I was lucky to get an interview with J.D.L. Rosell, the author of The Last Ranger, and a semifinalist in this year’s #SPFBO9.

Please, tell us a bit about yourself…
Hello! I'm Josiah, aka J.D.L. Rosell, a full-time epic fantasy author living near the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. I enjoy spending my time frolicking in mountain meadows as well as curled up with my cats, Zelda and Abenthy, and wife, often while playing the hottest new video game—or with a good book, of course!

Why should I buy your SPFBO9 entry?
The Last Ranger is for readers who love a thrilling adventure set in an intriguing setting (did I mention giant spirit animals?) with flawed characters striving to grow and change—hopefully for the better!

And if you love fantasy rangers like Aragorn or Legolas, I pay heavy homage to them in my protagonist, Leiyn. So that might also be a point of interest!

If you’re looking for a story hook, here it is:

What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?
I'm one of those people who have been writing or dreaming of writing since childhood. I even wrote my first novella at twelve and had it bound and everything! 

As for writing novels, I started my senior year of college and published my first book in 2017. So I've been at it seriously for six years now, with two years as full-time.

Have you participated in the SPFBO before and where did you hear about the competition?
I have! I got started with it back in 2020, when I was fortunate to make the semifinals with my book A King's Bargain. I actually published it just in time to be included!

I can't recall exactly how I heard about it, but I imagine it was from one Facebook group or another. I was in many of them at the time.

Why did you choose to write fantasy?
The Hobbit was probably my gateway drug—it really spurred my love for fantasy. When I was feeling disillusioned about writing halfway through college, I thought back to my early love for fantasy, and it really revitalized me and my creativity. The sheer scope of the themes and stories, paired with the heart-pounding adventures and awesome magic—there's so much to love in the genre.

As with my reading tastes, my books lean toward the epic and sword & sorcery subgenres. Though that's not to say I'll never write a space opera or a cozy fantasy!

Which other author has had the biggest influence on your writing?
Robin Hobb has that honor. The vivacity of her relationships and poignancy of her books' emotional climaxes are unparalleled, in my opinion. While I draw inspiration from many authors, I think back to Hobb's stories and characters most often.

If you were to win the SPFBO, what impact do you think this would have on your writing career?
I've been fortunate to find a bit of a readership, but there's still plenty of folks who have never heard of me. Other than exposure, though, it'd be lovely to have the honor of being a SPFBO champion. I've yet to win a book contest, and this would be one heck of a way to change that!

What challenges did you face during the writing or publishing process, and how did you overcome them?
What did I not face? If we're limiting ourselves to The Last Ranger, though, I struggled to find exactly how I wanted to release it. There was about a two-year period when I serialized it, continued editing it, funded it on Kickstarter, then finally published it to Amazon and Audible. 

Do you have any tips or an author app, tool, or resource that you can really recommend we try?
This may not work for everyone, but when I'm struggling to get myself into writing for the day, or I'm having trouble inhabiting a scene, I pose myself a question: what would the character smell right now? 

Many times, that's enough to get me unstuck and writing right away!

And now it's time to yank out your Palantir! Let’s talk about the future. What new projects are you working on?
Most immediately, the third book in The Last Ranger's series, Ranger of the Titan Wilds. I also have a sequel series to my Legend of Tal quartet cooking up, as well as a series of prequel novellas also set in the Legend of Tal universe. Hoping to get to them all sooner rather than later!

Apps that are based on artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGTP and Midjourney, along with apps aimed specifically at authors, have caused quite a stir. Do you expect these new technologies will make your life as a self-published author easier or harder, and do you expect that they’ll mean you’ll earn more or less?
I imagine that, once we've sorted out the sticking points around fair compensation and rights usage in training models, authors will get some useful tools from AI. For myself, I have no intentions of using them for the actual writing, but certainly there could be some uses in editing and publishing generally.

Presently, I dabble very little in these technologies because of the issues identified with them. And I'm quite happy to support fellow creatives with my book covers and audiobooks!

As for earning more or less, I'm not sure the technologies themselves will make the difference. Good writing is still what fuels good books, and at present, there's not good writing coming out of AI. That may change and flip the script, but in the immediate term, I'm not immensely worried.

Do you have any dreams you’d like to share?
I'd love to have one of my series—and The Last Ranger in particular—made into a video game. I'm a big fan of fantasy-adventure, open-world games, and I'd be lying if I didn't imagine how it could be adapted on occasion!

In a slightly more realistic sense, getting my books translated into another language would be really cool.

My last dream is one already coming true: printing special editions of my books. With faux-leather covers, shiny foil typography—the full nine yards! Currently, that's happening for the first book in my Legend of Tal series, A King's Bargain. I'll be excited to hold that one once it's complete!

Anything else you would like to say before we close?
If folks would like to learn more about me and my books—and get some free stories—they can head on over to my website, jdlrosell.com. Otherwise, my books are up on Amazon and Audible in most formats.

Thanks for having me on, Rune!

I wish you the very best in the SPFBO! And I hope a lot of readers discover your writing.
Thanks for doing the interview.