Chelsea Callahan is an independent author best known for her Changeling Series. A romance writer that blends spice with elements of fantasy, What We Reading sat down with Chelsea to talk about everything from her most recent work, Witch, her motivations and influences and the obstacles facing self-published authors these days!
Thanks for speaking with us, Chelsea! First off, tell us a bit about yourself and what led you to the world of writing.
Hi, I’m Chelsea. I’m 31 years old, I started writing in 5th grade when my English teacher at the time got me into poetry. I was obsessed with it, and how it helped me process my feelings about the world. As I got older I started writing larger stories, and eventually, they became books. I published my first full-length novel in 2019.
When I’m not writing I play Dungeons and Dragons and binge-watch movies with my mother. I’m a nerd at heart. I love games, movies, comedy. Nathan Fillion’s character Rick Castle is who I dream of being as an author…well, he was a mystery writer, I want to be the female version of Rick Castle who writes romance.
Talk to us about your Changeling Series. You’ve just had a new release, right?
Yes, I’ve just recently released Witch, the second book in my Changeling Series.
The series is going to be four books, and book one is titled Heir. It follows Nikki Thorn as she deals with some serious demons in her past, and learns to embrace her power as “The Heir”.
Book 2 and eventually 3 will follow two other women who are important factors in what’s to come for the series finale. Book 2 follows Imogyn “Gyn” Vane as she tries to rescue her best friend after she’s been kidnapped from their home.
Book one is a why choose, reverse harem romance, book two is a primal werewolf/witch romance, and book three which I’m currently writing, is another RH romance. There is a TON of spice, a ton of drama, and a ton of magic. I’m having a lot of fun with this story. I’m eager to see what people think of it.
“I’m having a lot of fun with this story. I’m eager to see what people think of it.”
What is the number one goal you want the series to have with readers?
My number one goal with this series is the same goal I have for all my books. I want to create flawed but compelling characters who make their readers love them and cheer for them. I want to above all share these crazy worlds that I’ve made up and I hope everyone loves them as much as I do.
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What do you think makes you stand out as an author? Are you someone who throws themselves into the stories they write?
I think what stands out about me as a writer, is that I write stories about powerful people, who are seriously flawed, but still good people.
For example, Nikki, the main character in my novel Heir, is on the run when we meet her. She’s hiding from the people who killed her parents, and from the responsibilities that come with her birthright. She’s not brave, or selfless. When we meet her she’s quite the opposite. She’s selfish. Her disappearance has caused some big changes in her world, but she doesn’t pay any attention to them. In a big way, she’s just trying to survive.
Talk to us about one of your biggest successes so far.
Success? Oh, that’s a tough one. I try and see every book as a victory. Starting and finishing a story is an achievement and I often have to remind myself to celebrate that. Being an indie author isn’t easy. When times are hard though, what I remind myself of is that I get my satisfaction out of writing the story, and then it’s a bonus when I get to see other people enjoy that story. That’s why I publish.
Beyond that, it’s all just numbers. There are days I don’t get sales, or page reads, and those days suck. I won’t lie about that, but not because I’m not getting paid. All I’ve ever wanted to do is share the stories.
“I try and see every book as a victory.”
If you could go back in time to one book you read for the first time, what would it be and why?
That’s a tie for me. First I’d say Romeo & Juliet (which I know is technically a play) because it was one of the first stories I fell in love with. I picked it up randomly off a shelf at the library when I was little and made my mother read it to me, and have been rereading it religiously ever since. I adore the words, the romance, the drama. And as I’ve gotten older I’ve learned to appreciate new pieces of it.
The second book I’d pick is A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. I’d be in heaven if I could read that whole series over again for the first time because it was such an eye-opener for me. I found the book right when I was working on my first novel Eyes of the Grave. I was struggling with how I wanted to craft my main character, and reading the way Diana is written in ADOW unlocked the story for me.
For so long I’d been stuck in this rut of books that had main characters coming into their power, not knowing who they were, not knowing they had magic, but Diana wasn’t that. She knew she had magic. She was “aware” of the magical world, she lived in it, and she wasn’t clueless either. Sure she had her struggles with her power, but she was still smart. She was still an extremely capable woman, and reading that helped me find the voice I needed to finish my first book.
What do you think is the biggest obstacle facing independent and aspiring authors these days?
For indie authors, our biggest obstacles are companies out to make money rather than support creativity or community. As an indie author, you’re expected to pay for isbns, rights to your own books, promoted advertisements that people will actually see, for programs to format your projects, for everything under the sun, and then you have companies like Amazon who are now upping the printing cost of their books cutting more out of authors profits.
To put it bluntly, I sell my paperbacks for 19.99 and get about 3 dollars or less for each one. My ebooks are 4.99 and I get 3 something for those too since they don’t have a printing cost. And then there is Kindle Unlimited and for that, we get paid approximately $0.0004 cents per page read, and that’s only if the subscription rates for KU are high. We get paid less if they are making less money.
It’s a tough place to be.
For aspiring writers, if you’re willing to put up with all that, self-publishing is great. You have complete control of your book, and how it’s shared with the world. Traditional publishing offers a lot less control, and the obstacle there is getting through the query process. There are so many authors out there who want an agent and so few agents…be ready for rejection. It happens to everyone. But if you keep fighting and keep working on your craft you’ll find a good place to be.
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If you could go back in time and give your younger self one tip, what would it be?
Spice. Add Spice.
When I first started writing I wasn’t a romance author. I was an Urban Fantasy Author who wrote romantic subplots. Embracing romance as my genre niche and upping the spice content in my novels has brought me to a whole new world of readers, and if I’d realized that sooner my stories might’ve gone that much further.
And finally, what do you hope the future holds for you and your writing?
My hopes for the future are pretty straightforward. I hope I can finish the book I’m writing, and the next one, and the next one. Sure, it be great to somehow become famous like Rick Castle and see my books turned into movies and all that jazz, but so far nothing about my writing journey has fallen into the category of “what I originally had planned”, so I’m open to the possibilities. I’ve got a lot of stories started that need finishing, and after that, we’ll see.
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Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
