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

My Interview With... Claude Bouchard

The first interview of 2016 is with USA Today Bestselling Author, Claude Bouchard.  I first met Claude online through Twitter, which is where I meet most of the authors I know.  We swapped books, I sent him a PDF copy of Killing Time and he sent me one of Vigilante, and we've kept it touch from time to time over social media since then.  Vigilante, the first in the Vigilante series, is a brilliant crime thriller, with some great twists.  What Claude thought of Killing Time I'm not 100% sure, I hope he liked it.

Below is a short bio taken from Claude's website, followed by my interview with him.  Enjoy.

Bio: 

Claude was born in Montreal, Canada, at a very young age, where he still resides with his spouse, Joanne, under the watchful eye of Krystalle and Midnight, two black females of the feline persuasion. In a former life, he completed his studies at McGill University and worked in various management capacities for a handful of firms over countless years. From there, considering his extensive background in human resources and finance, it was a logical leap in his career path to stay home and write crime thrillers.

(Taken from ClaudeBouchardBooks.com) 

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

I wrote my first novel in 1995 and two more into 1997 but I can’t really say it was because I’d realized I wanted to be a writer. It was more so I had a story to tell which was then followed by two sequels. Though I did do a bit of agent querying at the time, I soon put my manuscripts aside and continued to concentrate on my career in management. Fast-forward to 2009. I learned of the growing self-pub industry and, as a pastime while job hunting, I dusted off my three novels, intent more on actually seeing them in book format than writing for a living. By the time I had revised and published the third, my mind was buzzing with ideas for a fourth then a fifth and so on and sales were starting to pick up. At some point along the way, I realized I was a writer.

What are you working on right now?

I’m currently slowly progressing with Getting Even, the twelfth installment of my Vigilante series. In addition, I’m working with a Los Angeles producer on adapting my series for television.

How does your work differ from others of its genre?

To say my work is unique would be a vast overstatement or, put more bluntly, a load of crock. With the sheer number of mysteries and crime thrillers out there, I have no doubt my works resemble others just as others are similar to mine. However, as writers, we all develop our own voice and writing style which does reflect our personal touch. My writing has been described as taut, stark and raw, to the point and generally devoid of fluffy fillers. For the most part, I avoid going into detailed descriptions, limiting myself to just enough to get the image across. Past that, I can say mine may be the only ‘vigilante justice’ thrillers often set in Montreal.

Why did you choose the genre you write in?

The catalyst for my first novel, Vigilante, though my story bears no resemblance whatsoever, was the O.J. Simpson fiasco, a true life account of someone literally getting away with murder. Though I would never condone vigilantism in real life, making violent criminals pay for their crimes in my fictional world is highly satisfying. To summarize, consider the following which is the introductory text preceding my book descriptions:

Doesn't everyone fantasize a bit about vigilante justice? Haven't you ever read or heard of some despicable act of violence and secretly wished you could have the opportunity to make the predator pay? Welcome to the VIGILANTE Series, a growing collection of suspense best sellers best described as thrillers and mysteries which will have you cheering for the assassin as justice is delivered in a clandestine fashion. But remember, this is fiction so it's not a crime.

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

Unless I’m on vacation, which means away from home, my work week runs from Sunday to Saturday starting somewhere between 6:00 and 7:00am and ending at 4:00pm. Bathroom breaks are permitted as required as is meal prep time though meals are usually consumed at my work station. My days are spent behind the keyboard facing two monitors, one displaying an assortment of open internet tabs and the other, a variety of required documents, the main one generally being my current WIP. Although I do write in the morning, the best of my writing is usually done in the afternoon. Mornings are often devoted more so to social media, correspondence, promotion, recordkeeping and so on. It’s a wonderful, chaotic form of multi-tasking which I’m quite comfortable with.

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

My books are, at the very best, very loosely and vaguely planned ahead of time… Yes, I’m a pantser. That being the case, the bulk of my research is done while I work through a writing project as I generally wouldn’t know what to research before I started.

How does your writing process work?

A vague idea leads to a title which, incidentally, is always the first thing I type. I then simply create a fitting story to match the title. Easy. :)

Who are your writing influences?

Anything I’ve read has influenced me as will anything I read going forward. Reading is a major component of writing as it helps expand our vocabulary and further develop a variety of grammatical skills. That said, I could list hundreds of authors who have had an impact on me but I’ll name just a few such as Child, Deaver, Crais, Connelly and Grafton.

What other authors do you read?

