Author Questions: What Excites You Most As An Author?

This is an ongoing series of “questions every author avoids answering” (based on this video by Dale L. Roberts) and my answers to them. I recommend every author ask themselves these same questions to better understand themselves and their art.

 

Question:

What excites you most as an author?

The quick answer:

Sharing my stories with new readers.

 

The long answer:

There are a lot of exciting times as an author. I love coming up with ideas for new stories and daydreaming about them, like watching a movie of the story come to life in my imagination before I ever type a word. It’s a small excitement, sorta like seeing a piece of chocolate cake and knowing you’ll get to eat it.

There’s also that moment when you first sit down and start typing to bring the story to life, as if you were giving birth to the idea (I know that sounds corny, but stick with me).

Or there’s the excitement and satisfaction of writing “The End” at the end of your first draft. Oh, that’s a good one! In fact, that was almost my official answer to this question. It’s a moment that you celebrate in some major way. I buy myself a small luxury when this happens.

The moment when the first author copies arrive and you get to open the box and hold your creation in your hands, that’s also a good one, particularly for your first publication. Here’s a video of the unboxing of my first copies of Dragon of the Federation. You just want to take that book, do a little ritual, climb to a high rocky prominence, and present it to the world with some epic music in the background, à la Simba’s birth.

Oh, and there’s also the excitement of walking into a bookstore and seeing your book sitting there on the shelf next to all those other published authors. That’s always a very validating moment (it’s even better when you knew it was there and then is gone the next time you walk in, because it was sold to someone!).

But truth be told, nothing gives me as much of a rush as a new reader who has come up to my table, heard my pitch for a book, and their eyes go wide, they say “Oooo!” as they learn about the interesting premise of the story, and they eagerly want to start reading my work. Dear reader, now you are as excited as I am. How wonderful that we share that!

Sometimes I think it’s a bit of an ego trip. Like my inner child is yelling “I can’t deny the fact that you like me! Right now, you like me!” lol. Yes, I feel that, every time.

But it’s not just ego or vanity or whatever. There is an overwhelming joy that I, and most authors, feel in sharing our creations. Bringing our characters to life in our head isn’t enough. It’s far more satisfying that they come to life in YOUR head, too, and in your own imagination, however different that character may be for you. It’s not just about the money we earn or the volume of sales or spreading our “brand” or whatever. Sharing is caring, right? Those moments that you spend reading my books, we are sharing a common imagination and bringing that world to reality.

 

Cheers and happy reading!

BIG NEWS! I’m Now A Full Time Writer Now!

 

OMG OMG OMG! I’m so excited and nervous, I can hardly breathe….

Okay… taking a deep breath….

In a nutshell: I’ve decided to become a full-time author!

There, I’ve said it. You have no idea how incredible it feels for me to write those words! Or how long I’ve dreamt of such a thing.

Some context for my decision:

As many of you know, I was laid off from my job as a manager in a biotech corporation back in August of 2025, one of many waves of layoffs from that company, sweeping out thousands of employees over last year and this year. I was with that company for 26 years! Unemployment payments stopped after six months. After that (and really during it), I’ve been living on the severance pay I got and whatever I had in savings. It’s been painful watching my bank account decrease despite every cost-cutting measure I could come up with, including going to food pantries and whatnot. It’s been nine months now, with little hope for things changing for me.

The layoff is thanks to the current president drastically slashing funding to science and medicine, which impacted academic customers that my company, and most biotechs, rely on to buy their products. The company is floundering. This is true for most biotech companies, academic labs, science non-profits, and related companies. Some companies are folding. Most are cutting back drastically, hoping to survive until things turn around (which likely won’t be until a Democrat is back in the presidency).

Since then I’ve applied to 120 job announcements, all of which I’m qualified for, which drew upon my background doing science lab work, technical support, technical writing, or management. You’d think with two degrees and 28 years of post-graduate experience over many roles, I’d be imminently hirable. Despite tailoring every resumé to the job announcements, getting advice from recruiters, and being on every major job board on an almost daily basis, I’ve only managed 7 recruiter interviews – all rejected. Only half of the jobs I’ve applied to have gotten back to me (with rejections). And AI has made the entire process stupider. Since every other science company is hurting, there aren’t many jobs to apply to, and they get hundreds of applicants for each position. Combine this with a high unemployment rate, inflation, tariff effects, and AI taking over many white-collar jobs, the outlook for getting hired is very, very bleak.

