Last Tuesday I featured Grant Taylor; budding indie author and writer of Heavens Door. This week it’s L.E. Fitzpatrick’s turn, welsh resident and author behind the Dark Waters fantasy series.

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Tell us about yourself? Do you write for a living? If not, what’s your day job?

I’m an independent author, which means I don’t make enough money to buy a pint of milk, never mind paying a mortgage. I supplement my income with a full time job managing an accountancy firm and… wake up it’s not that boring… okay maybe it is, but at least it pays the bills and keeps Ebay in business. I’m also a haphazard mum and owner of many disobedient pets.

Favourite food, place, colour and writing zone, please.

The greatest food in the world is cheese. Without it we would be a poorer species and my life certainly wouldn’t be worth living.

I am very lucky to live in West Wales, where we have green hills, blue seas and lots of rain. So far I haven’t found a better place in the world to spend my time.

Red is my favourite colour, I’m sure there is a psychological reason why, but I’m damned if I know what it is.

When I write, usually I am sat on my tattered leather arm chair, with my laptop perched on a cushion and my fat, toothless cat sat beside me.

You write in the fantasy/supernatural genre….who’s been your inspiration? Favourite books? Movies? TV Shows?

I am a big fan of Scott Lynch, Joe Abercrombie, John Connolly and Neil Gaiman as writers, usually when I’m stuck on a chapter I pick up one of their books to push me along.

Who’s your favourite all time fictional character?

I’m not sure I’d say that he was my favourite character, but certainly the one that has stayed with me all these years is Mr Pudd from John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series. He is the creepiest, scariest character I have ever read and I still have nightmares about him. I can’t even begin to describe him – just read the series.

Who’s your favourite character in your own work?

Certainly in the Dark Waters books, Egan Wey is my favourite character. He’s a lawless lowlife and is such fun to write, especially alongside my more serious characters. There’s something very liberating about putting yourself in a drunken pirate’s boots and smashing up an inn somewhere.

Let’s talk superpowers….there’s no denying we’d all love one. What would be your choice, and why?

Flying – I’ve always wanted to fly, I think this is because I spent a lot of time on public transport and just being able to fly home after a long day at work is really appealing – of course weather resistance would then be another essential power I’d need for it to be at all beneficial

Inspiration’s a funny thing. Where do you find yours? Is there one particular moment that stands out?

The backdrops of my stories are all derived from an interpretation of folklore. I’ve always been very interested in mythology, especially Celtic mythology and this forms the foundation of most of my work. For instance in my Dark Waters series the pirate tribe the Fimorri are inspired by sea demons from Irish mythology. I like to take old concepts and develop a different spin on them.

Writers have very different approaches to completing our works. Are you a heavy plotter? Jump back and forth between scenes? Sit down, start at the beginning and just write?

I always know my ending before I start writing. But I prefer to let my characters work the plot for me. Sometimes this is quite tough, especially writing about a bunch of rebellious pirates, but the result is a much more fluid, credible story. Most of my chapters are re-written at least twice before I am satisfied, some can take a lot longer.

In the Dark Waters series, because I focus on a number of different characters, I wrote each storyline individually, starting with the main characters. Once I have the entire book written I then mercilessly edit and weave it altogether.

What’s fresh about your books? Quirky and different? Likely to entice readers and keep them coming back for more?

My books are fast paced, character driven stories. I am drawn to the darker side of writing, but deliver these themes with my own twisted sense of humour, which is hopefully on the right side of good taste. The Dark Waters world is unique, exciting and totally unpredictable. My characters are bold, usually flawed and more often than not doomed.

What are you working on now?

I’m currently finishing Part Three of the Dark Waters series; Flames and Blood. Hopefully this will be out by next month. Thereafter I am mulling ideas around for another series, totally different from pirates and zombies, but there’s still another two books after Flames and Blood to get out before Dark Waters is anywhere near finished.

How can readers connect with you?

I’m on facebook, Twitter and I have a personal blog and website, the latter of which has extras and samples to the Dark Waters series.

L.E. Fitzpatrick’s Dark Waters series are available on Amazon, with Harvest, the first in the series, available at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. If you want to pick up both of the books, Traitors Day, book 2, can be found at .com and .co.uk. They’re only 77p ($1.25) each, so give them a go!