Writer’s Desk: C.J. Milacci
Writer’s Desk: C.J. MilacciAward-winning author CJ Milacci writes stories for teens and young adults with heart-pounding action and hope. As the podcast host for Read Clean YA with CJ, she loves talking about books and the deeper themes woven into the pages of each novel. She’s passionate about crafting stories of good overcoming evil, finding hope in the midst of seemingly hopeless circumstances, and true acceptance.
Always willing to get real about hard issues, C.J. also enjoys the cheesiest of puns. She chats about writing, her faith, bubble tea, and other fun adventures online (@cjmilacci) and at cjmilacci.com.
Connect with C.J. on her website, Instagram, and Facebook, and sign up for her newsletter.
More about Recruit of TalionisWhen the world falls apart, one girl must find hope in the darkness.
Seventeen-year-old Bria Averton grew up in a small town of survivors near the ruins of Portland, Maine, years after the Demise of North America. But when she is kidnapped and forced to become a soldier in the mysterious city of Talionis, she finds herself thrust into a world of danger and darkness. Unknown forces are at work in the city, and Bria soon realizes that escape is impossible. With her own guilt and the oppressive evil of the city threatening to drown her, Bria must find a way to survive…and discover if hope is possible. Even here.
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Q&A with C.J. MilacciARCF: The third book in your Talionis series, Enemy of Talionis, is releasing in a little over a month (congrats!) can you tell you tell us a little about the series?
CJM: The Talionis Series takes place in an imagined future where America has fallen. It’s about a teen girl, Bria, who gets kidnapped along with other teens and forced to become a soldier in a hidden city called Talionis. The series follows Bria and her friends as they face evil and darkness and have to make the decision to either give in and allow the evil to win, or stand and fight. Although there’s a dark backdrop to this series, my books always have hope woven in, and I explore themes that include finding hope in darkness and how do you follow God in a world that’s falling apart.
ARCF: What was the inspiration behind this series? And how many books do you have planned for the series?
CJM: I wanted to write a series where teens could get escape the difficult things they are dealing with for a time and enter into an adventure where the protagonist faces both bad guys attempting to ruin her life and struggles with the pain of her own past at the same time. My desire is for readers to enter the books to escape, but then close the books with something they can take with them back into their lives. I want my books to be a place where Bria and my readers can wrestle through hard questions, struggle with the pain of betrayal, learn how to stand courageously in the face of evil, find true community and found family, and discover what it looks like to follow God in a world that is full of enemies and struggles.
I have four books planned for this series. The fourth and final book will release on Kickstarter in the spring of 2025 and then everywhere in the fall of 2025.
ARCF: You’ve used Kickstarter to publish your series — and you’re doing quite well with it! What made you decide to go with Kickstarter (and can you explain the process to a reader who may not be familiar with Kickstarter)?
CJM: I decided to go with Kickstarter because I loved that it was a platform where I could connect directly with my readers and provide them with not just a book, but lots of fun extras and add-ons as well. It works almost like a super-charged pre-order where everyone who backs the Kickstarter not only gets lots of fun extras, they also receive the ebook months before it is officially released. I love being able to interact with every person who backs the campaign, and there’s something so fun and special about being able to sign the books and ship them to my backers with all the fun swag. Plus, all the backers vote on which stretch goals they want—like maps added to the book, an extra short story set in the series world, stickers, bookmarks, etc.—and it allows me to put together something my readers actually want. Not just something I think they want.
ARCF: In addition to writing, you also have a day job. How do you find time to balance all the things?
CJM: Ah balance! What a hard thing to find sometimes. One of the things I have come to realize is that I need to constantly reevaluate my priorities, assess the work before me, and continually commit it all to the Lord and ask for His direction. My schedule changes quite frequently and it’s necessary to take the time to review the things on my plate and establish a plan of action. One thing my dad likes to say is that the important things are rarely pressing and the pressing things are rarely important. When I’m reviewing my schedule, I try to keep that in mind and make sure I’m prioritizing the things God has called me to do and not lose sight of them. And I’ve also found that there is much to be said for delegating certain tasks to someone I trust so that I can do the work that only I can do. 
ARCF: What do you hope readers take away from the Talionis series?
CJM: I want them to walk away with the realization that no matter how dark things appear or how much evil seems to surround them, there can always be hope that pierces that darkness. My prayer is that God could use my stories to touch the hearts of my readers, show them more of Himself, and equip them to stand strong in the face of evil and follow Him, even when that road is hard. Especially then.
ARCF: Why YA?
CJM: I worked in youth and young adult ministry for over a decade and I have a soft spot for teens and young adults. The season of life they are in is tough and they are going through more today than seems fair. I wanted to write stories that could meet them where they are at and be a great alternative to the books being produced that are so contradictory to God and His word.
ARCF: Which character in the Talionis series is most like you?
CJM: I think there’s a little piece of me in a lot of my characters, and I don’t think one of them screams “me” more than the rest. However, I do have some family members who are convinced Bria has a lot of me in her—at least a lot of me when I was younger. So if we’re going what they think, I suppose Bria.
ARCF: You also recorded and produced the audiobooks for the first two books in the series. What were some challenges you faced when putting out your audiobooks — and where is the best place for readers to purchase the audiobooks?
CJM: It has been a lot of fun recording and producing my audiobooks, but at this point I only have book one officially released. One of my biggest challenges was my own fault: I have such a large cast of characters. And I really like different voices for every character. Which led to me being a bit annoyed with myself at times. 
But the experience of seeing my books brought to life in this way has been so much fun, and it’s been worth the struggle and time it takes to produce the audio versions.
Recruit of Talionis is available wherever you like purchasing audiobooks. The audiobook for Fugitive of Talionis will begin to be available in a rather unique way in 2025 (until it’s finished and available everywhere). If readers are interested, they can sign up for my newsletter since that’s where I’ll be sharing the details soon.
ARCF: You also have a podcast for clean YA fiction! Can you tell us a little about it and where we can listen to episodes?
CJM: I do! Thanks for asking. My podcast is called Read Clean YA with CJ and it’s a podcast for teens and young adults (and anyone else) who want to explore exciting worlds, deep themes, and epic stories—without the objectionable content. I interview different authors about their books, discuss the deeper themes within their stories, hear the author’s heart for his or her books and readers, and provide a resource for those who are looking for excellent young adult stories that don’t include inappropriate content. I have a blast talking with other authors, and I love being able to highlight these fantastic stories. You can listen to the podcast wherever you like listening to podcasts. And you can find more information about the podcast at ReadCleanYA.com.
ARCF: What’s coming up next for you?
CJM: I’m currently working on the fourth and final book in the Talionis Series, which is rather exciting. The Kickstarter for that book will be in the Spring of 2025 and then it will release everywhere in the Fall of 2025. After I finish book four, I have a standalone project that I am very excited about, but I can’t share anything quite yet.
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The post Writer’s Desk: C.J. Milacci appeared first on Tricia Goyer.
