Author Interview with Astrid V.J.

 Hello riders and readers. Today I am sitting down with Sweden Author Astrid V.J. We are going to talk about her career so far as an author and her journey thus far. Along with details about her upcoming Kickstarter that will be launching soon. Make sure to check out everything she has to say and find out how you can follow her from this moment on in the bio section at the end of the interview. However, she does have a Kickstarter Campaign that is going to launch soon so you can also check it out by heading over to her prelaunch page to click the NOTIFY ME ON LAUNCH button to get all her updates and the launch announcement. I really enjoy doing these interviews and hope you will tag along on my journey with Astrid as I grill her for all kinds of fun details. Happy reading everyone :).

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Author Interview with Astrid V.J.

Hi Astrid. Can you please start things off by introducing yourself?

Hi Katie. Yes, of course. I grew up in South Africa and now live in Sweden. I’ve been writing fantasy since I was twelve years old, and published my first book under the pen name Astrid V.J. in 2019. This year, I also branched out and have added a children’s chapter book under the pen name A. Johnsson.

Tell us, Astrid…how long have you been working in the author industry or published?

It’s been just over seven years since I published my debut novel, a retelling of the Grimm Brothers’ lesser-known fairytale, Brother and Sister. Since then, I’ve published three other novel-length retellings of lesser-known fairy- and folktales, and am getting ready to publish a fifth in an anthology, The Call of the Sea, in October, 2026. 

I’ve also published a collection of historical fantasy novellas, two books in a futuristic fantasy series with space opera vibes, and have short stories available in 10 permanent charity anthologies supporting causes I care a lot about.

Do you have any favorite hobbies you like to do on the side when you are not writing?

I’m the creative parent, so anything my children want, I figure out. I’ve dabbled in clothes sewing so I could give my daughter the gift she wanted when she was four: a real Princess Peach dress. I cross-stitch and like to create patterns for my favorite anime characters. I also dabble in drawing, although I don’t consider myself very accomplished at it. I also read a lot.

What genres do you enjoy writing right now or in the past?

Fantasy has always been my go-to “umbrella” for all my writing, but I do hop around between sub-genres quite a bit. My retellings of obscure fairytales are mostly high fantasy romances, but they also have elements more recognizable in historical fantasy, and I have two tragedies under my belt now, so they’re not always happily ever after romances.

I’ve written the space opera fantasy, which is a lot of fun and also blended some of that in two of my novellas, which are invented fairytales for the world I created featuring two itinerant storytellers. While those tales of my own invention are all historical fantasy, each one has a little something from a different influence. The Companion’s Tale, for example has some throwbacks to mysteries and detective stories, while also featuring a non-romance since the characters are in a “right people, wrong time” scenario. In contrast, The Sewing Princess leans more to epic fantasy and has an enemies-to-lovers romance as a subplot.

Do you have a day job or have you reached the goal of working full time as an author?

I have a day job as an administrator at a private company. The writing definitely helps me to stay sane using words to counteract all the numbers and paper pushing.

What do you think is the hardest task of being an author for yourself?

Maintaining the balance is really difficult. I have so many stories that want to find the light of day, but I also work full time, have a family and obligations I cannot just ignore, and I’ve struggled with my health in recent years. I’ve had to learn to accept that sometimes I won’t be able to write, and how to make peace with that. I’ve also balanced the drive to do everything and do some of what needs to be done alternating with some of what I love to keep myself in a healthy mental space and not get overwhelmed with all I feel needs to be done.

Give us a break down of how your everyday schedule looks like on a normal day?

It’s chaos. While a perfect day would include morning meditation, followed by writing time and then getting myself and my family ready for the day, accompanying my children to school and taking a walk through a forested park that’s on my way to work, working, then often shopping before heading home and prepping dinner, once again followed by writing time before my bedtime, life isn’t ever really conducive to getting it all done in a day. Something has to give, and I’ll admit that more often than not writing ends up going on the back-burner. Also, writing requires the right headspace. Recently, I was writing a rather dark character, which made it more difficult to get into the right frame of mind to write.

Every year for Christmas, my mother-in-law wishes for just one more hour in a day so she can get more writing done. I laugh about that because I know that if I had that extra hour I’d probably not even have the energy to write. More often than not, my husband takes over things related to the children or helps with dinner. Of course, there’ve also been the times I fell asleep right along with the children, that sacred writing time overwritten with exhaustion.

