Today, we’d like to introduce you to Bjorn Leesson. Bjorn was introduced to us by the brilliant and talented Andria Flores.
Bjorn, thank you so much for joining us today. We’d love for you to bring our readers up to speed – can you introduce yourself and share your story?
I was born in the Lowcountry of South Carolina a long, long time ago. I have worked in manufacturing all my working life to feed myself but has nourished my mind with the study of many topics; history of all eras, the paranormal, astronomy, writing of different types, photography, archeology, genealogy, vexillology, some other -ologies, even stock car racing for a couple of years, and on and on. I find just about everything fascinating in some way and have been accused of being too easily entertained. A blend of a few of these interests led to the creation of the Thalsparr Universe.
I also loved writing, but mostly non-fiction historical writings and technical writings for the companies I have worked for. Recently, with my age creeping up on me, I think I finally accumulated the right balance of life experience, patience, knowledge, and imagination to craft fiction stories that will actually hold my attention long enough to finish a story, and even more, ones that others will really enjoy.
I currently live in the Midlands of South Carolina with my wife of 25 years on our hobby farm.
Please talk to us about your creative work and career. What should we know?
With a culmination of several of my interests, I began writing an historical fiction fantasy story about Myrgjol the Dokkrsdottir. Originally designed as a single novel, it continued on in my head to become two, then three. The core of the series is represented with these first three installments; “Runes of the Dokkrsdottir”, “Rune of Renewal”, and “Rune of Destiny”. Part of my favorite part of writing fiction is developing the characters. As it turns out with this series, I enjoy developing LOTS of characters – very much breaking the general rule of focusing on only seven characters or fewer. One of Myrgjol’s greatest friends is Ingrid Stone-Splitter, and I felt compelled to write another installment for her; “Rune of Revenge”. And again, several more characters are introduced, fleshed out, and became their own attractions. One of those from Ingrid’s story was a man named Lord Wuldrid. So now he needed his own book to give his background, and to make more connections to Myrgjol as well as Ingrid. As a result, “Rune of Whispers” was written. I realized there was yet another character in the first book, only making a very brief appearance and mentioned a few times in the second and third books, who has her own story and thus far unknown and important role to play in the overarching backstory. So with that, I am currently writing probably three more installments for her, Josephine Peele. In development: “Rune of Spirits”, “Rune of Building”, and a spin-off, “Josephine”. For more information about the series, and links to find the available books in the series, please go to thalsparr.com.
So, as we mentioned to our audience earlier, you were introduced to us by Andria Flores and Andria Flores and we really admire them and what they’ve built. For folks who might not be as familiar, can you tell them a bit about your experience with Andria Flores.
Before I say anything else, I need to say I can not thank Andria enough for her work. She has been very supportive and helpful with not only the editing, but with creative suggestions, sharing mechanical knowledge, and simply being “into the story”. I suspect it is very easy for an editor to look as a manuscript as “just another job”, but she doesn’t do that at all in my experience. She treats it as respectfully as I do, and she feels like a true partner in this adventure I am on.
When I finally realized I needed to find an editor, I had no idea how to even begin to find one. I googled editors, the types of editors, the cost of editors, and what I can expect from working with an editor. I left my search more confused than when I started. There was a point when I decided to just go on faith and found a list of editors on Thumbtack. Andria was one of the first names that popped up, so I sent her an inquiry.
What little bit I managed to teach myself about editors before she replied, I fuzzily seemed to learn that there are several types of editors that handle specific aspects of the manuscript. Obviously, I had no intentions of hiring five or six different editors, so I decided to focus on the one thing I felt I needed the most help with: copy-editing (formatting and mechanics).
After working with Andria on “Runes of the Dokkrsdottir”, I realized she offers much more than just copy-editing. She essentially offers the aspects of all of those types of editors that I think I learned about from google. With out work together on this first book, I knew I had my editor. I have never second guessed that decision a single time. (I don’t know if she can say the same about her author client, haha)
Without her, I don’t think I would have two books published and release now, the third on the way on September 24th, and two more lined up after that – to say nothing of the future books coming even after that, and who knows how many that will be. To be clear, I have six books that have been through the editing process, and Andria was my editor on all of them.
Website: thalsparr.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bjorn-leesson-441502310/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561472191034