In recent years, I’ve been reading indie authors almost exclusively including Russell Blake, Gary Ponzo, Toby Neal, Nick Russell, Deborah Brown, Luke Romyn, Robert Bidinotto and many others.

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

I’ve developed a growing interest in sleeping in recent years but only at night. I paint though not much of late. I also read, of course, play guitar, love to cook and my wife and I travel as much as we can.

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

I do hear from my readers who say things like, “I hate you and I want to run you over with my truck.” Nah, I’m just kidding about the hate and truck thing. Seriously, readers contact me via Twitter, Facebook and my website, sometimes simply to tell me how much they’ve enjoyed my series and, often, to ask me if and when I will be releasing the next installment. It’s quite touching and flattering and it certainly is a wonderful bonus to this writing gig. Several have become good friends and there are couple of elderly gents to whom I send an email whenever I release a new book in print.

 Links:

Claude Bouchard Books 

Twitter 

Facebook 

Facebook Author Page 

Amazon.com 

My Interview With... Kristy Brown.

For December's author interview I'm glad to introduce YA fantasy author, Kristy Brown. I read the first in her Kiera's Quest series, Awakenings, a while ago and absolutely loved it. Kiera's Quest is in four parts, (Awakenings, Sacrifices, Perceptions and Choices) and is published by Muse It Up Publishing.

Below is a short bio from Kristy, and a synopsis of the Kiera's Quest series, followed by my interview with her, enjoy:

Bio: Kristy Brown

I live in the North-East of England, UK. From an early age I had a love of writing, mostly poetry and short stories.

I trained and graduated in Performing Arts. After time went by, I wanted to re-visit my real passion. So after my first son was born, I began writing Kiera’s Quest.

I live happily with my very supportive husband and my two beautiful boys. I have many ideas for stories! I just wish there were more hours in the day.

(Taken from museituppublishing.com)

Kiera's Quest series:

Meet Kiera, a pretty, intelligent, and talented girl, brought up by her uncle, and abandoned by her parents. Life is as normal as she believes it to be, apart from the deep ache inside her, telling her she’s different.

For years, Kiera’s had dreams where she ventures into a different reality. She’s not alone; a presence is always there, keeping her safe, yet she feels vulnerable, and hunted.

Zakk, Prince of Zantar, is under the Witch Queen’s spell as she tries to take over his world. He crosses paths with Kiera, and their fates are entwined.

As their journey unravels, she learns that she is not the only one affected by this Prince. Who is on her side? Will she find out why she has been chosen? How can someone so young, defeat such evil? Will she find the strength to save the ones closest to her? Will this be Kiera’s only Quest?

‘Kiera’s Quest’ is a journey of discovery, from a small seaside town, to a Kingdom from another realm. Will her life ever be the same again?

 -

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

I was about thirty. I'd just had my first child. I started with short stories whilst he slept and they just got a bit longer each time. I wrote a lot of poetry as a teen and still have the odd moment when I feel a poem coming on.

What are you working on right now?

Right now I'm writing a Young Adult Paranormal Romance series. It's a lot racier than Kiera's Quest! It's in first person, not in third like Kiera.

How does your work differ from others of its genre?

That's tough as there are so many writers that I haven't read yet. Hopefully mine is a mix of old classics like The Wizard of Oz and Clash of The Titans etc. It's a bit of a fairy tale with a modern twist.

Why did you choose the genre you write in?

I love fantasy! I read it, watch it and write it. Reality can be a little bleak sometimes, so I like to get lost in a good tale, the more farfetched the better! I do like to mix it up though, so often I'll read something which is more down to earth.

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

Well, I like to write for two to three hours Monday to Friday when my kids are at school. I need total silence!

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

That's the great thing about fantasy, hardly any! I can make up whatever land or race of being I want.

How does your writing process work?

Usually I handwrite a chapter in rough. Then I transfer to the computer and edit and re-edit it as I go. I usually know how my book will end before I start them. I just need to find a way of reaching that point.

Who are your writing influences and what other authors do you read?

There are so many great writers...Roald Dahl, John Green, Jennifer Armentrout, James Dashner, Rick Yancey, Becca Fitzpatric.... I could go on.

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

Read, watch movies, spend time with my kids,  see my friends, think about writing...

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

I mostly read their reviews, which 'mostly' are great. If people don't enjoy my stuff,  that can hurt but I'm not silly enough to think I can please everyone! Sometimes a reader will Tweet me, it's always been a positive experience when they do.

Links:

Muse It Up Publishing Website

Facebook

Twitter