Author Interview – Page 69

1. Please introduce yourself so that the readers will get to know you better.

My name is Zachary Ryan. I’m a LGBT, Young Adult, Coming of Age author. I’m thirty years old, and I currently live in Chicago. I recently got married to my husband.

2. Congratulations for your recent book Silent Screams. How do you come up with names of its characters?

Thank you so much. I honestly just randomly come up with the names. I’ll be on Instagram, and I’m like I like that name, so I’m going to go with it. The only one that I was hard press was Zachary. I’ve always wanted to do a female character named Zachary, and I was like it’s my 50^th novel, so I might as well.

3. What are your favorite part and least favorite part of the publishing journey?

I think my favorite part is hearing people say how connected they get with my books. I think that is why I want to write. I try my hardest to write characters that are relatable. I think the hardest for me is when I first started out, I was writing novels that I didn’t really enjoy. People destroyed me for that. The reviews can be hard sometimes.

4. What are your hobbies apart from reading or writing?

Going out with friends or binge watching the Housewives franchise.

5. Which is your favorite season to write in and why?

My favorite season of all time is Fall. I think it’s nice to go to a coffee shop and sit outside and just write. But I also love when it’s snowing, and you have your bag full of your writing stuff. I love the romance of it all.

6. What is your favorite Quote?

“What do you plan to do with this one wild and precious life,” Mary Oliver. I might have butchered the exact wording. I discovered it in Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider.

7. How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?

I’ve written 52 novels at this point. I have two favorites because I have two different styles of writing. Silent Screams would be one because it’s my 50^th novel, and it’s something extremely special to me. The other would be my newest novel that I just finished called Cutthroat Cheerleader. It’s super campy, and I love it.

8. How do you do research for your books?

I usually don’t do much research for my novels. I will look up people on Instagram and use them to describe my characters.

9. Can you share something your readers don’t know about you?

I’m actually a twin, and I have six brothers. Everyone always is stunned when I tell them that.

10. Lastly, who inspires you the most and why?

I think music inspires me the most. With Silent Screams, I heard this song called Prom Queen by Katie Turner, and I was instantly thinking of this novel. Music puts me in the mood to write. It makes me feel my characters, and it makes me connect with the emotions I’m going for with each chapter. My goal with one of my books is to write as the chapter names the song I listened to when I wrote the book.

Zachary Ryan Author’s Profile

1. Please introduce yourself so that the readers will get to know you better.

My name is Brandon Clarke and I am the author of the “Dark Mysteries of the Paranormal” series. I live in the United States of America, and I really enjoy writing, being creative and I also cosplay.

2. When did you first realize you wanted to be an author?

I first realized I wanted to be an author when I knew I had a story to tell. Doing cosplay I would often invent original characters that came from the imagination of my mind. I would create a back story for them. One day when I was reading a steven king novel it clicked in my head that I wanted to tell my own story and create a novel and since then I have had a blast doing so..

3. From where did you have the idea/inspiration to write “Dark Mysteries of the Paranormal Saga”? Do you believe in ghosts?

I got the ideas from when I cosplay and since childhood I have always been a big fan of the horror and supernatural genre. I loved Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, ghost face and shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Ghost whisperer. Also yes I do believe in ghost. There is definitely forces beyond this world that we don’t really know much about and so I absolutely believe in ghost.

4. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

When I am not writing I am hanging out with friends, I love going to the movies, going out to eat and love cosplaying.

5. What is the most difficult part of your journey as an author?

The most difficult part of my journey is since I am an independent author everything falls on my shoulders. Creating advertisements so that my books can be seen is a lot of money and work. Its sometimes discouraging when you feel like your not moving forward as an author because no one is buying your books. I try to keep a positive mindset and believe that this will pan out for me and I will get to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

6. What is your favorite Quote?

“Never invest in someone who doesn’t have as much to lose as you do.”

7. What are you working on next? Are you planning to release another book soon?

Yes I am currently working on my third novel called “The Rainbow Dimension” Its the third installment of “Dark Mysteries of the Paranormal” I want to say I can have it released in the next month or so. But I don’t want to rush because there is no need for rushing. I have the option of taking my time with it and adding things to the story to making it better. But the book has been finished its just needs a little extra care. I also finished the fourth installment of the series called Atlas and his Amazing Wonders. I have been working on both and will try to get it done before the end of the year.

8. What do you hope your readers take away from your books?

I hope they love the characters, I hope they can see that stories can be told from different narratives and perspectives. As a member of the Black LGBTQ community I feel like our perspective in never shown as often and I want to prove that you can have a gay character as the focus of the story and the story can still be amazing and riveting. We don’t have enough characters of color and part of the LGBTQ community who are witches or mermaids or werewolves. I mean have shows like chilling adventures of sabrina where the character ambrose is not only black like me but he is also bisexual. I love that. I feel like we need more characters that show different walks of life. And that is what I am going to strive for in all of my books. Diversity and representation for the ones who are left in the shadows.

9. Do you read or write daily?

I don’t necessarily read daily. The last book I read was Stephen kings “The outsider” I really enjoyed that book and the tv series. I write most days because I am writing a ten book series. So that keeps me pretty busy.

10. Lastly, do you want to give any advice to readers and aspiring writers?

I think the only advice I can think of is write what you are passionate about. There is an audience for everything and when you write about things that spark your flame the writing comes out better and you just have fun doing it .

Books by Brandon Clarke:

The brave and the wicked

The ghost of kyle sugarbaker

Category: Author Interview

Interview with author Zachary Ryan

Interview with Author Brandon Clarke