It’s rare that I feature two people at a time in these interviews, but today is one of those days. Stephen and Mary Weller are partners in both life and in writing. Married with “kids, pets, and a mortgage” for many years, they’re coauthors of the first two books in the Kantara Scrolls Series with plans for more. Readers consistently point out the “adventure” side of the books as well as the “action, intrigue, and rich character development.” Stephen is also the author of the Progressive Series, and while Mary’s name isn’t on the cover of those books, she had more than a hand in each of them.

Welcome, Stephen and Mary!

Christina: Kantara: The Captain, the second in your book series, released last year. It’s a young adult time travel novel. Why young adult? Why time travel?

Stephen and Mary: We didn’t plan on making it a young adult book series. It just sort of happened. We focused on writing an adventure without much inappropriate language or any sex scenes (though we allowed for some flirting and close calls here and there). After our editor read the first draft, we were asked if we’d be open to making it a young adult. We said yes.

Time travel intrigued us, not because we get to travel through time, but rather, we get to play with the idea that our past holds many secrets; what we think we know about our past may be wildly inaccurate and/or one-sided. New discoveries challenge our perceived understanding of the past, such as Gobekli Tepe. Ultimately, we struggle with a simple fact: we weren’t there.

Christina: How did you decide on a series? Did you set out to write a series or did it arise organically? How is writing a series different from writing a standalone?

Stephen and Mary: The series approach was logical because there are too many extraordinary events, places, concepts, and more to put into one book.

Writing a series is different from a standalone book. In a standalone book, a writer may foreshadow something that will happen later in the same book, but in a series, we have to foreshadow events that will happen in future books.

When writing the series, to keep everything aligned, we need an outline and our own encyclopedia. We also write ahead. When we publish a book, the next two books have already been written. This gives us the time to edit those books and to fulfill our foreshadowed events.

On a side note, all of our books are intertwined together. For example, though the Kantara Scrolls Series can be read as a standalone series, those who also read the Progressive Series will experience more Easter eggs. Book Four in the Kantara Scrolls Series has a scene where both book series will unmistakably cross paths, and those who have read the Progressive Series may start to figure out the mystery of Kantara.

Christina: The series features Keiji, a college student. Who inspired this character? What are his strengths and weaknesses? How did you accurately capture the voice of a college student?

Stephen and Mary: Keiji represents our love of Japanese culture. Stephen has written a book based on Japanese innovations. Also, the family loves Anime, so it was only natural for us to make Keiji half Japanese.

Keiji’s mind was altered when he traveled to the past. His abilities include reading other’s emotions, translation, and more. He will learn that his mind powers are growing. It won’t be until book four that we learn about what truly gave him this ability.

Keiji still struggles with the loss of his father. He’s also young and naïve. There is much he doesn’t know, so in many ways, he’s just an average first-year college student. He makes mistakes. Throughout the book series, he will grow and mature as he learns from both his successes and his mistakes.

Both my wife and I went to college. We both have introverted personalities, so we depicted Keiji as a college student in a similar fashion.

Christina: Coauthoring a book can have its struggles. How did you decide to coauthor? What does your writing and revising process look like? How did you determine whose name was listed first as author?

Stephen and Mary: Coauthoring came naturally. Our first book was written by Stephen. Mary read the initial drafts and gave input. By the time the second book came around, Mary helped Stephen write the book by acting out scenes with him and giving ideas. We found there was a synergy—Stephen could structure and write the first draft of each book, and Mary fleshed it out.

Mary’s contributions to Kantara: The Traveler were immense, so Stephen insisted on Mary’s name on the cover as a coauthor. Mary wanted Stephen’s name to go first because she feels she is the coauthor whereas Stephen is the main author. The running joke is that since we are married, it all belongs to her anyway.

Christina: Can you tell us a little bit about your publishing journey? How did you find Warren Publishing? What do you like best about the hybrid model?

Stephen and Mary: Stephen originally self-published his first book, The Progressive Machine: Before We Called It Lean. The follow up, The Progressive Hospital: A Lean Hope, was Stephen’s first novel in which the main character was a woman leader by the name of Kate. Though Stephen had input from Mary, he was worried about how he depicted a female character from a male’s perspective. He was good friends with another author, Alex Perry, author of Minivan Mogul, and Stephen stated his concerns to her. Alex said that her publisher, Warren Publishing, was a woman-led publisher and recommended them. We reached out to Warren Publishing and they were perfect.

We like the hybrid model because we get to keep the rights to our books while at the same time be part of a publisher’s family. Warren Publishing takes great care of us, always willing to listen to our incredulous ideas and thoughts.

Christina: This year, you had a good number of events set for a book tour. What do you like about book tours? Anything you dislike? Do you plan to set anything up outside of Texas?

Stephen and Mary: We like to hang out with the other authors. Readers, especially those who are fans, are fun to listen to. There is a lot of work that goes into each event, but we have fun.

We don’t have any plans yet outside of Texas, but we are open to the idea if the opportunity arises.

Christina: The first book in the series, Kantara: The Traveler, won two first-place awards from BookFest. What do those awards mean to you? Do they factor into your definition of literary success?

Stephen and Mary: Earning book awards for us simply means that our books have been scrutinized through some formal process. It certainly is exciting to win book awards, but really, as we are building our reputation, we want to assure readers that they are reading quality books. Book awards support that reputation. In a way, I guess they do factor a bit into our definition of literary success.

Christina: What past experiences have informed your writing?

Stephen and Mary: Both of us have experienced much in our lifetimes. We draw on those feelings when writing. For example, Stephen worked in a hospital during the COVID pandemic. Like so many others, we’ve also had serious medical issues. For example, Mary had a tumor in her pituitary gland. This caused weight gain (though she ate little) hollowing of bones (causing her to break numerous bones in her feet) and more. Her ability to empathize with others grew considerably and those kinds of experiences make their way into our books.

Christina: What’s next for you?

Stephen and Mary: We’re editing book three in the Kantara Scrolls series, Kantara: The Prince. We are targeting a release date of February 2025. Also, we’re developing a documentary video of The Progressive Machine. We’ve already produced one video for specialized training in the field of continuous improvement, but the new video will be made for a public audience. Audiobooks for The Progressive Machine and Kantara: The Captain are in progress and scheduled to be out by the end of the year.

Stephen and Mary can be found in multiple places!
Website: https://coulsonplace.com/
Instagram: @stephenwellerauthor_
Facebook: @CoulsonPlace
X: @Author_SWeller

Thanks to the Wellers for agreeing to this interview! If you know of an author or artist who’d like to be featured in an interview (or you would like to be featured), feel free to leave a comment or email me via my contact page.