Interview with Sarah Lyons Fleming and Audiobook Review of Instauration @SLyonsFleming

Sarah, Can you tell my readers a little bit about yourself?

Sure! I’m Sarah Lyons Fleming, author of two post-apocalyptic trilogies (and currently working on the next). I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, but I’ve lived in Oregon for the past twelve years with my husband. Along the way, we’ve added two kids, two cats, and a hamster. And some more canned food. I’m what I call a “wannabe prepper,” meaning I like to store food and other supplies, and I have a deep and abiding love of things like hunting knives, camping gizmos, and water filters. However, I don’t have a year’s worth of food or a bunker (no matter how much I may kind of want one).

I love sarcasm, making artsy stuff, and hiding from large groups of people. Yeah, I’m a bit of an introvert.

Have you always known that you wanted to be a writer? If not, when did you decide on that career path?

I am definitely not that writer who dreamed of writing books when she was small. In fact, though I was an avid reader—the kind who walked home from school with her nose in a book—I never considered writing a novel. I once said to my husband, while he was in school for creative writing, “I could never write a book. It’s just too much work!” Ha.

However, I always did like writing things like school papers and blog posts. I love to make words fit together until they have that rhythm and flow that I can’t describe in words (a little irony for you there) but I can feel is right.

Anyway, I digress. (And now you know why my books are nine-hundred pages.) I started writing on a lark, really. I was reading some self-published apocalyptic and prepper stories, and, while I enjoyed them, I grew tired of seeing the same characters over and over again. You know the ones: 110% prepared, male, possibly ex-military, blah blah blah.

I thought to myself: These aren’t the only type of preppers. How about people like me? How about people who aren’t preppers yet aren’t morons? How about the rest of us?  I wanted to see someone like me (though a bit younger *sigh*) face the end of the world with friends and family and a sense of humor at her side. As I mentioned above, I love sarcasm, and I think a sense of humor will be very necessary when the world ends.

Cassie popped into my head, along with her best friends, and I thought that maybe I would write the story I wanted to read, just to entertain myself. I’ve always needed some sort of creative outlet, and this was something I could do while I sat on the couch with my napping son, who would wake if he was left alone—and no mother wants to give up nap time, am I right?  My thought was that I’d post it on prepper and homesteading sites, and maybe on zombie forums. Eventually, I decided to give self-publishing a whirl.

Until the End of the World was my first piece of fiction, aside from a random required story or two in elementary school, and I found that I loved writing more than I ever would have guessed. It’s like reading the world’s longest book, and it’s never work, even when it’s work. Even when I’m frustrated and completely convinced that I suck worse than any writer’s ever sucked. Ever.

I know how lucky I am to truly love my job, and I’m so very grateful for my readers.

What made you decide to write about zombies?

That book above, well, it started as an EMP story—an electromagnetic pulse taking down the power grid and throwing the country, if not the world, into chaos. I was a couple of chapters in when zombies appeared in my mind and the story. I had no idea why. I’d never heard of The Walking Dead, and World War Z was the only zombie book I’d ever read. I couldn’t even name another zombie book. I’d seen and enjoyed some zombie movies, of course, but I was not obsessed by any stretch of the imagination.

I tried to ignore the zombies, but you know how relentless they are, so I went with it. And here we are, six-and-a-half books later!

I have found that one of the biggest strengths of your novels is the characters. All of your characters feel extremely realistic and I felt very connected to all of them. What is your secret to creating such realistic characters? Do you model your characters after people that you know in your real life? 

Thank you! My characters feel like real people to me, and it’s a wonderful compliment when others feel that way, too.

My secret? I don’t have one except that they often spring to life as they are and then they grow—and their personalities shape more—as I write. They also change as I get to know them, which is fun, like I’m allowing them to be who they are, or they show me who they are, just like real people do. They often surprise me, too. I’ve had characters refuse to die, and I’ve had them do something that kills them off.

My characters aren’t based on any one person, though some do have quirks and traits of people that I know or have known, including myself.  As much as I’m an introvert, I love people and their stories. I like to hear how they react to situations. I love personality quirks and weirdness. And I’m naturally nosy (though you’ll never meet a better secret-keeper) which I think helps. I’m always wondering what someone’s emotions/reactions would be in any given situation, and I try to put myself in my characters’ shoes the same way I do with real people.

Because I love your characters as much as I do, some of their deaths have been quite painful. Is it hard for you as a writer to say goodbye to some of the characters you have created?

Oh, yes! I cry while I write those scenes. And I cry while I edit and then cry while I edit again. In fact, I’m already dreading the deaths that will come in my next series, though they’re books away. The other day I got sad just thinking about it, and I wanted to wrap them all in bubble wrap and change it to a sweet romance where everyone lives happily ever after.

Yeah, I guess you could say it’s hard. 😉

You have published two interconnected series. Do you plot out the entire series before you start writing or do you take things one book at a time?

