Adrienne Lecter has a background in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, loves ranting at inaccuracies in movies, and spends increasingly more time at the shooting range. She lives with the man and two cats of her life in Vienna, and is working on the next books in the Green Fields series. You can find out more on her website at http://adriennelecter.com

GJ: You write the Green Fields post apocalyptic series of books. Can you give a short summary of the books and what your unique task is on the PA field?

AL: The books start out with a scientist working for a biotech company that gets taken over by a group of terrorists while the zombie apocalypse is breaking out all over the world. It takes her a while to realise there’s a connection—and a much larger conspiracy.

I write from the point of view of a female protagonist who has zero military or survival background, and has to learn everything from scratch. Plus, add 3% more scientific explanation for the zombie apocalypse than most writers can. The series starts a little slow to get readers into the world and background, but it’s overall fast-paced, gritty, and raw.

GJ: Have you written / released other books or in different genres?

AL: Yes, for passion projects and to get my training wheels off. I have seven more books out under a different pen name—and there’s a reason why they haven’t sold nearly as much as my PA books. I also keep a Patreon for short stories set in my world (one story released every month)

GJ: Can you describe a typical writing day?

AL: I don’t have typical writing days but I try to have my laptop open by 9am and write until the words won’t flow anymore. Sometimes, that’s 2pm. Sometimes, that’s midnight. It really depends, also on where I am in a book. The last 40% I usually crank out in days. Way more time than I’d like gets eaten up by the publishing and promotion side of the business.

GJ: Can you describe your journey to publishing your first book?

AL: I’ve been writing fiction since I was 13, and my first book came out when I was 31, so that’s many words churned out and discarded in the meantime. I was lucky that when a friend published one of my short stories in an ezine and she heard I was looking for an agent, she pointed out I could look into self-publishing instead. Never looked back after that. While successful, my books are all slightly outside of the very centre of the commercial market, and publishers don’t like taking such risks. Readers love having that choice now that authors can write and release whatever they want.

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GJ: The Green Fields series is currently on book 10. Are there more books planned for the series?

AL: Yes, book #11 will be out in August, and I’m working on book #12 right now, which I hope to release before the end of the year. There are rumours about a spin-off, but I can neither confirm nor deny that.

The series was initially set up as five books only (and took six to write), but readers convinced me that there was more story to tell—and they were right!

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GJ: Do you know how many books you can expect to be in the series?

AL: Yes, 12 total. And that’s set in stone. I’ve dragged my characters through hell and back often enough. There are also the short stories on Patreon, and nobody can keep me from writing more of those even when I publish novels set in a completely new world.

GJ: What can we expect from your writing in 2019 / 2020?

AL: Green Fields #11 & #12 in 2019, and for 2020 I’m working on a brand new post-apocalyptic series. I’m planning on writing all four novels of that ahead of time and then doing a rapid release within a few weeks of each other.

GJ: What would you say is the best thing about being an author?

AL: The fact that I can make a living from the weird things my brain comes up with. I never thought this could be a full-time job—or more than a hobby—but thanks to the Indie publishing revolution it has taken over my entire life. What’s not to love about that?

GJ: What is the worst aspect of being an author?

AL: That I need to make a living from the weird things my brain comes up with. I love being self-employed and in complete creative control of my writing, but I miss the safety net of conventional employment sometimes. As much fun as writing is, being a successful Indie author is so much more. I’m also running a business, and I need to make sure my books keep selling.

GJ: If you could give your past self any piece of advice, how old would you be and what would the advice be?

AL: 26, and “Just hang in there. It not only gets better, it’s great!” I needed to make a complete 180 to get where I am right now, and that’s always scary. Doing it with confidence and hope for success would have been much easier. Then again, without desperation and blind faith in my books I wouldn’t have been able to write and release the first five of my zombie apocalypse books within ten months and make a splash large enough to find my audience, so I wouldn’t change a thing about it.

GJ: Thank you Adrienne for taking part in the interview. Adrienne’s books are available from Amazon and you can check out her website at http://adriennelecter.com

If you like nightmarish settings, reluctant heroes, and action-packed adventures, then you’ll love GJ Stevens’ spine-chilling novel. Click the image to go to your favourite store!