An Interview with K.N. Salustro

K.N. Salustro is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy author who loves outer space, dragons, and stories that include at least one of those things. When not writing, she can often be found drawing and painting, designing and sewing plushies, and trying to play video games while her cat demands her attention. She doesn’t get to play a lot these days. K.N. Salustro has been an indie author for just over ten years now, with a total of nine books out. She is currently hard at work on the next installment of her Southern Echo fantasy pirate series.

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

The Roar of the Lost Horizon was surprisingly easy, in that it just popped into my head one day during the early drafting stages of the book. I did originally think that it was going to be “The Roar of the Last Horizon” instead of “Lost,” but I ended up not liking the finality of that, and “Lost” was a much better fit for the themes and plot of the book. And the title of this first book did influence the rest of the series titles; the next two are A Whisper from the Edge of the World and A Silence Falling Dark and Deep, so I’m apparently on a sound-related, long-title kick for this series.

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

Anything instrumental with a piratical flair, for sure, but I also strongly associate “Who I Am” by The Score with pirate captain Iris Arani, and “Top of the World” by Greek Fire with Nate Lowwind. Those are the two main POV characters in this book, and I just feel like those songs really link up well with their personalities and goals.

Describe your dream book cover.

I honestly think the cover designer knocked it out of the park for this entire series so far. We’ve got several more to go, but he’s been doing a fantastic job for the Southern Echo books, and I’m so excited to see him bring the next one to life. So I kind of have the dream covers for this series!

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

I have had a LOT of jobs over the course of my life, and things are still evolving and changing every day. I’ve been a cashier, a design intern, an editorial assistant on a Who’s Who database, a receptionist at a law firm, a freelance illustrator, a writer on a creative team for a corporate company, a creative director, a sales associate for an art gallery, an independent artist, and an on-commission plush maker. And of course, I’ve been writing my books alongside all of that. It’s a weird, eclectic list, but I learned a lot from all of my experiences, and you do what you need to in order to keep pursuing the passions that feed your soul.

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

I read a lot of books about the history of pirates and the Golden Age of Piracy in particular, although I have been trying to find more books that are about or at least include non-European pirates. Pirate history from all over the world is fascinating, and I’ve been having a blast learning about the best and the worst of those people and how they lived their lives.

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

I don’t think there’s any such thing as a “perfect” reader. Everyone is going to react differently to any given thing, and it’s simply not possible to write something that everyone in the world is going to love. I certainly always hope that anyone who picks up my books enjoys them, but if you don’t, that’s okay. For this particular book, though, I recommend it to those who enjoy high-stakes adventures with morally gray characters, especially the ones who find the world telling them to stop, and then decide to keep going anyway.

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