Be an enthusiast! Author Interview with Aaron Ryan

Many authors first novels don't get published because once we get past our egos we realize it doesn't make the grade or we can't find a reason to finish them. Your bio says that your first novel, The Omega Room, was abandoned. Do you ever think you'll go back to rewrite it? Or does it just not fit your writing style today?
It’s not outside of the realm of possibility, surely. It was a good book! Honestly, The Omega Room is something of an apparition anymore…I don’t really remember much of it except for snippets. 

It was an adventure story of four youths who get sucked into something too big for them, a renegade military operation or something of the kind, and I do seem to remember being influenced by Die Hard 2, the movie, at the time. Some rogue leader decides to abscond with technology not his own, for his own nefarious purposes, and the kids get caught in the crossfire. You would think I would remember more, as I had over 300 pages of it at one time, but I was a kid who didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life, and so he foolishly deleted it and moved on. I wish I could remember more. Perhaps one day I’ll try to resurrect it.

That book was written back in the 90s but you didn't start publishing your saga until 2023. In the intervening time, you wrote nonfiction books and poetry. What made you decide to come back to writing a novel? What inspired you to write a sci-fi post-apocalyptic series?
I’m primarily motivated to be a fiction novelist, so that’s where my heart lies. I don’t think I’ll be writing any more business books, unless I’m sorely mistaken. My heart really truly lies with Dissonance, with Forecast, with other ideas that I’ve conjured up. I think my business guidance days are behind me. I’ve greatly enjoyed them, but I’m much more focused on the creative pursuits now. I have my business running exactly how I want it to and I’m able to maintain all the business that I do. Overall however, I just want to tell a good story. I’ve always been a storyteller, and I love telling good stories: mine or otherwise.

What type of research do you do for your books? Tell me about the process.
The best example I can mention here is Dissonance Volume III: Renegade. I did a tremendous amount of research for that book, because I wanted it to be militarily accurate. I talked with a Lieutenant Colonel in the USAF, retired Army chopper pilot, two senior airmen in the USAF, as well as a retired 35-year captain of an aircraft carrier. Aside from Google Street and Satellite views, Reddit, Quora, and other forum-based sites where military people chime in from time to time, those folks were invaluable in helping me attain verisimilitude throughout the novel. 

For the preceding ones, I talked to denizens of the areas where those books are set, both for APSU/Harvill Hall for Dissonance Volume I: Reality, and Mammoth Cave in Dissonance Volume II: Reckoning. I needed ‘boots on the ground’ intel to provide me with support in structuring a believable narrative in all cases. And as my characters thread their way throughout Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, and the North Atlantic, I assimilated so much data from Google Satellite view: it was just indispensable. In fact, I recently took a sort of ‘pilgrimage’ there to walk where my characters walked, to actually see where my stories were set. It was truly eye-opening, validating much of what I had constructed…along with helping me fix some terrain errors as well. Overall, Google has been my best friend throughout all my novels, although whoever is watching will probably assume I’m a terrorist. 😊

How much does social media play in your promotion of your books? What type of publicity do you do to promote your book? What has worked best for you in generating sales?
I do a ton. Vendor markets, craft fairs and trade shows, book signings at local bookstores, book signing/sales parties, organic social media posts, TikTok ads, Facebook ads, IG ads, and of course Amazon ads, vinyl lettering on my car, T-shirt and custom author apparel, book reviewers/influencers, appearing on podcasts and in book review articles or interview articles, promotions through Written Word Media, Fussy Librarian, CraveBooks, BookRaid, Book Barbarian, etc., YouTube videos, SoundCloud videos of my audiobooks, local networking, maintaining an active website, my blog, etc.......and the best part, just writing more books! 😊

What do you know now about writing/publishing now that you wished you had known sooner? 

That self-publishing is truly the way to go. So much so that I self-published a book on…self-publishing! People tend to get scared off by the ‘specter’ of marketing and self-publishing, but it’s actually a lot easier than you think. It’s the marketing in particular that frightens people, but the best advice I can give to that end is don’t be a marketer. Be an enthusiast. It’s absolutely and fundamentally different. With marketing comes pressure to make a sale. But enthusiasm is infectious and contagious. People hop on board the enthusiasm bandwagon and support you. 

