Dragon Soul Press took the opportunity to interview Jared Thomason, an author featured in Apocalypse, Fairy Rites, Pirate Legends, and Rogue Waves.

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1. Introduce yourself.
   • Hi there! I’m Jared Thomason, and I’m from Billings, Montana. I started writing and submitting short stories to Dragon Soul Press after being encouraged by J.E. Feldman to do so, who I met through attending a local writer’s group earlier this year.
2. What prompted you to begin writing?
   • According to my parents, I’ve always been a storyteller. My mother said that, when I was very little, I would constantly pull her aside to tell her stories, which in reality were ripped off from whatever thing I was interested at the time and would just insert my own characters and unoriginal spin into them. But she always seemed to enjoy listening to my dramatic retellings, which encouraged me to always keep going. When I was about nine, my dad took me to see The Lord of the Rings in theaters, which was a profound emotional experience for me. I was so invested in this incredible journey of wonder, adventure, and danger, and was so emotionally
     attached to each and every one of the characters, that when it was all over, I had an
     epiphany: I knew this is what I wanted to do in life, to create stories with such rich
     worldbuilding, deep and complex characters, and to share them with people and give
     them the same kind of emotional experience I just had. And then, my parents gave me
     this book called Eragon, which scratched my lingering itch for more LotR type content.
     And when I found out the author, Christopher Paolini, was also a homeschooled kid from
     Montana, just like me, that epiphany was forever rooted into my mind: “If he could do it,”
     I thought to myself, “then I can, too!” I looked into different ways to express my desire to
     tell stories, like considering becoming an actor, film director, or cartoonist. Eventually, I
     decided on becoming a novelist within the last few years, believing it will be the best way
     to freely express my creativity and to tell my stories in the way I want to. I have had
     numerous story ideas floating in my head for many years, but I’m just now finally getting
     serious about writing them all out.
3. Do you have a favorite story or poem you’ve written? What’s it about?
   • Some of the earliest short stories that I wrote for fun were about the fallen angel Lucifer and his chats with characters, like a young angel seeking to learn the truth, to even Count Dracula
     himself. The most fun was in writing the dialogue between these characters and how
     much their vibrant personalities came out through their conversations about history,
     philosophy, and the nature of good and evil.
4. How many projects do you have planned over the next few years? Tell us about one.
   • I am currently working through a five year plan online with authormedia.com to
     become a bestselling author within the next… well, five years. Will it work? Hopefully so,
     but even if it doesn’t, I’m still going to come away from the experience having learned so
     much and making some amount of progress in that direction. This year I’m mainly
     focusing on writing numerous short stories and reading up on various books on writing
     and publishing.
5. What is your writing process like?
   • It varies for me, depending on what I’m writing. In trying to write novels, I tend to want to plan things out in advance while still trying to leave room for adaptability and creativity, while I very much write short stories by the seat of my pants, starting with little more than a vague idea and just running with it until an actually interesting story emerges from the process.
6. Where do you draw inspiration from?
   • Mainly from stories I’m currently enjoying, whether it’s from a book, movie, show, or video game I’m playing. I tend to take pieces and ideas that stand out to me and store them away in my brain, where they are then either combined with other ideas or left to stew for later use.
7. Who is your favorite author / what is your favorite book?
   • It’s very hard to lock down just one favorite author, or one who has inspired me the most. Some of the most inspirational would be J. R. R. Tolkien and J. K. Rowling, as their stories awakened my love for complex stories and worldbuilding and desire to create something similar. I also
     greatly admire C. S. Lewis for not just his Chronicles of Narnia, which were childhood
     favorites growing up, but also for his intellect, philosophies, and worldview that shine
     through his various writings, and I hope I can be something similar. Finally, I recently fell
     in love with Neil Gaiman’s various stories and how he is able to tell incredibly dark
     stories in a way that is also very emotionally impactful and thought provoking.
8. What is one goal you have for your writing future?
   • One goal I have is to finally have fully written out my own fantasy saga that I’ve been planning and replanning in my head since I saw The Lord of the Rings as a child.
9. What do you hope readers enjoy most from your work?
   • I don’t know if there’s just one thing I hope they enjoy most, more like I hope they enjoy the stories themselves in every aspect and that they would want to read more of my stuff in the years to come.
10. Where can readers learn more about you?
    • Currently, you can follow me on my Instagram, which I’m currently using to advertise each
      upcoming Dragon Soul Press anthology I’m featured in. As of right now, I don’t have a professional Facebook page nor my own website yet, but hopefully I will get those up and running very soon!