a) Interview | J.A. Merkel | Multiverses, Redemption & The Fourth Portal

Episode description: 
In this episode, we sit down with fantasy and science fiction author J.A. Merkel, a storyteller shaped by a childhood on a farm, a deep connection to nature, and a lifelong love of adventure. We explore how those early experiences now inform stories filled with multiverses, complex anti-heroes, tragic reversals, and the idea of love as a kind of magic.

We also talk about The Fourth Portal, J.A. Merkel’s featured book, and the larger themes behind his work, especially redemption, discovery, and the search for home in extraordinary worlds. If you enjoy immersive speculative fiction and conversations about the emotional core behind epic storytelling, this episode is for you.

Fantasy and sci-fi author J.A. Merkel joins the show to discuss The Fourth Portal, multiverses, anti-heroes, redemption, and the search for home.

About J.A. Merkel
J.A. Merkel grew up on a farm with eight brothers and sisters, surrounded by nature, animals, and a strong sense of adventure. He writes fantasy and science fiction that explores multiverses and redemption through emotionally layered stories featuring anti-heroes, tragic turns, and wonder-filled journeys.

Links
Website: https://jamerkel.com/
Store: https://store.jamerkel.com/
Media / Press Kit: https://jamerkel.com/media-press-kit/
Newsletter: https://jamerkel.com/newsletter-sign-up/
Street Team: https://store.jamerkel.com/pages/street-team
Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/J.-A.-Merkel/author/B0CCNM9DKB
Goodreads author page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/41618992.J_A_Merkel
The Fourth Portal universal link: https://books2read.com/u/b6DBY6

#JAMerkel #The Fourth Portal #Fantasy author #Science fiction #Multiverse fiction #Book podcast #Author interview #booksIread #askrahul

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Alright, welcome JA. Welcome to the books I read. And someone who's there on this show meeting the listeners for the first time to the podcast. How would you like to introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Yeah, thanks for having me, Rahul. Great to be here. So my name is J.A. Merkel. I write science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction. I've always had an interest in both writing and science. So being able to marry those two things together has been the best thing to ever happen. For my undergrad, I majored in biology, and my focus was on behavior and evolutionary biology, which were two subjects that both blew my mind, especially considering my religious upbringing and how things were expected by creation. As a member of the LGBT community, I'm naturally being an outsider. I had a lot of projects. And writing has always been my way of defense of the world while also being my therapy. I'm the happiest when I'm writing consistently, and it's my life goal to become the best I can be as a writer while writing stories that help people feel they're not alone. That's what books helped me realize and excellent. Sure, I would say I stakes where the magic inside each of us is as unique as our phone.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Alright. Jay, I would like to also understand your life a little bit before becoming an author and after you became an author. So I have a question here which talks about before you became an author, what did the everyday life look like in terms of your work, in terms of your travel, and in terms of your general routine?

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Sure. So I worked remotely for a genetics company before becoming an author, and my routine consisted of trying to squeeze writing time in before or after work or on the weekends. But these days, anytime it was before work because that's when I felt most creative. And there was a lot more normalcy and routine with my life when I had my marketing job. But I knew the job would just recommend anybody who to be writing everything. So I got laid off about three years ago, and then I'm just writing and publishing books up to supplement my life.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

What is the one moment which you thought I really want to take writing seriously? And and whatever has happened. I know you spoke about uh the tough part of your life where you were in the middle of uh a layoff. And these are the things which happen with each of us, and now these are part and parcel as we come into the world of AI, and we see this very quite often happening. So that one moment which pushed you for writing.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Yeah, the funny thing is I never anticipated to break off and write books when I did. At first, I had my marketing job, I was writing publicly my books. I had Fair, Rat, and Chrystix and Burgeries, they were out. I still had that job, but then as I said, my company laid me off. They have been doing layoffs over the years and late COVID. And I knew that it was the push that I needed. I had small severance and unemployment cushion to see what I could do without having a job. And I think what helped me sustain this lifestyle longer is that I've pretty much been a single worker, freelancer, my entire life. I started a summer sports camp with my parents on, and I just love that I learned. I love that I think for myself, I've never really done well with pretty, so one way or another, I have built my life around finding ways to free up my time so I can write.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Uh let's move on to from your life to a little bit about your readers. Uh, what I understand from uh our previous uh uh discussions is that your readers is primarily young adult and new adult. I want to spend some time over here with you. When you write, who do you imagine is reading? Is it more of teenagers, more of college students, or maybe young working adults?