I also wish I knew more about agents and getting one. I have five voiceover agents. But getting a literary agent is definitely harder. I’m trying to get one for my new novel, ‘Forecast.’ It’s been a fruitless pursuit so far. Also, with writing, early on I fell prey to the imitation game, trying to sound and flow like Tolkien. Big mistake. There is only one Tolkien. It’s okay to tip the hat to, or pay homage to a certain author or inspiration with occasional nods, and to emulate…but not to duplicate.

What surprised you the most in a good way in writing your novels? What’s been the most frustrating?
I’m a pantster by nature: I write organically and prefer to let the story develop rather than stick completely to a bullet-point list of absolute mile markers. I like to write organically that way. And when I do that, I’m always pleasantly surprised at how well everything has worked out in the end…something I just ‘happened’ to write in the beginning without really knowing the bearing it would have on the story at a later point became indispensable and critical. The most frustrating thing is finding typos and errors committed by me, not caught by me, and not caught by my editor, at the audiobook narration phase, which is the last phase. I have to go back and fix all those, and that can be irritating. I do like to put out a good offering that is error-free.

What is the best advice you've been given about writing or that you've learned that you would like to pass along?
The marketing vs. enthusiast is the biggest one, I believe. But noy, there are so many mistakes authors make. They don’t charge enough. They give their books away for free. They try to copy. They use AI. They don’t treat authoring like a business. They don’t have a mantra. They don’t operate by goals. They get stuck in imposter syndrome. Ultimately, this is a journey that requires a huge mindset shift if you want to be successful. I’m loving every minute of it, evn whe the sales are down for whatever reason, or I’m in between book signing gigs. It’s an amazing experience, it really is. Treat it as such…always.

What other works do you have in the process?
I’m presently writing the sixth installment in the Dissonance series, entitled Dissonance Volume IV: Relentless. It follows Dissonance Volume III: Renegade. But I’m not done with Forecast yet…every time I try to dive back into it, I get bungee-sucked right back into the world of Dissonance once more. I tried after Volume III, and get sucked back into writing Revelation. Then I tried again, and got sucked back in writing Rising. Then I tried once more and now I’m writing Relentless. It’s just something about the Letter R, I guess! 😊 Seriously though, with Forecast – once I get back to it – it’s going to take some diving back in time and remembering what the world of 2001 was like prior to 9/11. So much has changed. I have to unlearn what I have learned, to quote Yoda.

Are there any other points about writing you’d like to cover?
The Dissonance series is the best thing I’ve ever written, by far. It is loaded with heart and thematic depth. Justice vs. revenge. Cynicism vs. trust. Snarkiness vs. maturity. Renegade vs. obedience. Forcing vs. allowing. And ultimately, that man is always the worst enemy of man.

When you realize that, the aliens in my stories become little more than a nuisance. We are always our own worst enemies, and it takes cooperation, surrendering of pride, and willingness to work together with each other, despite rank, background, beliefs, pride, etc., to get things done. Overall, I just really desired to tell a compelling story of adventure, terror, horror, loss, and victory. I’ve accomplished that. 😊

That's all for today's interview. If you'd like to learn more about Aaron's books, here are some links to get you started.
Author Website: https://authoraaronryan.com/
Dissonance books: https://dissonancetheseries.com/ or  https://getthesebooks.com/ 
Social media links: https://dot.cards/authoraaronryan
Aauthor group: authoraaronryangroup.com
Goodreads: authoraaronryanreads.com
Amazon: authoraaronryanbooks.com

If you're a fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, here are 3 eBooks that are currently F-R-E-E on Amazon. Not sure how long the sale lasts, so check them out ASAP!

https://www.amazon.com/Nemesis-Post-Apocalyptic-Survival-Crimson-Prequel-ebook/dp/B08V4TR67Q

https://www.amazon.com/Desolation-Post-Nuclear-Survival-David-Lucin-ebook/dp/B07P7TH3QB

https://www.amazon.com/Turbulent-Post-Apocalyptic-Survival-Thriller-ebook/dp/B07R4CQXHK/

Traveling Through Time: Author Interview with Roy Huff

What inspired you to write your first sci-fi adventure novel?
My very first novel was more fantasy than sci-fi. It actually started for an English class I was taking when I was working concurrently on my fourth and fifth degrees. It was a three-page creative writing assignment. We were required to give feedback to other students, and one commented that they could read a whole book on my story. That gave me the idea, and here we are.

