Jalen Tellis (he/him) is an independent novelist & screenwriter who writes complex storytelling.
Author Links:
Website: jalentellisbooks.com
Instagram: @jalentellisofficial
Welcome Jalen, you’re here to tell us about your current books. Let’s start with Incursion, your mystery Sci-Fi thriller, released March 2025. What gave you the idea for this novel, and can you tell us how you developed this idea into its current form?
Thank you for having me, I am honored and grateful to be given this interview. I had the idea for a sci-fi story ever since Middle School. It’s been one of those passion projects where I knew this story was going to be made but not so sure how.
Incursion had been in my brain for as long as I can remember, and ever since I was thinking about a new idea for my debut novel, this story never went away. This idea really came from my love of Sci-Fi and aliens; wanting to tell a story about the unknown and other species that are upon us.
I really wanted to dive into that type of concept where what would happen if an alien invasion were to happen in modern day? How would people in today’s society react? Who would be behind it? Those questions piqued my interests.
How did you develop your protagonist, Riley, a YouTube conspiracy theorist?
Well first off, I am a sucker for conspiracy theories. I use to love watching conspiracy videos on YouTube on pop culture and other areas around it. I enjoyed Shane Dawson, who inspired me to create the character Riley Marson.
Riley is the type of character that you don’t know nothing about but is forced to go along with him in this thrilling adventure. His job as a YouTube Conspiracy Theorist consumed him, making it a lifestyle.
I can’t say much about who is Riley Marson because that is the point, you’re not suppose to know who he is, or his background. Main reason I chose to make this story first person because I wanted it to be where Riley is the one telling you his story, and he doesn’t want you to know nothing about him.
What were the challenges of plotting a mystery, and laying out the clues through the book, while keeping up the action and tension?
The one biggest challenge I would say was making a mystery to keep the readers engaged from start to finish. The books is only 50k words, so it was intentional for it to be fast paced judging by the plot of the story that Riley has to prevent an alien invasion from happening in ten days.
The clues, the action, tension, and mystery were all straightforward which made it easy for me to structure the plot. Trying to make a fast-paced 50k word novel engaging while making sure the pacing isn’t too fast and too slow is hard, but as a writer, you challenge yourself and develop that skill. I see writing a skill, and the more you keep writing, learn and improve, then this type of structure will be a piece of cake to you.
Tell us a little bit about your writing process and style – have you found yourself developing or changing up how you write between your first novella (which is more action-adventure) and your latest book?
My writing process is very complex if I must say. I don’t outline my stories–like at all. Respect to all writers who do outline but I personally despise it.
My greatest blessing as a writer who been writing since I was a kid is I can structure a story in my head and know how it will begin and end. I study the craft of writing, I am a student, and I learn from the greats.
It only took a year to finally find my own voice and my style is quite different and unorthodox, which will be mix with readers, which is fine. I found myself developing how I write, because each book I make, my writing always improves. Like I said before, writing is a skill.
Your novella, Samurai Reborn: The Black Samurai, was a 2024 Indie Ink Awards Nominee for BEST BOOK COVER & COVER ARTIST, BEST LIGHT READ, BEST MENTOR CHARACTER and BEST MORALLY GRAY CHARACTER. Can you tell us more about this novella, and why you were nominated in these categories?
Samurai Reborn is a Black Fantasy Novella about a African American Samurai named Genji Sato who seeks revenge for the murder of his father and his village. This novella was a story of my imagination, and how I dived into the concept of fantasy and Samurai culture.
The book was nominated for those categories mainly because of my readers who helped voted. It wouldn’t be possible without them, readers who read enjoyed the book or even people just wanted to support me and voted.
Nobody knows the amount of drafts, revisions, rewrites, re edits that this book had. For it to be a book nominee in my first indie book awards is a total blessing from God.
What is your relationship with Japanese culture and media, and how did you draw upon these influences for Samurai Reborn?
Anime…I was a big anime person few years ago and Genji Sato was heavily influenced by Tanjiro from Demon Slayer and Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
The history of Samurai and how certain anime medias like Samurai champloo and Afro Samurai had a big impact was the reason for me to create my own story in my own imagination.
Can you tell us about your future publication plans? What can we look out for next?
I am deep in writing for my new book in which when this interview comes out, I should be half way through. It’s a superhero story and it’s unlike anything I’ve written so far. Can’t say too much about it just yet but I am aiming for a 2027 release.
I was originally going to make it a 2026 publication release but due to other projects I’m working on ( I can’t say yet ) and focusing on my personal life, I think 2027 was a good year to go for. The book is aiming to be 90k words, maybe 100k, and I don’t want to rush it.
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