I won’t deny it’s tough, but it means I really and truly appreciate the little pockets of writing time I do actually carve out of my days.

You have created Kickstarters in the past. Can you tell us about your latest one that you have in the works?

I’m super excited for it! As I mentioned, I’ve had some trouble with my health and I actually haven’t published anything beyond a short story or two per year in the last 30 months. I’ve spent some time revamping my author business now that I have a firmer grasp of how things work and what would work for me. I also wanted to adjust things to avoid some of the pitfalls that generative AI have created for authors like me in that time I took away from the author business side of things.

So, to get back into it, I wanted to accomplish something I’ve wanted since I published my invented fairytales in e-book format: create a paperback edition that collects several of the tales into a single volume.

Dreams is the first paperback volume in my Wordmage’s Tales series and it includes four of my tales: The Companion’s Tale, The Sewing Princess, The Artist and His Muse, and The Last Warrior. I’ve also worked with a family friend who’s an excellent artist to create character art for these stories, and if the Kickstarter does well I have several stretch goals planned that include more art for this new edition of these stories.

How do you implement Kickstarter into your overall business scheme as an author?

The platform helps me to defray the costs of publishing a book. Sure, for the tales in The Wordmage’s Tales series, I’d already published them in e-book format which meant I carried all the editing and cover design costs for those individual volumes. For the Dreams paperback edition though, the Kickstarter campaign will help to pay for the artworks and the cover design, which had to be similar but different from the individual e-book volumes.

Right now, Kickstarter offers me a way to ease back into publishing without overdoing things and keeping my health in mind while I continue writing new works to publish in the coming months.

Tell us about your main character in your upcoming Kickstarter campaign for “Dreams…” 

As there are four tales, there are actually eight main characters. Some of the tales are written from two perspectives, like The Companion’s Tale and The Last Warrior, while The Artist and His Muse and The Sewing Princess only feature on point of view. Nevertheless, each tale has two main characters.

The Companion’s Tale:

Elaine is the common-born companion to the princess. All her life, she’s been expected to come second, been told she’s ugly, and had to do as she was told. When the princess dies in a tragic accident, Elaine is suddenly set free from these expectations and begins to search out possibilities for a life she would actually love living.

Raymond is the king’s investigator and he knows an important secret related to the princess’ unfortunate accident. His investigations bring him into contact with the companion, a young woman everyone else says is ugly, but he can’t quite swallow that social belief. For years he’s done the work he believed he had to, but contact with Elaine opens a new door in his heart. Perhaps there are things he would love to do that he can still achieve despite his circumstances.

The Sewing Princess:

Calathea is the crown princess, but when her father’s throne is usurped by the greedy neighboring king, she finds that her status has been overlooked. From the shadows of captivity, she sits and sews and plots. To retake her rightful place as queen, she must first escape her captors and join the rebellion. Through it all, she learns the true value of leadership and discovers the essence of how she would like to rule.

Azwan was injured in a brutal accident in his teens. He’s battled his father who belittles him at every turn. He fought tooth and nail to walk again, something the doctors claimed he’d never do. Finally, he was ready to approach her, the woman he’d held a flame over years. He could ask for her hand in marriage and have all his dreams come true. But his father had other plans. Plans that destroyed all of Azwan’s dreams in one fell swoop. 

 

The Artist and His Muse: 

 

Darla ran away from home years ago and has been living on the streets ever since. She promised herself she would never go back to the life she was born into. All her focus has to be on survival, that is until she meets the artist Othenio in the moment of his triumph and realizes there is one thing she does want in her life: his art. 

 

Othenio has spent years preparing for his ultimate painting and completing the local patron-of-the-arts’ challenge. As he struggles to complete his masterpiece, a beggarwoman shows great insight and helps him to reach even further with his art. But when his artwork stands completed, she has disappeared and he realizes that while he might have achieved his life-long dream to prove himself as an artist, he has lost something even greater and more precious. 

 

The Last Warrior:

Cynthia blamed herself for terrible things that happened when she was a child. She’s spent a lifetime telling herself she doesn’t deserve the good things that have come into her life, or fearing that they will inevitably be lost because life is unfair. She keeps her heart closed and does her work, but there is bitterness and a deep-rooted idea that happiness is impossible. By chance, she runs into someone who survived an atrocity even worse than her own, and she realizes she might hold herself back.

