Hello! My name is Siege, and I’m a newer addition to the Ashley system. We recently asked one of our friends, the author, lyricist, and creator AJ Rose, to do an interview with us here on Open Sorcery. I don’t want to keep you all waiting with my rambling, so without further ado, here is our conversation with the brilliant AJ!

Introductions Are In Order

Hey. My name is AJ Rose and I am an independent author/lyricist. My pronouns are he/they. I am openly transmasc and focus my writing toward being inclusive of the LGBTQIA+ community. If you’d like to follow me on Facebook for updates, memes, shitposting, and/or an all around good time I welcome you.

The Interview

1. You’ve told me several things about what you’re working on over the course of our friendship thus far – a novel series with accompanying concept albums. What do you want readers to know about the series?

My series focuses on the right to love who you love and goes over several different concepts while being centered as a paranormal romance (heavy on the romance). It is meant to show how there are many different forms of romantic love in the world while also highlighting challenges faced for being who you are.

2. Where do you find your inspiration? Why does that spark creativity for you?

I find inspiration from a lot of other authors. Deborah Harknesses All Souls Series is what initially inspired me to get back into writing. I love her series and it helped me formulate my story in the way I want it to be presented.

I also draw inspiration from music. I heavily focus on metal style music. Motionless In White sparks a lot of lyrical creativity for me and the reason is mostly because their music is usually about real world issues, relationships, and how horrible the American system is.

3. You’ve spoken a fair bit to my system about being plural yourself as well as being bigender. Do either of those facets of your identity influence your characters or stories at all?

Yes and no. I find it is easier for me to create characters because I am a plural person. I can give them a voice in my head. I can visualize who I want them to be. I can make the characters talk to one another and play out the scene for myself while I’m writing.

Being part of the LGBTQIA+ community influences my characters overall. My novel series features straight, gay, bisexual, lesbian, and poly relationships.

I have also dropped considering myself bigender and embraced that I am actually transgender. Transmasc just helps encompass my ENBY self as well.

4. You’re writing a series about a metal band. What got you into metal?

The series isn’t about the metal band. They are just a part of the novel. A character in the novel fronts the band. I apologize if I didn’t clear that up during our discussions.

In terms of what got me into metal, my parents were heavy rock music lovers. My dad was a huge Metallica fan when I was growing up which is considered metal. As I got older, my sister would show me their music and it was heavier metal. Pretty much, I grew up on it and it’s the genre that speaks the most to me.

5. On the musical side of things, if you could work with anyone, living or dead, to bring your concept albums to life, who would you have play on these records? Who would you have produce?

This will be no surprise to the people who know me but Motionless In White. I am a huge fan of their work and Chris Motionless has an amazing voice. He would do my songs well. Production wise, I’m unsure. I’ve never really looked into producers.

6. Have there been any challenges so far in writing novels about musicians? How have you overcome them so far?

When it comes up for the character it can be challenging to wrap the concept of how hard musicians have it versus the character himself as he has gone through some awful things in his past. In overcoming that challenge, I try to keep it as realistic as possible. I write the songs as if I were him bleeding his innermost thoughts on paper.

7. Has anything surprised you about the writing process? Have you learned anything about yourself or your system through this project?

It hasn’t really surprised me as I’ve known my whole life that writing is hard. It’s something I’m super passionate about. I have learned that my system is very helpful in untangling thoughts for me. If I feel particularly stuck, I can usually work it out with my alter by bouncing it around in my head.

8. Do you have any musicians or authors that you look up to, of any genre?

…well here we go again lol Motionless In White is my biggest musical one. Then it’s Bad Omens. Authors, I really aspire to have the ability to write like Deborah Harkness. She’s actually a historian and her novel series is very well written in the historical parts. There are historical parts in my series.

9. Are there any songs, albums, or novels that helped you learn more about your system and the different facets of who you are, or that got you through a very hard time?

Headache by Motionless In White perfectly sums up my head. That’s really all I can say there.

10. What advice would you give to a young author or musician just starting out, especially if they’re plural or queer?

Just do it. Be you and do what you love. If people don’t like it, that’s on them. The love will vastly outweigh the hate.

11. When can we expect the first installment in your series to be published?

I’m not sure. I’m still working on editing. My best advice is to follow me on Facebook or TikTok @WitchySerious.

Closing Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed this conversation! I personally can’t wait to see more of AJ Rose and his work. I think they have some great advice and really wonderful experience to pull from.

It has been a Day, so I’m going to wander off now. However, stay tuned for more magic!

-Siege