As part of the Indie Author Highlight, I’m happy to introduce you to Patrick Johns, author of The Hoarding series. Patrick was our newsletter’s Author Spotlight a few months ago, but I think you should all get to know him a bit better through an in-depth interview.
With that, Patrick, would you tell me a little about yourself?
I’m a writer with a background in engineering and mathematics. After working for a large engineering firm for 3 years outside Washington D.C., I discovered my passion for writing and decided to move to Spain. For 4 years I taught English overseas, wrote and published my own books, and got involved in many freelance projects like copywriting, editing, and book formatting. I’m passionate about inspiring people with non-writing backgrounds to gain the confidence, routine, and skills to finally start the book they’ve always wanted to write.
When I’m not writing, you can find me…
- 🏄 Out in the ocean, surfing some gnarly waves
- 📚 Reading whatever I can get my hands on
- 🗺️ Traveling and seeking inspiration for my next book
Tell me a little about your current book.
I’m currently writing the third book in The Hoarding series. It’s an epic fantasy adventure that has definitely become more epic than I had originally planned. When I first began this series, I thought it was only going to be 30 pages, just for fun. But now I’m dealing with a monster of a book. Seriously. You think with each book the writing process would get easier, but I’ve learned that each book comes with its own struggles.
While writing this third book, I had lost my job and visa and life I had built after 4 years living in Spain. I was unexpectedly sent back to New Jersey to live in my childhood home with my parents. I hadn’t lived at home for 13 years! Jobless and lost, for the past 2 years I’ve been pursuing my own book coaching business for the next step in my life. All these huge life changes have taken a toll on my third book. But this past year, I’m proud to say, I’ve really made some progress and stayed focused during this difficult time.
I’ve actually made so much progress that this book had to be split into 2 books, another obstacle I had to face writing this book. I wanted nothing more than for this to be the final book, but it has just grown and expanded to levels I had never planned. Which isn’t a bad thing! At least content isn’t an issue. As I was writing 2 out of the 5 POVs for this book, I already hit 70,000 words at the midpoint of my predicted finale for these characters. I decided to stop here and to write the other POVs up until this same midpoint to see how large this section of the book would be.
I just finished the FINAL first draft the other week and the word count is 150,000!! To give you perspective…My first book’s word count was 106,000, second book was 120,000. So as much as I wanted to finally be done with this series, I’m happy I made the decision to split the final book into 2. Looks like this will be a 4 book series now! I’m hoping I can get this book published some time in 2025. Finger’s crossed!
I think most epic fantasies turn out that way: bigger than we ever dreamed! I think it was Robert Jordan who offered his story idea to publishers as a trilogy. They laughed him out of the room. (Well, maybe not. They funded the biggest sloggin’ series ever.)
I really appreciate your personal story. Writing, like most arts, never seems to be financially easy, but being thrown so far off your hoped-for track had to be scary and frustrating. I am so impressed at your progress writing the next! Please, please, let us know when it hits shelves so I can share with our readers.
In the mean time, readers, you should all check out the books of the Hoarding series from Patrick below:
Describe the type of books you write in general.
I’m a sucker for fairy tales. I love the idea of two individuals who come from two completely different lives, when everything and everyone is trying to keep them apart, but they come together to save the day and fall in love. The Hoarding series started out as a fairy tale before gradually turning into an epic fantasy. I mixed Aladdin with Wall-e. But I told myself that I will complete this series as I started it, as a fairy tale, but maybe, just maybe, it won’t be a happily ever after. More like a bittersweet happily ever after.
I also write poems about love, breakup, and change. The poetry is where my writing began. I started writing songs in high school to express all the teen angst I was going through. The songwriting has stuck throughout the years. I now have over 40 songs I’ve written. But I also had words lying around that never became songs. So I went on a hunt to gather all of these words, compiling them into a Word document, and realized I had over 400 pages of poems to go through. That project ended up turning into the 3-book poetry series A Broken Heart Poetry Collection.
You can listen to my songs on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/patrick-johns-61400417
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6Kth1xiAebprrSbQE6zIzn?si=9nD-brKtTy-dUEU8z9LWtg&dl_branch=1
How many books/novellas/short stories have you published already?