BUT…. I have a sizeable 401K. I’ve consulted with a financial advisor several times. There’s this thing called Rule 72(t), which will allow me to withdraw it, penalty-free (but taxed as income), over the next five years in regular, monthly payouts. This will be just barely enough over the year, combined with my other income streams, to make the minimum I need to meet my financial needs.

Am I nervous? Hell yes! And what will I have to fall back on when I’m old? Between now and then, I’ll just have to build my author empire big enough to meet my financial needs.

At the same time, I’m incredibly jubilant!

Finally liberated from the corporate workaday life, endless meetings, and being under some manager’s thumb, I am now free to pursue my author activities! I’m my own boss, with all the concerns that go along with that.

In addition to writing more books (and I have soooo many books in my head yet to write!), which I’ll have more time for now, I have income from the great number of author events I do all year (and time for more!), income from online sales, income from my publisher (GladEye Press), and income from the author services I provide to other authors. I also have a part-time job doing data entry for the University of Oregon (with special thanks to my friend, Vicki, who hired me for that).

And if I don’t earn enough? There’s nothing to stop me from taking another job if, gods forbid, this decision doesn’t work out for me. Maybe I’ll land an additional part-time gig doing editing or technical writing.

I’m seriously shaking right now. Here I go!

Please wish me well as I move forward with this. And if you want to help me in this new era of my life, please buy my books, request that your local bookstores and libraries carry them, or contribute to my Ko-Fi page.

 

Cheers and happy reading!

Author Questions: What scares you most as an author?

 

This is an ongoing series of “questions every author avoids answering” (based on this video by Dale L. Roberts) and my answers to them. I recommend every author ask themselves these same questions to better understand themselves and their art.

 

Question:

What scares you most as an author?

 

The quick answer:

That I won’t be able to get all the stories out of my head and onto paper before I die.

 

The long answer:

Yeah, I know, it sounds a little corny, but it’s true. You see, I’m not afraid of anything. I have no fear of dying (I’ve nearly died several times, in fact, including twice by nearly drowning). No fear of spiders or creepy crawlies (I’m a trained entomologist, actually!). Heights give me the willies, but I’ve conquered it. Darkness? Bring it on. Claustrophobia? Nah, I’ve gone spelunking and did fine. Ghosts? I literally grew up in an actual haunted house. I can deal with it.

No, it’s all about my stories. I have endless stories locked in my head, waiting to get onto paper. My fantasy world, Irikara, in particular, has more tales to tell than I could ever write. It’s a vast world, and sometimes it’s more real to me than the real world. I can point to any place on the giant map and tell you what the languages sound like, the smells of the streets, the migrations of the people, the gods, the heroes, the villains, the government structure, and the present and distant past of the land, and so much more.

But if I die, it all dies with me! Imagine being the gatekeeper to an entire world – the sole person who can share it with everyone else – as if you were an alien from a distant planet and only you could share your homeworld with the entire population of Earth. Seriously. That’s what if feels like.

I wonder if other writers share this odd fear.

Author Questions: What’s the Worst Writing Advice You’ve Ever Heard?

This is an ongoing series of “questions every author avoids answering” (based on this video by Dale L. Roberts) and my answers to them. I recommend every author ask themselves these same questions to better understand themselves and their art.

Image generated with ChatGPT

Question:

What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever heard?

 

The quick answer:

"Only write what you know."

 

The long answer:

This is actually a common bit of advice you’ll hear as a writer, often delivered with an air of pomposity, and I couldn’t disagree more.

At the heart of the statement is the idea that authors put a part of themselves into their writing, whether they mean to or not, and if you want to come off as genuine, you should avoid putting in your story/book/essay anything that would seem beyond your own experience. Makes sense, right?

Not at all.

