Douglas Lumsden and Peter Hartog have established themselves as successful authors, boasting high sales and unusually high quantities of positive reviews, all while eschewing the traditional publishing path. Douglas just released Book 5 of the mega-hit Alexander Southerland series (and is already hard at work on Book 6), and Peter has the audiobook for Pieces of Eight (The Guardian of Empire City, Book 2) coming out shortly from Audible, and he has multiple forthcoming projects in the works.

I joined them via Google Meet to find out more.

We discussed writing, publishing, and marketing advice, along with how to be a successful, happy author AND person (“Be nice,” as Peter teaches his kids), in addition to ways to navigate social media as a writer, promoting your work as a creative, and more. And yes, we got to discuss Douglass’s globally viral tweet, which personally inspired me in a dark time not only as a writer but as a person battling mental health issues and life challenges!

Douglas shares how to handle criticism, the skills he has learned creating an unexpectedly viral social media presence (“don’t feed the trolls!”), and the surprise of having 10’s of thousands of enthusiastic fans when he expected his first novel not to be read by anyone besides family members — not having “official” training as a novelist, he describes the process of writing (including “pantsing” versus outlining), editing, and revision.

Peter shares the journey of balancing a busy family life and grueling primary career alongside an increasingly busy writing career, the challenges and joys of raising teenage boys to be smart, strong, and kind in the modern era (“be nice!” he and his wife constantly tell them), and lessons learned along the way. He describes how the novels were initially written as D&D campaigns, and how this shaped and developed the stories and characters (along with enthusiastic gratitude for his lifelong friends and co-players), which of course reminded me of The Name of the Wind and its roots in Patrick Rothfuss’s enthusiasm for D&D.

This was a dream for me. I admire both of these writers, and Douglas Lumsden is genuinely one of my heroes, not only representing excellent writing skills but famously kind and decent to readers and fellow authors, establishing himself as a pillar of the writing community. These guys also have a great sense of humor, as you’ll see!

Oh, and there’s a special guest cameo by Rita, a distinguished cat tail, and Ollie the Golden Retriever, who completely stole the show.