites!
3) What is your newest work, and what is going to happen in the future?
I just recently released my third book, Framed in Florals: A Retelling of Cinderella! This is book three out of a series of five, and as of today I have completed the edits for book four and book five is going through a round of beta readers! I am already working on both my second and third series, so there’s lots more books on the way!
4) Do you have advice or tips for Indie Authors?
Don’t compare your victories to anyone else! Every milestone should be celebrated and you should take great pride in even the first strides.
5) What influenced you as a writer?
Definitely my job! I’m a nanny, so I take a lot of inspiration from the incredible imagination of the children of the kiddos I watch. I also write fairy tale retellings, so a lot of their children’s books give me ideas for fresh stories!
1. What inspired you to write? I’ve been a writer in the tabletop roleplaying game field for over two decades now, but I started writing (very poorly) all the way back in grade school. I’m inspired by the usual things for geeks like me: Dungeons and Dragons, Star Trek, Star Wars, and so on… At first it was fascination with the fantastic, but then I realized that you can tell some very engaging stories in these worlds, and I wanted to try my hand at it.
2) Are you a reader? What are some of your favorites? Absolutely! I grew up reading JRR Tolkien, R.A. Salvatore, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. More recently, I’ve enjoyed the Star Trek tie-in fiction from David Mack, Dayton Ward, and Peter David. I enjoy reading in shared universes, even if a lot of people don’t consider them literary.
3) What is your newest work, and what is going to happen in the future? I actually have some exciting news right now. I wrote a roleplaying game book called Battlemasters & Berserkers, which did pretty well as a Kickstarter. Part of the KS was a piece of original barbarian themed fantasy fiction called Rathorn: Savage Adventures. It’s a novella approximately 19,000 words long, which is the first of many. I’ll be releasing new episodes at a rate of one per month for the foreseeable future. These will be going out through my Patreon, which is located here: https://www.patreon.com/Rathorn and possibly Kindle Vella.
4) Do you have advice or tips for Indie Authors? Yes. Don’t be in a rush to publish (which also means, don’t follow my example). If you want to compete, the book needs to be of professional quality, and that means it needs to be polished. Clumsy writing is endemic in the indie publishing realm, and readers pick up on it. It’s more than just fixing misspellings and correcting grammatical errors. You need to have style, and that means eliminating redundancy, extra words, and not phrasing things clumsily. Unless you have an English degree and a ton of editing experience, you’re not going to be able to find and fix all these issues yourself, and frankly even professionals shouldn’t edit their own work anyway (again, follow my advice, not my example).
5) What influenced you as a writer? It was the realization that writing is the only professional endeavor I want to pursue, and it’s the only thing I feel like I have a decent amount of talent for. If it wasn’t for writing, I’d probably be asking customers if they want fries with their order, or locked into some dead-end soul-sucking desk job, like telephone debt collecting. Honestly, it doesn’t matter if I’m writing fiction or hammering out a book full of rules for Dungeons and Dragons, for me it’s the thrill of creation; of bringing something into the world with my name on it. Long after I’m gone, my books will remain, in both physical and digital form.
What inspired you to write? I know this is cliché now, but I’ve always written. Seriously. I started my first novel when I was 12. I was accused of plagiarism in 5th and 6th grades because the stories I wrote for assignments were “too good for a kid to write.” And I’ve always told stories and created worlds with my toys. I just moved that play into the literary world and started putting my worlds and adventures down on paper.
2) Are you a reader? What are some of your favorites? I really love reading old stuff. I’m a nerd for pulp fiction and authors like Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and that circle. I also really love Philip K. Dick’s books and short stories. I also really enjoy reading the mythologies and cosmologies of ancient cultures and religions.
3) What is your newest work, and what is going to happen in the future? My latest book is 3vE, a post-apocalyptic noir scifi novel. I’m going to be writing a few books in the scifi genre and am about to finish the first novel in my “space western” series called Quad City Blues.