Maybe this is true for memoir/autobiography writers. After all, you wouldn’t want to lie about your own experience and sell it as authentic (like this author did). And if you’re writing other non-fiction, then, yeah, you need to do your research and make it accurate. You wouldn’t want to lie about your sources or make up facts (as this author did).

But if you’re writing fiction, “only write what you know” is the worst advice. The entire POINT of fiction is to escape reality and see things from alternative points of view. The two point of view characters in my first fantasy book, Dragon of the Federation, are an elderly dragon and a young female mage. What do I know about being elderly, much less an elderly dragon? I’m also male. What do I really know about the experiences of any females? Or, for that matter, elves, demons, evil generals, ghosts, space nuns, space opera heroes, or all the other weird POVs I’ve written over the years. If I took that bit of bad advice, I wouldn’t have even started those stories.

Dragon of the Federation was released in 2021, and so far no one has come to me to tell me that I got it wrong. Nor for any of my other stories or books.

When I point this out to those who give this advice, they tend to stutter and backtrack and justify their statement by saying that I must be very imaginative to think of life as a dragon, and that my observations of the female condition must be very good. Maybe that’s true. And to be fair, I’ve tried to have “sensitivity readers” read my work who are more like the lead characters (when possible. There aren’t exactly real dragons flying around).

But we can’t go around stifling creativity.

So consider this your official approval to write whatever you want, no matter how outside your experience it is. Feel free to explore and create. And if someone tells you it isn’t accurate, ask them how, then go back and revise, but don’t give it up.

 

Cheers and happy reading!

Author Questions: What’s the Best Writing Advice You’ve Acted On?

This is an ongoing series of “questions every author avoids answering” (based on this video by Dale L. Roberts) and my answers to them. I recommend every author ask themselves these same questions to better understand themselves and their art.

Question:

What’s the best writing advice you’ve acted on?

The quick answer:

"Good writing is emotional writing."

The long answer:

There’s a book entitled The Emotional Craft of Fiction, by Donald Maass. On the back of my copy of the book, the blurb says “engage your readers with emotion” and “If you want to write strong fiction, you must make your readers feel. The reader’s experience must be an emotional journey that aligns with your characters’ struggles, discoveries, and triumphs.” If you don’t have this book, dear author, I highly recommend you purchase it and read it.

This, to me, is the one best piece of advice I’ve ever found for writing compelling fiction. It goes of other forms of entertainment, too, such as poetry, script writing, memoir, acting, composing, singing, sculpting, or dancing. Anything that uses your creativity is a place to insert your emotions.

Have your characters react emotionally. Make them struggle. Torment them. Have them claw their way out of the holes they’ve dug, only to be kicked back down and have to struggle back up and finally climb out. The reader will be right there with them experiencing the moments of struggle, sadness, and joy. Take them on an emotional rollercoaster. That’s what fiction is for, after all. It’s to experience all the things that we are afraid or unable to experience in real life, and to walk in the shoes of someone else for a little while. Keep it exciting. Never be boring.

And it needs to be emotional for you, as the author, as well. Feeling angry about the state of the world? Lonely? Happy about a success? Whatever you are feeling, pour it into your writing that day. Everything an author writes has some little bit of the writer’s persona in it. You can’t help it. So own it! Pour your feelings into your words. It will come through to the reader and bring with it a powerful impact.

Cheers and happy reading!

Author Questions: What Habits Keep You Moving?

 This is an ongoing series of “questions every author avoids answering” (based on this video by Dale L. Roberts) and my answers to them. I recommend every author ask themselves these same questions to better understand themselves and their art.

 

Question:

What habits keep you moving?

The quick answer:

Schedule my time as best as possible and stick to it.

 

The long answer:

A few years ago, my writing was in disarray. I was still actively writing, but I had trouble juggling my time. In addition to finding time to write new material, I was coordinating author events, dealing with blogging and social media, marketing, writing newsletters, and a whole host of other author activities, in addition to working about 50 hours a week at my day job, running a household, and “life in general.”

