After meeting Luna Ryder (a penname of New York Times- and USA Today-bestselling author, Melissa Storm) at the first-ever Future of Publishing Mastermind back in February 2024, the SBT team knew we had to work with her. Now, a year, a successful Kickstarter campaign, and a Classic Audiobook later, we’re finally ready to unleash the Cinematic Audio version of When Life Gives You Legends on the world. To celebrate, we sat down with Luna to gain a little more insight into her writing process, her hobbies, and the fascinating story of how Legends came to be.

You’ve worked in a variety of genres, but this is your first real foray into cozy fantasy. How do you find writing fantasy differs from the other genres in which you work?

Everything is bigger in fantasy! The characters, the plot, and — of course — the world. That means that the books are also longer. When I started writing When Life Gives You Legends, I thought it would be a short, cute prequel for another series, a single book at 50,000 words. But soon it became apparent that I would have to stretch the story into a trilogy or release a solo novel at least four times longer than I’d planned. Needless to say, I went for the trilogy. There was a bit of panic on my part with the transition, but I have zero regrets. I love big, beautiful fantasy!

One of our favorite fun facts about you is that you have a different pen name for each genre. Do you find yourself developing different personas for each pen name?

All my pen names (I’ve had nine of them over the years) are truly me; but each gives me a chance to really lean into a different aspect of myself. Luna Ryder is the most fully me of any pseudonym I’ve wielded yet, and it’s really freeing to not have to self-edit in any of my engagements. I built Luna around my interests and things that are important to me, so that I can share all of that with readers. If I’d started waxing poetic about my PS5 with my women’s fiction or cozy mystery readers, they may have tuned me out — but my Luna readers find and friend me so we can game together!

What was the inspiration behind When Life Gives You Legends?

I wish I had a great impressive backstory here, but the initial spark came from seeing a new cover an artist I like had designed and immediately thinking, “I have a story for that.” I bought the art (shoutout to SJ at Night Witchery!) and spent a few months turning ideas over in my mind. The whole thing really came to life when fate — yes, fate! — introduced me to Soundbooth Theater’s fabulous team at a conference. The moment I locked eyes with Mr. Aaron J. Morton, something surged through me… it was pure, platonic inspiration, okay? Days later, I knew that he was my muse and the literal bard in my story. I very cleverly named his fictional doppelganger Gaaron to pay proper homage.

Dorrie, Aaron, and Jeff had a great time working on the Classic Audiobook version of When Life Gives You Legends, and we’re so excited to share the Cinematic Audio series with the world. How do you find the experience of listening to an audiobook differs from reading a book?

I’m a huge fan of audiobooks, because they bring you right into the story and really make you feel like you’re a part of the action. When I’m reading a physical or digital book, I’m a fly on the wall. But when I’ve got audio on? Toss me a war hammer, because I’m your newest party member.

If you could transform into one character from Legends for one week, which character would it be and why?

I would love to be Tulip Thunderhoof, so I can loot all her riches and stash them somewhere to retrieve once I turn back into myself a week later. I guess that means my true answer is Tilda, our main character, who is also a skilled thief.

What are your top five favorite books (by other authors)?

It’s hard enough to pick one, and you’re asking for five?! Fine, I’ll play along, but you’re mean for making me pick favorites among friends. I have rather eclectic reading tastes (just like my writing tastes), so these answers will be a bit all over the place, but I love Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman, Beers & Beards by JollyJupiter, The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins, and anything by Freida McFadden.

What are the themes you write about in your fiction, and what about these themes appeal to you?

Found Family always finds its way into my fiction. I’m a social butterfly now; but as a kid, I was intensely lonely. I love helping characters find where they belong, especially when it’s with other weirdos. I also have a habit of subverting stereotypes, which is why we have a half-orc wizard in When Life Gives You Legends. Lastly, representation is everything. I especially love including neurodivergent and rainbow heroes.

In addition to being an internationally bestselling author, you also run Novel Publicity, a very successful marketing & ads agency. How did you wind up in that line of work, and which of your skills as an author have you found most useful in your “work life”?

I wrote my first novel and then got online in 2010 to “build a platform,” so that I could attract a literary agent. Within a week of starting a blog and opening a Twitter account, I was getting hundreds of hits per day and being retweeted as a social media marketing expert. This surprised me, but I leaned into it, realizing I might have something special there. In early 2011, I launched Novel Publicity, and it was an immediate success. Over the last decade-plus, I’ve been growing and changing with the industry itself, and I have loved every moment of it. This, of course, means I have two pretty demanding careers, but I couldn’t envision my life without either one of them. I often say the business feeds my mind and the writing feeds my heart — and both those things need to eat!

Outside of reading and writing, what are some of your other hobbies?

I am addicted to my PS5. I play all kinds of action RPGs, my perennial favorite. But lately? Power Wash Simulator all day, every day. It relaxes me like nothing else can. I put on an audiobook and clean up the digital world, because sometimes that’s the best thing you can do.

I’m also big into travel and just need one more continent to complete my collection — I’m coming for you, Antarctica. Prepare your penguins!

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Getting to know the talented team at Soundbooth Theater has been life-changing for me. Not just working with them — because they do amazing work — but also just getting to know them as people. They are really cool people and have made me feel like one of the cool kids too. I am officially a fan of all things SBT for life!

The first episode of When Life Gives You Legends, “Safe Haven in Briarhaven,” is now available for free exclusively on our platform, with episodes releasing weekly on Thursday for the remainder of March and into April. We hope you love it as much as we do!