Lady N's Den : #IndieSpotlight of Jeff Shanley @Mavonduri Author of Mathion

Name:

I'm Jeff.

The Title of Your Work or Group:

My first novel is MATHION, the first entry in the LEGACY OF THE WOLVEN Trilogy

Where are you from? Does not have to be the name of the place exactly. You can say Hick-ville Florida, for example if you are more comfortable with that.

I am indeed from Hickville, Florida, how did you know?!

In what genre do you write?

I write in the high-fantasy genre.

In your own words, what is your book about? If you were not the author and trying to explain this awesome book you just read to a friend, what would you say about it?

It redefines the werewolf and Atlantis myths in one fell swoop with buckets of blood.

What is your writing style? Do you follow all guides and rules? Synopsis, outline etc. or do you just sit down at the computer and type to see what happens.

My style is delightfully...purple haha..I tend to try to get as much background detail of my fantasy world and its history into the narrative as possible, so the reader is always discovering.

Have you ever written anything and thought; " The world has got to see this!" ?

Aside from MATHION, just about everything!! But I'm too much of a perfectionist. Greatest strength and weakness, I'm side you can relate.

Do you have an editor and Cover Designer or do you do this yourself?

This entire endeavor is in-house.

Who is your favorite author. Not just someone that you read allot. I wanna know whose book you read that made you suddenly know that if you didn't do this for the rest of your life then you would never be happy.

Tolkien. I don't think there's a self-respecting fantasy author writing today that doesn't owe a danwedh of gratitude to that man.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

Early on I decided that one of my characters' dialogue should be in a language I invented. Needless to say it's tedious work.

Do you write your characters or do they write themselves through you?

Both. At times, a name will pop into my head, and he will simply be there. Others have been there from the beginning and they continue to teach me about myself.

Do you ever write yourself into the characters?

All the time. You are a sub-creator, and so all of your flaws are contributory to the sub-creation.

Is writing your full time job or are you "Keeping your day job"? So to speak.

Sadly I do have a day job.

If you could go back in time and meet one famous person or legend in history, who would it be?

I'd like to see if Atlantis really existed.

There are millions of new books released every year. What in your mind makes yours stand out from all those millions in your genre?

Mathion is an old-school hero. Honor is his number one defining trait, and while flawed heroes are the norm nowadays, there's something to be said for having a mythic example to aspire to. Not that he's perfect, mind you. But great heroes yield even greater villains, and I have the baddest, most badass baddie of them all in Azgharáth. I guess you'll just have to read the book for yourselves!

In the world of Indie, marketing is very difficult, especially if you don't have the funds to pay for it. Have you found a great free way to market your work that you think other Indies will benefit from?

I haven't just yet, but Twitter has been a godsend. It's a great way to make connections.

Watch the trailer here: