Dragon Soul Press had the chance to interview Lucy Lyons!

Back in the 1990s, I worked as an editorial illustrator in London. Illustration back then involved paint on canvas but it wasn’t sustainable, and to prevent myself becoming a starving artist living in a garret, I turned to temping to bolster my income. My experiences provided the inspiration for my first novel, The Finding Machine, which is a 1990s mystery with a dash of sci-fi. I believe sci-fi cozy mystery may be a brand new genre!
I live on the Surrey/Hampshire border with my husband, who is a character illustrator, two grown-up boys and a bearded dragon called Pancake. When I’m not at my desk writing, I love to escape into the garden and other worlds. I write page-turning mystery novels with a sprinkling of magic.

1. What prompted you to begin writing?
   • My English teacher was an inspiration, as she had studied under Tolkien. From the day she handed The Hobbit around the class, I knew I wanted to write novels. My first fantasy novel was written at the age of 15 on an electric typewriter with carbon paper behind each page to make a copy. There wasn’t opportunity for editing, and my early works were rehashes of Lord of the Rings, David Eddings’s Belgariad, and Piers Anthony’s Xanth series, all massive influences on my work.
2. How many projects do you have planned over the next few years? Tell us about one.
   • Apart from the Finding Machine series, the concept of which has the legs to run and run, in the next year I’ll be releasing an epic fantasy trilogy called The Chronicles of Mealduth. The first book– The Black Bane – is coming out this year. For those of you who love cover art, I’m terribly excited that Chris McGrath is illustrating the cover. He’s one of our most incredible artists an it’s a privilege to have him on board. All going well, both trilogies will be live by the end of 2025.
3. What is your writing process like?
   • I tend to tackle all my administration, exercise and general life stuff in the mornings, and get down to my writing in the afternoon. Strangely enough, I am a morning person, so you would think first thing would be the best time for me to write. But life doesn’t pan out for me that way. Once I’ve cleared the decks, I aim for 2,000 words a day when I’m tackling the first draft. I try not to get hung up on plot holes, time gaps, or flow. My goal is to attack the page so I have the story in its entirety. Then, the real work can begin!
4. Where do you draw inspiration from?
   • People. They inspire my characters, who in turn, drive my stories. The people I’ve met are the rich seam running through my novels. I’m inspired by the different ways they deal with the very best and worst that life throws at them. I want my characters to jump alive on the page, whether they’re solving mysteries in Hertford at the turn of the Millennium, or trying to stop ancient gods rising to life in my fantasy series. I prefer underpowered heroes and heroines, who face insurmountable problems.
5. What do you hope readers enjoy most from your work?
   • With the Finding Machine series, I want to take people on a nostalgic trip back to the late ’90s when technology and the internet were exploding into life. Also, I’d love my unique spin on solving missing person cases to spur the reader to ask, what you do, if you had an invention that could find anyone, anywhere, living or dead. Would it be a good or a bad thing.
     Similarly with the fantasy novels, I want the reader to wonder how on earth my characters can escape the terrible predicaments they find themselves in, e.g. How do you stop an ambitious necromancer, when you have no power, and the state is funding his ambition? Do I save my son, or save the world?
6. Where can readers learn more about you?
   • On Amazon, my website, Facebook, and Instagram.