S.J. Reisner

AM – This week’s Featured Author is fantasy fiction author S.J. Reisner.  S.J. is with us today promoting “Warrior’s Blood Red,” the second book in her Sorcerers’ Twilight series.  Thank you for joining us!

SR – Thank you!

AM – Please tell us a little more about yourself.

SR – I’m a late thirty-something, married, owned by three cats, and I still have a day job. I’m also very active in a local pagan group I belong to. I write under several other pen names just to keep all the genre’s separate. And finally, writing is not kind to the waist line, so I’m constantly trying to find new ways to incorporate more exercise into my life.

AM – How did you get started as a writer?

SR – I started out writing short horse stories as a child and it just spiraled out of control from there. By the time I was nineteen and in college, I was working toward a professional writing career and ended up with a B.A. in English with a creative writing emphasis. I’ve probably written about thirty books (many of them not good), but only a few have made their way into print.

AM – Can you tell us more about the Sorcerers’ Twilight series?

SR – Sorcerers’ Twilight was a story idea I had bouncing through my brain for about 10 years before I finally started writing it down. It’s the story of a young woman who is basically taken from her privileged, quiet life and has the responsibility of the world put on her shoulders – literally. The survival of her race depends on her. She starts off as this bratty kid who thinks she has everything figured out. By the end of book three, she’s done a lot of growing up. Of course this is just the main storyline running through the series. I write character novels. These books are about people and how they face the situations they find themselves in rather than the situations themselves. The underlying theme of book one is about following intuition. The underlying theme of book two trust, and the theme of the final book is love and family. They’re all lessons the main character learns in her journey to save the people she loves.

AM – Can you tell us more about the book “Warrior’s Blood Red”?

SR – In the second book, Warrior’s Blood Red, the main character, Tnasha, is forced to face death head on. This time, people really are counting on her and have charged her with a task. But in order to complete it she has to learn to let go and trust some people she doesn’t want to trust. The Weapon of Mass Destruction in the novel was inspired by modern day terrorism, even though my WMD is a magical staff.

AM – What inspired you to write this series?

SR – A lot of things finally made me sit down and write these books. First – when a story ripens I have a hard time sleeping until I write it down, thus removing it from my brain. So that was the first inspiration.  Most recently all of the Islam vs. Christianity talk. Religious wars have always fascinated me and part of the larger story running through the entire series is a fight between monotheists and the pagans (both polytheists and pantheists) in the story and the use of terrorism to force the non-monotheists into conversion. There’s also a strong undercurrent (very subtle) running through the books about the subjugation of women. The main character fights it almost continually on her journey.

AM – You have been published numerous time, but think back to your first book release. Were you nervous? Do you still feel that way about new releases?

SR – I was really nervous because I had a lot of pre-conceived notions about what being a published writer would be like. But once I got over those and realized I was glamorizing it far too much in my mind, it got easier. However, there’s something disconcerting about putting your heart and soul into something you write and then giving it up to the world for judgment and scrutiny. At the same time when you hear complete strangers have enjoyed your work there’s no high like it. It feels good to know you’ve found an appreciative audience. So while I no longer feel as anxious about new releases I still dread those first reviews. After they come out I can relax. Ultimately it’s the readers who decide if an author can sell her next book.

AM – What can we expect to see next from you?

SR – Well, I’m still working on book three of Sorcerers’ Twilight. It’s actually being re-written right now because it was far too dark as it was. That book is titled Eagle’s Talon Gray. I am also working on a contemporary mystery (possibly a series) under a different pen name. As for any more fantasy, I do have a wonderful story about two sisters that’s brewing in the back of my brain right now. That could become an eventual novel. It just needs more time to stew.

AM – What do you think is the most important piece of advice that you would give an unpublished writer?

SR – A talent for writing is only a tiny part of the puzzle if you’re looking to get published. The world is full of talented writers. The rest is persistence, luck, and selling yourself. Also, you can’t be so in love with your stories that you won’t change them. Sometimes publication, especially in the beginning, is contingent on changing plots to suit what the publisher wants. You have to learn when to fight for your story, or when to give in and change something your editor wants changed. That can be painful if you’re deeply in love with your work the way it is.

AM – Where can we go to purchase “Warrior’s Blood Red” and the other Sorcerers’ Twilight novels?

SR – My website has links to the publisher’s printer website, and my books can be purchased through Amazon as a paperback or Kindle edition. I am working with my publisher right now to put the Sorcerers’ Twilight books into additional electronic formats later this year for iPhone, Sony Reader, and several others.

AM – Thank you very much for joining us today S.J.  We wish you the best of luck with “Warrior’s Blood Red” and all of your future releases!