About:

Hello! I’m E.B. Roshan and I’m excited to share a little bit about myself and my writing with you today. In addition to being an author, I’m wife to an exceptional man and mother to two sons. After spending several years living in the Middle East and Asia, our family has settled in Missouri, where we serve the local refugee community. It has the dubious distinction of being the flattest place I’ve ever lived. In my free time, I enjoy working on my ongoing romantic suspense series, Shards of Sevia.

Though I’ve spent time in some of this world’s most troubled places, for the series, I’ve chosen to create my own setting, inspired, but not based on, any place I’ve actually lived.

This is partly because I loved the challenge of creating a whole world from scratch, but mainly because some of the major themes in this story, like war and racial hatred, are very sensitive topics. I did not wish to entangle my fiction with real-world conflicts or political issues.

So far I’ve self-published two out of five planned books. Wrong Place, Right Time is a short romance with suspense elements, set in the fictional country of Sevia. It’s the story of Anna, a young garment factory worker, and Boris, the manager of a small cafe, and how they overcome their personal challenges and find love even as their city falls apart.

Final Chance, my second book, came out at the beginning of this month.

It’s the story of Preen, a young girl who has just resigned herself to being a widow, when she receives a late-night phone call from her supposedly dead husband. Thus begins her difficult and dangerous attempt to rescue him and bring him home. As a story, it’s a little darker than the first, and lacks the conventional “happily ever after” ending, but I think fans of Wrong Place, Right Time will still thoroughly enjoy it.

Contact:

Series Website: https://shardsofsevia.wordpress.com

Goodreads Profile: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20265632.E_B_Roshan

Email: btznvnt@gmail.com

Your writing journey:

I’ve loved reading and writing all my life, but my decision to write a series for publication came recently. To be honest, I committed to taking the plunge less than a year ago. It’s been a journey! Since I’m brand-new myself, I’m not the deepest well of valuable writing and publishing tips out there, but I’m happy to share what I have learned.

About two years ago, I decided it was time to hone my writing talent. After trying my hand at fiction with a handful of short stories, I wrote a novel. The process was fun and enlightening, but the end result was a mess, and ended up being scrapped for parts. But I learned a lot. The most valuable lesson by far was that people actually do want to read the stories I have to share.

Before long I had a second novel in the works, and I could tell this one was going to be a keeper. Less than six months after beginning Wrong Place, Right Time, I was ready to publish.

As soon as I decided to publish my first book, I knew if I was going to publish at all, I wanted to self-publish. I liked the idea of having hands-on control over every step of the process, and the traditional route didn’t seem appealing.

After numerous revisions, lots of help from beta readers, and extensive editing, I published my first book through Draft2Digital. For those not familiar with it, this is a great online service that turns your PDF or Word files into ebooks and publishes them to half a dozen different channels (including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and Kobo.) In exchange, they keep ten percent of sales profits. I’d heartily recommend their services, and plan to keep using them as long as I’m self-publishing.

But now I have a confession to make—I embarked upon this venture with a $0 budget. Which means I edit my books myself. And design my own covers. I know this is a major no-no in the business, but if my stories were ever going to get out into the world, I didn’t have other options.

I’m not endorsing or recommending this method, but I will say, if there are any other $0 budget authors out there, (and I’m sure there are) you can do it if you have to. Be meticulous. Don’t read your story once—read it ten times. Read it out loud to yourself, to your cat, to your houseplant. Study the elements used in the covers of popular books in your genre of choice and try to create a simplified version. Use great free online resources like Canva, Pixabay, and many more.

Above all, become part of a supportive (but also honest and knowledgeable) writing group, whether online or in real life.

I honestly don’t believe my series has, or will, suffer from being “homemade,” but that’s because I was willing to do All The Work. Don’t believe me? Check it out and decide for yourself.

Since I’m still very new to the business of being a published author, I don’t have a lot of publicity for my books yet. In fact, The Book Whisperer was the first blog to graciously offer me an interview opportunity. So thanks very much, Book Whisperer, and thank you all for reading!

Your books:

If you’d like to read Wrong Place, Right Time, follow this link to get it at your preferred ebook store: https://books2read.com/u/m2VkJr To celebrate the release of my second book, it’s available for .99 cents from now until July 30.

If you’d like to read Final Chance, follow this link to get it at your preferred ebook store: https://books2read.com/u/4NLwdo

And if you’re not sure about buying a novel, even a cheap one, but would still like a taste of my writing, follow this link for The Last Wolf King, a free short story from the Shards of Sevia world: https://books2read.com/u/bWdPkz