Interview With Author Lesley M. Laws
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am not a spring chicken. My family have all grown and flown the nest which now gives me the time, and peace to get back to doing what I love; writing.
Yes, I used to write before they came along. Back in the 1970’s I wrote short stories for magazines and local weekend give- away papers, not under my name but anon, I was honestly not sure if they would be good enough and when they did start getting accepted regularly it had just become a habit to keep my privacy.
What did I write?
Everything from fantasy and horror to paranormal and kid’s stories. I even ghost-wrote some for other people.
Then came first the family, then the move of a lifetime from Britain to live in a peaceful rural setting in N.E. Spain which is where I live today.
How many books have I written and put a name to, or have on the drawing board, in editing or final proofs?
When I first put my toes into self-publishing I published a couple of books on Amazon a few years back under a different name and used it in some respects to find my feet.
I didn’t do a lot of advertising but also put them in some of the contests. Feedback was good but as one expects, by not advertising they soon got lost in the algorithms so I decided to re-invent myself one might say and learn from my mistakes.
If I count these then along with the educational books for schools which I am working on now, I have written a dozen books; plus maybe another dozen as a ghostwriter, which were published, back at the very beginning.
The advent of the computer, the internet and word check makes my life a lot easier than it was, I am slightly dyslexic and thus modern technology is a great help in allowing me to do what I love.
It has also been my honour to find a collector book company (Abebooks) that has chosen two of my paperbacks to add to their list of collectables for the future, also two of the hardbacks from my Y/A series which I have mothballed for the moment partly because of the U.S.A. book banning policy that is still in place. As a new name, I don’t want to tempt fate.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Here I may confuse some of your readers as I have in fact just published my first four books almost back to back. I am writing a series so wanted readers to have something to get their teeth into rather than one book and nothing for a few months.
Caught Between Two Worlds is the first in the Chronicles of Dragondom and Beyond Series, followed by Alphatondik – The Virus, then Cosmic Pawn & lastly, but by no means the last; Lilith’s Gift & The Plains of Zenorthar.
What inspired me to write these?
I am an intuitive writer and without sounding too much as if I am “woke” I do tend to sit and play with ideas and am very drawn to the ancient myths and legends, but also ancient stone circles and the energies which, as an empath, I seem to pick up.
I spent several years in the West Country of England growing up and have always been interested in the stone circles, the druids and magic so this was the start and the characters, then the concept of what a person with basic psychic ability may be able to achieve if they fell into a magical world and had no way back to Earth. Thus the first book. From there it has morphed, and Aisha, my main character has not only learned how to use her gifts but that she, as we all are, is more than “just human”. Now the series continues with her having to complete challenges and save other worlds from the dark antagonists who wish to suck all joy and enslave the whole of creation.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really, I tend to spend a lot of time doing background research both before writing and while I write a book. The idea I get for a book may, I suppose be classed as a little unusual as I may be out walking, or even asleep and I will suddenly get an idea, an epiphany one might say and I have to get pen and paper fast, never sure what will appear as I write.
Usually, it is a riddle and that riddle is the basic beginning idea and solving the riddle creates the book. As I said I am an intuitive writer.
As most fiction writers probably find, when writing a series we become so close to our characters that in many ways they take over when we are typing. I do a basic bullet point outline but many times that gets thrown out of the window as the twists and turns of the plot in a specific challenge may be changed by someone, and that is usually the antagonist; one might say coming up with something out of left field which is more challenging, and thus exciting, than what I had mapped out. Forgive me, but I have a natural black humour to everything I do and this tends also to come out when I speak or write.
Other than that I write when I can between my day job. Sometimes I may work for seven or eight hours straight, never less than two hours as I like to keep a flow going. I have been known to literally work up to eighteen hours straight when really homing in on a specific part of the story that won’t let me go.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
No person is an island, and it is also true that everything we experience, read, watch and hear has a lasting effect on us, even if we do not always realize it. Not just books but many films and T.V. Series I loved while growing up helped to open my mind and draw me later in life along this path.
Now I will truly show my age as those I have chosen are, in today’s world, classics. I have always been an avid reader and cut my teeth early on the likes of the Grimm Brothers Fairy tales and the 1001 Arabian Nights. Later the works of Alistair McLean, Desmond Bagley, Wilbur Smith and others. From them, the beautiful and many times intense descriptions have always stuck in my mind as has the fast pace and excitement they captured in their pages.
The works of J.R.R. Tolkien helped open my heart and mind to aspects that lay dormant within.
