#WriterWednesday with Bjorn Leesson
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I’d like to welcome Bjorn Leesson to the blog for #WriterWednesday!
Hardest thing about being a writer: Realizing that the one the most invested in your story is you, and you will likely not find a person more interested in your work.
Easiest thing about being a writer: Just the writing when the stars are in the right alignment, and everything is flowing smoothly. It’s wonderful.
Favorite foods: Pizza, fried chicken, and pizza.
Things that make you want to gag: Dill flavoring. I just can’t make myself like dill.
Favorite beverage: Regular old black coffee.
Something that gives you a sour face: Ridiculously and unnecessarily strong coffee (like expresso), and nearly anything from Starbucks (sorry, just not a Starbucks fan – price or taste).
Something you’re really good at: Developing characters in stories. I love it.
Something you’re really bad at: Stopping, and that’s likely why my “short story” has turned into a series with eight foreseeable installments, and maybe more.
Things you always put in your books: Humor, and lots of it. All stories, no matter how dark they might be, should have some chuckles in it too.
Things you never put in your books: Gratuitous and pointless sex. In my opinion, a story should be strong enough to stand on its own without throwing in a bunch of smutty scenes that don’t add anything to the story.
Things to say to an author: “My, you sure have a vivid imagination.”
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “I would have written that differently.” To which my reply is, “Then write your own. What’s stopping you?”
Favorite books (or genre): Adventure, supernatural mystery, and both fiction and nonfiction historical.
Books you wouldn’t buy: I can’t think of a book I definitely wouldn’t buy. I might suspect I wouldn’t enjoy some, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t try.
The nicest thing a reader said to you: “I never enjoyed this type of story before, but I love yours. You might have converted me.”
The craziest thing a reader said to you: “You put too much detail in your stories.”
Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done: I secretly built an English/Irish styled pub in the back of my garage over the course of a couple of months without my wife even knowing until I finished and showed it to her. She was impressed, even though she will never admit it to anyone else.
A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it: Raising goats to keep the grass cut. As it turns out, I have the most finicky and spoiled goats in the world.
Some real-life story that made it to one of your books: My series being historical fiction fantasy, much of it is based on historical fact with my own added fiction to it. For example, the Norse did settle England and were wiped out by the Saxons – helping to kick off the two hundred years of massive Viking raids on England.
Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not: Not so much a scene of the story, but a friend of mine who has read some of the books (he is not a book reader, per se) told me he can definitely see a lot of me in the protagonist, Myrgjol the Dokkrsdottir. I found it to be an honor for him to say so.
About Bjorn:
I am Bjorn Leesson. I was born in the Lowcountry of South Carolina a long, long time ago. I have worked in manufacturing all my working life to feed myself but has nourished my mind with the study of many topics; history of all eras, the paranormal, astronomy, writing of different types, photography, archeology, genealogy, vexillology, some other -ologies, even stock car racing for a couple of years, and on and on. I find just about everything fascinating in some way and have been accused of being too easily entertained. A blend of a few of these interests led to the creation of the Thalsparr Universe. The first two installments of the series, “Runes of the Dokkrsdottir” and "Rune of Renewal” are out now with more coming. I currently live in the Midlands of South Carolina with my wife of 25 years on our hobby farm.
Let’s Be Social:
website: thalsparr.com
