The Stories Behind the Stories
In-depth conversations with indie authors about their books, their writing process, and the journey of independent publishing. Get to know the people behind the pages.
Inside the Mind - Will Colt
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What inspired you to start writing?
From reading Louis L'Amour books as a teenager. The dream started then but the ability hadn't developed.
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Can you tell us a little about your latest book?
Where Rivers Run West is a historical fiction saga from the American frontier. It is loosely based on my great grandfather's migration to the West from an Indiana farm. It is not exactly his journey, but his journey was something similar to Rory's.
Inside the Mind - Liora Morgrave
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What inspired you to start writing?
I started writing because I was always searching for answers that history, mythology, and theology never seemed to fully provide. As a child, I was drawn to the stories hidden beneath the stories—the myths that survived for thousands of years, the legends whispered around ancient ruins, and the questions people have wrestled with since the beginning of time. Why do we fall? Can we be redeemed? What is worth sacrificing everything for? The more I read, the more I realized that fiction allows us to explore those questions in ways facts alone cannot. Writing became a way to wander through those mysteries. It allowed me to imagine conversations between angels and demons, heroes and villains, saints and sinners, and to explore the fragile space where darkness and light meet. In many ways, I don't think I chose writing. I think the stories found me first. I simply followed them into the shadows and kept asking questions.
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Can you tell us a little about your latest book?
My Guardian Dear is a dark fantasy about love, temptation, and the choices that define us. At its heart is Samantha Brandt, a woman whose faith has always been her anchor, and Damon, a fallen angel who has spent centuries believing he is beyond redemption. Their worlds should never collide, yet from the moment they do, both are forced to confront truths they'd rather avoid. As ancient forces move behind the scenes, Samantha finds herself caught in a conflict far older than humanity itself—a war between Heaven and Hell where loyalty is tested, destinies are rewritten, and every choice comes with a price. But beneath the supernatural elements, My Guardian Dear asks a deeply human question: Can love transform us, or does it simply reveal who we truly are? Readers can expect forbidden attraction, celestial intrigue, dangerous bargains, spiritual warfare, and characters who exist in the gray spaces between good and evil. It's a story for anyone who has ever been fascinated by redemption, captivated by morally complex characters, or wondered whether even the most broken soul can find a way back to the light. After all, the most dangerous demons are not always the ones who want to destroy us. Sometimes they're the ones willing to burn the world to save us.
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Inside the Mind - Christopher Thomas
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What inspired you to start writing?
My dad is the reason I write. He wasn't a writer by trade, he fixed cars. My father learned to be a mechanic in my Uncle Tony's garage in Hartford, Connecticut during the depression. He went on to fight in World War Two. Once he returned home, he met and married my mother and started a family. At night he told me stories about the little boy factory and Archibald Popscaluski. He made Archibald up and factories and as I grew up, his stories always stayed with me. My dad was a master storyteller and that's what inspired me to write.
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Can you tell us a little about your latest book?
The latest book in the Bruce Westman series is called Missing. This is loosely based off of a case in Houston, Texas. A 15-year-old girl stepped off her school bus and was never seen again. As a retired police officer, this story touched my heart so much that I wrote and dedicated a story to her. My private investigator, Bruce Westman, is hired by a mother whose daughter has been missing for 16 years. She hires Bruce because she is dying of cancer and wishes to see her child before she dies.
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Inside the Mind - Thomas Hay
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What inspired you to start writing?
I had a desire to be an author all my life. But it didn't come to past until late in life. It was after 39 years working for an airline that I got the opportunity. But then, I had no idea what to write. My wife came up with the perfect solution. She said, "Tom, you have had a very interesting life, so why not write your memoirs." BINGO
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Can you tell us a little about your latest book?
The Abduction Chronicles was written after I wrote my memoirs, "The Comeback Kid". After my first marriage, my ex-wife claimed that we had been abducted by aliens. She was know to have some mental issues, so I never believed her. But after I wrote my memoirs, I got to thinking, "what if she was right?" Behold, "The Abduction Chronicles" popped into my head. I didn't even have to think about what to write. Each page came as if I had lived and remembered it.
Inside the Mind - Kerry ONeal
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What inspired you to start writing?
My Dad was a writer, artist, painter, dancer, and concert pianist. He always inspired me, saying I was extremely creative, so after his death in 2003, I wrote and illustrated two children's books. Since then, I've written and published over 32 books in every genre.
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Can you tell us a little about your latest book?
The two projects I'm working on simultaneously are a 3-book science fiction series about a superior intelligent entity discovered deep within the Earth, since early mankind observed crashing into our planet. (The Velathri Cycle Series) The other book is the true story of my Mom's parents, who immigrated from Italy in the early 1920s, and the struggles they encountered. (Echoes of Lamoli - A True Story)
Inside the Mind - Andrew G. Berger
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What inspired you to start writing?
The initial idea was to consider what would actually happen if all digital devices stopped working overnight. We are becoming more and more dependent on countless digital helpers - smartphones, navigation devices, laptops, iPads, tablets, smart TVs, smartwatches, Alexa, Siri, Cortana, smart homes, Google, the Internet etc.. But what if all those helpers suddenly stopped working? A worldwide EMP, triggered by a gigantic solar storm, could do the trick. Based on this idea, I started to design possible scenarios that branched out and condensed more and more during the writing process.
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Can you tell us a little about your latest book?
”The Superflare” is my first novel. It is a science fiction story and thus belongs to a genre that has fascinated me since I was young. At the same time, it is an adventure story and explores how people might behave in extreme situations. This is my main interest as a writer – to explore and describe the possibilities of human behavior in extreme situations. How do people react to pressures and crises? How do they change and shape themselves? Dystopias are only one of several possible settings to tell such stories. Will I write more books with a post-apocalyptic backdrop? The future will tell.
Inside the Mind - Anahit Arustamyan
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What inspired you to start writing?
Life inspires me to write. Writing is my lifestyle.
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Can you tell us a little about your latest book?
"It Could Be Me" is my latest poetry book. It's available on Amazon, Kobo and Written App. It's a new released book.
Inside the Mind - Carla D E Godfrey
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What inspired you to start writing?
Jane Austen! I loved her books growing up, and I've always had a good imagination so I started writing little four page stories - they usually involved me and my family or fanfiction and it grew from there.
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Can you tell us a little about your latest book?
Desire & Duty is all about class and the determination to prove that it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from - it centres around Cal who comes from this claustrophobic, stuffy, rich lifestyle - there's a certain way to behave and all he wants to do is be himself - his girlfriend is unapologetic and a bit of a rebel so she's one to look out for! So it's a question of is he brave enough to take a leaf out of her book?
LUVVIE or Live Fast Die Young - Ben Braddock
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What inspired you to start writing?
I first started writing as a playwright when, working as an actor in dreadful new plays, I thought "I can do better than that!" Luckily it turned out that I was right. I then wrote sitcom scripts commissioned for British television (different pen name) and worked as a stand up comedian.
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Can you tell us a little about your latest book?
It started many years ago when I heard someone talking on the radio how a psychic told him he would die in one year's time. I thought "what a great start to a story". LUVVIE (a British, slightly derogatory, slang term for an actor, based on the rumor that actors all call each other "luvvie" or "darling") is a post modern biography, if you want to be posh, meaning some of it's true, some of it is not. My family hates it but then the truth hurts.
Inside the Mind - Matt Dinniman
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When did you first realize you wanted to become a writer?
I realized it during my school years when I started enjoying creative writing and storytelling more than any other subject.
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What is the main theme of your book?
The main theme is personal transformation and how life challenges can help people discover their true strength.