My Interview With... Luke Romyn

February's author is one  I've wanted to get in my My Interview With... series since I came up with the idea, the USA Today Bestselling Author, Luke Romyn.

The first book of Luke's I read was The Dark Path.  I wasn't sure what to expect, I can be quite a fickle reader, but the character of Vain grabbed me from the beginning, and kept hold all the way to the end, never knowing what was going to come next.

His books span the genres of action, thriller and horror, with the right mixture of all these elements to create riveting reads of his ten previous novels, with his eleventh, Walking With Shadows out soon.

Below is Luke's bio, taken from his website, followed by my interview with him

A terrifying storm lashed Sydney’s North Shore on June 21st, 1975. Boats were swamped and
jetties smashed in what some claim was the worst storm to hit the coast for four decades.

In the midst of the chaos, Luke Romyn’s parents battled to get to a hospital to birth their baby boy.
Normally their idyllic island cottage was a near-paradise; on this night the journey to the mainland in
their tiny boat seemed like a passage through Hell. Their son was born near midnight, but part of
the storm never left him.

When Luke reached fifteen years of age his father was killed while working in Fiji, leaving Luke and
his mother alone. At times, the only things to get Luke through his grief were the stories playing out
in his head, endless fantastical tales of lands both distant and near, with characters who would
protect him from any tragedy.

At eighteen, Luke began working in nightclubs as a bouncer. Unbeknownst to him, this was simply
the first step on a trek which would dictate much of his life from that point on. For over two
decades since, Luke has worked in the security industry; from bouncing in some of Australia's
roughest pubs and nightclubs to protecting Mickey Mouse and the Disney crew from the
overzealous jaws of tenacious toddlers. He's been bodyguard for celebrities internationally and
chased feral pigs and snakes from jungle sets on Steven Spielberg productions. Luke has traveled
the globe and spent time in some of the most amazing locations the world has to offer.

This experience fuels the Australian writer’s ever-expansive imagination, and he pours it into his
novels, combining fact with fiction, history with fantasy, delivering engrossing action-thrillers which
leave fans gasping for more. Luke’s quick wit has seen his social media following explode, and he is
currently one of the most prolific social media celebrities in Australia, with several hundred thousand
followers across the internet.

Luke Romyn has gone on to become a USA Today best selling author and is now one of the most
popular indie authors in the ever-growing ebook market. He personally completes everything from
cover art to final formatting, working tirelessly with editors to refine the best stories possible for his
readers. The results are international bestsellers you're certain to love diving into. Over 550,000
readers can't be wrong. - See more at: http://www.lukeromyn.com/Author_Bio.html#sthash.tQ5Kf0Jw.dpuf

Bio:

A terrifying storm lashed Sydney’s North Shore on June 21st, 1975. Boats were swamped and jetties smashed in what some claim was the worst storm to hit the coast for four decades.

In the midst of the chaos, Luke Romyn’s parents battled to get to a hospital to birth their baby boy. Normally their idyllic island cottage was a near-paradise; on this night the journey to the mainland in their tiny boat seemed like a passage through Hell. Their son was born near midnight, but part of the storm never left him.

When Luke reached fifteen years of age his father was killed while working in Fiji, leaving Luke and his mother alone. At times, the only things to get Luke through his grief were the stories playing out in his head, endless fantastical tales of lands both distant and near, with characters who would protect him from any tragedy.

At eighteen, Luke began working in nightclubs as a bouncer. Unbeknownst to him, this was simply the first step on a trek which would dictate much of his life from that point on. For over two decades since, Luke has worked in the security industry; from bouncing in some of Australia's roughest pubs and nightclubs to protecting Mickey Mouse and the Disney crew from the overzealous jaws of tenacious toddlers. He's been bodyguard for celebrities internationally and chased feral pigs and snakes from jungle sets on Steven Spielberg productions. Luke has traveled the globe and spent time in some of the most amazing locations the world has to offer.

This experience fuels the Australian writer’s ever-expansive imagination, and he pours it into his novels, combining fact with fiction, history with fantasy, delivering engrossing action-thrillers which leave fans gasping for more. Luke’s quick wit has seen his social media following explode, and he is currently one of the most prolific social media celebrities in Australia, with several hundred thousand followers across the internet.

Luke Romyn has gone on to become a USA Today best selling author and is now one of the most popular indie authors in the ever-growing ebook market. He personally completes everything from cover art to final formatting, working tirelessly with editors to refine the best stories possible for his readers. The results are international bestsellers you're certain to love diving into. Over 550,000 readers can't be wrong.

(Taken from lukeromyn.com)

 

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

There is no identifiable moment from my past when I suddenly thought, “That’s it, I’ll enter the masochistic world of writing.”  I think I always wanted to express myself in one form or another but never had the guts to step off the platform of the norm and into the swirling abyss of the unknown that was writing at the time. Eventually, however, the pull became too strong and I simply sat down at a computer and typed my first word. For the record, it sucked.

What are you working on right now?

