Please give a warm welcome to author Aria Winter

Tell us a bit about yourself
Hello! I live near Fort Worth, TX with my husband, 2 cats and 1 dog. In addition to reading and writing, I love biking, travel, and sitting on the deck drinking coffee or tea when it rains.

Have you always wanted to become an author?
I love writing, but the idea of becoming an author always seemed like such a faraway dream. My husband was the one who encouraged me to publish. At first, I was full of so much self-doubt, it seemed impossible. But he and one of my sisters kept encouraging me until I caved and finally decided to go for it.
My husband learned how to do all the “behind the scenes” stuff so that I can focus on writing. He’s been so supportive, it’s amazing. If it weren’t for him, I’d probably still be writing fanfiction for myself.

What was your inspiration for your current book/series?
The one I’m working on now is a cowrite with Jessica Grayson. It’s a fairy tale retelling series. With the crazy state of the world today, I’ve found myself drawn to fairy tales as an escape. Especially Disney movie fairy tales. So, we decided to do a series of retellings based on our favorites.
I love fairy tales, but I also love steam in my books. So, we decided to combine the two. Our fairy tales are full of love, have plenty of steam and smexy times as well as plenty of interesting twists to keep the readers guessing. We loosely follows the fairy tales, but we also wanted to make sure they could stand on their own instead of just being a rehashing of what’s already out there.
Our first one is already out on Amazon KU. It’s a Dragon Shifter Beauty and the Beast Retelling called “Taken by the Dragon.” I cannot tell you how much I fell in love with those characters while writing their story. They have a cameo in the 2nd book in the series “Captivated by the Fae: A Cinderella Retelling” that I think readers will really enjoy. 😊

What are you working on now?
I’m working on “Bound to the Elf Prince: A Snow White Retelling” with Jessica Grayson. I love Elvish Romance and I’m really enjoying fleshing out this world.
Each of the fairy tales are all in a shared world and loosely connected to each other. Characters from each story make cameos in the other books. I really love how it’s all tying together.

Do you have any quirks while working?
I have a different song that I choose as a theme song for each book. I write about 20k words/day. If I get stuck on one project, I switch to another so I can get my word count in. So, the theme song helps get me back in the head of the characters and also helps me really immerse myself in that particular world before I dive back in and start writing in it.
What are your hopes for the future?
I have a million stories in my head and I want to get them all out into the world as quickly as possible. I love writing and immersing myself in other worlds. I wake up each morning excited to begin and I can’t wait to share all these stories that I have in my head with my readers.

Do you have any advice for new authors about the publishing world?
I know it’s hard, but do your best to silence the voice in your head trying to convince you that you cannot do this.
Jessica Grayson shared a quote with me that helped her with her writing process. It really inspired me as well. “I’m writing a rough draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.”
That is such a powerful quote. It’s also the reason I’m able to write as quickly as I can. It really helps silence my inner critic when I’m writing a rough draft so that I can produce it that much faster.

Do you have anything to say to your followers?
Thank you so much for all your support and encouragement. It means so much to me when someone messages me about how much they loved a particular story and/or the characters. These books are really close to my heart and I love knowing that people enjoy them as much as I love writing them. 😊
