My ALLi author guest this episode is Luke Richardson, a former journalist, nightclub DJ, and English teacher who turned his love of travel and adventure into a career as a full-time indie author. Luke visits the places he writes about, drawing on their history, atmosphere, and people to create globe-trotting thrillers. He also approaches publishing as a business and builds a close relationship with his readers.
Listen to the Inspirational Indie Author Interview: Luke Richardson
About the Host
Howard Lovy is an author, developmental editor, and writing coach with a long career in journalism and publishing. He works with writers at many stages of their careers, with a focus on helping them develop their ideas and strengthen their work while preserving their unique voices. He lives in Northern Michigan.
About the Guest
Luke Richardson is the author of international thrillers that blend history, mystery, and adventure in exotic locations. A former English teacher and lifelong traveler, he brings his real-life adventures to the page—and to podcasts—sharing insights on storytelling, creativity, and far-off places. You can find him on his website, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
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Read the Transcript
Luke Richardson: Hi, I'm Luke. I'm an author of archeological and international thrillers. They span the entire world and various historical periods, although they're all set in the present day. And the thing I try to put in my books, and I'm very proud of this, is that I want them to take readers somewhere.
Whether that's the Giza Plateau or the secret passages we all know are beneath it, right? Or whether that's the back streets of cities like Hong Kong or Berlin or wherever. I want the reader to open the book and be able to come on that journey with me. So I spend a lot of time researching, both going to the places and reading about them and involving myself in the history of that place.
And I try to bring things into it that you wouldn't necessarily know. Maybe the smell of that market scene, or the unusual things about a place that we all know and all want to visit. So I spend a lot of time trying to do that and then put it into a page-turning novel as well.
Howard Lovy: That's great. So you've actually been to these places, and that's something AI can never do: give you what something smells like, what it felt like to be in this place. That's the advantage that humans so far have over AI. But let's talk about your own history first.
Where did you grow up? And were reading and writing always a part of your life?
A Childhood of James Bond Films Sparks a Love of Adventure
Luke Richardson: Sure. I'm English. I grew up in the south of England near a place called Hastings on the south coast, and then I went to university, to college as you'd call it over in your ends, in Nottingham, which is right in the middle of the country, and I live there still to this day.
I was an English teacher for several years. This is skipping on a little while. And then I—
Howard Lovy: Let's stick to your childhood first.
Luke Richardson: Oh, okay. You want to go right into the weeds.
Howard Lovy: Let's go. I mean, were you drawn to adventure stories from an early age?
Luke Richardson: Certainly. I remember watching the James Bond films with my grandfather and just loving the sense of adventure that these films had, of Blofeld's lair beneath a volcano on some tropical island or whatever, and this sense of place those films have. I still love them to this day.
So I remember being drawn to exotic and interesting places. It took me a while to get into travel myself. My first trip, which I've talked about many times, was to India, in my early to mid-20s. That's when I really became inspired by going to these places myself. But I was definitely interested in them at a younger age.
Howard Lovy: So what did you study in school? You studied English at university?
Luke Richardson: I studied journalism.
Howard Lovy: Oh, journalism.
Luke Richardson: I studied journalism. And I'm seeing this now as you talk about it: I was always interested in journalistic pieces from far-flung places, places we don't always know about or think about. The idea of these journalists going there and covering stories, and reading those accounts, I found quite inspiring in those days.
Luke Leaves the DJ Booth for a “Proper Job”
Howard Lovy: So then you became a teacher, and also a nightclub DJ. Were those things simultaneous?
Luke Richardson: Partly. The DJing came first. I did that whilst at university because it was a good part-time job. And then I just really enjoyed it and fell into it. For about four or five years I did it professionally.
And then, nearing my 30s, I remember thinking there were a lot of late nights and a lot of long drives to various cities all around the country, and I thought it might be time to do something—a “proper job,” in inverted commas, as we would call it.
Howard Lovy: What kind of music did you play?
Luke Richardson: I played all sorts back in those days, so it was very much whatever was popular at the time. This was probably the early 2000s, so there was some good music popular at that time, Howard, I'll have you know. Thinking back to it, it was a good era for pop music, I think.
Howard Lovy: Well, grunge was winding down and electronic music was ramping up.
Luke Richardson: This is it. I've always been a bit of an electronic music fan, so that focuses in on that too.
A Taxi Ride Through Mumbai Inspires a Writer
Howard Lovy: So from there you decided you wanted to go off and see the world, and you described a taxi ride through Mumbai as the moment that inspired you to become a writer. What was it about that experience?
Luke Richardson: It was this idea that this place has existed for my whole life and will exist when I leave, and it matters not that I'm there. I'm seeing it through a window as an outsider.