SPEAKER_00 4:14

I would say all of the above.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

But let me get a little more specific for my Fall Gauntlet series. I imagine maybe more teenagers and college students attaching to the stories because the protagonists are young adults, meet issues and are now more young adult issues. But for my fourth quarter series, I think it's more adult topic. Overall, I think all three groups can enjoy my book.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Yeah. Of course, uh with the reviews which I have seen on uh Goodreads and even on Amazon, I believe everyone is encapsulated by the way you write and the way you keep your surprises hidden. So that's something amazing about your writing. So let's dive uh get into the next question, which is about your new adult readers for the college and early career. What themes do you see them responding to most? Is it a more of initial few books or towards the middle of your books? Which kind of series is more accepted by your readers? Or is it all of them?

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Yeah, I I think it's both in different ways. I would say for my new adult readers, I see a lot of people mentioning in reviews how they like that a certain character, we'll say Fenu or Greya from Fourth World, or two, how they're able to make decisions for themselves. And that might sound a little bit off, but the reason I say that is because in this society, dystopian, it's a Confucius dystopian world where everyone tried to sell and so um they're not really taught to make decisions that are for themselves. I think this is something that readers attach to because we're all maybe constantly forming or reshaping our identity. So they're drawn to the pre-government revolution, or maybe stepping away from a partner that's no longer good for you, or breaking the family. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Yeah. Alright, uh, next is about a little bit about your family, childhood, and values. So, what kind of family and home did you grow up in? I mean, to ask you that would you describe your childhood as very adventurous, at the same time full of bed uh bedtime stories, or it's a mix of uh spirituality. A little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Sure, yeah. I grew up on a farm with four brothers and sisters. There's a big Roman Catholic family. We spent hard time doing chores, running around in bare feet, playing on Chris farm equipment, usually not at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

And I like to say that our house was filled with laughter and rosary beads. So there was a lot of love and affection, also a lot of religion and dogma. Overall, I'm I'm very grateful for this because a lot of things didn't make sense to me.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Excellent. Yeah, you know, uh when there's a mix of love, affection, books, a little bit of spirituality, it always is the best cocktail for being an author, I believe. So uh good job uh in terms of your family, childhood, and the value. You also see all of that into your books, which I mean to say your upbringing is showing into your characters of the books, like the bear and and the other ones.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Absolutely, yeah. Everywhere my family is in, all of my characters, my female protagonists, Benry and Freya, are essentially based on and made up of different parts of my four sisters and mom, who I love very much. And I think family as a construct is a huge thing for my box. A lot of my characters are orphaned or don't have family because of society structure, and I think this comes from a sort of longing to return to the family that created me. Maybe this is something that resonates with my readers because my stories center around familial problems and how we okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Alright. Good. Now we are coming uh towards the second part of our books where you have your books uh handy with you. And people who would be able to see the video podcast of this session, um, they might be able to see these books. People who would not be able to see the video part of this podcast uh for the listeners. Primarily, I will be dropping the links of these books in the description. You guys can go and click on those, and whichever market through Amazon and whichever portals uh JA will be providing, you'll be able to buy uh the ebooks or the physical books and read them. So coming into uh your idea to shelf, which means your fourth portal and the other book, if you can uh talk about all those things uh from the time these books were born and the idea from the stage of idea to the time it became finished books. So, when did the idea of the fourth portal first come to you and how long did it stay in your mind before you started writing?

