Author Amir Lane #interview

Please give a warm welcome to

Tell us a bit about yourself

My name is Amir. I’m a Canadian author specializing in urban fantasy featuring LGBT+ characters. I’ve been writing since I was in elementary school, and I started publishing in 2016. I was very influenced by Holly Black and Darren Shan. Right now, I’ve been doing a lot of cop procedurals with magic.

Have you always wanted to become an author?

I think I’ve wanted to be a lot of things. For a while, I wanted to be a paramedic, and then a lawyer. Apparently, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a bus driver. But for a very long time, I wanted to write. I just didn’t realize it was a thing that anybody could do until I was in about sixth grade. Since then, it’s become more of a real aspiration instead of some arbitrary, ‘you know what would be cool?’ sort of thing.

What was your inspiration for your current book/series?

The inspiration for my most recent Barrier Witch series actually came from a dream I had. I was a witch cop undercover during a prisoner transfer, and the van got hit. I had no access to my powers, and I couldn’t tell anybody who I was. There’s this line in the second book that came right from this dream, where me and the person I’m supposed to be keeping tabs on are talking to this stone dragon, and it says, “You are a killer of men.” It was so vivid, I think I might have actually accidentally dropped into another universe for a bit.

What are you working on now?

Right now, I’m working on editing the third book in my Barrier Witch series. It’s the culmination of a three-book arc that I’ve been working up to for a while, and I’m very excited about it.

Do you have any quirks while writing?

I have a really bad habit of starting sentences with And, But, and So. Especially So, and especially in dialogue. It’s something I do in real life conversations, too. I swear, half my text messages start with So. I always have to go through and edit them out.

What are your hopes for the future?

I hope I can keep writing. I hope I have the time and energy to keep doing it, and that it still feels worth it to me down the line. Writing has always been a way for me to deal with and process the real world, and it’ll suck if there’s a day when it just doesn’t work for me anymore.

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

Take your time. It’s a fast industry and once you get into it, it can get overwhelming. Spend some time learning as much as you can and refining your craft before you hit publish. You can’t just write or just market, you have to do both. Learning what you can beforehand will make it way less overwhelmiing.