And it was so different from what I knew. It was colorful and it was bold and it was raw. It had this contrast of rich and poor that I still struggle to get my head around. I remember thinking, “This is just amazing that this is here,” and I remember looking at everything with this childlike awe and wonder that children get when they see something for the first time. I was experiencing that in my 20s, and it made me think, “There must be other places like this.” Like an extreme sports fanatic, I think I've been seeking that high ever since, throwing myself into wherever I can and trying to experience different cultures and different places.
Kathmandu Becomes the End of the Road
Howard Lovy: So eventually that led you to Kathmandu.
Luke Richardson: One of the main themes of the book is this idea that Kathmandu was the end of the hippie trail in the 1970s. When people got to Kathmandu, it was either go home, start making your way back toward Europe, or just stay there for as long as you can and eke out a few more weeks on the road, because there was not really anywhere further you could get with the mountains in the way. At that time you couldn't go into China, which of course is over the Himalayas from there. So I love the idea that it really is the end of the road. It's the restaurant at the end of the galaxy. You literally get there and you have to stop, because there is no further, and that idea seeped into the story. I had the story going around in my mind for a while, and it wasn't until I visited Kathmandu in 2016 that I thought, “This is where I want it to be set.”
That idea of isolation: it's surrounded by the Himalayas on all sides. A storm comes in, all the planes are grounded and you can't get out. Then there's the chaos of it. It's absolutely frantic. The city's full of fumes and traffic and cars.
And then it's got the people who are going to climb Everest, or the people who are going to trek in the Annapurnas, and it's got the people who have done what I did, a cross-country trek through India and Nepal. And then there are the people trying to eke out a living.
Because it's in the mountains, there are a lot of people there who come from remote villages high up in the Himalayas and the Annapurnas who are following a dream, right? In the same way people have gone to New York or London or any other big city in the world, following a dream that they'll go there and make their living. It's this tension between all those factions that I tried to explore in the story.
Howard Lovy: You still sound excited about it.
Luke Richardson: I am still excited about it. And also imagine an international detective series based on that.
Luke Chooses Independent Publishing
Howard Lovy: So first you published Kathmandu Killers in 2019, and you published it independently. Why did you make that choice?
Luke Richardson: It's a good question. I think a lot of people do this: I wrote the book and then thought about publishing it. I had no idea what the publishing process was until I had finished that book. I have subsequently re-edited it many times as I've become a better writer and learnt more, which I think is a good thing to do, generally speaking. I then dove into all the research, all the information we have on publishing options, listening to podcasts like yours and the other stuff that's out there.
Ultimately, for me, it was a time thing. I wanted this book to be out, and I wanted to move on to the next project, whatever that happened to be. I did not like the idea of it sitting in a drawer for two years whilst I cracked on with something else and then having to come back to it. I loved the idea of doing it more immediately.
Moreover, I wanted it to be a profession. I wanted to learn the ropes, and I wanted it to be a business. For that reason, indie publishing really appealed to me, and it still does. You're in control of it, and you're developing a relationship with the people who read your books.
That has proved to be a really cool thing over the last few years. There are some people I now consider friends whom I met through their reading my books, and that's very special.
Howard Lovy: Is writing your full-time job?
Luke Richardson: Yes, it is. Although I have to say, Howard, I don't really like the term “full-time,” because I don't think it captures what anyone who runs a business actually does. You don't work 36, 40, 42, whatever hours a week. You work the hours that you can, and that's always different.
Howard Lovy: It's fluid.
Luke Richardson: Exactly. Sometimes it's 24/7, and other times it's not. Family things happen, or you're away somewhere.
Eden Black Finds Its Market
Howard Lovy: You went on to write six books in this international detective series, and then you launched archeological thrillers. Of course, that brings to mind Indiana Jones. Is that what you had in mind, or something else?
Luke Richardson: Exactly that. Go on, sorry, I'm interrupting you.
Howard Lovy: No, I guess my statement was the question. What inspired you to go in that direction?
Luke Richardson: I struggled with that first series in that it didn't really find its market, and this is something a lot of first-time authors do. They write the book of their heart, right? They write the book they really feel they want to put out in the world. There's nothing wrong with that, but it didn't really fit in a box.
If I were to tell you what it is, it's an anxious detective going around the world trying to find missing people. It's not very action-packed. He's not your ex-military guy. He's quite laid-back, an everyman sort of person. You can tell I'm struggling to define it just by explaining it to you here on this podcast.
If I were to tell you about my Eden Black series, I could say it's about an ancient civilization, a lost relic that will change the world, and one woman who has to find it before the clock reaches zero. You know straight away what that book's about, and you know straight away whether you're going to enjoy it or not.
Howard Lovy: You even got your little announcer voice going. That's great promo.
