L.D. Albano interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

When did your love of books begin?

At a very early age. When I was in grade school, I read well above my age group and was fascinated by the way books could transport me to different places and times. I consumed the Iliad and Odyssey in the third grade.

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?

I think it was always there rattling around my brain, but I didn’t sit down and purposefully write a novel until July of 2017 (I was 54 at the time). Life, work, and sheer laziness all got in the way. That’s not to say that the urge wasn’t there…it was. I got laid off from a soul-crushing job in June, spent three weeks in southern Italy, and came home mentally rejuvenated. And…my wife got tired of hearing me grumble about how terrible some books I had been reading were and challenged me to do better. It was ON at that point.

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

Writing itself is easy, relatively. I wrote the three books in the Alexander Matthews Chronicles over the course of nine months. The problem was I needed money for covers, pro editing, etcetera. So back to work I went and funneled all my resources into that. I truly suck at the marketing aspect of being an author, though, and am still trying to find the magic system for Amazon ads.

What would you say to those wanting to become an author?

Do it, there is nothing like the feeling of seeing your work out in the wild. That being said, keep the day job. It’s really, really hard to make a living at the writing game (still trying myself). Leverage whatever sources of knowledge you can find and be aware that what works for one author probably won’t work for you. Invest in tools like Grammarly and Publisher Rocket…and keep your receipts for tax purposes. Oh, and don’t forget to sacrifice to the gods. Reviews are nearly impossible to obtain…even when they promise they’ll do it.

Tell us about your book/books:

Its funny, because the three books started out as a thought exercise and just grew from there. I was watching Ancient Aliens and rolling my eyes when I asked myself how I could take some of the tenets of the series and make them cohesive, more believable. By the time the episode was over I had the basic framework, my main characters, and a story arc all worked out. After that it was just a matter of sitting down at the keyboard and making it happen. Oh, and I am 100% a pantser. The stories, and characters evolved as I wrote.

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

As a world-class introvert it is nice to interact with others like myself. Every day someone will post something that amuses me (and my humor is as twisted as it gets). I recently attended the 20BooksTo50k conference in Las Vegas and made a few connections with other authors, not all of whom write in the same genres that I do. Its expensive, but if you can afford it, I highly recommend it.

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

Take a chance on authors you haven’t read before. Some of my favorites right now were discovered that way. $2.99 or less on Kindle lets you take chances that buying physical media does not. My work isn’t for everyone, but if you aren’t easily offended by salty language and gratuitous violence then I may be just what the doctor ordered. And I guarantee you will have the occasional chuckle intermixed with the rest.

Where can people connect with you?

I have a blog site: http://inadverentconsequences.com my journey as an author is documented there as well as vacation pics and opinion pieces. Be warned, I have almost no filter and what you see is what you get. Twitter:

@lalbano6