This week we are proud to feature Brandon Russom, author of Balthazar Bunny and the Quest for Slicey, Slicey, Cut, Cut. Brandon speaks today about his writing journey, how he started the publishing process and his advice to aspiring authors!
My original inspiration for writing, in general, has come from my love for gaming and the fantasy genre. I have probably spent too many hours living virtual lives as different characters within different games. Although every game and play through is different, they all share an underlying aspect of free creativity. Even if I play the same game through multiple times, I do so each time as a new character of my own design. That character then proceeds through the game in a different manner than the previous character due to many different factors. The final product for each playthrough, no matter what game, is a unique storyline for that particular character. That’s what I want to do with my writing. I want to create my own unique storylines and bring them to life for others to experience.
My first publication was a children’s story that was inspired by the chaotic minds of four-year-olds. It was very fun to write and I am looking forward to publishing the rest of the series. However, I don’t want to limit myself to just short stories for children. My ultimate goal is to produce a novel series that takes place within its own universe where everything living and existing in it is a product of my imagination.
My imagination does not exist in a vacuum. I draw heavy inspiration from the games that I play such as Total War and Elder Scrolls. I also draw from the books that I love like Lord of the Rings, Eragon, and Warhammer. I also draw inspiration from the music I listen too, imagining different scenes of a book playing out to certain songs whether it is a chaotic battle or an important dialogue. I get goosebumps sometimes when certain songs come up on my playlist because I automatically associate them with ideas for one of my books.
I want to write because I want to share my imagination with the world. I want to create dynamic characters that readers attach themselves to and then I want to see those readers fly through the emotional experiences with the characters they love so much. I know that I say all of this only having published one children’s book but this whole process of publication has been such an exciting journey for me. I’m ready to continue writing and bringing all of my stories to readers so that they can experience everything that I have within my own imagination.
I was honestly quite shocked at how easy it was for me to get published. My first book, Balthazar Bunny and the Quest for the Slicey, Slicey, Cut, Cut, was accepted by the first publisher I sent it to and that was Olympia. Prior to this, I had done research on how to publish, who to work with, and what was needed to get the ball rolling. Out of everything I looked into, Olympia seemed like the best fit for me so I took my shot and sent my work off.
During this process of publishing with Olympia, I have really worked to refine my creative process. I still have ten million ideas flying around in my mind at any given moment but I’ve gotten a lot better about keeping them organized and not moving on to something new until the current project is finished.
Get yourself a copy of Brandon’s book, here!
