A full-time personal trainer and competitive powerlifter, Cal started writing seriously in 2017, drawing inspiration from history, his time spent practicing mixed martial arts, and of course, books. Cal lives in Chicago with his wife, Taylor, and his dachshund, Rizzo.
Atmosphere Press is proud to bring readers the Atmosphere Press Presents author interview series. We’re happy to have this archive of excellent interviews and author success stories for you to enjoy. Learn about writers and their books, from book title origin stories to music playlists that relate to their writing to what it was like seeing the cover for the first time.
Atmosphere puts the author experience first, and these interviews make up just one facet of a meaningful and rewarding author journey. Please share your favorite interviews and author success stories on social media, and stay in touch so you can be the first to know when new posts are published. Sign up for our newsletter to receive updates on interviews, Atmosphere Press Presents readings, and other news!
Graey (she/they) is an indie writer who spends much of her time painting, napping, and hyper-fixating on worldbuilding fantasy realms. As a queer person with an invisible illness, Graey lives an empathy-centric life and writes themes that challenge the idea of Self and Community. While she does not shy away from gruesome dark fantasy, she loves to add soft, queer love and representation. Life is a bit of darkness mixed in with the light, after all. BLOODWATER will be her debut novel.
JC is the middle of three generations of authors, both mother to and daughter of an author! She reads in every genre she writes, plus so many more. JC prefers hardbound books, but will read in any format she can get her hands on. She does own a Kindle and uses it whenever she happens to finish the other book(s) she carries absolutely everywhere with her.
Dr. Ting-Wei Wu, known by her peers as Tina Wu, was born in Taiwan and moved to the United Kingdom in 2001. As a little girl with a big imagination, the tale of the Quest for Qieta series has lived in her mind since the age of sixteen. At last, over a decade later, she has put pen to paper to bring the universe of Neputa to life.
Before I became a writer, I was an English teacher for over thirty years, and prior to that a painter – a successful one. As an esteemed writer of fiction, particularly of the novella, I have now returned to my greatest love. Whilst I was a teacher, I was lucky to have re-read Shakespeare's tragedies, the poetry of Blake, becoming embroiled in the fine Victorian description, bestowed by Dickens. As a writer, I think it is always the history and culture before us that truly form the words on a new page, and that connect which equates the first stroke of a paintbrush and the first line of a book which cements the foundations.
Lucas grew up in Central Texas, where he spent most of his free time reading or playing outside. Despite his plans to the contrary, he went to college in his hometown and remained there afterward. In that time, he rediscovered the love of reading that academics had suppressed, and he married his high-school sweetheart. With his philosophy degree, Lucas had planned to go to law school, but a global pandemic and a host of other factors made him decide against it. Now, between his full-time office job and writing on the side, he still finds plenty of time to spend with her, their cat, Luna, and their dog-who-thinks-she's-a-cat, Coco. They still live in their hometown.
Jake R T Brown is a tattoo artist from Essex, England, who turned his hand to writing in 2017 to fulfill a lifelong dream and self-published his first book, The World Spins Madly On. In 2023 he rewrote both The World Spins Madly On and the spin-off, What Goes Up…, and published them with sparkly new cover designs ready for the release of his upcoming sequel, Beneath the Stars.
Ynes Freeman is an award-winning gothic fiction author, and she is the publisher at Memento Vivere Press. Her work is beautiful, intense, and deep. She believes writing is the secret to immortality and that authors live forever through their books, changing the lives of people they will never meet. Her wish is for all creatives to believe in themselves and that their stories are worth telling. Under a variety of pen names, Ynes’s work has appeared in Everyday Fiction ezine, Primal Elements (a poetry collection), The Order of Us (a Moms Who Write anthology), Dragons Within, and other anthologies. Learn more about her work by visiting @ynesfreeman on most social media.
Ben is a novelist and screenwriter from the UK. He has written numerous short stories, novels, screenplays, and articles, and has a Master’s in Creative Writing. His debut novel, The Reprobates, a finalist in the 2023 Foreword INDIES, was inspired by his student days working in a nightclub. It was here that he witnessed a lost generation at play. A TV adaptation of this novel is currently in pre-production.
I am an author, editor and creative writing tutor who lives between Edinburgh, Scotland and Co. Mayo in the West of Ireland, with my teenage son and our dog. After a first career in social work and community health, in my forties, I studied for my PhD in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, and since then have read at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and for Pitch Perfect at the Bloody Scotland Festival.