You published the Everville series from 2013-2015. In 2017 you pubbed a self-help book but didn’t go back to publishing novels again until 2020. Why the drop-off?
There was a gap between the fantasy series and nonfiction due to a divorce and serious financial issues. That is part was why I wrote the self-help book. I actually wrote two additional books within a year of Think Smart Not Hard, Everville #5, which I never published, and the time travel book. Seven Rules of Time Travel was my baby, so there was some hesitancy on whether to finish and rewrite Everville #5 or work on the Time Travel series.

So it sounds like you were still writing, even though you weren’t publishing.
Yes. I also started writing a space opera book. Additionally, I began traveling more during my time off. I'm now traveling around three months a year, so I needed to restructure how I wrote, more frequently instead of shorter marathon sprints. In the interim, I did more marketing to connect with my readers and wrote several shorts that I hosted on other blog posts, some of which I later reposted on my own blog. And I read a lot.

The 2020 lockdown gave me the opportunity to polish

Seven Rules of Time Travel. I was fortunate to sign a contract with Podium Audio for the audio rights and just published book #3 in the series, Time Travel Tribulations. Expect to see more time travel as well as some space opera in the near future, and possibly some more fantasy, but I can't tell you which order.

As an indie-publisher, how do you handle the publishing and marketing of your own books?
I did all my own marketing. I hired Damonza.com for the cover art and formatting. I take an all-of-the-above approach to marketing and find the email list and Amazon ads have been the most effective. I also use Twitter, but more to connect with my audience.

I do promotional events, but only discounted promotions now, not free ones for my new works. I'm always looking for ways to streamline the marketing process to improve my overall systems. My audiobook contract takes some of the audio marketing and narrator interaction off my hands, but I still need to promote my series and my brand.

Marketing and writing are both equally important, but writers need to write. If the marketing is too much, it's still essential to have someone else help in the process.

What is the hardest part of writing for you?
Starting can be challenging, but usually, I'm always writing something. I think the hardest part is writing with purpose. Getting a quasi-outline is usually my biggest obstacle, but in truth, it really is just about becoming intentional and getting down to the basics. Once that's done, the editing is the next hardest part. Consistency, persistence, humility, reflection, and courage in the face of criticism (including self-criticism) are also critical.

What’s the best encouragement you’ve had in your writing?
Validation from fans and my recent audiobook contract have been great sources of encouragement. Greater reach and financial success also helped. Various milestones, like reaching 500 reviews on a book along with other lists have all been very encouraging.

I show up, do the work, and commit to keep improving regardless of validation being there. Even negative reviews can push you forward. It means enough people are reading my work to take notice, which means I'm on the right track.

What do you know now about writing you wished you had known sooner?
I think forgiving yourself, allowing yourself to write badly (which is subjective), and using negative feedback as a positive thing are important. Remembering I don’t need to do it all and can outsource marketing when needed to stay focused on the writing process. Obsessing about what other people think is a killer and no way to live one's life.

What is the best writing advice you’ve received or could give?
I would say it’s to keep writing, learning, reading, and reflecting. Get comfortable with the process. Don't make excuses, just do it. Find a mentor. If you can't find a mentor, read everything you can from an author whose books inspire you. Embrace a growth mindset.

Are there any other points about writing you would like to add?
For writers, I would say write, no matter what. If you are stuck, simply write something, even if it's just random words on copying what something else has written or use prompts to get started. Read a lot. I listen to audiobooks at double speed during my commute, so I'm able to get through a lot of content, which helps my writing.

What is the next book coming out? Can you give me a short blurb about the storyline?
The next work to be published is the audiobook for Time Travel Tribulations. It’s currently available for preorder.

When something knocks Quinn Black and his team through an anomaly, he finds himself on a crash course with what appears to be an uninhabited planet. With an object of mysterious origin orbiting the system and his crew under attack from an unknown source, one thing is clear: they are not supposed to be there.

Unfortunately, that’s just the beginning of their problems. Thrust into time loops and a seemingly parallel world where dinosaurs roam, someone is deliberately sabotaging them. But who would want to send them there, and why? Can they stay alive long enough to find their way back home?

Sounds like a lot of action and adventure awaits your readers. If you’d like to learn more about Roy’s books, here are some links to get you started.
Website: https://royhuff.net/
Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook all @realroyhuff
Link to Seven Rules of Time Travel: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08CJH85M3/
Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Roy-Huff/e/B00BCX199A/