The inspiration comes from wanting to make someone else feel what I feel when I read a book I love.
2) Are you a reader? What are some of your favorites?
Yes, I love to read. Anything fantasy and paranormal typically YA. Richelle Mead and Cassandra Claire are two of my favorite authors.
3) What is your newest work, and what is going to happen in the future?
Newest work is Hunted. It’s part of a series about Tasi, a dhampyr girl left orphaned and on the run with her younger sister. They are being hunted for their blood. Presale is happening now. I’m currently working on editing book two with my developmental editor and writing the first draft of book three.
4) Do you have advice or tips for Indie Authors?
Tips and advice? Read your work out loud and find an editing team you trust. Lastly, be open to all feedback, good and bad. Not everyone will like your work and that’s okay.
5) What influenced you as a writer?
I was influenced by authors, my family, music, the list goes on.
I always loved writing. It was my creative outlet, and the way I felt most comfortable communicating. Ultimately, it became cathartic and therapeutic for me.
2) Are you a reader? What are some of your favorites?
Yes I love reading. I tend to do a lot of historical fiction and philosophy.
3) What is your newest work, and what is going to happen in the future?
Keeper 829 is my debut novel. It’s a sci-fi/dystopian set in 2098. After releasing it on 12/31/21, I set to work on book 2 of the series. Warder 516 will be out November 1st of this year and is available for pre-order on Amazon.
4) Do you have advice or tips for Indie Authors?
Believe in yourself, and don’t let yourself be bogged down by rigid structure, expectations, or what you think a book should look like. Tell your story. Write. Edit. Write some more. It gets better with time. We all have a story worth telling.
5) What influenced you as a writer?
My wife is my greatest inspiration. She is my partner, and she inspires me to push myself each day.
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, and when I met my coauthor, Kayla Hansen, online, we hit it off. We got started twenty years ago with these stories, though we only started writing them in book format in 2019. Our characters evolved over the years until we finally started publishing the stories.
2) Are you a reader? What are some of your favorites?
I wish I read more than I do! But it’s hard to find the time between being a mom and an author. I love books with elements of romance in them. As long as it’s well written, I enjoy anything that has a love story in it.
3) What is your newest work, and what is going to happen in the future?
My most recent release is Axiom of the Queen’s Arrow, book 10 in the Pantracia Chronicles. Though, I recommend reading the first 9 books before this one, of course. I can’t give a full presentation, as spoilers, but we see some crucial moments in this book and really epic scenes. It’s one of the best, and we loved writing it! There will be three more books to finish the main series. 🙂
4) Do you have advice or tips for Indie Authors?
Slow down. Enjoy the process, and make sure you do it right from the start. You save a lot of grief and cash if you do your research about marketing before ever spending a dime.
5) What influenced you as a writer?
Kayla did a lot, since we grew up constantly writing together. My highschool english teacher, Mr. McKeller, always encouraged me to write, along with a few professors in university. Their words always stayed with me.
1) What inspired you to write? I’m inspired by a lot of things, and each of my books are different. Dylan for instance was inspired by the wonderful people I met while driving an ACCESS bus (transportation for the developmentally impaired). Cho Nisi was inspired by a human predicament…my own…having made errors in my life, not because I’m bad but because I’m human and I wanted to show the journey one young woman takes to redeem herself and fight for her goals. Ian’s Realm was inspired by my grandsons who were raised without fathers…that they could be the man they wished their father had been for them…so I told of Ian and his struggles to fight that dragon that kept him down. Darkness Holds the Son is inspired by today’s society and the need for parents to keep fighting to protect their children regardless of the influences in this world that would steal their children’s minds and bodies. Inspiration is everywhere.
2) Are you a reader? What are some of your favorites? Yes, I love to read. I’ve loved books by Joe Abercrombie (The Shattered Seas series), by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn), some of the classics like Pride and Prejudice, Through the Looking Glass, there are so many I couldn’t name them all. I love immersing myself in a good book.
3) What is your newest work, and what is going to happen in the future? Darkness Holds the Son is my newest, just released April 14 th . I have plans to release another spin-off novel to the Sword of Cho Nisi series, and I’m playing around with maybe doing some Vella stories that spin off from that saga as well.
4) Do you have advice or tips for Indie Authors? Keep studying, reading, and honing your craft. Most importantly write what you love, the passion is catching. 5) What influenced you as a writer? Authors like Robert Jordan, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Lewis Carroll have influenced my writing, but there have been literary works I read even as a youngster that have influenced me. Shakespeare, Poe, Mark Twain. I just wish I had started novel writing earlier!
Please read about my newest interview of my book Ella! My book has been out for over a year, and made 120 reviews, and self published! So happy about my achievement!
What inspired you to write?I think it was the book that I read as a kid – I recognized that they had invented these worlds and thought that hey, you could do that! I worked at it on and off in high school and received good response, which encouraged me to do more. I guess, then, the short answer is the reading I’ve done encouraged me to write.Are you a reader? What are some of your favorites?Absolutely! My favorite author – the one I can always return to – is Robert Heinlein. I have all of his books, save two, and constantly go back to them to re-read. But I’m not stuck in the past. Some of my current favorite authors include Tanya Huff, Seanan McGuire, Douglas Adams, Elliott Kay, Clive Cussler, David R. Palmer, Donald Westlake, Spider Robinson, David Weber, Eric Flint, John Ringo…I’ll pretty much give anyone’s work a try; if I enjoy it, I’ll dive deep.