Travel Feeds the Stories
Howard Lovy: Is there a direct line between your real-life travel adventures and your characters' adventures?
Luke Richardson: Unfortunately not, in terms of the relics they find and the action sequences they go through. But I do try to visit every place my books are set, and that's an essential part of it.
I often don't know what the story is until we're there. There are examples of thinking, “Oh, this might make a great story,” and then I walk in and see something, and I'm like, “Wow, there it is. That's the story right there.” These things attract me in that way.
Howard Lovy: So you don't do it sitting in a room behind your computer screen. You get inspired by your own travels.
Luke Richardson: No. Although that's an important thing, because it's that whole 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration ratio. You have to do the sitting-in-the-room-behind-the-computer-screen thing at some point to get the book finished. It's not all gallivanting on beaches and climbing mountains, right?
Luke Balances Life on the Road With Life at the Laptop
Howard Lovy: I think you wrote that you travel for about half the year. How do you balance those two parts of your life?
Luke Richardson: We travel, as you've said, around 50% of the time at the moment, and it's quite fluid. It depends on the work I'm doing and where we're going. Now, I have to say that some of the travel is not adventure travel in the way you'd think about it.
For example, we've been to Morocco for the last two years. We go there and rent an apartment on the beach, and it's pretty much a writing retreat. I sit in our little apartment and work for six or seven hours, and then we walk on the beach as the sun goes down, and it's wonderful.
So that isn't travel to inspire a story. The first time we went, it did, but it won't any longer. That trip is there because it's a great place to shut out the British winter, enjoy a bit of sun and really get down to getting some words on the page.
And then there are other trips. For example, I'm just finishing a book set in Paris and in France, and we did a month-long camper van odyssey, as I'm calling it, around France in that van, visiting a lot of the great places my characters visit during the story.
A Mailing List Becomes the Backbone of the Business
Howard Lovy: Now, what about marketing? You said your detective series was trying to find itself, but you really found yourself with this archeological adventure series. Do you have fans who are waiting for your next novel, and how do you keep in touch with them?
Luke Richardson: The mailing list, my Adventure Society, as I call it, has become the backbone of the business in that respect. I email once or twice a week, and I quite often have conversations with people who say, “How do you know what to write?” For me it's the opposite. I could write one of these emails every day if I wanted, but of course I don't want to spam people to that degree.
There are so many interesting things to talk about. Because my books involve these historical elements and these places, I could talk about these fascinating places all the time and put little bits of information in the newsletters I write.
Then I can say, “We're traveling around this part of France,” or “We're in this particular city, and here's a really interesting fact I learnt yesterday about the place we traveled to.” I believe that if people like that sort of adventure, the stories will appeal to them as well. They're almost tangential, right? They work together, as opposed to one trying to sell the other.
Howard Lovy: You're not saying, “Buy my book, buy my book.”
Luke Richardson: Never.
Howard Lovy: It's “Here's who I am.”
The Adventure Story Podcast Goes Behind the Stories
Howard Lovy: You also have a podcast called The Adventure Story Podcast, where you interview other travelers and writers. That's a fun part of my job at ALLi, interviewing all these great writers. What do you get out of those conversations?
Luke Richardson: I love that, and I've had some real heroes of mine on there over the last few years. We had Rolf Potts on Series 1, and we talked about the idea of slowing down when you travel and letting yourself go. Alastair Humphreys came on this season, and he talked about taking little adventures, so every day could be an adventure. It doesn't have to be this big, giant thing.
I had Tony McMahon on, who talked about the truth behind the Templars. Who else? Guy Anderson, who talked about the Freemasons. He was a Freemason and he left, and I was getting him to reveal the truth behind the robe, as it were.
So for me, I love those conversations, right? These are the nerdy conversations I would have with those people whether you were listening or not. But it's an extra pleasure to be able to share them and dive deep into the things behind the stories, which some of my books are based on.
Not all of them, though. Not all of my books are based on a conversation I've had on the podcast. There are a lot of things I'm just interested in. I had Nick Harvey on, an author you may know, talking about diving, because a lot of his books revolve around diving adventures. We were talking about why diving makes such a great adventure backdrop, even for people like me who've never done it. The idea that you're underwater and you can't easily escape is one of them. You're running out of air, or there's a shark, or something like that.
Howard Lovy: Absolutely. And I don't even want to talk about my one experience with diving. It was the most horrifying experience of my life, and I'll never do it again. But it's awesome, in that it created awe.
Luke Explores the Gaps in History
Howard Lovy: So it sounds like you have a little bit of Dan Brown in you. I don't like to make a direct comparison with other authors, but there's a little bit of that conspiracy, the secrets behind these relics. Is that kind of what you do?
