Check out this author spotlight for Lindsey Kinsella!
You can find all his links furthest down the page, and don’t forget to check out his books!
1. Hi! Welcome to my humble blog of all things bookish! I would like for us to start by getting to know you. Give us a short bio, please!
Certainly, and thank you for having me. My name is Lindsey and I reside in the eternally rainy glens of Scotland. I live with my girlfriend and my two children and work as a naval architect. I only began writing in earnest around 18 months ago after years of convincing myself that it was silly idea. I don’t think I then decided it wasn’t silly, I just figured that an idea being a silly one isn’t something which should stop me. As such, I’m a fairly inexperience author, but I have been buoyed by my feedback so far!
2. To get to know you just a little bit better, I’d like to ask you some this or that questions. Answer 5 of these and explain why you chose this or that, or maybe an entirely different alternative!
Cat or dog? Cats! I’m an animal person all round, so I certainly have nothing against dogs, but I just find cats more rewarding. You have to work harder to form a bond with a cat because, at its heart, it’s still nature’s finest killing machine and doesn’t really need your affection.
Morning or evening? Most certainly evening. There are few things I despise more than an early morning rise; thankfully home working has reduced those somewhat. On the other hand, writing into the early hours of the morning is not out of the norm, in fact I find myself far more productive.
Library or museums? Museums; is that sacrilege for an author? Libraries are great, but I adore a museum, especially a natural history museum. The fact that such a vast wealth of knowledge is mostly free to the public is mind blowing.
Pen and paper or computer/phone? Computer, my handwriting is atrocious!
Standalone or series? Based on my current writing trends I do seem to be laying the groundwork for several series. It’s not really a conscious decision, I just feel I have more stories to explore with certain concepts than a single book would allow.
Oddly, I usually prefer to read standalone books. I think that probably makes me some kind of psychopath.
3. When you look for books to read, what trope or type of story will always catch your attention?
To be honest, I much prefer a story with no obvious tropes. Originality is the biggest draw for me, something which strikes as being entirely new. That does mean occasionally falling for gimmicks, mind you!
4. What do you write? Tell us about your current projects and the latest happenings!
So far I have written science fiction, currently writing fantasy and have plans for some horror. In truth, I tend to concoct a story and worry about what genre it might fall into later which does result in some “genre hopping”. I like to experiment with different topics, different audiences, and different writing styles. Perhaps that means I haven’t really found my niche yet, but then perhaps I don’t want to.
My current work in progress is a family friendly fantasy (a fairly dramatic departure from my previous work) which follows a young girl on a quest within her own subconscious. The quest in question is in an attempt to save the main character’s cancer-stricken mother, so the stakes are high.
The basic concept allows for a lot of creative freedom, which I am enjoying a lot, but also makes striking the right tone somewhat difficult. It’s quite an ubsurd concept, so it can’t take itself too seriously; it has to be fun and charming and sometimes overtly silly. However, it still has to be able to provide real emotional impact when called for. It’s a difficult balance to reach.
5. What is your most recent release? Give us a short presentation, cover, and a link for where to buy it!
My current book, The Lazarus Taxa, is a tense, grounded, sci-fi thriller. It features time travel but in a limited way; I intentionally created the rules of this particular method of time travel in such a way that it has a very limited effect on the plot. This was done primarily to remove the temptation to use the functionality of time travel as a deus ex machina; a common frustration of mine within the sci-fi world.
One of my primary inspirations was the desire to combat the prevailing and outdated presentation of dinosaurs by popular media. As an avid palaeontology geek, I find these animals to be fascinating and it has pained me to see them being relegated to Hollywood movie monsters or otherwise being “for kids”. It’s a complex and wonderful science which is wildly underutilised in current culture.
The plot of the book follows the first scientific expedition through time to the Late Cretaceous. Here, evidence of a dark conspiracy slowly becomes apparent. It’s difficult to delve much deeper without spoiling it for the reader, but, despite the dinosaurs, the real villains are very much human.
Please do check out the Amazon link below!
6. What real-life inspiration do you draw from, and what are your primary fictional sources of inspiration (books, authors, films, music, etc.)? Name a few!
I tend to draw a lot of real life inspiration from people I know and use that as a basis for a character’s personality. It’s much easier to imagine how a real person might react to a situation and then apply that to the fictional version. Of course, I only tend to pick aspects of people, so no character is fully based on a single, real life person.
I also draw heavily on science, something which I’m sure is common for science fiction writers. Deep dives into the research are common… and sometimes distracting!
History is another fantastic source for inspiration for me; some of the greatest stories ever told were real. I wouldn’t say that has been hugely influential on my current book, but I have a few rough drafts which are heavily influenced by classical European and Mesoamerican history.
I think my fictional sources of inspiration are far more varied. Curiously, for an author, I’m not a huge reader. It perhaps takes me a couple of months to get through a book, but I do draw inspiration from the likes of Douglas Adams, Philip Pullman and Steven King; all very different writers, but I like aspects of each style. I have always been somewhat of a movie buff and I draw a lot of inspiration from there too; oddly I think “Alien” was one of the primary sources for The Lazarus Taxa, I think I applied some similar tricks in creating tension.
7. What is your writing routine? If you have one, give us the run-down!
I don’t have a routine as such, I write whenever I find time, which tends to be late at night when everyone else has gone to bed.
8. If you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice as you started out on the path to becoming an author, what would it be?
I think, rather than giving advice once I had started writing, I would instead travel back further and convince myself to start writing sooner. I’d tell myself not to worry about what other people would think, but to simply write for me. Thankfully, my reviews so far have been positive and it feels great to be able to share my work, but even if no one had ever read it it’s a surprisingly cathartic process. I think everyone needs a creative outlet.
9. Last but not least: where can we find you? Drop those links!
I have a Facebook page which is my primary method of engaging with readers and fans. I now have a Facebook group for engaging more directly on matters relating to the book/s (I tend to bang on about palaeontology a lot on the page) and I do also appear on Goodreads.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LindseyKinsellaAuthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60043780-the-lazarus-taxa
