Do you enjoy a bit of adventure, or maybe a little bit of magic? Meet action adventure / urban fantasy author, Jonathan Taylor. Jonathan's debut novel is titled ‘Heir to The Empire: The Next Generation’. Lets find out more.
Tell me about yourself
I live in Germany, work as a software engineer in my regular life, run two YouTube channels, and do my best to keep myself alive and content.
How long have you been writing?
On-and-off since childhood, with some HUGE breaks mixed in. I only started writing regularly about three years ago.
Did you have a favourite book as a child?
I talk about it on my main YouTube channel. It didn’t see international circulation, as far as I’m aware, so I’m not dropping any names.
What do you enjoy about writing your chosen genre?
I like the potential for fun, intrigue, mystery, and action. It’s interesting to observe the interplay of setting and development, and expand upon that.
Tell me about your book titled ‘Heir to The Empire: The Next Generation’
It’s a coming-of-age, action-adventure urban fantasy story about a group of students at a military university. Three of my four protagonists, and many of their peers, are foreign-born university students.
What inspired this story?
A lot of it draws from my own experiences and insights as a foreign-born university student in Germany, and being confronted with varying people of different backgrounds and ways to get stuff done.
Are your stories more character driven, or plot driven?
A little bit of both, but mainly (let’s say 60% of the time) plot-driven.
Describe your writing process
Day-to-day, I get in front of the laptop and churn out a minimum of 600 words. Big-picture, I go from a sentence to a paragraph, to several paragraphs, to story beats, that I then split into acts, before fleshing the book out into individual chapters.
Do you have a dedicated writing space?
Yes and no. The default space is at home, in front of my laptop. I’m not sure if I ever tried writing elsewhere. Maybe I will and find out I don’t need a writing space, but right now that’s not the case.
Are you working on anything new?
I’m currently busying myself with the sequel to 'The Next Generation', and I’m calling it 'The Path Not Taken'. You might be able to guess the plot, given its name.
What advice would you give a new author?
Make writing a habit. Set yourself a schedule, and get comfortable with it.
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
I discuss politics and history, follow up on entertainment and sports news, run the marketing for my book, and keep myself well-read and as physically active as my routine and mood allow.
Thank you to Jonathan for sharing his insights with us. If you would like to check out his work, click on the links below.
