An Interview with Andrew Stevens

My journey into writing goes way back—back before I graduated high school in a small town in northwestern Oregon in 2004. I don’t remember exactly when my passion for creating began, but as it blossomed somewhere around middle school, it started in the form of writing. Words were something I had a way with, and so they became my tool for creating the worlds I dreamt of in my mind.

Over the years, I started several story projects. I also wrote dozens of other ideas and short stories, but I never really did anything with them—at least, not until now.

Fast forward to 2023. With some help from a couple of friends, I began to write. One word at a time, one paragraph at a time, until slowly the words became pages and the pages became chapters and finally, in March of 2024, it became the first draft of Embers of Awakening—the first book in the series I’m calling Through Blood & Fire.

I don’t know where things will go from here, but I have faith because I know that I’m doing what I was meant to do, and even if most of the world never sees what I create, I will be happy knowing I am finally following the passion inside me.

All that said, I sure hope I will find some beautiful people to join me on this journey!

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I actually got started while going through a program with a friend of mine who became a life coach. As he led me through a series of steps of discovery, everything pointed to the fact that what needed to come next for me in my life was writing (and finally finishing) a book. It started slow, and I got help from another friend who’s an editor through the process. After just about a year, I had a completed first draft. All that said, the desire to write has always been ingrained within me. I have a wild imagination, and I have a way with words. I just needed the motivation and, more importantly, the discipline, to see it through.

What inspired you to start writing this book?

The origin of this story actually started some time before working with my life coach. There’s a platform called Vocal, wherein you can submit stories for their writing contests based on given prompts. The prompt for one such story contest was “There weren’t always dragons in the valley…” and my submission for that was somewhat of a brief backstory of what my novel has now become.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

I always had this idea of “Awakening” as a key element for my story. This word has meaning on several different levels, and is also a key element through the rest of the planned series. However, one-word titles are kind of boring, and I also wanted to try to find something a bit more unique to make my book more easily recognizable. It took a lot of back and forth but eventually I settled on Embers of Awakening, as this is the first book, and things are just getting warmed up. The rest of the books in the series will follow this same trend of ‘BLANK of BLANK’. I know it’s not that exciting or unique, but word choice is important, and three words give me room to be creative and still as unique as I can be.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

Oh… this one’s easy. I already have a playlist for my series, and a specific song chosen for the first book.

Embers of Awakening “theme” song: “In My Blood (feat. Fleurie)” – Tommee Profitt (I’m actually working on getting rights to use it for a trailer, and this may actually be my series’ theme song).

Other songs, some of which may be future book trailers:

“Madness” by Ruelle,

“The World We Made” by Ruelle,

“Empires” by Ruelle,

“Hero” by Ruelle,

“Battle Royale” by Valerie Broussard,

“World on Fire” by Klergy,

“Dark Side” by Cece and the Dark Hearts,

“Final Hour (Feat. Ruelle)” by UNSECRET,

“Gallows” by Katie Garfield,

and many more!

The above songs should definitely give you the vibe I’m going for.

Describe your dream book cover.

I mean, can I say my current book’s cover? To be fair, it’s my first cover designed in cooperation with an awesome artist, so it’s going to be a bit special to me. But if I had to describe a dream book cover, definitely something with an epic-looking dragon, designed in the styles of “scene-setter” or “landscape” and filled with hints of key elements in the story, plus one of the main characters. I want someone to be reading my book and then say to themselves “Oh! I’ve seen that before!” and then flip to the cover to connect the dots.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I currently work in Cybersecurity, which I’ve been doing since around 2020. I’m also in the Air Force Reserves, and have almost hit twenty years, fourteen of which was Active Duty. That means I can retire from the military very soon, and I can’t wait! I’ve also done a lot of other pretty cool things across two other jobs I had while in the military, to include linguistic work and working directly with a variety of cargo aircraft.

What books did you read (for research or comfort) throughout your writing process?

The very first book I picked up when I started writing was John Gwynne’s The Shadow of the Gods. It’s an AMAZING book, and John Gwynne has become one of my biggest author idols currently. Before reading his book, it had been many years since I’d read much of anything, much less completed a full fiction book, but I have many fond memories of reading Star Wars and Forgotten Realms books as a teenager.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from reading your book? How do you envision your perfect reader?

I hope to instill a sense of wonder in my readers. I’m creating a new, epic world here, and we’ve got a lot more story to tell. I want readers to feel invested in my characters on both sides of the conflict. I also want them to constantly question what is true about the world, as there are many things in the shadows that we’ve just barely shown the light on by the end of the first book. I also want to highlight some core common beliefs throughout my series—beliefs about love, loyalty, family, struggle, and even disability. Though I have my own thoughts on these, I’d rather wait to see how they are interpreted through the lenses of my readers.

Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.