Luke Richardson: Yes, that's exactly right. There's so much we know about history, right? There are so many interesting things we can learn from the textbooks or from these great documentaries we have.
But there are always bits that aren't as clear as we think they are. There are things we don't know. There are things that aren't quite as cut and dried as perhaps we were made to believe in primary school or in one of our school history lessons.
And it's that little 5% that's unclear that I love to jump into and go, “Well, what if it's this? What if it's wrong? What if this is the thing?” I'm not necessarily suggesting that's true. I'm not saying the whole of history is wrong. I'm just saying, “Well, hold on, there's a bit here that we haven't thought about,” and that could be really fun. That's a great little story hook for me.
Howard Lovy: Well, I guess there's a difference between believing in every conspiracy theory and using it as a plot point for fiction.
Luke Richardson: That's exactly right. And they're less conspiracies in the sense of “the men are going to come and get you.” They're more about the missing historical civilization. What's really beneath the Sahara Desert? Before the Amazon was a rainforest, what might have been there? What's beneath the ice in the Arctic? We know there's a landscape there, but we don't know exactly what it is. It's these sorts of things that really interest me.
Howard Lovy: That's great. It sounds like you've combined your nerd side with your adventure side in a perfect balance.
Luke Richardson: 100% right.
The Alchemist Codex Heads to Notre Dame
Howard Lovy: What are you working on now?
Luke Richardson: I'm working on The Alchemist Codex, which will be the eighth book in the Eden Black series. It's set in and around Notre Dame in Paris, the great cathedral, which I had the pleasure of visiting in March. If you've never been and you're over in Paris, make sure you go. It's absolutely wonderful.
The book starts with the question: What if the fire that we all know burned the cathedral in 2019 was set on purpose to hide something that was carved in the fascia of that cathedral? What if there's something there more than what we're told? It goes on a chase to find some of the master alchemists who have lived in Paris throughout the centuries and what they might have hidden beneath the carvings of Notre Dame.
So that's the premise. I'm doing the final read-through at the moment, moving commas around and making sure everything's as tight as it needs to be before it goes over to my editing team.
Luke Shares Advice for Building a Writing Life
Howard Lovy: You're living the kind of life I always expected I wanted to live in my old age: travel the world, write about it, collect money for my books. So what advice do you have for people, young or old, in building the kind of writing life you have?
Luke Richardson: I think it starts with just what you've said there. What life do you want? There's a saying that how you spend your days is how you spend your life.
So get really granular. How do you want to spend your days? I talked about my days in Morocco, which we're going to do again this January when it's bleak and horrible in England. I said I worked eight hours at my laptop and then went out and walked on the beach and had a pint of beer in this lovely little beach bar we know there.
But the point is that I worked at my laptop for eight hours a day. I run this as a business, right? I put in those hours on the laptop to write the books, market the books, write the newsletters and do all the other stuff that we both know you need to do to run a business, and that's how I'm able to sustain the life.
If I had written one book, put it out, half forgotten about it and got on with something else, it wouldn't have worked in the same way. That's not to say that's not a valid enterprise. If anyone listening has a book of their heart and they want it on the shelf and they want to give copies to their relatives, great. But that's a very different thing from what I do and from what people who are able to sustain their lives from their writing do. You need to think about the market, you need to write books that hit that market, you need to write them consistently, and you need to keep your readers engaged between those book releases. That can be hard work if you're not expecting it to be. But for me, it's a pleasure, so I wouldn't change it at all.
Luke Slows Down to Add Value
Howard Lovy: How many books a year?
Luke Richardson: I do around one in my main series, the Eden Black series. I've got a collaboration series with another author that I do one in as well, so I half write that one and I write one on my own.
I'm not a quick writer, and in fact, Howard, I decided last year to do just one a year in the Eden Black series. I feel like that's the opposite of what a lot of people are doing. There's this perception that you should write more. But that's on purpose, because I think if there's less of something, people think it's more valuable. You know what I mean?
Howard Lovy: Well, I hope that's true. I average about one book every 20 years.
Luke Richardson: Whoa, your books are worth 20 times what mine are, then, mate.
Howard Lovy: Maybe. Well, this has been fascinating, Luke. It sounds like you're a real international man of mystery.
Readers Find Luke Online
Howard Lovy: Tell people where they can find you on the internet.
Luke Richardson: Sure. Lukerichardsonauthor.com is my website. Everything I do is there. There are blog posts from my travels, information about the places I've been, the books and the history behind the books, links to the podcast, and of course you can buy the books there as well. Lukerichardsonauthor.com.
Howard Lovy: Great. Well, thank you, Luke. I appreciate this conversation. This was fun.
Luke Richardson: You're welcome. Thank you.
