What initially got you interested in writing?

I liked to talk a lot when I was a kid in grade school. And I mean a lot. I would, of course, get in trouble for it at least once a day. I wasn’t being malicious to others, but I just had stories to tell whoever was sitting next to me.

It was so bad that one year we had a new teacher take over in the middle of the year and she was going to let us change seats if we wanted. I instantly raised my hand to try and get to sit next to my best friend across the room (we’d been split apart since the first week of school), and to my dismay she already knew who I was and was advised not to move me.

So, at some point I realized channeling all that story energy onto paper was a good idea and ran with it instead of chatting up everyone and getting constant notes and phone calls to home.

As I wrote, grade school and middle school were filled with short stories, fanfiction, and ripoffs of games I liked to play (Ultima V most notably). During high school I churned out my first full-length manuscript, and from there I kept trying to write another novel someone would want. It took more than a few tries to get to Nadya’s War.

What genres do you write in?

Aside from historical fiction (obviously), I’ve written commercial fiction a lot since it’s so broad, and have some military fiction under my belt, too.

What drew you to writing these specific genres?

I got drawn into historical fiction simply because there are a lot of periods of history I find fascinating, and I love stories set in them. As such, especially with the case of Nadya’s War, when I thought, “there’s a good story here” I started going to work.

How did you break into the field?

Well, time will tell if Nadya’s War officially counts as breaking in, but I will say this, it took a lot of perseverance, a lot of pushing doubts aside, and a lot of hard, honest looks at my work (and seeking invaluable constructive, detailed critiques) to make my writing better.

What do you want readers to take away from reading your works?

My primary goal with Nadya’s War is to tell a story that transports the reader into another time and setting that not many are familiar with. Hopefully those who read Nadya’s War will have a healthy respect and admiration for the brave, young women of the 586^th all-female fighter regiment.

What do you find most rewarding about writing?

I’ll always write, even if no one else reads what I put to paper, just because I can’t help myself from telling some sort of story. But my biggest reward has always been someone picking up what I’ve done, giving it a read, and saying they really like it—total strangers who say this to me pretty much make my week.

What do you find most challenging about writing?

At the beginning of any story, it’s simply reminding myself that the first draft is supposed to be terrible and not to sweat all the details, plot holes, flat-as-a-pancake characters, etc. This can trip me up a lot of the time as I want my first draft to be as good as the final draft of my previous, which is nonsense of course. Toward the end of the writing processes, I have to remind myself to keep revising, keep looking for feedback and ways to make scenes, paragraphs, even lines better. That can be hard, too, because it’s easy to say “it’s done” when it’s not, especially when working on those last few percentage points of being completely, totally, 100% done.

What advice would you give to people wanting to enter the field?

Never give up and set realistic goals. Both of these will get anyone past the first however many not-so-hot attempts at a novel. After that, read a lot, and this includes not only whatever genre you want to write, but also books/articles/blogs/etc. designed to help you write better. Last, and not least, find writing groups or at least a few critique partners that will (politely) tear your text to pieces if that’s what it needs to get better. Family and friends encouraging you are always good—and needed—but chances are, they don’t know what’s wrong with a piece and/or won’t tell you.

What type of books do you enjoy reading?

Pretty much anything with a good story and great characters, though I typically find myself browsing the general fiction and historical fiction areas, though I do wander into the mystery and SF/F sections from time to time.

Is there anything else besides writing you think people would find interesting about you?

I really like whitewater kayaking and scuba diving, though sadly, I haven’t done either in a fair amount of time. If that’s not a particular person’s cup of tea, I can usually hold a good conversation without anyone as the world is an interesting place. As a small, personal note, I’m terrible at keeping plants alive. I once killed a cactus because I didn’t water it enough. In my defense, if it barked like the dog, it would’ve gotten more attention.

What are the best ways to connect with you, or find out more about your work?

I have a small little website at cs-taylor.com that I’m slowly learning to tend to it more than I did my poor cactus. I have a contact email there as well people are free to use.