Amir, Lane, Shadow Maker #thursdaythoughts, #amreading

With me today is Amir Lane. Amir was born in Canada and his parents are from Iraq.  He is a supernatural and urban fantasy writer and the author of the Morrighan House Witches series that debuted in October 2016. The series opens with Shadow Maker, and follows physics major Dieter Lindemann as he's dragged down against his will into Necromancy and blood magic.

Amir loves to connect with readers online. Connect with him on his website or Facebook.

And onto the interview…

Amir, what is your favourite motivational phrase?

I'm going to sound really pretentious here but it's,

'Once more unto the breach, dear men, and close the wall up with our English dead,' from Shakespeare's King Henry IV.

 I actually first heard it in Bartok the Magnificent. And I studied the play in my grade 12 English class. I hated it at first because histories are super dry on paper, but then I saw the movie and the scene where Gilderoy Lockhart is standing in front of this army, trying to pump them up to fight the French army which was super motivational. I quote it all the time.

 How do you relax?

Now that I've stopped laughing...

Most of my spare time is full of writing so 'relaxing' isn't a thing I do much of. I pretty much always have music on in the background, or the TV if I'm at home. I’m a musician, piano and violin. I bought myself a book of Rammstein piano sheet music that I’ve been working through that I’ve been having a ton of fun with. I also just got into video games. I got my first X-Box, it was very exciting. My brother plays it more that I do but I'm really big on DCUO and Assassin's Creed. There's something very satisfying about not getting killed in a fictional universe.

Did you make any marketing mistakes or is there anything you would avoid in future?

My biggest mistake was not waiting until I had more books done to start publishing. Right now, with only the one, it's kind of hard because people have nowhere to go after they finish it. I do wish I'd waited but because I only have so many hours to write, it would have been a few years and I decided that I didn't want to do that. I try not to regret the things I do but I can acknowledge that from a marketing perspective, it might have been smarter to hold off. Right now I'm trying to keep a book a year schedule for Morrighan House Witches but I think when it's done, I'll take some time to power through the next series and at least have the first few books drafted before I publish. Problem solved.

What do you think of “trailers” for books, and do you have a trailer/will you create one for your own work?

I think they're cute. I've seen some really cool ones. I think if it's the kind of thing that can really help spread a book if it's done well. I don't know if I'd do one myself, though. I'd love to, it seems like a ton of fun, but I wouldn't want to do just pictures with music and voice-overs, and the kinds of effects I'd want to have are way beyond my skills, so. Probably won't.

Do you think that giving books away free works and why?

Having books available for free, either through a library or Amazon, was really important for me as a teenager and young adult when I didn’t have much but books to keep me, you know, sane. I just finished university so book money wasn't something I had much to spare, and I try not to pirate. Free books were really important to me, and I have reviewed and bought books from authors I especially liked. I've recommended a lot of books I got for free. So whether or not it works isn't really a question for me. People say it works so I'll believe it. But free, for me, is about accessibility.

More about Amir:

Engineer by trade, Amir spends most of their writing time in a small home office on the cargo pants of desks, at a back table at their favorite Middle Eastern restaurant, or in front of the TV watching every cop procedural or cooking competition on Netflix. They live in a world where magic is an everyday occurrence, and they strive to bring that world to paper. His short story, Scrap Metal and Circuitry, was published by Indestructible magazine in April 2016.

When not trying to figure out what kind of day job an incubus would have or what a Necromancer would go to school for, Amir enjoys visiting the nearest Dairy Queen, getting killed in video games, absorbing the contents of comic books, and freaking out over how fluffy the neighbour's dog is.

Readers, if you struggle with finding time for writing (like Amir or I)  let me know your strategies in the comments below.