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What is the favorite book remember as a child?
I have many fond memories of The Complete Collection of Calvin and Hobbes. When I was a kid, my parents had a rule that we had to read a certain amount of time every day. My siblings and I would often gravitate toward Calvin and Hobbes because it was the easiest way to meet that requirement. It didn’t take long for me to truly fall in love with the comic, however, and I think it was instrumental in teaching me the value and the power of imagination. I like to think that, long after the events depicted in the comic, Calvin went on to be a writer (or other creative) like myself.
Tell us about your current book in 10 words.
Wandering the Bitters, Dela finds love and true inner strength. (That was hard!)
What are you reading right now?
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. The characters and the language are top-notch, definitely enjoying it so far. Like many people, I came to the Grishaverse from the Shadow and Bone show on Netflix, but my favorite characters from that are definitely the Crows. The complexity and diversity of the characters’ relationships and interactions makes every scene pop. It’s something I hope to achieve in some of my future projects that have slightly larger casts than Bittersouls (which focuses mostly on just two characters).
What books do you have on hold at the library?
The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag. It’s an intriguing apocalyptic sci-fi artbook with a narrative thread connecting all the images to one another. I heard about it from the YouTuber “Curious Archive” and have been interested in taking a look for myself ever since. My next book that I’m working on is a sci-fi with an apocalyptic atmosphere (although it is set on another planet), so I hope this book will help provide me with some inspiration for the atmosphere I am hoping to achieve.
E-reader or print? Why?
I used to be a purist for print books. I loved the smell of them and had dreams of having a house some day with a big library (as many avid readers do). In the last few years, however, the practicality problems of bringing a book with me everywhere in case I might have a moment to spare for it finally pushed me to try reading on the Kindle app on my phone. I’ve been doing a lot more reading since then, as I always have my phone with me, so I think this has been a change for the better. I still miss flipping back and forth to look at the maps for fantasy books and the like, but I think it’s more important that I find the time to read at all.
When do you do most of your reading?
I have a moderate commute to school and work, much of it by train. This gives me ample time to read, so long as I don’t have something more important I need to be working on. I have to be careful not to get too focused on it, though, or I might well miss my stop. Besides this, I take every available opportunity my crazy life (involving 3 kids, work, school, writing) will allow me.
Favorite genre?
I love pretty much all types of speculative fiction. Fantasy, sci-fi, steampunk, cyberpunk, you name it. There are a couple of tropes and settings in these genres that I steer clear of because I feel they are overdone, but other than that I am always looking for a great new book to read in these genres.
Do you loan your books?
I used to. When I realized that I wouldn’t be getting most of them back I sort of stopped, which was back in high school. As I said above, this was at a time that I wanted to build out a collection of physical books so that I could fill a hypothetical future library, so I definitely wanted to have them back if I lent them out. These days, since I read mostly ebooks, I don’t really have the option of lending them out. In a way, it kind of simplifies this conundrum.
Re-reader or not?
I’m actually a really slow reader—I dwell on every word and sentence for the beauty of the language and the nuance of how the writer puts things together. Because of that, I rarely feel like I can ‘afford’ to go back to a book I’ve already made it through, as I already feel so behind on my to-be-read pile. Plus, because of my slow reading I usually retain what I’ve read fairly well, so I don’t need to reread to absorb it all as some faster readers do.
Cursed with forbidden knowledge, 19-year-old Dela must hide her secret from her nomadic tribe or face exile into the frozen wasteland of the Bitters. When she becomes separated from her people during a blizzard, a mysterious and dangerous wanderer named Talon promises to help her find her way back to them. She quickly learns that nothing is what it seems, that her curse may actually be a gift, and that the Bitters are far more dangerous than she could have imagined.
Packed with unexpected twists, Bittersouls is a mixture of survival, adventure, and slow-burn romance that is sure to get your heart pounding.
A Storm
On the southern side of the Basin, the titanic peaks of the Skytooth Mountains broke the horizon from east to west. They’d all seen them before, every year on their pilgrimage, but the range never failed to invoke both awe and terror. The pass would be open for a month, at least, and beyond that, they’d find the herdlands where they tracked during the coldest part of the year.
They pitched camp in the lee of the mountains, just out of reach of the worst of a steadily rising wind. They ate their evening meal, speaking softly, each of them feeling a growing uneasiness even before the light descended. With the brilliance of the sunset to the west, it was tempting to focus on its beauty, ignoring all else. But as the Flame Above took shelter below the ice for the night, Dela found herself with the others on the eastern edge of camp, staring in horror at the horizon.
“A storm?” Dela’s eyes narrowed.
“Storm? No.” Hunter Umbar gaped at it. “That’s far too small a word. A squall like that doesn’t scour the Skytooths except for once every ten winters.”
“I remember nothing like it,” Mors said.
“We’re normally far ahead of it,” Minister Dolam muttered. “One protect us, we moved too slowly.”
“Or it came early,” the Carver suggested.
The Minister shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. That storm will close the pass. […] We must walk the night.”
L.A. graduated from Montana State University in 2015 with Honors in Biochemistry and a minor in Music Composition. This helped nurture his critical thinking and research skills which continue to be instrumental to his writing. During his collegiate years, he also met the love of his life, Julie, whom he later married. At once his greatest supporter and his staunchest critic (when he is wrong, which is more often than he’d like to admit), she has been an integral part of his creative process ever since.
In February of 2018, L.A. became the father of his first son, Griffin. His second son, Tiber, was born in December of 2019 and his third son, Malachi, was born in January of 2022. Though life has become considerably busier since he became a family man, L.A. continues to work on writing in what little spare time he can find. He hopes to one day pass on his love of literature to his sons.
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Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting! I should be around periodically to reply to comments.
ReplyDeleteI am so excited and intrigued to read the story of Dela!
ReplyDeleteI liked the excerpt.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a terrific book.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the interview. This book sounds great.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your interview, I am a slow reader myself and I allow myself to get totally immersed in a story. That is probably why I get totally annoyed by distractions, lol. Which brings me to my question for the day, are you able to read or write when it is noisy or do you need silence or white noise as I do? As you read on your commute and have a boisterous family as I do, I imagine that for you it is the former...
ReplyDeleteAs you guessed, with 3 kiddos at home, basically nowhere I go is noise-free. I have gotten pretty used to tuning it out (at least to some extent), but the trick for me is listening to music. I make playlists of lyric-less music for reading and writing, often themed to a story or character. By focusing on the music and letting that immerse me in the scene in my head, I find it much easier to imagine what I am reading or put words on the page. You can actually find me on Spotify if you're curious about what music I listen to!
DeleteThank you for responding to my query, I will look for you on Spotify. It is so funny that you mentioned lyric-less music as I had an experience years ago when I was writing. My sons were teen-agers at the time and they had music blasting in their room. Later that night when I was re-reading what I had written, lyrics from the songs that they were listening to were interspersed with the text. Unfortunately, I have zero filters, lol. I love Native American or Tibetan flute music myself and like to listen to the rain and thunderstorm tracks on YouTube but I tend to nod off when I listen to those.
DeleteDo you have a favorite snack or beverage while you do your writing?
ReplyDelete