About Richard Foster:
Just a brief biography. I was born just outside Nottingham, England in 1968. A year later, my parents sought a new life in Australia, and we sailed for six weeks before reaching our new home. For the next forty-plus years, we, and later I, moved around Victoria, mostly Melbourne. In 2017, I decided to move my new family back to the UK where we have lived since. I loved reading and writing as a kid but confined myself mostly to short science fiction stories. I was, and still am, a huge metalhead and I fronted various bands in and around Melbourne during the 90’s and 00’s. I started writing this book about ten years ago while I was working yet another boring office job. Between watching the clock and pretending to be busy, I’d type a few paragraphs. Over the past few months, I decided to dedicate every spare moment to finishing it and voila! It's done. My current passions are reading, writing, music (guitar/song writing), cooking, running, keeping away from normality as much as possible.
What inspires you to write?
My imagination. Inspiration comes from many places and as with the music I write, ideas come anytime, anywhere. I love fantasy because it allows me to create anything I want. Then again, I love real-life stories because they help me to connect with the past and feel part of something bigger.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
So many, HG Wells, Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Raymond E Feist, Janny Wurts, Roald Dahl, JRR Tolkien, Katherine Kerr, John Wyndham, John Christopher, CS Lewis, Bran Stoker, Mary Shelley, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, L Frank Baum, Anne Rice, Robert Louis Stevenson, Allan Dean Foster…
Tell us about your writing process.
I write whenever I have the time. Unfortunately, I am governed by work and kids, so I have to focus, at will on my writing. When I have time to myself however, I get lost in the writing process and can even spend hours before I realise I've just written 20+ pages! I never plan to write, or structure my stories. I just start and see where my imagination takes me.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I see them as I am writing about them and I imagine what they are thinking/saying/doing at that moment. This guides me to write about them. If they are scared, I try to portray that in the text, much the same as if they were happy or worried.
What advice would you give other writers?
Go with what drives you, what you are passionate about and immerse yourself into your characters and the story. Don't overthink what you are going to write, just do it and see where it takes you. That is the blessed freedom of writing.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I tried traditional publishing and approached many as well as literary agents but with no success. That can be disillusioning, but one must power on. Even the most successful authors aren't everyone's cup of tea so we must do what we have to, to get heard. I decided to pursue Kindle Publishing through Amazon and that led me to paperback and hardback copies of my debut novel as well. There are plenty of avenues you can pursue so keep working. It's very hard but the only alternative is to give up and that's simply not worth it.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
Hard to say, I still believe people, like me, love reading and I can't beat having an actual book in front of me that I can feel and physically turn the pages to. There is a sense of achievement in it. Just like music, we will all need to see the real thing and despite the advances with technology with Kindle etc, I still think people will always need something tangible in their hands.
What genres do you write?: Fantasy, Fiction, Thriller, Horror, True Crime, Science Fiction
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Link To Richard Foster Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
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.
