Please give a warm welcome to author Arizona Tape

Tell us a bit about yourself
I’m Ari, I live in the UK with my girlfriend, and I’m heading towards my mid-twenties. I spend most of my time working on my author business, but between those, I like taking video game breaks, whipping up some tasty food, and binge-watching whatever has
caught my attention.
A couple of fun facts that people might not know about me:
– I like drawing and painting
– I can play the piano and harp
– I love singing, even if it makes all the cats sing along
– I adore manga, anime, and anything Japanese. I’m dreaming of visiting Japan.

Have you always wanted to become an author?
My love affair with authordom has been a slow one.
The one thing I’ve been doing my whole life is telling stories. As a child, that would be in the form of drawing little stick figures with text balloons, I wrote a couple of stories here and there throughout school,
and I made up stories in my head all the time.
It wasn’t until my grey years hit in college that I started using my writing as an outlet to channel my feelings. Often, I wouldn’t understand what I was going through until I could look at it through the eyes of my characters. It took me another year or
two before I realised I could turn these stories into real books and try my hand at a career. As if bitten by the bookbug, I became obsessed overnight.
I published my first book, The Love Pill, started working on the next one, and about twenty books and two years later, here I am.

The Love Pill
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What was your inspiration for your current book/series?
Not Today is based on my own experiences as a student in the rainbow world. I was a very active member of my student club and enjoyed all type of shenanigans that come with that. There were so many highs and memories I fondly remember, but overall, it was quite a dark time for myself emotionally. Almost all my friends were either depressed, suicidal, or had lots of issues they hadn’t processed yet. I was no different.
Years after the fact, I’m much more stable, but lots of young people out there aren’t. The aim for this particular book/series is to tell a tale that’ll resonate with them. To maybe spark some hope that it does get better?
And of course, for those after their student life, for a fond look back.

Not Today
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What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on Valkyrie 101, an Urban Fantasy Academy series that explores elementals as guides for human souls to the afterlife. Ylva, my main characters, is training to become a Valkyrie and help the departed reach their desired destination.
In her case, Valhalla.
But there are many other types of Afterlife Assistants, and each of them have their own rituals, courses, and a different afterlife to serve. Purgatory, the World of Darkness, the Underworld, … It’s going to be an exciting ride with a lot of mythology,
an apocalypse, and a forbidden lesbian romance.

Valkyrie 101
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Do you have any quirks while writing?
To really get in the writing zone, I like to put the same song on endless repeat and just hammer away at my keyboard with the same tunes blaring for hours on end. Next to that, I find it hard to write when someone else has view of my screen. I like my laptop
a little turned away.
I guess it’s my own version of the writing cave.
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What are your hopes for the future?
I hope I never run out of stories to write. My imagination is my greatest asset and I hope it’s a well that never runs dry. I want to keep fantasising, I want to keep making up characters, and I want to take people on a journey they’ve never been on before.

Do you have any advice for new authors about the publishing world?
The threshold to become an author is really low, but the threshold to real success is incredibly high. I think that’s one of the things that people might not know when they start out.
It’s easy to start and easy to think you’ve made it when you hit publish on your first book. But if you’re looking for a steady stream of income, if you’re looking to make this a career that can sustain you, it’s a long and hard climb. Only hard work will
get you to the top and keep you there. There are no short cuts, no matter what anyone says.
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Do you have anything to say to your readers?
Thank you. Without the support of my readers, I would never be where I am now. I have an incredibly supportive group of close readers and authors that mean the world to me. They’re the unicorns of the publishing world, the gold at the end of the rainbow,
and what makes being an author a worthwhile use of my time.
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🌈 Rainbow Central (Arizona Tape’s reader group)
