About Alexander Schmid:
Alexander Schmid was born, raised and lives in Geelong, Australia. He has a bachelor in Engineering and Science from Deakin University, and is currently working as a Science Technician. He is an advert lover of games, movies, books, anime and manga.
His love of books led him to start writing during university and in time he created the Geb War Chronicles of which the Mirror of Reality is but the first book of many.
What inspires you to write?
What initially inspired me to write my books was the fact that my head was filled with so many ideas and stories that they only way I could get them out was to write them down. And in the process of writing things down and creating a world of fiction for my characters to exist in I realised I wanted to tell their story. So I started writing it out until it was finished. From then on I wanted to keep writing for the simple fact that I loved create and spinning forth the tale of my worlds and characters.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
These are some of my first authors that I read and as such they are some of my favourites due to shaping my tastes.
Raymond E. Feist, Robert Jordan, David Eddings, Janny Wurts, Terry Brooks, Patrick Rotherfuss, Peter F. Hamilton
Tell us about your writing process.
I tend to create the fantasy worlds in which the story will take place first, then the characters, then the story. Although I will iterate on what I created as time and plans expand. This means sometimes I will create a world then characters will reshape the world which in turn might reshape the magic of the world and so on.
The actual writing process itself is much simpler. When I have enough of a foundation to commence my story I will create an overview of the story and then simply write along. This overview will enable me to see where I want to go, while at the same time allow me to change the story as I go along without having to be bound to extensively to old plans.
I liken this to building a tree house. You grow the tree and see what random and awesome things it grows into, and then you build a tree house within the tree. This allows the world and characters to grow naturally, while at the same time allowing me to limit or redirect the edges of the story/plot.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I am unsure if I truly listen to or talk to my characters. Instead I imagine what my characters would do in the upcoming part of the story then I try to feel if that is consistent with the character that I am writing. This means of course that I must look at the plot and see where it is going and then try to balance that against the characters and how they feel/act in any given moment.
What advice would you give other writers?
Start off by writing short stories. This lets you get the hang of writing stories quickly and efficiently while at the same time allowing you to complete projects. Also never stop asking questions either about the writing process itself or about how to become an author, self published or otherwise.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I finished my first book just before Covid hit in 2020. So after finishing editing my book I looked about to see if any publishers were accepting books at the time, they were not possibly due to Covid. So I realised I could self publish and that it would grant me greater control of my work and I went for it.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
Truthfully I am unsure of the future of publishing, however I hope that the publishing of books, especially self publishing, is streamlined in the future. There are so many good stories in existence and so many untapped authors out there; if we set things up correctly we could be drowning in good stories and characters for years to come.
Not to mention if done properly then the editing, the cover design and the marketing/advertising of a book could be done so smoothly that it becomes so much simpler.
I say this from the perspective of a self publishing author who saw far too many articles leading me around in circles while attempting to self publish and self market my book.
What genres do you write?: Fantasy
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Link To Alexander Schmid Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
LinkedIn
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
