I’m so happy to start my Spotlight off this year with a wonderful author from our #RomanceBookBlast community, where authors support authors and have a “blast” cross-promoting.

Along those lines…

Let’s Meet the Author

Welcome to my Spotlight, Alanna. Tell us a little more about yourself and how you began your writing journey.

First, thank you for having me! I’m excited to be here.

I actually have a hard time remembering a time I wasn’t writing stories. I have a strong memory of sitting in my second-grade class and writing a story about unicorns. It wasn’t a class assignment–I would sit in class and pretend I was taking notes, but it was actually a story.

I love it! What a great memory. What else sparked your interest in your cozy romantasy genre?

So, early stories about unicorns aside, most of my stories were about girls and their horses  (horses being another early obsession). Looking back, I realize I was always drawn to media with some element of magic or the supernatural, but I didn’t know there was such a thing as the fantasy genre until my father gave me a boxset of the Lord of the Rings trilogy when I was twelve.

I read a lot and would read whatever I could get my hands on, which started including my mom’s romance novels and murder mysteries. The romance influenced me more than the murder mysteries, obviously.

As for cozy, I didn’t set out to write a cozy. Most of what I wrote in my teenage and college-age years was epic fantasy, which transitioned to urban fantasy. Then I stopped writing fiction, period. I had multiple jobs and just didn’t have the time. A few years ago, I made it a goal to publish a book. I picked up the manuscript that became Teaching Magic and finished it. As I was learning about self-publishing, I realized that book didn’t fit on the epic fantasy shelf, and it took me a while to realize it belonged in this growing category of cozy fantasy.

I love how your reading journey channeled so many elements into the perfect fit for you as a writer. Also, great covers, by the way! Totally giving a cozy plus romantasy vibe. Can you tell us more about what or who inspired you? Perhaps share your favorite books or authors.

I pick up a little bit from everything, I think. My favorite tends to be whatever I’m binging right now. Other books certainly inspire me, but so do movies or song lyrics or even catching a scent that jogs a memory. 

Awesome. Do you write full-time? What is your writing schedule like?

I do not write full-time, though I’m hoping to work my way there. I tend to write at night. After I come home, I have to give myself a couple of hours to transition from work brain to writing brain, so I eat dinner, get some chores done, shower. And some nights I have to accept that the words just aren’t coming.

I feel you there. I’ve experimented with all sorts of different schedules and keep going with “when the mood strikes me” for as long as it lasts. Can you share tips on fitting a writing routine into your daily life and what you like to do to spark your creativity?

Fitting a writing routine into my life is a little bit easier for me because I don’t have children. The thing that helped me the most was adding a little bit of outside pressure. For me, that was posting Teaching Magic to Royal Road while I was working on edits. I knew I had to have a chapter ready by a certain day to post, because people were waiting to read it. 

What are your top writing resources (applications, services, websites, etc.) and methods you’ve gathered along the way?

The writing resource that probably made the biggest difference for me was discovering Becca Syme’s work on Clifton Strengths. That’s actually where I got the idea to utilize outside pressure to get myself writing. I used to struggle a lot to follow others’ guidance because it didn’t work for me, which made me feel terrible about myself and my writing. Becca’s work taught me how to find advice that actually works for my personality.

For romance writers, I like the book Romancing the Beat and Ines Johnson’s resources (she has something in almost every format, depending on how you like to learn).

I also like resources that aren’t necessarily writing-focused. There are a ton of world-building guides and things on YouTube that are geared toward tabletop role-playing games. I listen to so many history podcasts, which can spark ideas but also help me feel out what life is like for my characters.

Thanks for all these great tips and ways to spark story ideas. I checked out the Romance Write Club found on Ines Johnson’s website. The classes look amazing. Along these lines, what is your advice on publishing and marketing?

Whoo, this is a big question. Probably the biggest thing is to not do all the things. Pick one type of marketing and get that established before you move on to something else. For example, I spent a lot of time this past fall working on my newsletter. I revamped the short story readers can get for free by joining my newsletter. I started doing more promotions to get people onto my newsletter list. I gathered together a bunch of emails from authors I follow, and I read each one, found bits I wanted to include, and built a template for my newsletter. My list still isn’t big, but it is growing steadily.

I really appreciate this advice. It makes sense to focus on one thing, and I’m impressed how you’ve built such an amazing newsletter following–your own community eager for your stories. Can you share what you’ve got in the works and where we can find your books? I believe you sell your books on your website, Alanna Cole Books? Can you talk about how that works in conjunction with other book retailers?

Selling on my website is very new for me, so I haven’t quite figured it out yet. I will be releasing a boxset of Teaching Magic and Trial by Magic next month, and I will offer it on my website first before I upload it to the retailers.

I just released a short novel about a side character from my secondary-world gaslamp fantasy series called An Inquest of Gryphons. All of my books can be found on most ebook retailers and are also available through Kobo Plus and Everand. I can also be found on Instagram at @alannacole.books.

I’m not quite sure what my next book will be, but it will most likely be in the same world as Teaching Magic. I’ve had several fun ideas about characters from that world that I’m exploring.

I really need to focus on Kobo. It’s growing huge, and I just saw a YouTube video where a reader shared their new Kobo eReader, which has some really cool features that seem to compete with, maybe even outshine, the Kindle. I’m just starting to research the pros and cons. Thanks for visiting, Alanna. Any parting advice to aspiring writers?

Thank you for having me! Aspiring writers, find a group. I have two: a local group where we do writing meetups and share ideas, and an online group that is more of a professional organization for my genre. It is so important to surround yourself with other writers.