SPEAKER_00 9:07

The idea for the fourth portal came to me while I was living in South Korea. I'm just gonna go ahead and show the right now.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Excellent. Wow, it's a multicolored, a lot of oranges, and the fourth portal. I think there is a sun and moon in the background, and then there is a lady which is standing and looking at the blank abyss, maybe what kind of adventure she's looking into. So uh that's for the people who are not able to see the book, but listen and understand the features of the book cover. Show go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Yeah, that was a perfect description, Rahul. So the idea for this came. I was in a relationship at the end of my time in Korea and experiencing a heartache that affected me deeply at the time. But my heart was very untested because for the longest time I wasn't in my health. And the idea came from this idea of love banning cultures, time, distant body. What if love was so powerful a force that it could actually kill you? But love so much of it. Physically, literally broken. And once the idea was developed, love as a virus, tried before do anything to act yourself. Uh I started that within the same month.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Okay, oh, excellent. A bit of emotion and a bit of a real life scenario which which had uh been shaken up at that point of time, got into your book. I think that was a perfect example how you put your real life emotions into the book. Moving on to the next part is how long did you take to complete your first book draft, the fourth portal?

SPEAKER_00 10:44

It was about three months. I had just finished my third and final teaching contract in Korea and decided to backpack for 40 days before returning to the states. So I wrote half of the fourth portal, it's a hundred thousand words. During it was called Nano Run at the m at the time, uh natural novel writing, which is now debunked, but I wrote half of it then and then the final half when I got home.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Okay. So three to four months for so many words takes a lot of patience, indeed. Readers say that fourth portal is full of surprises and twists that keep you very that keeps it very interesting. How many of those surprises were planned and how many are appearing right now in your writing?

SPEAKER_00 11:30

A lot of it was planned out. Yeah. The core relationship between the five main characters going out into the desert had always been planned. But two big surprises were that the character Kraya started off very much as a side character, but her voice and essence were just so strong, she just kept pushing her way forward. And she became sort of famous for the two words. And the second surprise was that I didn't let the element magic.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Next question is about one of the big lessons from the fourth portal, the journey that has changed you how you approach in your new books after that. Yeah, so So something which you picked up from the fourth portal while writing, and that had become the base for eventually writing the further more books.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Sure. So I think one of the big lessons was that I will try to plan because I have two different theories, and for the fourth portal, one of the mistakes I made was I released one of the Fall Gauntlet books just before the fourth portal, so I was more around the same time and kind of leaving in and out of each other, and I think that got a little bit for my audience, and it also didn't get me like the depth from the beginning. So next time I will kind of keep it very separate.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Now, if you pick up the books which have the guardians one by one, and maybe explain a little bit about each of the books, what does that guardian animal is like, and uh what is the storyline in terms of one or two lines? So one by one you can just pick up the series book and start talking about it till the time you finish it, and then I will have a next set of questions for you. Go ahead, Jay.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

So here's book one in the Fall Gauntlet series, it's called the Bear. This is a novella collection, so where one story ends, the next one picks up. And Bear is the start of the Fall Gauntlet tournament. So Benji, the main character, enters the Flight to the Death tournament to try to save his mother from her off-goal prison. Little does he know when he gets to the find he's taping the brother. His brother wears the bear mask, so that kicks into the whole series.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

So that book, before you keep it down, I would like to explain people how that book looks like. So it's a dark book which is kind of illuminated from the background in green color. There is a bear mask, which is which you can see. Some people will look at it uh thinking that it's a horror book, but no, it is not. It is something of a sci-fi book where it pushes your imagination and think about this book connecting into other books. So, which will be the next book? JA, next book, please.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Alright, so book two is rat, and Benji thinks that when he wins the Fall Gauntlet, it will be over, he'll get his wish granted. Little bit of a spoiler, not really, but surprise, the Fall Gauntlet continues. Our new villains, new setting. So book two is rat, and this kind of gets into the high-tech enemy mask that the fighters put on their face, and the tech that allows them to have the supernatural mass.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Alright, and that one was uh the similar kind of uh design with the purple uh background, the mask of rat, and uh a hand holding that mask. Next book.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Perfect, and then we have book three, which is Chris, which is a made-up mythical creature. It's kind of like a silly, mean-looking lizard. Chrysix gets into the gods and goddesses of this world. They allegedly have created the masks and passed them down for the humans, and we get insert.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

So this one is again a book which has a reddish dark background, and you see a lot of lightning behind this because I think associated with the negative aspect of the creature which it is representing, which is kind of covering the whole page. Sure. Thank you, Zaye.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Yes, perfect. And then we have number four, which is Khan. And this one really gets into the government of this world. So you have something called crown, they are a faceless entity, no one really knows who they are, but they are the oppressor with the runfall gauntlet, and Condor because they are a brightly yellow-colored book uh with the a creature which kind of looks like a bird or a cement.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

I could coat it with kind of a big beak. It is and of course, uh, again a type of a mask.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

Perfect. And then number five is Nanta, and in this one we get into the originals, capital, which are technically the first animals. They're gigantic animals that rule the earth and help the gods and goddesses create the oceans and basically take care of human and yeah, in Manta we get into the lore of what happened to the original.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

The only amphibian, uh the only fish uh series uh colored in blue matches with the rain and water and a kind of a storm, which is behind the s the very similar picture of a Manta Ray. So uh thank you for this, Jay.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Yes, and six and final books so far is Shark, our second fish. And Shark gets into the Fog Gauntlet. Every four years they have the Fall Gauntlet tournament, and they have to have the champion. So we find out, and try not to spoil anything, kind of what happened to some other enemies in this world when the last Fog Gauntlet Champion won because that hit the next uh government cycle and harvest.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

That one was uh something related to a big fish, uh, could be a shark, sharks all roaming around and turning around, and uh again a big mask colored in blue. That's Jay for you. Thank you, Jay, for taking us through the books, and uh, as we come toward the third set of questions, which is a little bit about your journey as an author and how did you circumvent your way from traditional authoring to uh self-authoring? So we will run those few questions. Uh your question, first question which uh comes to what were the differences, big practical differences between self-authoring and a traditional authoring? What are the advantages and maybe a couple of disadvantages?

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Sure. So yeah, I'm an independent author. I think the biggest differences to me are about control. In indie publishing, you pretty much control everything. I published four novellas in one year and was able to make my own schedule, price how I want, and decide every single element that goes into the book, every element of the cover, every word inside the book. My knowledge that it's not the same as traditional publishing, so just different options for me. Indie publishing made a lot of sense. As a freelancer, most of my life I do myself and build. But the other side of that is that you're gonna have to do bell thing. It takes up a lot of time, whereas in traditional publishing. Well, in traditional publishing, I've heard that you also have to market your own belt so with a little bit of similarity there, but things like formatting and editing, traditional publishing.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

I hear you. I also learned last time when we were speaking about our session is that you had a few ups and downs while uh getting into the cover, cover the vendors, how did you handle working with those editors, cover artists? So if you can tell a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

Sure. So for me and a lot of the indie authors I talk to, the biggest challenge for us is about visibility and credibility. There is definitely a stigma that I think is changing for the better, but it's that indie books are lesser than grad books because it's a backup plan. But that's just not true in a lot of cases. I know some are doing very well, they've been living off their just as well as other. But having said that, it's really hard to get people to see our books and read them because they're not that same out for people.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

So, Jay, uh, I know that you're going to you have covered a few conferences. If you can talk about that. And if any my listeners can uh see you in the coming conference, if you have uh some plans, talk about that as well.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Sure. Yeah, so yeah, I did one in Arizona, one in California, which were both amazing. I think conferences are where deep connections and friendships form. And yeah, I also have an upcoming conference in Orlando, July 23rd, 26th, 2026. And it's gonna be a huge enchanted round. There's six different things really excited. So yeah, if you're in the area, come check it out.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Excellent. I I wish that I was also in that area and I could have also come and seen it. If you could go back and give yourself, a younger JA one line of advice before starting this journey, what would that advice be?

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Oh gosh, I would tell myself to just be okay with making mistakes and be seen, right. Continue to yeah, write and put things out. I think for the longest time I was really afraid, and I don't regret anything. I I think I'm I've led exactly where I need to, but that perfection isn't really back for a long time, so I would tell myself myself.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Alright, JA. So right now we are in the last leg of our podcast where we will have a few rapid fire questions, so get ready and uh just take it on from so you can spend five to ten seconds if you think you want to explain it. But one word answer is also good for me. So the first one is paperback or ape?

SPEAKER_00 21:34

Oh, definitely paperback. I like to call something physical.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

Yeah, great. Second, you want to write in silence or with music?

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Definitely music. I love uh classical or upbeat uh instrumental music when I excellent, good choice.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Next question you are a morning writing person or a late night writing person?

SPEAKER_00 21:57

Now I'm a morning writer, ten years. Years ago I was late night into four or six AM.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Oh my god. So that's n the night turning into a day. One so tell me about one book by any other you wish that you had written. It could be your inspiration or it could be saying which you look forward and always fall back when you want to read something.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Such an interesting question. I would say Hyperion by Dan Simmons is my favorite book of all time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Alright. How how how long is that book? Is it is it more than 500 pages? It's less than five hundreds?

SPEAKER_00 22:36

It's probably less, but it's a series of four books, and they're all probably yeah, four, five, six hundred pages.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Oh, okay. Pictional character you would love to have coffee with out of your characters which you showed. Out of my characters? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

I would say I'm gonna go Kraya because I just uh get inside her mind and understand her.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Wow, that's very nice. Next question. A place in the world that feels like it inside one of your books.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

I'm gonna Greece, some of the Greek islands I traveled to last summer have definitely inspired some ideas for my future fog on this.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Oh, great. Next question tea, coffee, or something else while eat.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

I wanna say coffee, but it's a slippery slope. I get really jittery, so I'm gonna go with water or sparkling water.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

Yeah. For me I think sparkling water works super well when I'm alone in hotel rooms when I and I have to back back on back uh do a lot of work related to my office and those scenarios.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Bang on feels like a nice, nice, healthy treat.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

True. It's a treat as well as zero calories. So you're happy at the same time and you're not worried about what you're eating. Yep, next question. Yeah. Next question. One word your readers often use to describe your books that makes you happy.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

It was a word that you actually used as well, and I'm gonna say unpredictable.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Right. I think unpredictability is the heartbeat of our and we do not know uh the next heartbeat is there. So being unpredictable in writing really brings up the charm overall. So that's a good Jayve. So as we move towards the closing, uh what what are you more most excited about for your next series or next books and the expansion in the universe? And any upcoming projects you want to share with the listeners?

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Sure. So I'm excited about uh of upcoming projects. I will say book seven in the fall gauntlet is going to come out this summer. It's called Links. I have revealed emo. I'm also excited about books eight and nine because that will complete part one. There's nine books in each room, and that will let me focus on my other series. And then one big thing excited about is a Kickstarter project that I'm gonna do later. This uh remaking the fall combat omnibus, which is books one, two, and three, it it combine four reasons.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

That that that's a good way to do it because you know you can put your hand into all the books at the single point of time and you can go forward and backward and then going back to the shelf and pulling pulling it out. Yeah, that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Omnibuses are great.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Yeah. The last question which I have for you is where can listeners find your books and follow online?

SPEAKER_00 25:32

Yeah, listeners can find me at my website, which is jammerkle.com. I also have a storefront which is store.jamerklem, and then you can pretty much find on all of the book sites Amazon, Barnes and Noble. My books are pretty much everywhere. You can buy books. I'm also on Instagram and TikTok as JA Merkel Undor Author. You forget any of this, you can just type in JA Merkel on Google, and something will probably work.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Of course, it it comes up very nicely, and a a great headshot comes in first, and then definitely a lot of uh pictures about your books. AA, thank you so much for joining me today. It was a pleasure to have you at Ask Rahul the books I read, and thank you for all the valuable insight. Showing us the softer part of the indie author, because you know many of the people are always thinking about this journey, and thank you for showing that interest, courage where you are connecting from US and the listeners all over the globe will be uh listening to this podcast and looking at uh people who would be able to see this. There is Amazon available here in India as well, and I was able to uh put my hands on the books, so I invite all the listeners to go ahead and understand these books. Great information, great family, and how could put your mind away from the gadget chase and the so-called technology and move into a real thinking brain, which is an asset one human being could have.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

Couldn't agree more, and thank you so much for having me, Rahul, all your time.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

Thank you, thank you, Jay, and wish you all wish you all the best for your upcoming piece. And whenever these books come up, I will be happy to have you back again here on the show. Thank you. Have a nice day. You too. Bye bye.