Luckily, I had a friend who was a life coach. I met with her many times, and she helped me figure out a weekly schedule that balanced all of those activities. I not only had a written schedule to keep to, but I also tracked my time and what I was doing. The schedule kept me on track, and the tracking of time made me realize just how much I was doing and where I needed to focus.

That was almost three years ago, and I have stuck with it. As a result, I am more coordinated, focused, and efficient at all of my author activities.

Our lives are complex, and it’s okay if you can’t find time, or if you go off schedule. I know of some authors who write in the morning for several hours, some who write in the evenings, and even one author who dictates her writing to her phone as she drives between work and home.

And while there are authors (usually full time) who say you should write X hours every day or Y number of words, don’t pay too much attention to such absolutes, everyone is different. Do you need a life coach to help? It can’t hurt, but it’s not always necessary (though I do recommend you find a writing coach, like me). Find what works for you and stick with it.

 

Cheers and happy reading!

 

Author Questions: What Is The One Thing You Wish You Knew Before Publishing?

 This is an ongoing series of “questions every author avoids answering” (based on this video by Dale L. Roberts) and my answers to them. I recommend every author ask themselves these same questions to better understand themselves and their art.

Question:

What is the one thing you wish you knew before publishing?

 

The quick answer:

Marketing.

 

The long answer:

I’m guessing that wouldn’t have been the answer you expected. You probably expected me to say something about the craft of writing, right?

I know writing. It’s my aptitude. Making up worlds and characters and describing them on paper is what I do. It brings me joy.

But what happens after you write “the end” and manage to either publish it yourself or get it accepted and published through a publishing house? Just go on to writing the next book?

Maybe it was that way fifty years ago or more, but it certainly isn’t now. Ernest Hemingway didn’t have to learn Amazon ads or Facebook ads. J.R.R. Tolkien didn’t have to post about his books on the numerous social media platforms and get thousands of followers there. Octavia Butler didn’t have to learn Adobe Photoshop enough to put together engaging graphics. Truman Capote didn’t have to make his own website or post regularly on a blog. Isaac Asimov didn't have to send out newsletters every month. Stephen King didn't have to man tables at festivals to sell his books. The thought of these authors doing those things feels a little silly, and yet these things are expected of authors these days. It’s a whole new ballgame now. In fact, only about a third of my author-related time is spent actually writing, editing, and revising my books, whereas back then nearly all their author-related time was spent that way.

These days, after you publish the book, the job isn’t over. You have to get it in front of readers somehow or no one will learn about your book, much less buy it or read it. Large publishing houses have massive advertising budgets and people hired to do nothing else but advertising and marketing, but small presses and self-published authors usually don’t. You have to do it all yourself AND compete against those large publishing houses with their big budgets. Good luck.

And what the heck do we writers know about marketing? I certainly never got training. Thankfully, I’m pretty tech-savvy and have some Photoshop skills. I also had the foresight to lay a good foundation to create a brand prior to publishing my first book, with a social media presence, a logo, brand name (“The Strange Worlds of Jason Kilgore”), blog, and website. I worked as a scientist in an international biotech corporation and had picked up some things. But that was only the barest step up.

Over the years I’ve read so many articles and books that it makes my head spin, and attended workshops, too. Most of what I’ve learned was through trial and error. What I really needed was a mentor who knew the ropes, but no one gives you their knowledge for free.

These days, I help other authors make Amazon ads and advise them on social media posting. It took years to get to this point. But I still feel inadequate at it. Competing for people’s attention, especially online, is mind-shatteringly hard, and the margins are razor-thin.

It’s also incredibly expensive. At least a third of my annual author budget is spent paying for ads, but it’s hard to say if they pay off. When someone buys a book, they don’t send you a message telling you how they heard about you. 

You can also pay people to do advertising for you, such as on gig sites like Fiverr.com, but be cautious. There are a LOT of scammers out there and amateurs who will take your money and give you nothing useful in return. It's better to go by word of mouth... if you can find an author who has actually paid someone and been satisfied. It's also insanely expensive.

If I had it to do all over again, I think maybe I would have taken a marketing course before publishing, preferably one aimed at authors and taught by an author.

 

Cheers and happy reading!