Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
When I’m not writing, I’m a cyber-security engineer. I married my high school sweetheart and we have three perfect teenagers. This is my first book. I have a sequel in mind, but you never know if a book has legs until you start on it.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Stolen Shroud was born out of a crisis of faith. While I struggled with my faith, I had the following thought: if I pull out of this struggle, I’d like to write a novel in which the main character loses his faith, and then gets it back in the end. There are many novels where the main character becomes disillusioned. Not as many about becoming disillusioned, and then finding out that the original illusion was real all along.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
It took me just short of four years off and on to write this one, not counting the two years before I started while I sat on it, or the 37 years before that while I lived out some of the stories. I am fortunate to have many mornings free, so I write then. I wrote a little at night but found I wasn’t as sharp. Once my ideas are set, I can write pretty quickly, like a draft of a chapter a day, but it did take me four years to write it. I bet the next one will be quicker.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Orson Scott Card’s Xenocide. Frank Peretti’s The Visitation. David Mitchell’s Bone Clocks. If you count television, J.J. Abrams and all the LOST writers. I’ve never read Dan Brown’s Davinci Code, but this book would not exist without it.
What are you working on now?
Promoting this book. Book two is swirling around in my head, which is part of the process, but I won’t start on it until this book has been launched.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Remains to be seen, but Dave Chesson has been great (he gave me this site). I have his Publisher Rocket program and am ready to go.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Contrarian advice here. I would not look into publishing until you’ve written your book, and then reverse engineer your promotion campaign to what you’ve written. Write a dang good book. My favorite how to write books were James Scott Bell’s Plot and Structure (by far the most useful to me), Orson Scott Card’s Characters and Viewpoint, and Robert McKee’s Dialogue.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Orson Scott Card says when you think up a character, avoid the stereotype. It’s easy to make a nerdy IT guy have the hobby of collecting Star Wars dolls. What if instead he was obsessed with, professional wrestling?
What are you reading now?
I’m obsessed with Fredrik Backman. Maybe some Harry Potter. Also books about God and the Bible.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Ideally, starting a podcast. Writing a sequel. Maybe non-fiction at some point.
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?
Bible. Lord of the Rings. Complete works of Shakespeare. Would have to be tough stuff that I could reread over and over like an English professor, and Lord of the Rings for fun. And of course for my fourth, a book on how to build a ship.
Author Websites and Profiles
Daniel Westlund Website
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