Please give a warm welcome to author Auryn Hadley

Tell us a bit about yourself

I’m a pretty simple person. I grew up in Texas, married a Canadian boy, and have a house full of critters. I’m a dog lover, my husband is a cat guy, and we have that property where all the strays get dumped – so we have a small zoo! Never had children, though, so the pets get pretty spoiled.

I went to school thinking I wanted to be a research vet, back in the day. Then, somewhere along the way, I realized I hate people, so wanted a career that is a lot more isolated. I think being an author definitely counts!

Have you always wanted to become an author?

Nope! In fact, I grew up convinced I was just a reader (and a voracious one at that). Someone else made the stories. I didn’t have that kind of imagination. Then, I ended up being cyberstalked, and the only way to avoid it was to not be online. That left me annoyed, stressed out, and wanting to vent, so I started typing. That ended up being BloodLust, the first book in the Rise of the Iliri series. After 18 released novels, I still haven’t stopped, and the ideas are coming faster than I can get them out.

What was your inspiration for your current book/series?

That’s a difficult question since I have a few in progress right now. The simple answer is current events. I find myself wondering, “What would it be like to live through that?” and then I write a character who is. This could be something as obscure as GamerGate or as “trending” as the #metoo movement. Sometimes, things just spark an idea, and before I know it, I have a little note for another book idea.

What are you working on now?

The 9th book in the Rise of the Iliriseries. We’re almost at the end, and I’m taking a little longer to get all the loose threads tied up properly. I’m also releasing a series I finished a bit ago, to make up for that gap in releases. The Dark Orchid Trilogy is a high heat reverse harem fantasy that I wrote on the side to keep myself from burning out. I figure this is a win-win. My readers get something to hold them over, and I get some time to make sure the next to last book in a very long and epic series is written the way it deserves to be.

Do you have any quirks while writing?

Plenty! Like most authors, I basically live on coffee. I also can’t write in silence, so I always have music going. Then I prop my feet on my desk, pull my keyboard into my lap, and ignore everything else. My husband works as my bouncer, keeping the dogs, cats, and visitors safely out of “Auryn’s on the rampage” distance because I get a little bit irate when disturbed.

What are your hopes for the future?

More books! Seriously, I love the author lifestyle. I get to be both a hermit and social when I want to. I spend all day wallowing in my own fantasies, and I’m doing this full time! I’ve never wanted to be rich or famous. I simply want to continue to be happy with what I do every day. There’s no greater feeling than sitting down to “work” and being excited about it. So long as I can, I want to continue to write – and I have ideas coming out my ears, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

Do you have any advice for new authors about the publishing world?

Don’t rush to release. Write the whole series first. Trust me, it will make your life so much easier! I know it’s easy to get excited and start thinking about people reading your first book, but this isn’t a sprint. The life of an author is always about the NEXT book, not the last. The more books we put out, the more of our time is spent in marketing, socializing, and doing “not writing” things. That means it takes longer to write than we expect, and thus we get behind and can easily fall into the trap that burns out so many writers.

And learn to take critique. Someone will hate your work, and that’s ok! It’s why we have so many varied books out there. Learn that your book’s flaws are not your own. They’re simply a chance to learn where and how to improve. Make the next one better, because if you wrote one book, you can clearly do it again.

Do you have anything to say to your fans?

I love you all! No, seriously, I do. I wrote Rise of the Iliri for myself. I never expected to touch so many people or to find hundreds willing to support me in my endeavors. This has been a very humbling experience, and possibly one of the best things I’ve done in my life. Surreal is the word I use to describe it. To see people talking about a thing I did feels like I’m going to wake up any moment, and I’m pretty sure I’ll never get used to it, so, thank you. My fans are the reason I can keep doing this, and I hope to never forget that.

Buy link:

Flawed

Challenge Accepted

Virtual Reality

One More Day

Series buy link:

Power of Lies

Rise of the Iliri

The Demons’ Muse

The Wolf of Oberhame

Pre-order:

Magic of Lust

Author links:

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