Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am 28 years old. I’ve been writing as a hobby since childhood. My first short story was when I was 6 years old. It was a vampire tale. I graduated high school in 2009, then went to Bible college due to my religious involvement at that time in my life. I studied Theology and Church History for 4 years, supporting myself through factory work, then left organized religion and worked three jobs at once just to keep my mind occupied away from anxiety and stress. I worked in retail when I began dating my wife, Brittany, and we eventually married in 2016. It is around this time that I began writing once again. I wrote several short stories and drafts, until finally writing my first book. My first book was “The Duology of Lady Lillith: The Crimson Bride” and was published as an e-book in October of 2017. I wrote and published my second book, “The Duology of Lady Lillith, Book 2: The Sacred Espousal” in 2019.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My second book, “The Duology of Lady Lillith, Book 2: The Sacred Espousal”, was inspired by some events in my own life regarding myself being chaste until I was 25, when I married my wife, and never being with any woman before her. Jonathan Cutshaw forms a love relationship with a female vampire named Marah Autumns, and Jonathan is a virgin and has never been with any other person before. The story was also inspired by concepts such as having a crisis of faith, questioning life and death, the Afterlife, God and the morality of God.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I often switch between the first and third-person viewpoints in narration, depending on the context and events of the story, and I also write about recurring themes. My specific recurring themes are succubus, ghastly females luring men either to their deaths or to transformation to demonism and otherworldly beings.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King have all highly-influenced me in writing, though I would never claim to be like them. I believe that every author is their own author and no author should ever try to be anyone else. We are all individuals.
What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on a third-book that will tie-in to the first two books, focusing on the story of Tighy-Bel the Goth Clown (the antagonist from “The Duology of Lady Lillith, Book 2: The Sacred Espousal”).
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use e-book format because I cannot currently afford the resources to make them into hard copies as of yet. I use Amazon Kindle.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing what you write and never bow to the pressure to change yourself, even if nobody ever notices your work. Poe and Lovecraft both died in poverty and their works were not recognized until afterward. That didn’t stop them from writing while they were alive and, had they quit writing in discouragement, we wouldn’t have their works to enjoy today.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Be yourself and live life to the fullest. You only live once.”
What are you reading now?
The Entire Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I plan on finishing my third book, then starting on my lengthy fourth book to conclude the Lady Lillith and Tighty-Bel universe and start another series after that.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
King James Version Bible, Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary Of The English Language, The Entire Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft and Homer’s Odyssey.