fantasy author

Happy Monday, Fabulous Listener!

Welcome to Inside the Minds of Authors. The podcast that is dedicated to bringing you passionate authors with exciting books. It’s a pleasure to have the talented and fabulous Multi-Genre Author, Ms. Jacqueline E. Smith with us. We are celebrating her latest book, Secondhand. A short story collection that will captivate you.

Jacqueline Smith was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. She attended the University of Texas at Dallas, where she earned her Master's Degree in Humanities. Along with writing and publishing, Jacqueline loves photography, animals, and BTS. To learn more about Ms. Jacqueline and all her fabulous books, check out her website at www.windtrailpublishing.com.

If you are enjoying the podcast and would like to stay in touch, subscribe. You don’t want to miss a single episode.

Happy Listening, DC

In this episode of the How to Be an Author podcast, writing coach Karena Akhavein breaks down the crucial process of defining your writer identity. With practical examples and actionable advice, Karena explores why it's essential for authors to determine the type of writer they want to be. From discussing the differences between fiction and non-fiction authors to exploring various genres such as romance, mystery, thriller, and more, this episode offers a comprehensive overview of the diverse paths available to writers. Karena emphasizes the importance of understanding your strengths, interests, and goals to carve out a niche that aligns with your passion and expertise. Whether you aspire to be a bestselling novelist, a freelance journalist, or a niche blogger, Karena's insights provide clarity and direction for navigating the complex landscape of authorship. Tune in to gain practical strategies for finding your writer identity and embarking on a fulfilling writing journey.

Happy Thursday, Fabulous Listener!

We are almost halfway done with our welcome back celebration. It’s day four and we have the talented Fantasy and Young Adult Author, Ms. Mila Velimirovich. I’m thrilled to be chatting with Ms. Mila about her debut book, Orianna’s Legacy. This is the first book in a seven book series full of adventure and magic.

Mila Velimirovich grew up reading and writing stories, but lacked the confidence to share them. After always telling her students to follow their dreams, she decided it was time to follow her own. Now she is thrilled to share all the stories she has hidden in her mind and give everyone the opportunity to go on amazing adventures in their own home. If you want to learn more about Mila’s journey, just check out her links at: https://Linktr.we/authormilav.

If you are new to the podcast, make sure to subscribe. You don’t want to miss a single episode. We will be back tomorrow as part of our new season's celebration.

Happy Listening, DC

Happy Monday, my Friend!

Welcome to Inside the Minds of Authors. The podcast that is dedicated to bringing you passionate authors with exciting books. We are excited you are joining us this evening. Today, we have debut Fantasy-YA Author, Mr. Jim Hepburn with us. He is chatting with us about his debut novel, Hunted by Fire.

Like many young men in high school cursed with a dash of creativity, Jim found a love for writing, which everybody else thought was practically useless. Those folks urged him to get good at math and science instead, and so he worked at those, but he was never sure if he could hack them out at a university level. After he graduated from said university with an arts degree (where he had to read an awful lot), he wondered what other young people had gone through the same thing.

It's always been his dream to inspire young men and women to pursue STEM projects. As he thinks the world could use as many helping hands as it can get and he thinks they are up to the challenge. To learn more about Jim, you can follow him on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/authorjimhepburn/.

If you would like to get a behind the scenes on the recordings, and watch the unedited episodes, then join our Patreon community. Become a Podcast Junkies and watch the episode before anyone else. Just click here- www.patreon.com/AuthorDCGomez and support the podcast.

Happy Listening, DC

In this episode we’re going to deviate a bit from the usual focus on fiction to talk about writing for tabletop roleplaying games and related media. RPGs have always been deeply interconnected with fantasy, sci-fi, and horror, and right now they are more popular and prevalent than ever before.

James L. Sutter co-created the lore and story-rich fantasy RPG PATHFINDER for Paizo Publishing, which has become one of the most popular roleplaying games in the world. He then took the role of Creative Director on STARFINDER, a science-fantasy RPG that reimagined the world of Pathfinder in a space-faring future.

Along the way, he’s written Pathfinder tie-in novels DEATH’S HERETIC and THE REDEMPTION ENGINE, RPG adventures and source books for Pathfinder, Starfinder, and Dungeons & Dragons, and a large body of short fiction, comics, and video games.

His latest book, DARKHEARTS, is a departure from genre fiction—a young adult romance about estranged bandmates that must reconcile the loss of their best friend, and their unexpected attraction to each other.

