Please introduce yourself and tell us about your background as a writer.
I’m Lyndon Perry, or Lyn Perry if you prefer cozy mysteries. Or Garth if you like thrillers. Okay, so yes, I have three pen names but they’re all connected as my full name is Lyndon Garth Perry. I write fantasy and sci-fi as Lyndon, though, so let’s stick with that.

Like so many writers, I started messing with words as a kid. Poems, silly plays, very short stories. A few years ago, I found a radio play I’d written in 7th grade. It wasn’t bad for junior high! In college, I tried my hand at some ‘literary’ pieces, but received a lot of rejections, so I basically quit writing for twenty years. (This is why I don’t read reviews, by the way, good or bad, ha!)

Back in 2007 or so I started getting serious about creating stories on a regular basis. So for about 15 years now I’ve been dabbling in magical cat cozy adventures, thrillers, a bit of romance, along with some space opera and heroic fantasy, attempting all the while to become a better writer and storyteller (the two aren’t necessarily the same). As you can see, I have a lot of reading and writing interests. Oh, and I like to edit and have been doing that for over twenty-five years.

What are the most prominent influences on your writing? How do you incorporate those influences without being derivative?
I’ll admit it, I’ll attempt to write anything that piques my interest or seems interestingly trendy. LitRPG? Sounds good to me. Paranormal romance? Sure, why not? Amish love story? Been there, done that. So the genre du jour absolutely catches my eye and influences my writing. When Hugh Howey first released Wool, I was part of a group of writers that jumped on his fan fiction bandwagon. My silo pastiche is still up on Amazon, and I’ll eventually get around to writing a sequel to it.

What I think this means is that I like to try out different voices, narrative styles, tropes, that sort of thing. But how do I not become derivative? You laugh, but my answer is that I only read one or two stories in the given du jour’s genre. I want to know the general direction a certain type of story is going, but after that I want to figure it out on my own. Obviously, this doesn’t mean all my stories ‘work’, but for me, I think, it keeps my storytelling fresh.

With self-publishing easier than ever, there are tons of books being released every day. What makes your work stand out from the crowd? What can readers get out of your work that they can’t from anyone else?
It all comes down to voice, don’t you think? I don’t know if any of my writing stands out from the crowd, but out of 8 billion people on the planet, surely there are a few dozen who can resonate with my style of storytelling. What is that style? I’m probably the last person to try and explain how my voice is different from others, it’s just something a reader has an ear for – and different styles resonate with different ‘listeners’.

I remember reading how a fan of Stephen King’s books discovered that King wrote under the pen name of Richard Bachman. A guy named Steve Brown worked in a bookstore and must have read enough King novels to recognize that a new book by “Bachman” had to be King’s. So he wrote a letter to the publisher basically saying I know your secret. Steve Brown had an ear for Stephen King’s voice.

Readers know what they like and hopefully some will like the writing style of what I have to offer.

Many authors say marketing is one of their biggest challenges. What tactics have you found to be most effective for getting your name out there?
I copy what others are doing! I’m not very original. I’m not an early adopter. But I’m not a laggard, either. I adapt before I go extinct! So when I saw that some writers were having a bit of success with Kickstarter to launch a new book series (or even announce their latest book in a series), I thought I’d give it a try.

So far, this has been a really good experience for me. I’ve completed three successful Kickstarter campaigns and have found that it’s a great way to get your name and project in front of the kind of fans you’re looking for – people who love the indie arts movement and support newly discovered creators.

All this depends on word of mouth, of course. So by far the best advertising is simply keep doing what you are doing and keep connecting with people who like your voice, your writing style. Social media has helped me connect with others in this way, but I wouldn’t say social media is a particularly good tactic for marketing. It’s more like a new way to simply ‘reach out and touch someone’.

How much do your audience’s expectations factor in to what you write? Does this ever cause you to hold back from experimenting?
Since I don’t know what my audience’s expectations are (I don’t read reviews, remember?), I don’t worry about them. I hope this doesn’t sound rude, but I really don’t think about how my work or project will be received. I write what I like. If it sells, it sells. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But again, out of 8 billion people on the planet, I’m happy that a handful seem to like what I do.

Publishing is not a zero-sum game. The audience is virtually unlimited. For me to ‘win’ others do not have to lose. For others to ‘win’ I don’t have to lose. This is tremendously freeing. If I want to experiment, then I go for it. There is nothing to hold me back since there are…wait for it…8 billion people on the planet and I’ll connect with someone eventually!

Have you had any new stories published recently? Are you currently working on any?
My latest story, a dark fantasy with wizards and demons, appeared in Innsmouth Gold’s recent S&S anthology, Feast of Fools and Other Tales, edited by Robert Poyton. Before that, an urban fantasy with swords and demons appeared online in Electric Spec Magazine. I’m always working on stories here and there as well as longer works, including another magical cat adventure under my Lyn Perry pen name.

As an editor, I have my own spec fic zine called Residential Aliens, and I’ll be releasing a new issue every two months this year. Submission window is always open. My latest project though, is a sword and sorcery anthology called Swords & Heroes. It features 12 great authors, including one of DMR Books’ authors, Adrian Cole. It’s live right now via Kickstarter.

Name one newer and one older book you have read and enjoyed recently. (“Newer” meaning from the past year or so, and “older” meaning written before 1980.)
Sadly, I never read Tarzan growing up, so a few months ago I read the first two books in ERB’s Tarzan series and very much enjoyed them. Of course, the story is part of our cultural consciousness, but finally reading the original was quite an entertaining pleasure.

As for newer books, I’ve read a nice handful of contemporary sword and sorcery, including the first two novellas of the Clovel Sword Saga by Gordon Brewer, Windriders of Everice by Nancy A. Hansen, Jarek the Scholar adventures by Cliff Hamrick, and The Scarlet Sword by Darin Calhoun, among others.