We were lucky to catch up with Westley Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.

Westley, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I fell in love with writing when I wrote my first short story in fourth grade. My teacher, Mrs. Applegate, assigned the class to write a Halloween story, and I got the writing bug from then on. It was the first time in my young life that I realized that I could create my own stories and didn’t have to rely on others to write the kind of things that I wanted to read. I could make them myself, so that’s what I did.

Westley, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I loved writing from a young age and started pursuing it right away. I wrote a lot through high school and had my first short story, Off to War, published when I was sixteen. After high school, I kept writing and submitting stories to magazines and agents for novels. I got a few bites here and there, once getting an honorable mention in the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazines’ Mysterious Photograph Contest.

In 2013, I wrote a horror novel called Along Came the Tricksters and self-published it. A year later, I followed that up with the sequel, All Hallows Eve. But from that experience, I learned two things: I wasn’t a horror writer and didn’t like self-publishing.

From reviews of my second book, All Hallows Eve, I realized that I was a much better crime/thriller writer than a horror writer, so I focused on telling stories in that genre. I worked on several unpublished manuscripts for a few years to see if I could write crime and thrillers. Turns out I could.

In 2024, I sold my crime/thriller, Some Kind of Truth, to Wicked House Publishing. I followed that up with a second crime/thriller, In the Pale Light (published with Watertower Hill Publishing), which hit the #1 spot in IngramSparks mystery/thriller/hard-bolded detective category.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, this is simple: to own my day and time.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Buy their work.

Nowadays, thanks to the internet, there seems to be this mindset that everything should be free, especially when it comes to art.

Artists are working people, too. We have bills to pay, groceries to buy, a car, and mortgage payments to make. Producing our art takes time and a lot of hard work, and we should be compensated for or work, just like anyone else working in a factory or a 9-5 office job.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.westleysmithbooks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wsmithbooks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/westleysmith100

Image Credits

Some Kind of Truth – Wicked House Publishing
In the Pale Light – Watertower Hill Publishing