DARKHEARTS is available now from Wednesday Books:

• Amazon » 
• Bookshop » 

» Some of the links above are affiliate links. Using them helps support this site and creator. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

All of the RPG work previously mentioned is available at your local game store, or wherever books are sold:

• Pathfinder (1^st Edition) Core Rulebook » 
• Starfinder Core Rulebook » 
• Pathfinder Tales: Death's Heretic » 
• Pathfinder Tales: The Redemption Engine » 

About James L. Sutter

James L. Sutter is a co-creator of the Pathfinder and Starfinder Roleplaying Games. From 2004 to 2017, he worked for Paizo Publishing, starting out as an editor on Dungeon Magazine, moving on to do foundational work for Pathfinder, and eventually becoming the Creative Director in charge of launching Starfinder, as well as the Executive Editor of the Pathfinder Tales novel line for Paizo and Tor.

James is also the author of the young adult romance novel Darkhearts, as well as the fantasy novels Death's Heretic—a finalist for the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel—and The Redemption Engine, which won the 2015 Scribe Award for Best Original Speculative Novel. His short stories have appeared in such venues as Nightmare, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Escape Pod, and the #1 Amazon best-seller Machine of Death. In addition, he's written comic books, essays in venues like Clarkesworld and Lightspeed: Queers Destroy Science Fiction, a wealth of tabletop gaming material, and video games.

When not writing, James has performed with musical acts ranging from metalcore to musical theater. He lives in Seattle.

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• Amazon Profile » 
• Goodreads Profile 

Greta Kelly returns to Fictitious to talk about her new fantasy novel, THE QUEEN OF DAYS. We discuss its origin as a NaNoWriMo project, developing a tightly-contained fantasy setting, and maintaining emotional drama in a fast-paced heist story.

THE QUEEN OF DAYS is breakneck-paced fantasy adventure coming October 24th from Harper Voyager. Order it now at:

• Amazon »
• Bookshop »
• Publisher Site

» Some of the links above are affiliate links. Using them helps support this site and its writers. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

About Greta Kelly

Greta K. Kelly is (probably) not a witch, death or otherwise, but she can still be summoned with offerings of too-beautiful-to-use journals and Butterfingers candy. She currently lives in Wisconsin with her husband EJ, daughters Lorelei and Nadia who are doing their level-best to take over the world.

Follow Greta Kelly

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• Amazon profile »

About THE QUEEN OF DAYS

From Greta Kelly, the author of the Warrior Witch duology, comes The Queen of Days, an epic adventure that weaves together a flawed-but-lovable family of thieves, a battle between fallen gods, and stakes high enough to cause vertigo—perfect for fans of The Lies of Locke Lamora and Six of Crows.

For Balthazar and his family of thieves, stealing a statue during the annual celebration of the god Karanis was just a good bit of fun…or a way to stick it to the governor who murdered his parents. And yeah, the small fortune in reward doesn’t hurt—even if his boss also hired the mysterious Queen of Days to join the crew as “the weapon of last resort…”

Whatever that means.

But Bal doesn’t know the ceremony isn’t simply empty words and dusty tradition; it’s true magic. The kind of magic that rips open a portal for the god himself. Only the idol that Karanis planned on using for a body now lies broken at the Queen of Days’ feet. And half of it is missing.

With the aid of a lovable brawler, a society lady turned bomb maker, a disgraced soldier, and a time-eating demon, Bal must hunt down the missing half of the statue if he has any hope of earning his money, keeping his crew alive…and perhaps even saving all of humanity. But as his journey sends him racing through the city—and across realities—he discovers that doing all this might just doom the city.

The city be damned. It’s time to kill a god.

The Writers Advice Podcast is bought to you by Booksprout.

Booksprout is my go-to platform to share my stories with readers to engage with reviewers before they are launched with the rest of the world. Head to booksprout to increase your online reviews today! Or start reading my YA dystopian series through booksprout now!

This week on the Writers Advice Podcast I am joined by the wonderful Fantasy Romance Author, Jenny Hickman.

On this episode Jenny and I talk about:

- Her growing career from where it started to now.

- Falling in love with and writing romance.

- Fairytale Retellings

- Traditional vs Self Publishing

- The reality of the business of wiring

-A sneak peak of her new release

-Her writing schedule

- And all her advice for writers

Check out all of Jenny's books here

Grab a copy of my Shadow & Shifter Series here

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To Contact Jenny:
Website: jennyhickman.com
Instagram: @authorjennyhickman

To Contact Me:
Website: oliviahillier.com
Instagram: @oliviahillierauthor

This week on the Writers Advice Podcast I am joined by Romance & Paranormal author, Samantha Young

On this episode Samantha and I chat about:

-Her journey to becoming a writer

-From writing eight books in a year to chase her dreams to becoming a New York Times best selling author

-The benefits of becoming a hybrid author

-Writing in two genres

-And her brand new book a Cosmic Kind of Love.

Grab a copy of one of Samantha's fabulous books here.

While you're there you can grab a copy of my new book, Manifest.

Join the Writers Advice Facebook group here to find out who is coming up on the Podcast and submit your questions to up and coming guests.

Also you can join my reading community and book club on patreon where for as little as $6 a month you can recieve three new chapters of my unreleased Young Adult contemporary, Paranomal and Speculative fiction books ever week! - Olivia Hillier is creating Young Adult Books | Patreon

To Contact Samantha:
Instagram: @authorsamanthayoung
Website: authorsamanthayoung.com

To Contact Me:

Website: oliviahillier.com
Instagram: @oliviahillierauthor
Tik Tok: @oliviahillierauthor

This week I chat with the Beyond the Pen podcast creator Maccabee Griffin.  Each week Maccabee sits down with a new author to discover the real story behind their tale! But what is his own story? Find out here! Beyond the Pen is a podcast show that gives newly published and unknown authors a platform to tell the world about their projects — so today's interview is essential listening for anyone who is starting out on an adventure into authoring and anyone preparing for NaNoWriMo2022!

Alma Alexander has written more than three million words in more than 20 books, and countless short stories collected in magazines, anthologies, and numerous collections. She writes for both adults and young adults. Her novel, The Secrets of Jin-shei, has been published around the world in 14 languages. The heroine of her popular YA series, Worldweavers, is as American as Harry Potter is British. With her MSc in Molecular Biology, she has shone the light of science into the shadowy world of shapeshifters in the Were Chronicles. 

She was born on the banks of an ancient river in Yugoslavia, a country which no longer exists. She grew up in Africa when her father moved them there when she was ten years old. They lived in four different countries in Africa: Zambia, Swaziland, and South Africa. She later went to school in a castle in Wales, and has lived in several countries on four continents. An American man she met on the Internet asked her to marry him, promising her coffee in bed every morning. She agreed and then moved to live among the evergreens in the Pacific northwest with two cats as well as visiting deer and raccoons.

Alma Alexander is a scientist by education, duchess by historical accident, and an author who has written more than twenty novels. Known as the Duchess of Fantasy, she is also a blogger sharing writing tips, and glimpses of both the mundane and magic of a fantasy author's life.

This interview was recorded in Fall 2021. Due to numerous factors, I was unable to get around to finishing the production until June 2022. This interview is magical. She is one of the smartest, most original authors I’ve interviewed. A true writer's writer. She talks about her process, her life, what makes novels and short stories work. In some ways it was a master class in writing fantasy novels and short stories.

At the time of this interview, her husband and partner had died six months before and she was still processing that grief and how to get back to writing. Fortunately for all of us, she has returned and since then has released the 20th Anniversary Edition of Changer of Days—the duoology as a single book as originally designed. On July 10th 2022 she released a memoir describing her and her husband’s meeting and their love story. I suggest hankies for this one.

You can learn more about Alma and her books on her website at https://almaalexander.org 

She also hangs out on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, BookBub, Goodreads, and if you want to hear from her regularly with patron-only content check out her Patreon option. 

The week on the Writers Advice Podcast I am joined by the fabulous Scarlett St. Clair. This is a beautiful interview about keeping the dream alive, opening doors, finding new avenues and keeping a deep belief for yourself and your stories. For anyone who is currently on their path to becoming a full time author Scarlett candidly shares her incredible journey, passion and drive from deciding to go head first for her dream at thirteen to what has made her the author she is today, at thirty-two and she's only just beginning.

Join the Writers Advice bookclub at: Olivia Hillier is creating Podcast & Books | Patreon
Win a copy of A Game Of Retribution by Scarlett St Clair by dropping your deets at PODCAST | Oliviahillier.com

To contact Scarlett:
Instagram: @authorscarlettstclair
TikTok: @authorscarlettstclair

To contact me:
Instagram: @oliviahillierauthor
Website: oliviahillier.com
TikTok: @oliviahillierauthor

Mark Bradford is the Wisconsin based author of The Sword and the Sunflower. Mark is also a work-life & work-relationship coach, a podcaster, a public speaker, and a UAV pilot! His recent post-dystopian fiction title explores the aftermath of a catastrophe. It has been described by readers as "complex and interesting..." Find out more about this 'complex and interesting' author here on Myth and Magic!

An interview with with the Pennsylvania based epic fantasy author J V Hilliard who recently arrived on the fantasy adventure scene with the first title in his Warminster Series. "The Last Keeper" is about a young boy who suffers prophetic visions. We chat about cryptids, fight scenes, and world building!

 Brian and I discussed his books, writing, fantasy, the outdoors, chasing bears away from trash and live updates during the discussion while a mint chocolate cake was being created!

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