Flynn believed he was all alone and had nothing to live for. He also feared that if he ever got close to anyone, he’d be putting them in danger because of his past. He’s still a wanted man, after all. When a tiny–and tenacious–young woman insists on healing him from a poison deliberately administered by his enemies, things change. Maybe Flynn has things worth living for after all.

What should readers/backers expect with your current Kickstarter Campaign for “Dream?”

Fairytales that are not fairytales, at least not those familiar “classics”. These stories have all the upliftment and embedded transformational elements we recognize in fairytales. They also often incorporate small life lessons to encourage readers (or listeners) to embrace themselves wholeheartedly. Like the fairytales we all know and love, these stories have historical vibes, endearing characters, magical moments, and sometimes include a dash of romance with a happily ever after.

Do you plan to do more Kickstarters in the future? How do you plan to include it in your business practice?

Yes. The second paperback volume of The Wordmage’s Tales is in the pipeline. Deeds will include the following novellas from the series: Warring Lions, The Destitute Countess, and Silvana’s Trial. My artist friend has actually just begun the character art for this volume.

I am also working on finishing up my retelling of the Grimm Brothers’ tale, The Singing Soaring Lark, which I’ve split into a duet. This women’s fiction fantasy exploration of a woman who ended up in a toxic relationship and find her way back to herself after getting out of it will be the next Kickstarter I run. I’m still working on the details and the big decision whether I run two campaigns to focus on the two books separately, or whether I plan one big campaign to fund both The Lion, the Lark, and the Lady and Firmament together.

What is some advice you would give to a new author thinking about using Kickstarter for the first time?

Join the Kickstarter for authors Facebook group and get Anthea Sharp’s book, Kickstarter for Authors. The book is an incredible resource. The new edition has so much information pertinent to Kickstarter’s recent platform changes. And the community is absolutely amazing. I may not have been writing or publishing for the past two years, but I have loved lurking in that group and seeing what everyone else is up to, and have of course supported several campaigns I would otherwise not have known about. It’s also given me a strong sense of what I’d like to achieve with the campaign for Dreams, since I’ve experienced the platform as a backer as well.

What advice you would give to an aspiring author in the publishing industry, with the way things have changed over the years?

Get the basics right. There is so much advice that authors get inundated with, and most of it is totally unhelpful. You can do social media marketing until you’re blue in the face, but “going viral” is often not that easy to do simply because, as the content creator you don’t actually have control over whether it does or doesn’t go viral. Getting reviews is super important, yes and no. The most important reason “no” is because reviews are how people prey on authors when they charge for reviews or “social media marketing” or what have you. There is so much that authors cannot control. The story, however, we have all the control over that, which is why:

Get the basics right! 

Have a good book that’s been properly edited. And no, that doesn’t mean that your high school friend who was the best in English class looked at it. Stories need to be solidly crafted. The language for each sentence and paragraph also needs to be well crafted. And only after that careful, painstaking, time-consuming crafting has been done can you go in and check for spelling and grammar errors. 

Think about it this way: you wouldn’t expect a baby to do well at university, right? We all know that a child needs to learn how to walk and talk first before going to elementary school, completing high school and only then will that child be ready to go to university. I feel like a lot of new authors end up sending their book babies out into the world or “to university”, expecting them to succeed without having invested in their “schooling”.

How to craft a good story? I can highly recommend Deborah Chester’s book The Fantasy Fiction Formula and even though it says “fantasy,” it has craft advice rooted in storytelling, which is relevant for all genres. It is a genius book and I wish I’d known about it when I first started out. I would have avoided several big pitfalls. And please, please, please get a developmental editor. Having someone who knows story structure and how to get your story idea to properly land on the structural anchors is immensely important. Developmental editors help writers avoid head hopping, tense changes, and get those scenes to build up right so the twists become compelling. They help authors avoid the pitfalls of giving away critical information too soon, which reveals the villain at an inopportune moment. They help to get the character arc right so readers actually love the characters and feel like they’re friends.

Developmental editing, unfortunately, is the type of editing few new authors know anything about, and more often than not they skip this stage for their debut. But just having the developmental side done isn’t enough. The language needs to flow. The meaning of each sentence needs to be clear, and that’s what line editors do (they are also called copy editors in some parts). Then the proofreading comes into play, which is all about making sure the words are spelled correctly and punctuation is done right. It’s that final spit-n-polish a story needs once the cutting and refinement have been done so the diamond can be extra sparkly.

