Inside The Indie Author: A Conversation with JL Maynor

Have you ever considered writing under a pseudonym, and why or why not?

This was a tough decision, I had thought about it but to be all honest, even with my infinite creativity, I couldn’t figure out a name I liked!!

What is your “go-to” method for working through or around writer’s block?

If I am stumped at a chapter, ill either jump to another project, or Ill continue writing past that chapter. Issues with chapter 8? Lets start writing 9. I always have the beginning and the ending of the book ready to go in my brain before I start writing it. I know where the story is going, I just need to mold how it gets there.

From your perspective, what are the most important elements of good writing?

Good Characters, good diverse characters, and not being afraid to break the norms of writing. Everyone has their own unique way to write, there is no wrong answer on how to write. Have the story come from your heart, not what the market dictates. If you don’t write from the heart, you don’t love the story you’re telling, it won’t be a very good one at all.

What comes first – the location, the plot, or the characters – and why?

The Plot. What happens, how it happens, why is it important and what does it mean is far more important. Location and characters can be decided, changed, and altered later, its the plot that drives the story.

What are your least favorite and most favorite things about publishing a book?

Most favorite, I'm self published so I control every aspect of the process! Least favorite?  Im self published so I control every aspect of the Process!!! Lol, Its the marketing, and the social media presence thats the biggest killer for me.

What is a significant way your book changed from the first to the final draft?

This is a tough one, I think the biggest change was the Prologue. In WarpStar I had a mini story on one of the Colony ships Earth had set out to Pegasus system, a generational ship, who had the misfortune of being the first actual humans to encounter First Contact with another alien civilization. They had encountered The Legion, no souls had survived that massacre. There is a small mention of them in Act 1 of WarpStar, but one of my alpha readers, and my editor at the time both told me that was unnecessary, too much, and too vile considering I had hundreds of children die right off the bat. Thats probably my biggest regret was to listen to that advice. The few people who read the book and I had mentioned that old prologue with, actually said they would have enjoyed it, and since it wasn’t a necessary read people who hated prologues could skip it and be totally fine with the rest of the story.

What was the inspiration for your most recent book?

Most Recent is a loaded question. My most recent published work ? Which would be Emergency Dive, or my current WIP which would be Trinity. Im going to go the unique way and talk about Emergency Dive. Its a standalone novella that takes place in the late 1940’s during the Pacific War, it follows an incident with an American submarine being hunted by a Japanese destroyer. My inspiration came from a tactic I had used when playing a game, Silent Hunter 5. It is a strategy that goes completely against all naval and sub warfare doctrine. In the game at the time I was being hunted, and couldn’t get away or a good firing solution on the destroyer, and I was down to two torpedoes left, one shot, one opportunity left. I stayed quiet, got some distance on the destroyer, turned my boat for a direct intercept course, and surfaced. In typical sub warfare, once a sub surfaces, the deck gets manned. Officers man the bridge, and the deck guns, in my story I had them stay below deck. The game has no control over that. So What I did was immediately fire up the diesels, and threw it into Flank speeds, quickly closing the distance between the two ships. Of course, the destroyer spotted me and did the same thing, See heres the thing, both ships closing at a relative velocity of 60-80 knots combined, the destroyer crew would have difficulty aiming and firing on such a small target. Now the sub could easily get some shots off with their five inch deck gun, but that wasn’t the plan. They wouldn’t be on the surface long enough for the deck gun to make a difference. Once there  relative position came within minimum safety and arming distance the famous words were said. Fire 1! Fire 2! And followed was the crazy “Emergency Dive! Dive Dive DIve! Flood all ballast tanks, maximum down bubble!” The sub quickly went below the surface and would continue to dive right under the destroyer, while the destroyer would be concentrating on the Sub, they would very likely not see the torpedoes that would strike right on their bow and sink her. That tactic worked well in game and I decided to write a short story on it. Of course in real life, no captain would be crazy enough to do such a maneuver, but desperate times calls for desperate measures!

What is a “darling” you’ve killed in a book that you’d like to resurrect in a future book?