So far I have published two books in my epic fantasy series, The Hoarding, and three books in A Broken Heart Poetry Collection. I have one short story in The Hoarding series that you can read for free here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/30i8qkwolo
What projects are you hoping to work on next?
Once I’m finished with The Hoarding series, I would like to work on my next fantasy series called The Last Messenger. As I move forward with The Hoarding series, more ideas for other stories organically pop into my head. The idea for The Last Messenger has been growing the more I write The Hoarding series. I’m super excited to start a fresh project, using the writing skills I’ve obtained throughout the years. When I started The Hoarding series, I had no clue what I was doing. So I feel it will be a really cool experience to take my new writing skills and put them to the ultimate test of writing a new, fresh fantasy series.
I also have another poetry book waiting to be published. I decided to put all my focus into finishing The Hoarding series first before I go through and publish this next poetry book. This book of poems will NOT be a part of the 3-part book series of A Broken Heart Poetry Collection. Instead, this poetry book will focus more on the changes that come with entering adulthood, following my path from graduating college, to working a full time job, to leaving that job behind to move to a foreign country and pursue my dream of writing. This book will show the ups and downs I went through while going through these wild life changes.
That sounds truly beautiful and a perfect subject for poetry.
Where do your ideas for new stories come from?
I love this quote I read somewhere that says a writer is like a paleontologist digging up dinosaur bones. The bones already exist under the ground, and it’s the paleontologist’s job to discover them. The words and story ideas are like the bones under the ground and the writer is like the paleontologist. These stories already exist, and it’s the writer’s job to uncover them.
How do you uncover them? That depends on the writer, but for me, getting outside the door is a big contribute to discovering new ideas. A big part of writing is to live, because if you don’t experience things for yourself, how do you know what to write about?
My best story ideas came to me when I left my corporate engineering job behind and moved to Spain to teach English and pursue writing. I felt like a newborn baby again, having to relearn everything from a new language, new culture, new food, new street signs. It really opens your mind up, allowing you to dive deeper into your creativity and further knowing yourself. I’ve written some of my best songs and poems while in Spain. And it definitely helped with my storywriting for my fantasy series. I had no clue what a castle or medieval setting looked like when I first started writing The Hoarding besides what I saw on tv. But after living in Spain, I’ve seen way too many castles for one life time.
I’m not saying you have to move to a foreign country to be a writer, although I do think everyone should have that experience, but simply getting out of your comfort zone, stepping out that door, challenging yourself, learning something new, trying something new, will all help you become a better writer and come up with great story ideas.
Why do you write?
I write for several reasons. To keep my imagination going. I always had a crazy imagination when I was a kid. I even had my own imaginary basketball team, passing the ball to every player (myself) to win the game. I think I played too much Backyard Basketball back in the day.
But now that I’m older, and it would look weird for a thirty-something year old passing the ball to himself, this is my outlet to keep my imagination and creativity strong. Especially in a society where creativity is frowned upon as you get older. I used to play guitar in a band in high school. But once we all graduated, it seemed everyone gave up playing instruments. I kept with it because I wanted to continue to write songs and perform live. I was a terrible singer. But I learned how to sing because it was my only way to continue playing live because I couldn’t find anyone who played instruments anymore.
And that’s sad to me. Why does our society drain the creativity out of us? I continue to write to inspire others to rediscover their own creativity they had once let go.
I think the loss of imagination is the most tragic part of what most people call “growing up.” I love those crazy dreams, those shapes in the clouds and tea leaves. I love making stories and poems and songs. Always write, and always dream.
How have you changed as a writer since you first began writing?
I feel like when I first started out writing, nothing really mattered. I could write with the doors closed. But now that my writing business has expanded, and I’m dealing with a lot more than just writing, I feel pressure. Pressure to finish this series the right way to please my fans. Pressure to write to market to sell more books. Pressure to find writing time among all the other things I need to do to keep this writing business going like marketing, publishing, advertising, applying for jobs, life changes, etc.
