Meet L.D. Colter

Every Friday, we meet a member of the BFS and peer deep into their soul (or, at least, a form they filled out). Want to be featured? Email us: online@britishfantasysociety.org

Your influences

Tell us about the book/film/thing that got you into SFFH: What was it? How old were you? What impact did it have on you?

I’ve read SFF my entire life, starting with children’s fairy tales and fantasy stories (I still own Little Bear Goes to the Moon and my old, illustrated Tales from Russia). Too far back? Then I’d have to go with the common answer of Tolkien. 

The Hobbit is the first novel I remember reading, and I must have been about ten. The effect was profound. I couldn’t put it down. (We were on a trip back to England, and The Hobbit is one of my strongest memories of the vacation!) From there, I launched into the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and that was the start of me turning into one of those people who is never without a book, usually fantasy.

How does that early influence show up for you (in life/writing/ agenting/publishing/editing/reading) now?

Mainly in that I’m constantly exploring new books and their unique fantasy worlds. The books, in turn, inspire me to keep living in my imagination and creating my own worlds. More specifically, though, my early love of epic and secondary-world fantasy strongly influenced my first attempts at writing a novel. The Halfblood War, first published by Kevin J. Anderson’s WordFire Press, many years and many drafts later, was the result.

Where do you draw your creative inspiration from?

Hoo boy, it’s a long list. From that early epic fantasy reading period: I still reread Pat McKillip’s Riddle-Master books every couple of years to immerse in her tight prose and beautiful imagery, hoping some will rub off on me. Gene Wolfe’s New Sun was also influential and eye-opening. Literary and literary-leaning authors: John Irving and Kurt Vonnegut (to name the primary two). China Miéville (his entire catalogue) for New Weird, to encourage me to push at the edges of my own work. (Don’t ask me how many times I’ve read Kraken and The Last Days of New Paris!) In contemporary fantasy: American Gods introduced me to the subgenre a decade ago, and then Jonathan Carroll was a significant discovery for me, along with Tim Powers for his mastery at weaving mythology and magic into everyday contemporary life. (Last Call is a perennial favorite and hugely influential, though I’ve read and enjoyed all his novels.)

Who do you look to as a genre hero? Why?

Many of the people listed above, and more, but Tim Powers has undeniably influenced my work, most especially my Perilous Gods set of dark fantasy, myth-based novels that came out recently from Rebellion Publishing/Solaris Nova.

Your Work

You’re stuck in an elevator for 60 seconds with that hero, and they want you to describe your work. Give us the pitch.

Though it’s already published, the book I’d probably describe would be the second book of The Perilous Gods, When the Winds Sing, the most grounded of the three standalones and the only one that takes place in the US. I’m an utter fail at elevator pitches and extemporaneous speaking, so hopefully I’d have a copy of the book in my hand to glance down at and summarize the back-cover description something like this:

Alex Orlov, an ex-forest ranger—and now an ex-con—just wants to stay out of other people’s business, finish his parole quietly, and never return to the harrowing experience of living behind bars. When an elderly Russian man embroils him in a battle between three Slavic gods, Alex is conscripted into a conflict he doesn’t understand. And when creatures out of dark Russian folklore follow the gods to his small Northern California town, and then to his home with his sister and her children, the stakes become frighteningly real. Alex has looked out for his sister since they were teens and he’s not going to stop now, even if it means going head-to-head with gods. When the conflict drags him ever closer to parole violation, it becomes clear that protecting his family could carry the cost of bringing him face-to-face with his greatest fear, returning to prison.

What are you working on right now?

With The Perilous Gods set out at last, I’m playing with the early stages of a new standalone contemporary fantasy that I’d describe in one sentence as: Life, death, and the in-betweens with a John-Irving-esque family of generational morticians. I also recently had an amazing offer to work on a screenplay with a friend under the mentorship of a well-known Hollywood script doctor!

Thinking about all the stories/work you’ve done, what sticks out most in your mind? Why?

From started to write While the Gods Sleep until the February 2026 publication of Where the Shadows Dwell spanned more than a dozen years of my life, at least off and on, so I think The Perilous Gods set wins that prize!

Where and when do you create/are you at your most creative?

Mid-day, at my desk at home. Starting late makes me feel like I’ve wasted the whole morning (I haven’t; I’m doing other stuff), but that’s when the writing most often gets its time to breathe.

What’s the best advice you’ve received about creativity?

There’s been so much instruction and advice and learning over so many years, I’ll just go with one of the most recent. I follow Jonathan Carroll on social media and he recently posted “let’s just see where that goes” as his advice to SFF writers. He was referring to his process when he unexpectedly wrote a talking dog in The Land of Laughs and recommended not limiting your imagination when you’re creating. “Part of the act of creating is letting go.”

What’s your writing soundtrack?

Silence

The Quick-Fire Round

Sci-fi, fantasy or horror?

Fantasy

Quiet or loud?

Quiet

Dark or light?

Light

Strict lines or genre blend?

Genre blend

Awards or bestseller?

Awards

Fiction or non-fiction?

Fiction!

Poetry or prose?

Prose

Plotter or pantser?

Pantser

Reading or listening?

100% listening

Notebook or computer?

Computer

Favourite SFFH book of all time?

Seriously, one? Let’s go with a classic: Slaughterhouse-Five. (In recent reads, though: Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here was a big favorite.)

Last book you read?

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

Any SFFH author on auto-buy?

Powers, Miéville . . . probably others I’m not thinking of.

Favourite podcast?

Long Story Short, of course!

The Home Stretch

What’s the best thing about being part of the SFFH community?

Community has been everything. Honestly. I don’t think I can overstate the support, learning, helping hands, opportunities – did I say support! – of the SFFH community. So many people reaching down to help others up rather than seeing it as a competition.

Time to plug your stuff! Where can we find you and your work? What have you got coming up? Consider this your advertising space.

When the Winds Sing was my only awards-eligible novel from 2025 While the Gods Sleep had been previously published) and was the one I promoted the most this year. Since the books can be read in any order, I guess that one would be my biggest plug!

For the rest: I have five novels out now, four of them in audio, and The Perilous Gods set has been released across the UK and US. My website is the best place to find everything:  links to all my books (plus content warnings), links to my newsletter, a blog, a published-works page, and my social media links. The website is: ldcolter.com

Lastly, my new novelette, All of My Tomorrows, came out June 1^st in Adventitious Magazine. It’s my first short story publication in ages as novels have taken up so much real estate in my life lately. The magazine is wonderful, should anyone want to support them, but the story should be free to read at some point in the next couple of months.