Sorry, this is Classified intel! I cannot answer this question without some major spoilers!!! 😉

Where are your most productive writing spaces, and what elements are important about that space to keep you focused on writing?

So this is going to sound weird, because many authors have and use this. I thought it would help me at first, but no matter where I went or what I did, nothing mattered. As long as Im in a quiet distraction free zone, and I can listen to my scores, I can write just about anywhere. Which pretty much means now that its just my desk in my home on my Mac.

If you were to give one of your side characters a novella of their own, who would it be, and why do you think they need their own story?

Well, lets see. Major Thomson and his Marine squad would make a good one. I think I have setup a possible side story with Charlene and Jennifer with their undercover top secret mission (Oops, Book 3 spoilers!) I can’t include “The Impossible Duo” Novella im writing because thats the 2 main characters. Admiral Briggs rise would be a great one. Theres too much potential to really name a single one. Thats whats great about my universe I created. Its vast, extreamly vast, and a lot of different stories can come out of it, which I intend to write in one form or another until the day I die. The main story may be finished but Ill still be writing full length novels from one angle or another within the universe!

What risks have you taken with your writing that made the book better?

Ha! This one is interesting. Have you all ever heard of the story taking over the authors hands and writing itself? That was the risk. Its the same concept as the writers block question, same process except it wasn’t on a single chapter, it was a multi-book saga scale. I knew where the story was going, I was just in debate on how it got there. See, the Invasion of Sol was planned for book 3 or 4, and I had put zero thought into it simply because it was planned for a minimum of two books in the future, I was just finishing WarpStar. After the main story got tied up, I opened the Epilogue, then without warning, without thought, my fingers started typing with a mind of their own, I had no idea what was being written, when it was done I read it over and it was the beginning of the Invasion of Sol. It felt natural, felt perfect, and as I thought of it, felt great for a book 2 into, thus Epsilon was born. I kept it in, and built Epsilon around it, and it worked great!

What’s the best monetary investment you’ve ever made with regard to your writing practice?

The best investment Ive made unfortunately has never gave me a return yet, but I don’t regret it at all. It was hiring Zane Boyer to narrate my books. So far hes only done WarpStar but the audiobook came out absolutely phenomenal!!! Hes the voice of the Universe! Once I can afford him again, without regard of a Return of Investment, hes going to narrate Epsilon. I just wish I could get his cost soon I really want to hear his amazing work continued!

When you first began writing, what was a common procrastination trap you encountered, and how did you overcome it?

It didn’t happen when I first started writing, as the book was written and re-written over a dozen times before I finally settled on a perfect base. It came later, the procrastination came later. It was at first because of my job as an Over the Road Trucker, that drained a lot of energy from me day to day, so I managed to only do some writing once a month roughly. Then I could go almost a year without writing because I just had no energy. Come to find out, I had Functional Neurological Disorder the entire time, which killed my career. The first year and a half after I got diagnosed, changing from a major workaholic to staying home all day every day was a hard transition to me. I didn’t even have the motivation or energy to write. It wasn’t until a few months ago, early ’26 or late ’25 that I got back into the grove and have been writing and working on my books heavily again!

What is your writing software of choice, and what is its best feature?

This is a hard mix, I would say im in between softwares at the moment? I started with Word, then I bought Scrivener. Scrivener completed WarpStar and Epsilon for me, I wrote WarpStar in it but Epsilon I wrote outside. I started with Word again but moved to Novelcrafter. And this is where the controversy will come in. Yes, Novelcrafter does utilize AI but only to an extent you want it. I personally believe the strongest part of Novelcrafter is its Codex. Every bit of information you create within your universe you plug in the Codex that way you can easily keep the continuity of the universe. Yes, I did use AI to help me polish Epsilon, as in help me use better words, phrases, and did grammar and spelling for me but it never generated any part of the story. Right now I tried Sudowriter out just to see how it works, it claimed to have a Bible that was the best, wasn’t impressed. So far nothing beats Novelcrafters Codex. Since I'm a typical broke author, right now I just use Pages, and I keep my codex in small files on my drive, and I use ChatGPT for polishing, refining, Spelling Grammar, and sometimes it helps me brainstorm and research. That last part, research is super important. AI has helped me research so much of the books and saved me a TON of time, when I needed planetary calculations, or a scenario figured out like what if I travel at 17g’s three light hours, where is my flip and burn point, stuff like that. Especially with my FND my brain is becoming more and more like an old Pentium 3 Computer, getting harder and harder to process, AI actually helps me with that, and again, no part of the story is AI Generated, just AI Assisted.