I think this is why it’s so important for writers to establish the reason why they write from the very beginning and to write it down somewhere. Because I think every writer, every artist will encounter this same problem. As they grow, they will take on more responsibilities, and sometimes these responsibilities will take away from your creativity. It’s important to remember why you started writing in the first place so you don’t fall down a path of burnout and selling yourself out.
I just recently went through a phase in my writing where I really had to think back and relive the feelings I had felt when I first started out writing 8 years ago. Because I felt like I had lost the meaning of why I set out to write this series in the first place. I never planned on spending 8 years of my life writing it. I want nothing more than to be done with it. Sometimes I feel like I will never finish it. That’s why it’s so important to reconnect with my old self to remember why I set out on this path in the first place: to inspire others to follow their own dreams by pursuing my own path of never giving up on my creativity.
You’re right. It’s so easy to get distracted with the business of writing. But the creative process itself is what brings us life, and we have to hang on to it somehow. When I started writing my epic fantasy, the only word that could describe the change in my life was “joy.” I felt joy for the first time in…a long time. I was eager to awaken in the morning and no longer resented my alarm clock. My days started “good” instead of “bad.”
Recently, I also went through a burnout phase due to overload in all aspects of my life, and I have struggled to get enough time to write. I’ve been bogged down by not only non-bookish stuff, but by ancillary bookish stuff. Marketing, newsletters, socials, interviews, giveaways, reviews. It never ends, and I think I have come to the conclusion that I have to treat these parts of the book business like I do the day job. There will ALWAYS be more to do, so spend a set amount of time on it and then set it aside. Mentally and physically, set it aside, so you can spend focused time on the things that matter.
What was the most difficult challenge you’ve faced as a writer, and how did you overcome it?
Discovering who supported and didn’t support my writing journey. This actually really shocked me learning this hard lesson. Because when you publish a book you think it’s going to be this wonderful thing that people will be amazed about. But it turns out when you do something really amazing, people sometimes get jealous and resentful because they see someone else doing something awesome and wonderful and it makes them feel bad about themselves because they never had the guts to do that. It happened with my book publishing and also when I decided to leave my corporate job and move to Spain.
I discovered some close people who I thought would support me didn’t, and other people who I hadn’t talked to in years would reach out to me saying how awesome it was that I was writing books and how much they fully support it. It felt backwards to me. And it has also affected me a lot beause it has made me feel ashamed for talking about my books because people have made it seem like a negative thing. A lot of people never even ask me about my book writing, even when they know it’s a huge part of my life.
After graduating college, I moved to the DC area where I connected with someone from my college. We both revealed to each other that we were writing books. For a year and a half we met up almost every day for an hour to push each other forward. We kept each other accountable. He taught me everything about publishing and marketing. He opened my world to becoming a writer. Thanks to him, I am a writer.
But when the time came for us to part ways, there was a big difference between he and I: I finished a book and he didn’t.
And to make matters worse, he never read my book after I published it, even when he was the one who taught me the importance of leaving reviews for books. He never read it, and he distanced himself from me. Now, we do not speak. And that breaks my heart. I trusted this guy. He was my teacher. My sensei. And now I feel like we are Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker.
This was my first lesson in learning that people will get jealous of you, people will resent you, people will try and pull you down to their level. Don’t let them do that. Keep writing. Keep growing. Keep becoming a better version of yourself. And great things will happen.
When our hearts are invested so much into something so special, it hurts to realize others are…not. But, your books matter. Your mind and your creativity and your resilience matter. I am so glad you’ve kept going, even when faced with such hurt from those you care about. I know how you feel.
How do you balance writing with the rest of life? Any tips?
One of the valuable lessons I learned in Spain was: Americans live to work, while Spaniards work to live. I remember being so shocked on my first day teaching at my school in San Roque, Spain when the bell rang at the end of the day. Within five minutes, the entire school had been cleared. Everyone went home to go eat lunch with their families. No one lingered in the offices to finish some extra work. I actually had to use the bathroom after school one day and was locked inside because there was no one there to let me out. I had to find a custodian to unlock the door for me.
It’s sad being back in the US and seeing how more toxic our work environment has become ever since I left. People sign up for a 9 to 5 contract, but end up working way beyond those hours without even getting paid for that extra work. That’s robbery! But people do it because everyone else is doing it and they are afraid of getting fired.
