Meet S.R. Remus, Author

S.R. Remus is an aspiring sci-fi/fantasy author, who also happens to dabble in poetry. He is signed to Double Dragon Publishing out of Canada, and his first novel, The Time Outlaw, will debut in 2016. Learn more about S.R. Remus and his work by visiting his website as well as his Facebook page.

1. How did you first become interested in writing fantasy/sci-fi?

I first became interested in writing sci-fi/fantasy, basically out of similar interests outside of writing. I am a big comic con, video game, Star Trek, and Star Wars fan. I love the Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones--these things which have huge fan followings into the realm of geekdom possessed me. They are my inspiration to the genre. I can remember back to when I was a freshman in high school (I'm 30 now for perspective) and I was content rocking my GameBoy Pocket and Pokemon Blue. A lot of my drive to need to break into the genre just comes from what I'm interested in.

2. What inspired you to write The Time Outlaw?

I had to write The Time Outlaw. Sometimes writers will say they just became obsessed with something, some story they need to tell. I knew what I was writing was different than a lot of the other dystopian novels, teen fiction books that are being pushed into the market. I let some samples of my chapters leak to people I know like to read, and they really pushed me forward. Ultimately, someone told me I should do it, because I had always wanted to write a novel.

3. Would you tell us a little more about the arc of your intended three-book series?

The Time Outlaw trilogy is centered on Jensen James, a gunslinging, time traveling, reality-bending protagonist. Jensen bounces around time, fighting against the evil Latentech Corporation, falling in love, and of course, being his gunslinging badass self. You will get a sense that the series has a lot of little guy vs big business conflicts throughout the stories.

4. Why did you choose Double Dragon Publishing for your first novel?

I basically chose Double Dragon because of their body of work in the ebook/print on demand industry as well as solely focusing on my specific genre; I felt that was the best option. I also chose them because they chose me first. I submitted so many manuscripts to agents and agencies, and then just waited. Double Dragon beat everyone out in getting back to me.

5. How would you summarize your overall goals or interests as a writer?

Well, I wish I could sit here and say I had any outstanding goals for world domination, endless riches, and enslaving the human race through my writing, but I'm just here to write, tell some stories, maybe have people build statues of me if they want. All in all, I just want us all to have an enjoyable time.

Thanks, S.R.!

A Kickstarter to Bring a Fantasy Trilogy to Bookstores Near You

Are you a fan of sci-fi and/or fantasy novels? Want to see more of these books by independent authors make their way into your neighborhood brick and mortar bookstores? Check out the Kickstarter campaign currently being run by author Leeland Artra.

Leeland Artra is the author of the Golden Threads trilogy, and his books have a solid track history with strong sales and reader reviews. The first two books in the series are currently available in e-book and print-on-demand format, and with the Kickstarter funding, the books will be republished in hardback and pocket paperback editions.

As the author writes on his Kickstarter page, the novels "represent twenty years of world building, and thousands of hours of work crafting them for your enjoyment." He's using the money he raises to put the books through an additional editing and proofreading process, and then to get them distributed by Ingram.

The novels are set 20,000 years in the future, and the main characters are a young mercenary woman and a junior wizard. The books are described as an epic journey and have maintained an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon, with over 600 reviews so far.

Along with undertaking this project to get books one and two of the trilogy into the hands of more readers, Artra is also hard at work on book three, and he says it will be released very soon.

This is an author who has really put the time and effort into his books to develop a following of readers--and this Kickstarter could be just the boost he needs to help his work find an even wider following. If you want to get more of an idea of his work, you can read an excerpt of book one, Thread Silvers, here; and read an excerpt of book two, Thread Strands, here.

Meet Dianne Greenlay, Author

Dianne Greenlay is both an author of a series of novels featuring adventurous women pirates in the 1700s, and a busy physiotherapist. She also writes and directs plays. Her debut novel is called Quintspinner – A Pirate's Quest, and she has recently released a follow-up, Deadly Misfortune. She's currently at work on the third book in the Quintspinner trilogy.

Learn more about Dianne and her work by visiting Dianne's author page on Amazon.com as well as her blog and her Twitter page.

1. What is the significance of your title, Quintspinner?

Spinner rings, which are fashioned after Tibetan prayer wheels, figure predominantly in my books. The prayer wheels were used by Tibetan monks to induce prayer trances. Today's spinner rings are found throughout the Caribbean and tropical tourist belt. They are marketed as being manifestation enhancing, or often as stress-reducing items. In my books, there are five of them, and five has long been thought of as a powerful number--five oceans, five continents, five directions (with center being the fifth), five senses, five planets visible to the naked eye, and five holy books in most major religions. "Quint" had a more intriguing sound to it rather than "five".

2. Did you set out with the intention of writing YA readers, or did your work "become" a YA series because of the age of Tess, your heroine?

As I researched life in the 1700s, I became aware of the fact that people back then were much more independent and mature in their teens than we are today. Most were married by age 15 or 16, or had at least moved out of their parents' homes and had a vocation. It was not unusual for sailors, for instance, to be aged 12 and up. An editor that I worked with suggested that I make my protagonist's age 16, as her adventure would have been historically accurate for the time in the 1700s, and that would allow Quintspinner to be considered a "YA" novel as well as one whose content would entertain adults. This made it officially a "cross-over" novel, a term which exists, but is not often referred to.

3. How did you decide to write about the life of a pirate, and what are the challenges of writing in this particular genre of historical fiction?

It was a Google search gone wrong. I had entered a medical term, and in the search results, up came "women pirates." I didn't even know that there were such things! I was fascinated by the topic, and it didn't take much research at all to learn that not only were there such women, but that there had been several throughout known history, and the lives of most had been fairly well-documented. Two of them--Anne Bonny and Mary Read--were particularly infamous, and they lived, sailed, and died during the so-called Golden Age of Piracy in the 1700s in the Caribbean. Reading about them, I was totally hooked.

4. What is Wattpad, and how has it helped you grow your readership?

Wattpad is an online site that connects writers and readers, many of them in the YA age category. It has an enormous number of users, so I uploaded several chapters from Quintspinner there last fall, and was soon invited by its administrators to upload the entire story and become one of their featured authors. Within the first 4 months of being on Wattpad, Quintspinner had gathered over 300,000 reads, and I had received hundreds of compliments and messages from readers who loved the story and were begging for more. I have since uploaded several chapters from Deadly Misfortune there, as an introduction to part two of the continuing story.

5. What's your secret in being honored with so many different book awards?

Quintspinner has placed First or Honorable Mention in 14 different book awards, and in several different categories. I guess it breaks the rules, because it has gained fans and earned its awards in more that one genre. Because of its setting and the research that I did, it qualifies for the historical genre; the protagonists are 16 (yes, there is a young woman AND a young man!) so it falls into YA; it is a fast-paced adventure story with possibilities of marketing merchandise, so it falls into the commercial novel category; and fans have said that it is a good beach read as well! I am thrilled that it entertains such a wide variety of readers (and judges) and hope to be able to continue the interest throughout the trilogy.

Thanks, Dianne!