Interview with YA author Jake Lynch #TuesdayBookBlog #TheLostSaint – Shelley Wilson Author
I’m delighted to invite Jake Lynch onto my blog today to chat about his novels and writing process.
Jake Lynch is a young adult author specialising in action/adventure novels and slice-of-life contemporary religious fiction. Through the art of writing stories, he aims to convey messages of hope and wisdom while also providing an entertaining story.
When he is not writing, he enjoys watching anime and surfing. His favourite animes are Naruto, Rise of the Shield Hero, and 86. As a resident of Southern California, the call of the ocean is never far, as his love for surfing constantly brings him back to the water.
How did you write your first novel?
I never planned on being an author. In fact, it was the last thing I could ever imagine myself becoming. Ironically, Jake never had any aspirations to become an author until he was nineteen.
I was finishing the first semester of my sophomore year in college at the University of Utah (Go Utes!). It was a very stressful semester and I was glad it was over. But as it came to a close, I started having this idea of writing a book about a janitor as a gentlemanly character who goes around and helps people.
This idea sparked because I had met a homeless man on the train who was a janitor. He was the most joyful person I had ever met, and he made me feel so happy when I talked with him.
Originally, I didn’t think the idea was concrete since I had never written a book before, and writing was the last thing I ever imagined myself doing. But as the weeks went on, the idea remained in my mind.
I realised I needed to pray about this and ask God if He was actually calling me to write a book. So, I went home, prayed in silence for a couple of minutes, then asked, “God, do you want me to write a book about a janitor?” Then I flipped to where I was reading in the Bible at the time in the book of Isaiah, which was interesting because I had received an impression a month or so prior to start reading the book of Isaiah specifically when I was reading chronologically through the New Testament.
When I opened my Bible after praying, the first verse I found was Isaiah 30:8 NLT, which says, “Now go and write down these words. Write them in a book.”
After receiving that very specific and clear answer, I raise my head up and say, “Alright, you can’t be more direct than that.”
From that point on, I opened a Word doc and started writing one to two hours a day on my first draft. I didn’t know exactly what I was writing, but I had to do it because I was called to write that novel. Over five years, I eventually learned how to write my first novel: Broken to Beautiful.
Once I finished my first novel, I figured, “Well, I wrote one book, I might as well write another.” So, I got started on my next novel: The Lost Saint.
Blurb from The Lost Saint
What is a warrior without a home? A soldier without a nation. A man without a family.
What does one fight for when there is nothing left to fight for?
After the Great Wars devastated most of the planet, a lone soldier named Marcus wanders the world in search of a new purpose. But the world is not as he remembers, finding the land has devolved into a modern dark ages. Old countries and borders no longer exist as new orders are established in the chaos. Bandits roam the countryside murdering anyone they come across, while morals mean nothing as power is law.
Will Marcus find his purpose, or will he succumb to the evils of this new world?”
What was your inspiration for The Lost Saint?
When I finished writing my first novel, Broken to Beautiful, I figured, well, since I had already learned how to write one book, I might as well write another!
I vaguely thought of writing an action novel with a warrior, but in a “new world” sort of feel. So just for fun, I started writing The Lost Saint, my first action novel. I had little to no expectations for this book after spending five years trying to pour my heart and soul into writing my first novel and making it unique. But with this novel, it wasn’t as difficult since I didn’t have any pressure on what the outcome would be. I figured I would just write it and see where it takes me.
After finishing Broken to Beautiful, I had finally learned my writing process for how I create books, so it wasn’t hard this time with writing The Lost Saint. I applied the same formula to this novel, and it worked out pretty well. I didn’t have a major theme in the story nor a life-changing message; I just wanted to write an action story and see how it goes. Surprisingly, I finished the first draft in just six weeks, compared to my multiple, multiple!, rewrites for my first novel, which took over five years to write and publish.
What was the most challenging part of writing The Lost Saint?
The dialect! I wanted to give a sort of new feel to the story and make it seem like it was in a whole new world, so I added some dialect to the characters, and my goodness, that was such a hassle in editing. I can’t believe the difficulty it is when writers create whole new languages in TV shows or make up small dialects in languages. It goes to show that language is more complicated than we think.
What would you like readers to take away from reading your work?
I want people to relate to the main character and understand their purpose. We may not realise it, but we all have a purpose in life, and we are useful and not useless, no matter what we may think our current situation is.
What’s next?
They say it’s a snowball effect when it comes to certain things, and that’s exactly what happened after writing this story.
Once I finished writing The Lost Saint, I started thinking more about cool scenes with my main character and what to do with him. I started thinking of problems he could solve and how to portray those real-life issues through the art of fiction. And so, that’s when this new series took over my mind.
This book started a long series I plan to write called Chronicles of the Lost Saint. The second novel, The Soldier and the Mother, is set to be released sometime in 2026-2027. My main character, Marcus, has to address the demons of his past while trying to look forward to his future.
I hope this has inspired others out there to continue with hard work and determination.
Connect with Jake Lynch:
The Lost Saint is published on 5th June 2025
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I’m a proud mum of three and live in the West Midlands, UK. I love travelling in my VW camper, reading about Tudor and Viking history, and obsessing over to-do lists!
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