Daniel José Older probably saved lives working for a decade as a paramedic, but I’m sure he has elevated plenty of souls as a novelist.

He wrote the YA historical fantasy series Dactyl Hill Squad, which made him a New York Times bestselling author. He’s also penned the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series, Star Wars: Last Shot, and the award-winning YA series the Shadowshaper Cypher. That won him the International Latino Book Award and was shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize in Young Readers’ Literature, the Andre Norton Award, the Locus, and the Mythopoeic Award. Esquire put it on their “80 Books Every Person Should Read” list. He’s also a musician, and you can catch his music at danieljoseolder.net.

Years ago I needed some career advice and even though we’d never met, I emailed Older, and he immediately made time to speak with me by phone. Since then it was clear to me he was a righteous cat. So it was a real pleasure to speak with him by web video on December 23, 2018. We discussed: 

• The key literary lessons he’s learned that he wishes he’d had at the beginning of his career
• How he reacted when an agent told him to junk the final two-thirds of his first Shadowshaper novel
• Why you need to find the core of your story and how you can do it
• Why you must resist the over-emphasis on reading and writing on your path to be the best writer you can be
• And how acting classes and improv workshops can help you sell more books and build your career

Daniel Jose Older’s homepage Ghoststar.net

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