Ask the Author: Alesia Matson
Answered Questions (3)
Alesia Matson
I used to skip this question. Now, though, I find I do have some advice that I wish I'd been given.
1. Write your best story. I don't write that lightly or facetiously. It has to be YOUR story, the story you believe in with all your heart. Write it the best way you know how, and don't let anyone tell you that you're wasting your time because "it's not marketable." Here's why I say this: This world will do its best to make you second-guess yourself, and doubt yourself, and from experience I've learned that you just can't write like that. It kills your soul. Don't let it happen to you.
2. If you've followed the advice in #1, then this applies next: Don't give money to anyone in this business to help you promote your book if they won't put some skin in the game, so to speak. Be clear about what you expect, and if that person or agency won't agree to meet those expectations in exchange for their fee, they don't deserve your money. This is such a hard-and-fast rule that I've yet to find an exception to it, but I see indie authors breaking it by hundreds, every day.
1. Write your best story. I don't write that lightly or facetiously. It has to be YOUR story, the story you believe in with all your heart. Write it the best way you know how, and don't let anyone tell you that you're wasting your time because "it's not marketable." Here's why I say this: This world will do its best to make you second-guess yourself, and doubt yourself, and from experience I've learned that you just can't write like that. It kills your soul. Don't let it happen to you.
2. If you've followed the advice in #1, then this applies next: Don't give money to anyone in this business to help you promote your book if they won't put some skin in the game, so to speak. Be clear about what you expect, and if that person or agency won't agree to meet those expectations in exchange for their fee, they don't deserve your money. This is such a hard-and-fast rule that I've yet to find an exception to it, but I see indie authors breaking it by hundreds, every day.
Alesia Matson
Michael and I have set a date to block the third book in this series beginning on December 14th. The working title is "Seven for a Secret." Though we already know how it ends and the big things that have to happen, we're going all-in and blocking it right down to scene level of detail before we put it away for a few months. During that interregnum, we'll each be writing separate stories set in the world of Menelon that are set during the Great War.
Alesia Matson
"Dead Man's Trigger" is the second book of the trilogy, but in general, Michael and I wanted to honor the tropes of the "romance" genre as we weave and unravel the complications for Angelique and Vincent. As protagonists and love interests, they've both got some messes to clean up and some growing to do before they can begin to contemplate that "happily ever after" we oh-so-want to deliver by the time we reach the end of the series.
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