We recently connected with Allen Lyle and have shared our conversation below.

Allen, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I learned to write by reading. I didn’t go to school for it nor have I taken any writing classes. I’ve been an avid reader my whole life, and though I didn’t know it, I was learning along the way.

When I began to think seriously about writing as a career I analyzed my favorite books, I marked passages, identified what made characters compelling, and I rewrote large portions as a way to understand what I wanted my writing voice to be. For dialog I would watch moves and essentially novelize them. And most importantly, I wrote. All of that writing became my debut novel Red Sun Rising, which is releasing on July 28th.

The first draft of my upcoming debut novel was, by any objective, a horrendous attempt. My second draft was not that much better. My third draft was okay. My fourth draft was pretty good. My fifth draft was enough for a publisher to think it had some potential, We wrote my sixth and seventh draft together. So when you ask what skills were most essential? It was just writing. Day after day, night after night, a consistent effort repeated for a year. If you want to write a book, the best advice I can give you is to start writing.

In terms of obstacles standing in the way it was me. I think people like myself becoming new writers is almost embarrassing. My friends didn’t know I wrote a book until I told them it was getting published. My wife, (also an author of children’s books, Morgan Swank), was essential to my process. Showing her changed everything and this book would not exist without her incredible input. But still I was embarrassed. It would never get published! Who would want to read this? My wife pushed me and was actually the one who sent it to Moon Publishing (I was still insisting it wasn’t ready), and I got to work with Chris Lambert and his incredible team over there. But if it had just been me? I might still be working on it, probably around draft twenty five by now.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Before I became an author I worked in Talent Acquisition for about a decade. While I enjoyed the job I do think writing is a far more fulfilling career. But I can still thank TA for giving me this career. The tech industry can be quite volatile and I ended up getting laid off twice in eleven months, and the job market was looking grim. My mom has always told me I could write a book, but I think she also believes I could be an astronaut or the president, so I brushed it off. Suddenly I found myself with quite a lot of time, and I thought back to my mom’s words. I started writing the book on my wife and I’s honeymoon, about three weeks after I got laid off.

I had zero expectation of getting published, it was mostly something I just kept working on because I didn’t have much else to do. The job market continued to be difficult, and I continued writing. I entered quite a few short story contests, of which I never got so much as an honorable mention. That didn’t stop me from writing. I think my strength as a writer comes from my persistence. Eventually (and in all likelihood luck played a big hand) it paid off, and I got my first publishing deal.

That is also what I am most proud of. Persistence. I do not typically get streaks of inspiration like a bolt of lightning and write ten thousand words in a night. It is a grind. One thousand words a day, every day.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Libraries in this country are under siege, as is education. The government is slashing funding on a massive scale. ITIL, the organization which funds 125,000 libraries, may not even continue to exist. Tariffs are wreaking absolute havoc on the print industry, which already had razor thin profit margins. Small bookstores are priced out by massive corporations. Reading is in danger and all I desire to do is to get more books into more people’s hands. I aim to bring visibility to the issues facing libraries and to stress the importance of reading.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I look forward to every single meeting I have on my calendar. I cannot say I felt the same in my corporate career. Being able to do this is an absolute dream. Last week we worked on tarot cards that will accompany all pre-ordered editions of my novel, Red Sun Rising. I had a meeting where I got to look at art of my own created world. It is an immensely satisfying career. I also love the people at Moon Publishing, getting to work with such a talented and creative team is a blessing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://allenlyleauthor.com/