Twenty Questions, Author Edition!

Thanks to my friend and fellow author David Bridger for this list.

“Answer the 20 questions below and let your readers into your world.”

OK, here goes:

1.) What is your Author name? Laura Perry

2.) What is the first book you ever published? The first edition of Ancient Spellcraft (it’s now in its second edition).

3.) What is your publiversary? (The day you released your first book) September 2001. I’m not sure of the exact day.

4.) What is your favourite book you've written thus far? My most recent novel, Leap! A Love Story - it’s the first time I wrote a full-on happy ending, and I’m still glowing months later.

5.) What book took you the longest to write? The Last Priestess of Malia (explanation in the next question). Second prize goes to the first edition of Ariadne’s Thread, the main part of which I wrote as an assignment for my second degree in a Wiccan coven and which then sat unpublished for twenty years as I tweaked it over and over.

6.) How long did it take you? I wrote the first draft of The Last Priestess of Malia back in the early 1990s (on the office computer while working a cubicle jockey day job! LOL). Then I worked on it off and on over the years through a total of about four very different drafts until I finally ended up with the version I published in 2019.

7.) What kind of music (if any) do you listen to while you write? I like lo-fi and binaural beats. Sometimes I go for some gently rhythmic classical (Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos). But nothing with words. They distract my attention.

8.) Who is your favourite character from any of your books? That would be Liz from The Bed. She’s self-reliant, practical, quick-witted… and she manages not to be too badly blown over by the extreme weirdness she encounters in the story.

9.) What are you currently working on? A Minoan-themed book in the Pantheons non-fiction book series published by Moon Books; it will be out early to mid-2025. And a collection of modern Minoan myths, tentatively titled Tales from the Labyrinth, that I’m also illustrating in a combination ancient Minoan and Art Nouveau style - publication date uncertain, because full-page illustrations take a heckuva long time.

10.) Do you have anything you snack on while you write? I have a bad track record with food around computers (don’t ask) so I mostly just stick with a cup of herb tea (I’ve been caffeine-free since 2015).

11.) What is your favourite quote or line from one of your books? From Leap! A Love Story: “We all end up dead sooner or later, my brother. In the meantime, we love. It’s worth the risk.”

12.) Are you a self-published or traditionally published author? I’m a hybrid author, meaning I’ve done both and will continue to do both.

13.) What is your writing inspiration? For my non-fiction, my spiritual community is my inspiration (that’s both Ariadne’s Tribe and the folx I know locally and online outside the Minoan spirituality family). For my fiction, often, snippets of past life memories, dreams, and visions are the inspiration. I start with a tidbit of something and begin asking “What if…” and the story builds from there.

14.) What genre do you write? My non-fiction is all Pagan and polytheist subjects. My fiction spans a broader range, from historical to modern and now including one romance, but it all tends to be Pagan-ish or magical in some way.

15.) Do you have any writing rituals? I make my cup of tea, I put on my music, and I write. I subscribe to Stephen King’s “butt in chair, hands on keyboard” method of making myself do it.

16.) Do you have a specific place you write or time? Most of the time, it’s at my desk in my studio, whenever I can fit it into my ever-changing schedule. But sometimes I haul the laptop out onto the back deck to write in the breeze with the trees nearby.

17.) Do you have any advice for aspiring writers? Don’t give up. If you want to write, just write, and keep doing it. You’ll get better, you’ll find your own voice, and eventually you’ll get to where you want to go. But it is a lot of work and requires a certain amount of self-discipline, so be realistic as you go.

18.) What are your writing goals? If any? I’d like to do more fiction. I’ve really enjoyed the two Minoan-themed historical novels I’ve written. Now I’d like to branch out, maybe into a story set in ancient Egypt. I also have a folk magic themed story set in the north Georgia mountains that I’d like to finish. I guess, overall, my goal is to simply keep writing. Ideas are easy. Putting them down on paper is work.

19.) What authors inspire you and your writing? Though I’ve read a lot of big-name authors, both modern and classic, the people who really inspire me are the authors I’m friends with - my fellow Moon Books authors and the members of the Witch Lit group. They all write beautiful books, and they’re so very real about the issues they deal with, both in the writing and in the publishing and marketing. They inspire me to keep going, to challenge myself and be the best writer I can be.

20.) What will be your next release? If you know and when? Pantheon: The Minoans is liable to be the next one, in early to mid-2025. Researching and writing a book takes a while, and then the publishing process takes a while longer. But we get there in the end.

That took a little more reflection than I expected. But it was an enjoyable exercise.

I’m always open to questions, about the Twenty Questions above or any other subject I write about. Also, feel free to copy the questions and use them in your own post. I love reading about what my fellow authors do.