I truly believe in work life balance. Set goals. Set a schedule. Set boundaries. And set time away to go out and enjoy the day and workout and move your body. If you don’t, you’ll become overwhelmed and burnout real quick.
Excellent advice. I work to live, but I still work more than I should. I have always struggled with boundaries and with saying “no.”
What other advice would you give to a new writer?
You can always go back and edit what you’ve written, but you can’t edit blank pages. Focus on the writing. Finish your book. Avoid all the distractions. Because the distractions will come, and it’s important to develop goals, commit to a writing routine, and stick with it until the end. You will have to make sacrifices. It will affect your relationships. But the payoff will be worth it. Don’t be like all the other people who say they want to write a book but get distracted with just another excuse of why they aren’t able to see this dream through.
How do you approach planning a new story? Do you develop outlines, timelines, journal notes, character profiles, etc.? Do you free write? Somewhere in between?
With every book I try to outline and plan more and more. I had fifteen drafts of my first book because I didn’t outline a single thing. I just dove right into it. I outlined a little more for book two, but still not enough, and found myself having to rewrite much of the story after writing the first few drafts. But I did get this down a bit more to around seven drafts before publishing. With my third book, I wanted to know EVERYTHING before diving into it. I outlined, and outlined, and outlined some more. But I soon realized that too much outlining was actually holding me back. I don’t know how authors can outline and know every single thing that happens in their stories. Maybe it’s because I’m writing multiple stories in one with epic fantasy? But I truly believe you can’t know everything that happens. Because things will naturally change and develop and expand once you get out of the outline and start writing. There arrives a point where you just need to trust that you know your story enough to start writing it, because things will be revealed to you once you dive into the writing that you were blind to in your outline.
What are some of the most useful tools you’ve found that make writing/publishing easier?
Definitely using books as tools makes writing easier, reading books in your genre and outside of your genre. A lot of questions can be answered by simply seeing what other authors are doing.
There’s also a bunch of podcasts out there to help push you forward with your writing. My favorite podcast I listened to every day when I first started out writing was Helping Writers Become Authors by K. M. Weiland.
Who is your favorite author? Your favorite book?
There are too many to pick from! But I guess I’ll choose Redwall by Brian Jacques because this is the book and series that got me into fantasy and writing fantasy. It was easy to read, but also lengthy enough to get accustomed to the larger fantasy books I’d have to plow through later on in life. It had heroic knights (who just so happened to be a bunch of rodents), songs, quests, adventures, great characters, happy moments, and sad moments. It really expanded my imagination as a kid, exploring new worlds and cultures and adventures, something that would be a part of my life later on when I went on my own adventure of moving to a foreign country.
The Redwall series was life-changing for me too! I try to re-read them every ten years or so.
Who are some other indie authors you recommend people check out?
Kyrie Wang is an awesome human and author. She writes wholesome medieval historical fiction. I definitely recommend checking out her Enemy’s Keeper series.
I also have been enjoying The Doorway to Magic series by Susan and John Ruff. This series is a satire toward the clichéd prophecy trope that appears in fantasy novels and I find it hilarious.
What are your favorite movies?
Aladdin is my all time favorite Disney movie, and actually inspired me to write The Hoarding series. The song A Whole New World always sends shivers running down my spine.
I also grew up watching Jurassic Park. I loved playing with dinosaurs when I was a kid and pretending I was a dinosaur hunter out in the woods in my backyard. Michael Crichton is also one of my favorite authors. He really sends you on a realistic thriller. Who wouldn’t want to visit a theme park filled with dinosaurs?
I also like The Greatest Showman, another movie that sends shivers down my spine. Whenever I’m feeling lost or doubting the path I’ve chosen, this movie always inspires me to keep pursuing my dreams. And the soundtrack is incredible! It’s secretly been one of my dreams to write a musical, think Game of Thrones meets Broadway.
You have excellent taste. Seriously.
Thank you so much for sharing, Patrick!
Readers, learn more and follow Patrick Johns at any of the websites below, and do not miss his next book launch!