RS Johnson

When I wasn't writing stories for my friends in middle school, I wanted to be an astronomer. Or a meteorologist. Anything that allowed me to get lost in the sky. Growing up, I made my own telescope out of paper machete and had flash cards of the names of all the clouds. It's still dangerous to let me drive on a day with an impressive skyline. I've been known to point to puffy formations and ask, "Are those mammatus?"

When I was in the third grade, my uncle passed away. He left behind a box of books that I got to choose from. I chose Phantoms by Dean Koontz. I tried to understand it over the years every time I read it. I fell in love with writing and with his writing style.

A few years back, myself and three of my friends were going to take a trip to Frankenmuth, MI, as a girls' weekend kind of thing. Two backed out. My friend, Jen, noticed a flyer in town for a book signing. We had missed it, but returned the following year. She came as my travel-buddy and assistant. The signing was Romance. I didn't have anything published in that genre at that time. I had been working on something big. By the time it rolled around again, I was ready.

Writing children's books was difficult because I had never birthed my own children. I adopted my step-daughter, but she was 13 by the time she entered my life. I knew nothing about age groups or appropriate words to use. I just knew I liked the idea of fables. I like a story with a lesson. Once my daughter became pregnant with my grandson, I knew I wanted to write something just for him. It was a legacy piece. So I wrote Hidden Dragons and dedicated it to him. It was a learning curve, for sure.

When I first started writing (as my Phantoms-style influenced me), I thought I'd always write in the Horror genre. I love an old-school ghost story. All haunt and chills kind of stuff. Like my favorite movie, Poltergeist. The children's books were a surprise to myself. The ghost story was right up my alley. The jump to Romance has propelled me into a world I want to be immersed in. The signings, meeting so many others on the same journey, selling a book or two has all been thanks to the Romance crowd. I'm still not sure how long I'll stay in the Romance field. As I tend to jump genres, I guess it would be more accurate to call me a "Roamance" writer (as I will probably go on to Paranormal Romance or Horror eventually).

I am a creative sponge. If I'm near other creative people, I'm going to get a ton of ideas just while someone is talking to me. These signings have motivated me as nothing else ever has. All these incredible and talented authors gather together with works of pride and accomplishment, accepting every book sale like validation of everything they just went through to make that idea a reality. Then, we all have dinner together, have a party, meet others who share our passion and understand our literary language. We exchange information, go home, then work all year on another book ( or more) to bring back. It's incredibly motivational to have that kind of accountability. I've pinkie-promised the completion of a few future projects merely because I've made friends and they'll be expecting.

I originally saw the Shadow Princes to be the sons of the Sandman. I had been captivated by the works of Neil Gaiman. More pointedly, Stardust. Like him, I tend to take my characters into other worlds by very simple means. Even in my children's book, The Land of the Lost Left Socks, young Ruby finds herself entering into another world by falling into the dryer to go after her favorite stuffed animal, Theo. I loved Gaiman's idea of the floating market. In The Silver Papyrus, Nick has acquired many of his collections at the traveling market; including his Yetibow and Lumenstones.

The Red Crown... without giving too much away, there has been an addition to the castle in the way of another character with ambitions all her own. Nick and Rayne find that, while their love has found a way to survive, someone else may be ready to stand in their way of continued happiness. We also meet many new characters from Cinterra: Meetal and his band of Yetibon, other Shadow Prince kingdoms, as well as revisiting familiar faces we loved to hate, and a whole race of scary creatures just gnawing to get out.

Honestly, I don't really have any trouble switching between genres. My grandson, now nearly ten, keeps me on the children's books because he wants to know when something in his age group can be expected. At first, he didn't believe his Nana was writing books and I'd get a lot of side-eye. Now, he wants to write his own (right after he puts down his Rubik's Cube). Greyliens is going to be a fun one to write. It's a play on words with the notorious grey aliens all over the History Channel, or the Greys as they are also called. I've never understood why pun-lovers never merged their name to make Greyliens. This will be about a high school group of kids with our protagonist being the new student dealing with the drama in the middle of an alien takeover. Just when Earth seems to be losing the fight, the creatures who wished to remain hidden must reveal themselves to help save the planet. Vampires, werewolves, trolls, fairies, elves, and more, must step up and fight alongside humans for their home if they want to continue their existence. It's actually refreshing to write in a different genre now and then. Keeps things interesting.

Okay, if anyone knows me, they are aware of my love of gnomes. Something about their button noses, long beards, pointy hats, and chubby bellies that has me squealing and collecting them all. My husband has drawn the line many times. I should probably seek professional help. The 3ft Forest is a children's book about Ryloh who stumbles across a forest of very short tree tops in the snow. As they stir, he realizes they aren't trees, but gnomes with pointy hats made to resemble trees in order to stay hidden. Their adventure takes them to the top of a very tall mountain in search of a legendary blue mushroom as they race against their enemy, the Trolls in this adventure series. A 3ft Forest series, Gnomes VS Trolls: Race for the Blue Mushroom.

Science Friction came about one day, out of the blue, as a result of my continuous attempts at being punny. I tend to merge words together often in my adulting world of marketing. Science Friction was the result of my ideas of the genre I was leaning into, adding the R in fiction as my books produce a little heat. I tested it out at a book signing and was immediately and repeatedly told to "tagline that", and so I did. It gets a laugh. I do kind of like the name Roamance Author as well, as I roam genres, but I fear people would just correct me mercilessly.

I do better under pressure. I try to let the ideas flow unhindered for a while before reminding myself that I still have to allot time for my editor and a cover artist's schedule before the signing I'm aiming for. I often forget that I should give myself a pillow of time to also do some marketing and building anticipation. Editing always takes longer than you'd expect.

Advice... If you're a writer, write. Also, read something in the genre of your current WIP. Or, listen to it, whatever. But use this process as training. Get an editor. Mine made me a better writer. She caught things I didn't even know I was doing. Now, I know how to save mine and her time by not having to go over those same errors. Publish something, even if it's a novella. Once you have the experience of what it's like, and you have your own work sitting on your bookshelf, you'll do it again. And better.

My life has just taken a drastic change in my career. I've found myself with an opportunity to write professionally and dedicate an unhindered amount to time to my craft. I see the next few years bringing many of these concepts to life. I can set my own pace now, and I can't escape my pinkie-promises to my writer friends or to myself. One of my goals is to learn the terms of what it takes to propel my works into the public eye, to build a following, and sell a few books along the way. The takeaway, expect the unexpected. I may write a dirty little romance novel, a bone-chilling ghost story, an illustrated children's fable, or maybe something beyond the stars. Don't accept the sky as the limit. Don't worry about the amount of candles on your cake, invent your own world... I do.

I ran across AllAuthor from another author who asked for votes on her cover art. I clicked, I joined, I voted, I stayed. I'm really loving the Tweets. I don't do it enough. I would like the action replicated on Instagram, but maybe it'll happen in the future? The banners, and ability to generate my covers into so many impressive images, has had me staying relevant in my social media and reader group. I'm enjoying it very much. Thank you.