Today we’d like to introduce you to Alicia Richardson.
Hi Alicia, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve always been a writer—long before I could actually write. When I was four, I spent hours on my black and white horse on springs, dreaming up adventures. Sleeping Beauty was my favorite movie, but lying still while a prince rescued me felt unbearably dull. So I rewrote the story. In my version, the prince was the one under the spell, and I charged off on my trusty plastic steed to save him.
That instinct to flip the script never left. Today, I own Black Mare Books, named for my remarkable black mustang mare I adopted from the BLM in 1979. I’m also the CFO of the Houston Writers Guild and host the Guild’s Saturday morning writers’ Zoom call—my favorite weekly gathering of creative minds. Writing has always been my way of galloping toward possibility, and I’m grateful for everyone who comes along for the ride.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not at all. Working a full-time 9 – to – 5, then having two kids made balancing work, family, and riding tricky. When the kids were old enough to go to school, that helped a lot…until Harvey came along and flooded us. After (and possibly because of) that, I developed a rare kidney malady and was on some industrial-strength medications. I feel like I mostly slept through 2018 and 19. When 2020 rolled around, my kidneys were functioning normally, and my nephrologist took me off the meds. I thought it would be the year I would get everything back on track. Instead, it was the year that a massive fibroid sent me to the ER for heavy bleeding. Bleeding so heavy that I passed out and had to get 2 units of blood. Oh, and there was a pandemic.
One hysterectomy and several vaccines later, I finally started getting my feet back under me.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I have multiple pen names that I see as branding. Artemis Greenleaf writes about fae and other supernaturals for all ages. In conjunction with the Houston Police Department and the Smash Girls, I wrote a children’s nonfiction book about HPD’s deaf patrol horse, Smash, and the special needs girls who rallied together to sponsor him. We submitted it to the EQUUS Film Festival in NYC in 2016 and it won the award for children’s nonfiction. It was a really rewarding experience and I was honored to work with both the Smash Girls and HPD on this project.
Holly Dey writes cozy mysteries with no supernatural characters at all. There is a Possumwood Mysteries series and several short stories featuring Amity Hudson and her dogs Jax and Amber that appear in the Creepy Christmas and Halloween Bites anthologies.
A. B. Richards specializes in horror and science fiction. In those stories, the bad guys typically meet the worse guys.
Coda Sterling specializes in romance, and Pandora Martindale is halfway between Artemis Greenleaf and A. B. Richards.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Writing is a skill. Skills are learned. Don’t give up on yourself because your first pieces are terrible. You just need more practice.
Also, my website is going through a major overhaul, so please bear with me. I will be documenting the before and after and talking about lessons learned and what author websites need in the HWG August 26 webinar. Should be…an adventure!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.blackmarebooks.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlackMareBooks/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Blackmarebooks/videos