Do characters’ names come immediately to you?  Do you add them in a final draft?  Where do you find names, and how do you make a final decision about the names you’ll use?

Some names have come to me naturally and right away, but others just didn’t work well. John, Char, and Heidi were immediate. But when it came to the alien names, and other human ethnic names, I didn’t have very much knowledge on how to make them, especially since I base the story loosely on the Ancient Astronaught Theory. I used a Name generator for the different Ethnic humans, then used AI to do some research on races like the Sumerians (and others.. spoilers!)… Surprisingly, The Mordechai and the Almorian names is 100% me, just started typing weird stuff until I got a system down that I liked and used it.

Tell us the title of one of your favorite novels, and why this book is a favorite.

Theres not a single Novel that's my favorite, but a series. Expeditionary Force. First reason is its simply amazing storytelling, and the most important reason is just simply because Craig Alanson, who writes the series, was just a normal dude just like me when he decided to self-publish. He took the risk and it paid off! That inspired me, even though I started writing before he did, he published before me and it gave me the courage and inspiration to finish WarpStar and publish it.

Think of the title of a hugely popular novel.  What is one major thing you would change about the book?

Caliban's War. It was a bit hard to follow when the inspector came in, and when the pot was the aliens vs millers. I would of made it a bit easier to follow.

What are you reading right now?

I'm actually not that much of a reader, I want to start, but twenty years of conditioning, I “read” a lot of Audiobooks, then I wrote a lot and wound down with video games and tv. Right now, I do a lot of writing, music creation, graphic design, my brain always needs to be doing something. The ADHD is strong in me. I'm not sure I could just unwind and let my brain just read and do nothing else. Its a goal I want to work towards.

If you could take on the identity of a character in one of your favorite books for twenty-four hours and retain the memory of that experience, which character would you choose?  Tell us the title, author, character name, and why you would want to be that character.

James Holden in Babylons Ashes by James S.A. Corey. Its hard to explain, mostly the ability to live and travel in space, but also James Holden is a fly by his pants kind of guy and I do admire that.

If you could save five books from being destroyed in the apocalypse, what books would you choose, and why?

Don’t ask that! This is a bad question because now we have to decide on books of knowledge, or books of art. The problem is, the logical answer would be books of knowledge to help and aid the rebuilding of the human race, but there are too many extremely vital books needed to continue humanity.

Tell us a little something about your current WIP.  When do you expect it to be released?

I expect it to be released Q4 26 - Q1 27. Its Book 3 of the First Contact Universe, Trinity. Some major plot changes, character changes, and all around a completly diffrent vision of the Universe. Its set four years after the Battle of Epsilon (book 2) during the middle of Humanity rebuilding itself. I really can’t get into a whole lot because the book is already packed with surprises, and cliffhangers that come right out of left field. Admiral Briggs retires, attempts to run for President of the Federation, loses and becomes Chief of Naval Operations. Char and Jen go Awol for three years, and a new, unknown threat is creeping in the galaxy. Also, one of the big plot changes, is the discovery and ability to transit to other galaxies. I think I've said too much!!

What are the titles and genres of each book you’ve written?

1. First Contact: WarpStar, Military SciFi

2. First Contact: Epsilon, Military SciFi

3. First Contact: Trinity, Military SciFi

4. Orion (Novella) Military Sci Fi

5. The Impossible Duo (WIP - Novella) Military Sci-Fi.

6. Emergency Dive, Historical Military Fiction

How can readers find you?  Website, social media, amazon author page… share all the links!

I have so many, the best way is to check out www.scorpnet.com, under Hypernet Access all the links are posted there!