4) Do you have advice or tips for Indie Authors? Stick to the story. I see a lot of people in writing groups stressing about things like the color of their MC’s shoes or the geo political history of one country of their massive fantasy world. My question to all of these is: How does it drive the story? Because that’s where the focus should be. Everything in your book from the characters, to the world, to the smallest details are there to push the narrative and get the MC from the beginning to the end. If it’s not needed for that EXPRESS purpose, then it isn’t really needed at all.
5) What influenced you as a writer? Other writers, of course. Reading books by my favorite authors as well as biographies of their lives, enchanted me. I wanted to be just like them, to tell my stories to the world and have them read by people all over. It’s all I’ve ever really wanted in life.
1) What inspired you to write? I have always read, but never considered writing until after attending a beginner’s writing course in 2012. My mind exploded with ideas. I had created a character called Ammo. He never left my head. You could say I’d got the buzz. Not knowing how to write or structure a story, I returned to University to study English Literature and Creative Writing. As a mature student, I had a blast. I stayed on and completed my Master’s in Creative Writing.Ammo is now a character in my books. Maybe you have heard of him? If you have, keep quiet or it will go to his head. Regardless, he will always have a special place in my heart. Even though he is a rogue!
2) Are you a reader? What are some of your favorites? My favourite genres are epic and high fantasy (although I read many others). A few of my favourite fantasy authors are Robert Jordan, Raymond Feist, Brent Weeks, Brandon Sanderson, John Gwynne, Jay Kristof and Patrick Rothfuss. More recently I have been reading YA/NA and I like Sarah J Maas, Raye Wagner and Jennifer Armentrout. I also love reading classics. Everything from Virginia Woolf to the Iliad.
3) What is your newest work, and what is going to happen in the future?
My latest book is the fourth in the Voice that Thunders series and is called A Vow That Clashes.The series follows Mirah and Gabe (siblings) who are at the centre of the conflict between conquering immortals who rule as terrifying gods. It’s epic fantasy. Think epic battles with Immortals and beasts of all kinds, throw in some elemental magic, huge plot twists, portals and unique worlds, intense romance and an ever-growing amount of characters trying to save their world. If you like character-driven fantasy, you’ll love my books. I warn you now; I don’t go easy on them…I have just published the fourth book in the series, entitled A Vow That Clashes. Gabe . As vows and destiny collide, he faces a devastating choice: abandon the people and his allies or forsake his beloved sister. The choice he makes will either bring salvation or destruction.I’m currently writing book five in my series, which is due out later this year.
4) Do you have advice or tips for Indie Authors?
Don’t quit! Hold on to your dreams! Believe in yourself and stay true to your vision. So much will come your way and try to shake you, hold on. Quitters never make it. Writing can be isolating, and sometimes you wonder if anyone even reads/enjoys your work. Reviews help a lot. A well-timed review has saved my sanity more than once when I’ve been second guessing myself. If you are writing your first book, don’t wait until it’s finished before building your profile.Create a short story, prequel or novella, and start getting yourself out there.
5) What influenced you as a writer? I have a fascination for mythology. The older the better. My primary sources are from myths from Mesopotamia. Most people have never heard of them. This is because, until around 150 years ago, the cuneiform tablets detailing their accounts was undecipherable. Mesopotamia is otherwise known as the birthplace of civilization and its historical setting is in the ancient near east. Differing cultures lived in proximity, so there is a blending of myths and traditions. I mainly draw from the Sumerians, the Akkadians, the Semites and the Babylonians.YA readers may have heard the term Nephilim from Cassandra Clare’s series or watching Supernatural among other popular sources. Most modern Nephilim depictions are drawn from Semite sources such as the Book of Enoch, where they are portrayed in an urban setting and regarded as fallen angel/human hybrids. As interesting as this is, the Semite account is only one version of the mythos. Mesopotamian texts differ on many topics. For example, creation epics, deity names and culture heroes. But they agree on one thing… the gods came, slept with human women, and created giant hybrid offspring. Yes, those Titans, gods and beastly monsters from Greek, Roman and biblical myths were known to older civilizations! Some saw these gods in a positive light, others as negative. It makes for great conflict. I wanted to create a work more aligned with the earliest accounts of this mythos.
Samantha Evans--Author 