I’m currently working on my eleventh novel, titled Walking with Shadows. This is a definite sidestep away from the fantasy thrillers I’m known for, with the premise revolving around an author and a young boy being the only two survivors of a plane crash in the Amazon. They’re set upon by guerrillas intent on kidnapping them for ransom, and the duo is forced to escape into the jungle, a realm where an author from New York and ten-year-old boy definitely don’t blend in. To communicate with the boy, the author begins to tell him fictional stories involving incredible characters. Unfortunately, neither of them have any idea how to react when the characters from his stories start to come to life in the rainforest around them. 

How does your work differ from others of its genre?

I have a very hard time niching my writing into a genre. This is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do. There are elements of thriller, action & adventure, horror, and fantasy in almost all my books; they don’t slip into a nice category that says, “Here I am, love me in all my glory!” My imagination at times takes off in odd tangents that I’m not entirely in control of, and sometimes this results in great adventures, but in others it ends up as a garbled mess that gets deleted and scrubbed from my memory as swiftly as possible. In short, I find it difficult to compare my work to anyone else’s. I think it’s good, and my fans tend to think it’s good, and at the end of the day, I believe that’s what really matters.

Why did you choose the genre you write in?

I never chose it; it chose me.

What is your work schedule like when you're writing?

I get up every day and enter my office with a set plan of attack for the day, whether it be writing, editing, marketing, graphic design, or researching – sometimes a combination of more than one. I work there until it’s time to eat and have a break, usually around dusk. After I eat and chill out for a short while, I dive back into the office and work for another four of five or six hours. Some days this results in highly productive results, on others, I spend ten to fifteen hours bashing my face against the desk, yelling at my characters to get their act together.

How much research do you do before and during a writing project?

That totally depends on the project. For instance, there was barely any research needed for my latest novel apart from various trees and potential food sources available in the Amazon. When I wrote The Prometheus Wars books, however, based as they were on mythology, both Greek and Norse, I needed to look something up practically every line. Same goes for The Legacy Chronicles, which revolved around the Biblical end of days. I knew I needed to be on the money or risk being stabbed metaphorically several times for my ignorance. As a writer, you have to understand that someone, somewhere, is out there, just waiting for you to screw up.

How does your writing process work?

I have a timer beside my keyboard set to 40-minute intervals. For 40 minutes I write without distraction. Then for 40 minutes I distract without writing. My brain needs to cool down or risk going into meltdown. But if I get too sidetracked, I’m likely to wander off through the hills of social media, never to be seen again. The timer keeps me honest, and I usually manage 2000 – 4000 words per day, depending on how much research I need to do. Sometimes, if I’m on a scorching run, I skip the research and leave a note to go back to it.

Who are your writing influences?

I grew up reading all the time. We weren’t allowed to watch too much TV as kids, so most of my spare time was spent lost in books. Fantasy novels always attracted me. Just the way they broke free from reality, stretching my imagination in many varied ways, helped me to escape, and this translated to my adult life. Stephen Donaldson, David Gemmell, Raymond E. Feist to name just a few, but I also loved Stephen King’s sideslips from reality, what I always referred to as a slow suicide. His books are like subtle trickles that suddenly hit with a tsunami you likely never saw coming, leaving you gasping.

As an adult writer, I can’t bring myself to write epic fantasy, but usually allow something otherworldly into my novels, whether as a tangible element of the tale or, as in Walking with Shadows, an allusion to a character’s own intense imagination. I’m contemplating slipping right over to horror novels, I came close with The Dark Path, but we’ll just have to wait to see what ideas pop up in the future.

What other authors do you read?

Any whose books seem interesting. I recently finished Alive, a sci-fi novel by Scott Sigler, which was fantastic, and now I’m reading The Farseer Trilogy series by Robin Hobb. Dean Koontz is always fascinating, but on the other end of the spectrum, I’m constantly looking to read books by up-and-coming indie authors. There is so much talent available to lay your hands on these days, and readers have an absolute plethora of escapism available to them, and all at the tap of a button.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

I tend to use those fifteen minutes to sleep.

Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?

Fans who have read The Legacy Chronicles have told me how inspired they were by the story, which is truly heartening. People tend to love the humor of Wes in The Prometheus Wars, but equal with this is the number of people who are drawn to the dark assassin, Vain. I am truly blessed to have great readers, and it inspires me to stretch myself to create tales worthy of them.

I encourage my readers to contact me, either through my website or social media. It’s really heartening to find that my newer novels are garnering greater interest than my earlier books, hopefully meaning my craft as a storyteller is slowly developing. For a long time, all people would ask is when the next book with Wes or Vain was coming out, but now they’re all asking about Ryder. I receive a lot of compliments on the scale of imagination in my novels along with how well they have been edited. Half the problem with the indie boom has been the explosion of poorly written books, so for people to recognize how much work goes into mine by myself and my editing team is really rewarding.

Links:

Website 

Twitter

Facebook Author Page

Amazon.com