I am a very disorganized human being, and I have never written an outline that I haven’t tossed hours later. I can’t think that far ahead and often start a chapter not knowing where it’s going. However, I do have what I call “stepping stones,” which are major scenes/plot points that will take me to the end of the book. Maybe three or four steps per book (including the ending) and then I fill in the rest along the way.

This does not result in fast writing, nor in economical writing (oh, the outtakes!) but I love where it ends up. Often, a character will say or do something interesting, which opens up a whole new direction in which to travel to that next step. It’s like magic when that happens.

I’ve known the ending of each series while I’m writing the first book, and, with both series, I’ve written the last chapter of the final book while writing book one. I’m sure my new series will be no exception.

I have been lucky enough to experience your books through the audiobook productions, which has been a fantastic way to experience the series. What kind of input did you have with the audiobook production? Did you have any input regarding the choice of narrators?

I’m so glad you enjoyed them! For both series, I was lucky to have an audiobook publisher interested in acquiring the rights to my books. I knew nothing about audiobooks except that I didn’t want to spare the time to produce them myself, so I welcomed the chance to have someone else do the work.

Signing away my rights means I have little to no say in all aspects of audiobook production, which has been both wonderful and, at times, frustrating. I may attempt to produce my next series on my own. Meaning I would hire the narrators and have say over the finished product, NOT narrate, because no one on this Earth wants to hear me try to speak in a man’s voice!

Can you tell me anything about your next project?

Of course! My next series takes place in the same zombie universe, with all new characters, though you may see a face you recognize here and there in later books. It’s set in the Pacific Northwest, my adopted home, and I’m enjoying actually being in the place I’m writing about. Research is a wee bit more doable that way.

After this series, there may be one more book to tie all three series together, if I think I have a story to tell that won’t bore the pants off my readers. I’ve cried at the end of both series because I’ll miss the characters—it feels as though my good friends have moved away—and it would be lovely to catch up with them again.

Thank you so much for having me on your blog and for listening to me blather on and on. And thank you for reading!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, Sarah!  I can’t wait to read more of your work.

Instauration by Sarah Lyons Fleming
Narrated by Therese Plummer and Luke Daniels
Series: The City #3
Publisher: Audible Studios
Publication Date: December 18, 2018
Date Read: December 31, 2018
Length: 26 hours 51 minutes
Source: Author
★★★★★

The final book in The City Series is here!

Sunset Park is gone. People are missing.

Sylvie, Eric, and the other survivors have crossed the water to the security of a new Safe Zone, where they hope to heal their battered hearts, amass an armory, and get back at the ones who took it all away. But with zombies on the move and few resources to speak of, it’s harder than expected to plot their revenge. For some, it’s harder still to garner their resolve, since vengeance means more of them will die.

But safety is ephemeral in a city where food is short and tensions are high. It seems fate may leave them no choice but to fight—and perhaps die—to restore their city to a place they can call home.

Amazon | Audible

I am so in love with this book!  In fact, I love this book enough to listen to the audiobook just a few short months after reading it on my e-reader.  I knew that I wanted to listen to this book since the audiobook production of the earlier books in the series was so well done but when the e-book came out months before the audiobook, I found myself reading it before I even knew what was happening.  This is not a short book with the e-book having over 900 pages and the audiobook coming close to 27 hours.  I can honestly say that I loved every single minute that I have spent experiencing this story. 

Things were not looking good for Eric, Sylvie, and the gang at the close of the second book.  I couldn’t wait to see how everything would work out for them.  This story was epic.  I felt the characters’ pain when they experience low points and their joy when things were looking up.  I laughed when they joked around with each other and felt fear when they were faced with evils even worse than the zombies that surrounded them. 

Luke Daniels and Therese Plummer did an amazing job with this audiobook.  They really brought this story to life.  I love the fact that Luke Daniels performed all of the male dialogue and Therese Plummer takes care of the female voices throughout the audiobook regardless of the point of view.  I think that this style of narration makes the dialogue in the story feel a lot more realistic and the character voices stay consistent throughout the book.  They are both fantastic narrators and I think that they bring a lot of emotion into their performances. 

I highly recommend this story to others.  This is a wonderful story filled with a lot of characters that are easy to fall in love with and a few that are fun to hate.  I found this story to be exciting, heartbreaking, and hopeful often at the same time.  I liked this book even more the second time around and plan to read it again and again in the future.  I can’t wait to read more from this talented author.

I received a copy of this audiobook from the author.

About the Author – Sarah Lyons Fleming

I’m a Laura Ingalls devotee, wannabe prepper and lover of anything pre-apocalyptic, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic—-or anything in between. Add in some humor and romance, and I’m in heaven.

Besides an unhealthy obsession with home-canned food and Bug Out Bag equipment, I love books, making artsy stuff and laughing my arse off. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, I now live in Oregon with my family and, in my opinion, not nearly enough supplies for the zombie apocalypse. But I’m working on it.

Author Link:  Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

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