Hello Every0ne,

Today’s featured author interview is with Angela B. Chrysler, the author of The Tales of the Drui series and her personal memoir, Broken.  Angela is also the creator of Brain to Books, a website that helps independent writers everywhere, and the Brain to Books Con, which is a virtual book convention for writers all around the world.  I personally had a booth at the con this past April for my writing, and it was such a great way to reach out to new readers and meet other authors!  Go Indie Now! Book Box is also now a partner with Angela for the Brain to Books Con.

On July 1, 2016 the second book in Angela’s series, Fire and Lies (Tales of the Drui Book 2) by Angela B. Chrysler – 4/5, is set to release, and Angela will be hosting a release party on her Facebook page!  I hope you enjoy our interview with her and check out her work for yourself.  She is quite a powerhouse, and I admire everything that she has accomplished.

Author Interview with Angela B. Chrysler

• What made you want to become a writer?

The ideas in my head. I have always had so many of them I just had to write. I started when I was eight. I wrote fan-fiction for the Terminator. But I didn’t consider that writing at all. The story was taken from me in school because I was writing instead of working. I never did get it back. I piddled again when I was in my teens, writing only to unload the ideas in my head and try to clear the clutter. I decided to take my writing seriously when someone asked for one of my poems to frame on their wall. After that, I wanted to be published.

• Have you always written fantasy, or do you write across different genres?

I write across several genres. I write whatever ideas come to me and hate the limitations of genre writing. Genre is a marketing tool only for readers to find you. I don’t conform my ideas and writing to genre. I am currently working on a post-apocalypse satire called “Zombies From Space… and Vampires,” a Gothic Romance series called “The Letters,” my Epic Fantasy Winter and Ash (Tales of the Drui Book #3), and “Nameless,” a Science Fiction Dystopian idea I have. I also have two children’s books written, but unpublished.

• Broken is a book with autobiographical content, but also fictional elements. Did writing it with fictional elements make it easier for you to write?

It really isn’t Fiction. This is the hardest thing for people to understand about Broken and Dissociative Disorder. When you are that dissociated, it isn’t fiction. When I wrote it, I really was in Ireland with William. I did talk to Ian, Erik, Angel, and Raven. They were there. I could see them, smell them, hear them. I did touch them. There was one day when I was at my worst, I was driving on the wrong side of the road here in New York. This was when we realized I shouldn’t be driving until I was better. I swerved to the right side of the road and said, “I forgot! I’m not in Ireland!” My daughter asked, “Have you ever been to Ireland?”

I was once mentally there so clearly, that I was. I picked up their accent, their mannerisms, colloquialisms, and apparently, their traffic laws. No. Writing with fictional elements did not make it easier because there are no fictional elements. It all was very real. No parts of it were fictitious.

Think of Don Quixote. If Don Quixote had written his own story… and if he had been a real man…, you would read about the castle where he met his lady Dulcinea. You would read about the four-armed monster, and how he battled the Knight of Reality. That doesn’t make his tales any less real. It only changes the perspective.

• What was your purpose in writing Broken?

To get answers. I needed to know what I wanted and to do that, I needed to know who I was… what I had become. I needed to review my past. When I wrote Broken I only needed to know, “Do I really want to throw this life away and become a hermit?” I wrote Broken to review everything I had seen, done, lived through. It was in the completion that I found a new perspective. I realized just how insane I had become in trying to cope with everything that had happened to me. I realized I was seriously messed up and needed help.

I published Broken in hopes that others would learn from it… and based on the emails I receive from readers, they are.

• When it comes to your fantasy series, do you connect to your characters as though they are real people?

Yes. Completely. That is the beauty and devastation of Dissociative Disorder. It was in the writing of Dolor and Shadow and Fire and Lies that I sank so deeply into Dissociative Disorder. I spend years in Norway until I was unable to come back to this world here. Kallan is real. Bergen is real. Was real… Were real. Once.

• Who is your favorite character in your Tales of the Drui series?

Bergen. Beautiful character. Insanely complex… and mouthy. He is so much fun to write.

• How many books do you estimate will be in the Tales of the Drui series?

I am currently, and finally, sitting down and drafting up the entire series in detail. After this outline, I will have a definitive answer. For now, I say six at least.

• What do you hope readers will get out of your writing?

I want, so desperately, to revive the old style of writing derived only from classic literature. There is an art to writing that many are unaware of. Writing has a rhythm to it. Words can breathe. And to tell that story—a good story—within the confinement of that rhythm…

Shakespeare found it. Edgar Allan Poe found it. Tolkien occasionally stumbled upon it with lines like, “With whips of flame they smote asunder the webs of Ungoliant.” Stunning. Simply stunning. Many would call that purple prose. That term is used too loosely.

Too many authors today just push out quantity and not quality. “Write fast. It doesn’t have to be good.” Harper Lee would strongly disagree. I have found precious few authors who execute the ability of gorgeous writing with great story. I would love to contribute to that. It is the beautiful words complimenting an epic story that stick with me the strongest. Those are the lines I commit to memory or mark in my book.  I write for the reader who shares my appreciation.

• Is writing an escape for you?

Absolutely. Not just in the everyday sense, but in the medical sense. Escapism is a coping method used by trauma survivors. I did use my writing to run away. Yes. I’m doing much better now, though when I submerge myself in the writing, some days it is very hard to re-ground myself for lack of practice.

• What made you become so passionate about indie authors and publishing?

I have a deep drive to help others and I realized there was a serious lack of organization and answers available to authors starting out. Brain to Books was and is designed to help all authors. The majority of authors out there today just happen to be indie authors.  Ultimately, I adore the business side of publishing and marketing and have done all I can to share my knowledge with others so they don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

• Can you tell us a little about how you came up with the idea for Brain to Books?

I was ready to publish, and, after spending seven years researching and writing, I walked into a bombshell when I turned to publishing. The overabundance of information on writing suddenly vanished when it came to publishing. It was like the well of information dried up, or I had been suddenly warped from a lush jungle to a desert. Answers were hazy and scarce. It took hours to find an answer on what should have been simple, and even then, the answer came with multiple contradictions. It was ridiculous. The internet was one large garbled mess. So, as I sorted through everything, I stored my findings on Brain to Books: a website I built separate from my author site so as to not bog down my readers with how-to on writing and publishing. Six months later, I hosted the First Annual Cyber Convention to help my own book promotion. When the event attracted hundreds of authors, I decided to take Brain to Books more seriously and developed it into a business.

• What is your advice for aspiring authors?

My advice has always been and will always be endure and persevere.

Visit Angela B. Chrysler Online

Official Site
Amazon Author Page
Goodreads Profile Page

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Dolor and Shadow (Tales of the Drui Book #1) Official Page
Fire and Lies (Tales of the Drui Book #2) Official Page
Broken Official Page