What is your newest work, and what is going to happen in the future?The most recent book is The Road to the Stars, and it just came out on September 15. This is Volume 2 in The Cassidy Chronicles, which launched in May. TRTTS starts five years after Volume 1, so in 2118, and catches up with Cass (Aiyana Cassidy) and Ken (Kendra Cassidy). They’re living quiet lives, more or less, raising their children, and pursuing their passion projects when the world government reaches out to them for a little project. Things evolve from there as they’re faced with new adversaries, new challenges, and higher stakes than they’d ever faced before.The audiobook for TRTTS should be out around the first of the year, and that should coincide with the launch of Volume 3 (which I’ve started and am about 42k words in).
Do you have advice or tips for Indie Authors?Don’t stop. Don’t stop writing.Don’t stop reading.Don’t stop marketing.Most of all, don’t stop connecting with your fans! Remember, they’re the ones who are buying your books, so give them a reason!
What influenced you as a writer?At this point, everyone I’ve read has influenced my style. There are bits of Heinlein-esque prose in there; there’s a skewed view of the universe courtesy of Adams; there’s plenty of action and space travel from both Weber and Ringo. I’m always reading, so I’m always learning and changing.
Do you prefer a normal book or ebook? I love my regular books. LOVE them. I have many shelves of autographed copies which I wouldn’t discard on a bet! But I have to admit that ebooks are convenient; all I need to have is my phone! Still, there isn’t anything quite like holding a book in my hands to draw me into a universe.
This week for my author interview, I decided to interview someone I have met via social media who writes fantasy like myself. She has 2 books out in her series. The Second book just came out not too long ago. May I present Tehani Nelson:
What inspired you to write?
I’ve always loved reading, but I never really felt like classic fantasy offered enough of the heroines I wanted to follow. I wanted strong, amazing women leading armies. I was tired of damsels in distress and bikini mail. I was tired of love triangles and watching romance take center stage. So, I started writing the women I wanted to see. I started crafting matriarchal societies where girls are raised to forge their own swords rather than to wait for a glass slipper. I wasn’t afraid to hold back from gruesome, epic battle scenes and true military fantasy just because there was a woman at the helm. Apparently, I wasn’t the only person craving that world, because my readers have really responded well to the books so far.
Are you a reader? What are some of your favorites?
I love reading, and while I write fantasy, most of my favorite books are in other genres. Fahrenheit 451 will probably always be my favorite book, and I read it a couple times each year. I also love To Kill a Mockingbird. I think I’ve read Beowulf more times than any other book, however. Probably because it’s such a short read. But I love the poetic language of the poem and the use of kennings. Plus, there’s a dragon.
What is your newest work, and what is going to happen in the future?
I just put out Faoii Betrayer, the second full-length novel in the Faoii Chronicles. It’s been doing really well, and I’m glad I got to explore a more urban side of Imeriel. It also drew a lot of influence from modern issues, and I think it was important to explore those issues in a different light.
I’m currently working on Faoii Ascended, the last of the trilogy, but I also have another Faoii short story coming out in an anthology later this year. Passageways will be a collection of short stories from Indie authors, with each tale taking place in a unique universe. It’s a great chance to get a glimpse at 10 unique literary worlds without diving into a full novel or series. My story “The Teeth of Justice” gives the first look at Faoii outside of Imeriel.
Do you have advice or tips for Indie Authors?
Don’t compare yourself to other authors. There will ALWAYS be someone who writes more than you each day or who makes more sales or who found a better agent or who can spend more on ads. There will ALWAYS be people who seem like they’re doing better than you are, and it’s discouraging. So the best thing I know how to teach you is this: Don’t compare yourself to them. Compare yourself to YOU. Look at the You from 5 years ago. How proud would they be of what you’ve accomplished? How much have you learned since then? How amazed do you think current you would be if you could see where you’ll be in 5 years? Focus on that. There are MILLIONS of books out in the world. Thousands more are being published each week. It is so easy to get lost in that literary sea. So create your rock now. Remember where you’ve started and how far you’ve come. No matter how much it might feel like you’re drowning, you’ll always have that to come back to in order to ground yourself.
What influenced you as a writer?
I take a lot of influence from the world around me. Even if I don’t mean for it to happen, I draw heavily on current events and social issues, and they find their ways into the Faoii Chronicles. But that’s good. Literature should be a reflection of the world. It needs to be relatable and realistic, even if it’s Fantasy. The best way to do that is to draw from what you know and see.
Do you prefer a normal book or ebook?
I mostly read paperbacks, but I don’t have any sort of aversion to ebooks. I don’t know why so many people loft one above the other. Let people read in whatever manner suits them. In a society where reading is becoming less and less common, how dare we decry any version of it out of some misplaced sense of superiority. Reading expands your mind. Who cares how the new thoughts get into your head? This applies to audiobooks, too. The world needs to stop looking down on other people over arbitrary things. Books are books are books. The Faoii Chronicles are available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook. They’re available on KU and Audible. No version is inherently better or worse than any of the others. Just read because you love the story. Pick whichever medium brings you the most convenience and joy.
Samantha Evans--Author 