AlphaNovel conducted a live Q&A-session with Artemas J R Broyles, the author of ‘The Blood Moon Luna’ and the whole ‘Blood Moon’ Series. She’s also the author of ‘Alpha Baylor’ and has several ongoing series on AlphaNovel including: ‘The Ancillae’s Familiar’ and ‘The Spare Mate’.
This is the transcription of the live session, during which we talked about the inspiration behind book characters and the writing processes of AlphaNovel’s talented author.
How are you balancing your writer’s life and routine daily tasks? Do you have a fixed time dedicated just to writing or is everything a little chaotic?
I’m a nurse by day, but I’m always thinking about my books. I work because I need a paycheck, but during the rest of the time – it is all writing.
What inspired you to take a leap of faith and start writing? Was it a lack of interesting stories on the market, or were you inspired by the journey of some other author?
Ironically enough, I was reading on an app, and my favorite author at the time went on hiatus because she was having some issues. I was looking around for other stories to read and did find one other author that I truly love. However, the majority of what I found wasn’t very well written and I’m like, you know what…
I have dabbled in writing off and on all my life, I took extra English classes in high school, but I just never had the courage to start. I thought, if these people can do it, so can I. And I just started the journey.
Was it easy to come up with the first story? Was it the story itself or the character that came to you first?
Not everyone knows that Alpha Baylor was technically the first book I started. It was very rough, too much fluff, not enough substance, and it actually got rejected. Looking back, it was pretty poorly written, so I put everything away, and said to myself: “Forget it, I can’t do this.” I sat down and started writing “The Blood Moon Luna”, and the rest were just kind of history from there.”
Some writers start from the end of the story, and then they develop it backwards to the beginning. Do you have your own personal approach to writing?
I cannot start writing the story until I have a book cover. Of course, the title can change, or any number of things can happen, but until I can see the book cover and see the faces of those characters, I can’t write that story. I don’t write notes, I don’t do an outline, I let it come to me. I know where the story is supposed to end, and how it gets there is — the characters, they drive it.
Let’s get to your book, and I’ll start with your biggest hit on AlphaNovel, “The Blood Moon Luna.” What did you think is so special about this book and why did it attract most fans?
From what I have been told, it is because the story is not told the same way that everyone else tells a story that I take a different approach. But everybody just seems to love that particular book. Technically, I am writing book six from these series and there’s already six completed.
Are you feeling attached to the characters you are writing about? Are you ready at any time in the future to say “goodbye” to the character you’ve spent so much time with?
They won’t be a “goodbye,” it will be more of a “see you later.” I already have the next series planned. For those who have read both series and have read far enough into the ‘Blood Moon’ Series, they know that they technically cross.
Let’s talk about ‘The Ancillae’s Familiar’ and ‘The Spare Mate.’ Can you briefly introduce to people who haven’t yet read the book in the world and the characters of these books?
I’ll go with ‘Spare Mates’ first, that’s the ongoing part of the ‘Blood Moon’ Saga. In the ‘Blood Moon Luna,’ you meet all three of the main characters for this particular book:
Charity: Sassy, has zero filter.
Jonas: Unapologetically himself and is rather flamboyant. He considers himself one of the girls most days.
Tatum: Little on the broody, nonverbal. Tatum is the Beta of the Pack.
In this particular book, I’ve already dropped one bombshell with the unexpected unliving of a very beloved character. However, I didn’t leave everyone hanging but you have to tune in and read to find out how I fixed that particular problem.”
And then, ‘The Ancillae’s Familiar:’
‘Ricci is a very strong-natured female lead who’s been through a lot, and there are some very interesting Vampires that she ends up encountering. One in particular that she’s going to connect with first above all, and that’s because he wants a ‘Familiar’ after all this time. Essentially, a ‘familiar’ is a loyal animal companion who is protective of a Vampire if they go dormant. They don’t do it often but on the rare occasion that they do, that ‘Familiar’ becomes their protector, and when he finds a wolf, he makes her his own.’
Can you share the mistakes you made along your writing journey, both in terms of writing and in terms of publishing the book?
Don’t be afraid to have others read things before you publish, and be open to criticism.
It’s proven that you don’t actually need to be printed to be a successful author, but still, have you felt sentimental when you first saw your text printed as a hard book?
I did! I cried for a while when I first saw the ‘Blood Moon Luna’ printed as a hard book. And each time one of them comes, I’m so excited for a new one to come.
The final question is for anyone who is not familiar with you. Can you tell them what book of yours should they choose to start to get to know your stories?
My advice is if you want to read the book depending on spice level because one series is spicier than the other, then I am going to tell you to read ‘Baylor’ before anything.
However, Baylor is less spicy because Baylor starts off as a 16-year-old boy. But if you are going to want the spice level, I’m going to say start with ‘Alpha Keiren’s Mate’ which is actually the prequel to the ‘Blood Moon Luna’ and it tells how everything began before it began. And then, legitimately, ‘Alpha Keiran’s Mate’ ends the day before the ‘Blood Moon Luna’ starts, so it flows right into the next book.”
If you haven’t read Artemas’ books yet, we strongly encourage you to do so. We at the same time are looking forward to seeing more of her works on AlphaNovel.