But unfortunately, having a solid, well-edited story isn’t all there is to the basics. You still need a cover that speaks to the readers of your genre, which means you need to know what books that are like yours look like, outside and in, so you can better speak to the people who will love the book. I cannot stress enough how important getting the right cover design is. 

With a good story that’s well edited and a cover that speaks to your ideal reader you’ve got the basics, and from there take little steps. Try out what works for you. And soar! Marvelous stories can do that if their foundations are strong.

Do you have anything else you would like to share with our readers about yourself or about your Kickstarter that is soon to launch?

I might have written stories when I was twelve, but I didn’t believe I would ever publish. I firmly stated to anyone who would listen that I only wrote for myself and that I had no intention of ever making my writing available to anyone else. Sure, I had a vague dream that I would love to be an acclaimed author, but I didn’t think it was possible. I knew the nightmare stories about people trying to get published. J. K. Rowling got rejection after rejection for Harry Potter, for crying out loud. And I couldn’t delude myself into thinking I was anywhere near as good as her. 

I ended up studying English Literature, Psychology and Social Anthropology because I didn’t quite know where I wanted to commit. Life showed me that Social Anthropology was the right academic sphere for me, and I had the glorious opportunity to complete a Master's degree in that field through the Autonomous University of Mexico, which was an incredible experience. I’d thought Psychology would be a good fit for me. Many of my classmates at school complimented me on how well I listened and what fab advice I gave them, but when faced with the actual coursework, I realized the medicalization of the discipline didn’t suit me at all.

Thankfully, after my daughter was born, my mother encouraged me to take a course in life coaching, and I finally found my vocation. I love to see people succeed, but before I could go out and “preach”, I needed to do a really important thing: I had to share my stories with the world. It didn’t feel right any more to keep the stories that burst from me to myself. Stories are meant to be shared, and so I started the work necessary to overcome my mental blocks against becoming a published author, and also continued my learning journey to improve my skills as a writer. 

 

Shortly after I published my debut, I had an opportunity to become a certified transformational life coach, and that gave me a new perspective on my writing. It turns out transformation has always been at the heart of my writing even when I included it subconsciously. Now I write that aspect deliberately and I feel it has made my stories immeasurably stronger. It’s also why I call what I write “transformation fiction”. I believe stories can teach us more about ourselves and I want to create the stories that inspire my readers to go after their dreams, explore their potential, and achieve unimaginable successes.

Follow your heart! The longings and deep-seated wishes of the heart will never lead you astray.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  

Award-winning and USA Today Bestselling Author, Astrid V.J. was born in South Africa. She is a trained social anthropologist and certified transformational life coach. She currently resides in Sweden with her husband and their two children. In early childhood, she showed an interest in reading and languages—interests which her family encouraged. Astrid started writing her first novel at age 12 and now writes fantasy in a variety of subgenres, exploring her passion for cultures and languages. When she isn’t writing, Astrid likes to read, take walks in nature, play silly games with her children, do embroidery, and play music.

Astrid writes transformation fiction: incorporating transformation principles in novels, rather than writing another self-help book. She loves exploring the human capacity for transformation and potential to achieve success in the face of adversity. Astrid is interested in minority group questions, considerations on social standards of beauty and the negative consequences these have, and would like to make the fantasy genre accessible to people of non-white, non-Christian backgrounds. Astrid feels the fantasy genre has become too restrictive with limited representations of race, ethnicity and culture. She seeks to explore other paths on this writing journey, incorporating her background in anthropology and psychology to create engaging experiences, which also provide food for thought on the diverse topics she finds most important. These include: racism, minority rights, cultural diversity, culture change, intolerance, humanity's environmental impact, the representation of people on the autism spectrum among the general populace, the human capacity for transformation, and much more.

Follow Astrid at the Following Links:

WEBSITE | FB | FB GROUP | INSTAGRAM 

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I hope you all enjoyed this author interview with Astrid V.J. I really enjoyed getting to know her as not only an author but as a person. If you haven't checked out her latest Kickstarter Campaign for "Dream" please head over to her prelaunch page for all the fun details. Make sure to click the NOTIFY ME ON LAUNCH button to get all her updates and the launch announcement for when she goes live. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend.

If you enjoyed this post and would like to be notified when more posts like this go live on KM Jenkins Book Nook, head over to our sidebar menu in the upper right corner. There you can subscribe for updates on new posts through the RSS Feed Option or through the Follow Me Button option. Until next time be safe and happy reading :)

~ Katie