Lithgow author Christian D. Read will be appearing at pop culture convention HubCon in Springwood on July 13.
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Mr Read, who writes sci-fi, fantasy and action, is best known for his series The Lark Case Files, about the adventures of a supernatural detective. It is a new work that takes him to HubCon, where he will officially launch his latest novel, 'Snake City'.
Not only a novellist, Mr Read has also written plays, comics and even video games.
Mr Read said he first became interested in writing in 1992 when he was still in high school. He became a professional writer in 2000 and has since released more than 12 novels. He said he enjoyed writing books in historical settings and stories that were action packed and - warning for the fainthearted - gory.
"I write scary novels, I write horror novels - so from being scared or what scares me - what I'm curious about, what makes me anxious, things that are of rich creative ground. I'm very interested in religions, I'm very interested in spirituality," he said.
"Those are rich areas of creativity for me."
Mr Read has created a cast of recurring characters which reappear in his books.
He said he based his characters' traits on people he has met, people he would like to meet but mostly from himself.
"In some ways all the characters that you ever write are yourself as well," he said.
When writing characters, Mr Read said he thought about what aspects he considered to be right for that personality and then tried to put himself into the shoes of that character.
"If you can't think about how you would feel in their shoes, if you can't project yourself into that person, you're probably not going to write a very good character."
Mr Read's stories are mostly set in a historical period, ranging from stories about cowboys to the Roman empire. However he tries to put a twist in the stories by adding a mythical element.
"You need to start from a place of historical accuracy, so when you know the rules you can break the more easily," he said.
"You feel like you can trust the author a lot more."
Mr Read prepares in advance, setting himself a weekly word limit, and he writes down a plan for what he will put into each chapter.
He said that the audience which had been drawn to his books was very different to that he had expected.
While he had expected to appeal to teenage boys, he enjoyed meeting all the different kinds of people who were reading his novels, including older women and middle aged men.
"There is a woman in Egypt who wrote to me... I'm always surprised and really excited [to hear from fans]," he said.
Christian Read is a veteran of the convention circuit, making appearances at Supernova, Comic-Con and Armageddon.
He will be appearing at HubCon in Springwood on July 13, where he will officially launch his latest novel 'Snake City'.
Mr Read invited anyone to come along and meet him and have a chat with him about his books. He will also have books on sale.
