We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful J.L. Drake. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with J.L. Drake below.

J.L. Drake, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Drive and heart. I have a few obstacles that I’ve had to overcome as a writer, things I deal with daily. Though they can be challenging, I truly wake up every day excited to dive into a fictional world created by me.

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

I was a stay at home mom but I was beginning to lose a sense of myself. Although my children were my first priority I needed more. As a child living in Canada, I found an outlet for my creative side through Neptune Theatre and now I craved a new way to express myself. One day my husband told me that a friend of ours had written and published a book on Amazon. Something clicked inside me and I opened up a Word doc and started to write. Several months later I had written my first book. Later I was picked up by a small press publisher and I was on my way. Little did I know I was creating a career for myself that allowed me to not only stay home with my children but gave me the outlet I needed, not to mention a much-needed income.

In the beginning, I attempted to write fantasy thinking it would be what I wanted to create a world of my making, little did I realize how difficult it would be for me to think outside the box. I soon realized it was not for me. I have so much respect now for those who can write that genre! I looked at my bookshelf and realized that many of the books I had read and reread over the years were dark romance with a healthy dose of adventure. My love for James Patterson was obvious by the number of books I had of his. Write what you love, I thought to myself.

I began writing in 2014 and now have 20 plus books under my name, not to mention those published in several other countries. Having my books in print, audio, and in other languages blows my mind.

I know I’m not the only author who struggles with this, but one thing that sets me apart from many writers is the fact that I was diagnosed with a processing disorder and dyslexia as a child. It is amazing to me that I am now writing books for a living. I can imagine the pleased look on the face of my high school English teacher. It just goes to show you that you can do anything you want as long as you want it badly enough. I found solutions that work for me such as changing the color of the font to purple as I write, it helps my eyes to see the letters as opposed to the spaces between them.

When someone tells me that my books allowed them to escape from their reality, even just for a short time, it just makes me so happy to know I’ve helped a complete stranger. I have an active reader group on Facebook which has now become one of my support systems. To have a place to go to discuss my stories and listen to how they interpret certain scenes is fascinating. Because I link all of my books together through different characters it’s become more than just fiction to me, they are my friends and I love writing about them. Call me crazy but I love my fictional world and all the characters have become friends.

If you are looking for action, romance and suspense I encourage you to check out my books.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There are many different places where you can hire companies to help you promote your book. There are promoting packages available that you can use for a small fee, without a monthly commitment. I wish I’d known about these earlier. Two of these PR companies I have used while releasing a book that I recommend would be Give Me Books and HEA PR Authors. Not only are the lovely to work with but they offer invaluable guidance.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

As a US author, I had to unlearn my Canadian spellings and phrases. Color not Colour, Great day, eh? It sounds funny but it’s true. You have to ensure you use the correct form of speech for the characters for whatever country you are writing about.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.authorjldrake.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/j.l.drake/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JLDrakeauthor/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/authorjldrake
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jodildrake_j
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authorjldrake

Image Credits
Photographer: Lane Dorsey (Devil’s Reach Covers) Photographer: Candice Dartez (Headshot)