Interview with Joshua Ian

WELCOME JOSHUA IAN, HNS NYC member: Co-host with me and Christina Britton Conroy with me at our Book Launch Event: January 30, at BGSQD Bookstore, NYC.

Joshua, welcome to my blog. I had seen you at HNS meetings and spoken to you on the phone, in my regular “Are you coming to the meeting” nag calls. But I only recently got to know your writing. We had fun at the Princeton Alumni Author Reading series that Shawn Cowls hosted in New York, so I’m excited that we’ll have another performance in a couple of weeks. Tell us about yourself and your writing.

Hello Loretta! Thanks so much for having me. The reading was terrific fun indeed, and great seeing you as always. I always love getting your reminder calls and hearing that mellifluous voice – never a nag! I’m based in NYC and I mostly write historical, speculative, and sci-fi/fantasy fiction. My most recent release, The Harvest Moon is the first entry in my Darkly Enchanted Romance series. It’s a historical romance series of novellas, all with a paranormal edge. The Harvest Moon draws on the history of witchcraft in England and further entries will have ghosts and shifters and one centers on the late Victorian/Edwardian obsession with seances and contacting spirits of the beyond.

When I looked at your website, I saw that you have won an award for Flash Fiction and written Steampunk fiction. When will more of your work be coming out?

That’s every author’s favorite or most dreaded question. It’s a happy question for me. The second entry in my historical Darkly Echanted Romance series, The Ghost of Hillcomb Hall will be releasing very soon, with further entries to follow through the year. I plan to collect the series novellas in an omnibus edition which be available at the end of 2020 in both ebook and print. I’m especially excited about The Ghost of Hillcomb Hall as it is an homage to all the great old gothic romances of the 50s through the 70s (Victoria Holt, Dorothy Eden, etc.) that I’ve always loved reading and have influenced my take on historical fiction.

My next big release after Ghost will be a collection of steampunk and gaslight fantasy short stories entitled Through the Spindle which will be publishing in June. It mixes late Victorian and Edwardian steampunk with mythological elements, recasting many goddesses and gods from various world mythologies as fantasy characters with “super powers,” so to speak, and clockwork sidekicks. One of the stories which will appear in my collection is currently available in the anthology Steamed! A Steampunk Anthology which was recently published by Perfectly Posioned Press. It gives a flavor of my take on steampunk/gaslight fantasy. Perfectly Poisoned Press is also releasing a Brontë Sisters inspired anthology in March in which I have a story appearing as well.

Under the penname Lawrence I. Hill I also write more straight forward contemporary romance. My new release That Summer in Spain is a steamy m/m romance centering on two film actors navigating their complicated feelings for one another as their working relationship blossoms into something deeper. I went to school for film production/studies and remain a devoted film nerd so it was fun to combine that with my writing. It releases on 28 January and is available for pre-order now! You can request it at your local bookstore as well.

Your head shot is mischievous, a bloke with a veil hiding his lower face. If people want to peer under the veil, get a feeling for what makes you tick, what would you say?

A little mystery is always good, no? I can easily be captured by a witty turn of phrase or a low-bottomed electronic bassline. If you manage to combine the two, then you have my heart forever. I watch too many movies (and period pieces on Netflix!), eat too much dark chocolate, and fall into way too many Wikipedia rabbit holes– but it’s all in the name of research (or so I tell myself). One day I plan to travel the world – to see what each country has to offer in the way of movie theatres and dark chocolate, naturally. Fingers crossed!

Joshua, thanks. We all fall into the Wikipedia trap. I sometimes think my mind is a landfill of shiny factoids, all riveting and demanding more studying.

Joshua Ian website: www.moodyboxfan.com and Facebook

One Reply to “Interview with Joshua Ian”

  1. So proud of my nephew,What great talent he processes,,the sky is the limit when it comes to his talent

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