All these filled my spare time along with the works of Shakespeare, Chaucer, Machiavelli, Dickens even Carl Jung.
Apart from books, one must add also people who work on YouTube and other platforms, sometimes diving down rabbit holes and finding what I already have brought to life in my pages has been picked up, maybe in a different but parallel way by others in their work.
I have found recently, the work of Linda Mouton Howe (Earth Files) and others, very useful to verify what I had found out, and what I know through my own “intuition”.
This journey has also introduced me to many outstanding and intuitive astrologers and tarot readers, also philosophy, quantum physics and other possible roots to mankind. Beyond this, myths and fables from around the world have allowed me to also include my own intuitive observations and a hint of Eco-fiction, to show the problems and I hope also capture some of the possible solutions as Aisha moves through the Timelines and Cosmos.
What are you working on now?
Right now I am in the final part of writing the next book in the series. Ogliz.
This is the fourth of six challenges she has been sent on by the guardians of the Obsidian Circle. They are also being watched by the Universal Council who wanted her to be activated at the very beginning of the series as they look at the odds of her being a successful champion for the protagonists of the cosmos against the strongest and darkest groups who also every few millennia try to win the control over all.
All going according to plan this should be available to the public in the first quarter of 2025.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
At present, and I am working on expanding my lack of social media, I can be found on buymeacoffee. My page there is under my name Lesley M. Laws. Lesley Lawss (their spelling in their link). Here I do short audios about what I am doing, as well as short videos and posts. People can also ask questions and follow. I use this because it can translate for those who do not read English, thus also helping me lay the seeds for when the books are finished in the translation firstly into Spanish, as I live in Spain; and later into other languages.
I also have a podcast in the name of Beyond Dragondom and a YouTube channel by the same name.
Awesomegang is the first of this kind of advertising along with dipping my toes tentatively into Reader’s Favourites. I need to get some reviews flowing so I can beat the algorithms at their game, and considering Aisha fights cyborgs and such, I sometimes feel the AI knows I am not always on their side and hides me. My little family; which is most writers’ first stop to get reviews, is not helpful in reviewing, sadly both my kids are not readers, in English anyway as they both are more Spanish than English and I have no other family. Friends? I am a hermit so again that doesn’t come into the equation.
Because my books are published via an online publisher to Amazon and other platforms I have no ability, by their rules to do special offers, but will be using possibly my buymeacoffee page to do this in the future, these will be PDF copies unless someone contacts me there and asks to buy, for example, a signed copy, or the set at a special price. In Winter 2024 I will also be working on opening other social media and again, my buymeacoffee site will have all these details.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Simply to write. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Maybe do what I did, write under an alias so that when you have honed your skill a bit more you can write in your name. But, write.
Our imagination is the most precious gift. If you are writing or want to write non-fiction, again it is the same. Every one of us has something we can share, some story or piece of knowledge which others will benefit from.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
– Albert Einstein
“Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic.”
– J. K. Rowling
“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.”
– Carl Jung
For me, words are magic and fiction, fantasy and science fiction allow us to escape the mundane and go into the world of the imaginal where all possibilities exist.
What are you reading now?
I am just finishing reading a book I probably read some fifteen years ago, yes, some books draw me back because, on a second reading, I find more layers than I did when I first read them.
That short book is Michael Moorcock – The War Hound and the World’s Pain.
What’s next for you as a writer?
After the book I am working on now, there are, already mapped ideas for the rest of the series, so around another five books are in the pipeline.
After that will depend partly on what is happening with the book-ban law in the US. I do intend to finish the Y/A series which is also in some ways a separate series with some of the same characters. Part of the beauty of working in quantum fields is there are many worlds and many connotations to play with, and it allows me to develop further some of the cameo children from the first series and follow them as they as students in a galactic college learn and perfect their skills including a set of twins from Earth. But first, they must be found before the antagonists get them and turn them to the darker side, to abuse their powers.
Simultaneously I am working with a Spanish medical friend to produce single-language and bi-lingual; story and activity books for schools and home-schooling about how climate change is affecting our lives and also our health. How to better understand it and how we can help without fear. Adapting with also the opportunity to interact with older generations and learn from the knowledge of grandparents and ancients, from the folklore that used to be passed down; something that we have forgotten in our modern world. A way each one of our kids, and us can help ourselves going forward.
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?
Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
The complete works of Shakespeare
One or Two compendium editions of Wilber Smith specifically his ones on Africa.
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