Dustin Blackwall – All the Shadows We Become

Today, I have author Dustin Blackwall in the interview chair. We’re discussing his latest release, All the Shadows We Become, a young adult romantasy and thriller. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway.

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1. What are your top 10 favourite books/authors?

Dustin: Carl Sagan, Arthur C Clarke, Issac Assimov, Dean Koontz, Alan Steele, Dan Browne, R.A. Salvatore

2. How long have you been writing?

Dustin: Well for years, just got serious about it recently.

3. What kind of research do you do before you begin writing a book?

Dustin: I google everything to get my facts straight and try to write what I know.

4. Do you see writing as a career?

Dustin: LOL ask me again in a year.

5. Do you read yourself, and if so, what is your favourite genre?

Dustin: I’ve always been a reader — it’s one of the constants in my life. I tend to wander between genres depending on my mood, but I’m especially drawn to science fiction, fantasy, military thrillers, and good old-fashioned espionage.

There’s something about those worlds — the sense of scale, the strategy, the imagination — that has always lit up my curiosity. They shaped the way I think about storytelling and probably planted the seeds for the kinds of mysteries and atmospheres I love exploring in my own work.

6. Do you write one book at a time or do you have several going at a time?

Dustin: I tend to have quite a few ideas drifting around in my head at any given time. Sometimes I’ll jump from one project to another just to follow where the energy is that day — it’s part of how my creativity works.

But when a story really starts calling to me, I can focus in and give it the attention it deserves. There’s something wonderful about letting ideas breathe while still being able to commit fully when a project reaches that moment where it feels ready to come to life.

7. Pen, typewriter, or computer?

Dustin: COMPUTER.

8. What made you want to become an author, and do you feel it was the right decision?

Dustin: It’s a bucket list thing. It was time.

9. If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Dustin: I think I’d tell them to just go for it. People will always have their own ideas about how your life should look, what path you should follow, what’s “practical.” But only you can feel the pull of the things that matter to you.

I’d remind my younger self that it’s okay to choose a different direction, even if no one else understands it yet. Your path is yours to walk — and the stories you carry are worth listening to.

10. How long on average does it take you to write a book?

Dusitn: It really depends on what real life is doing at the time. The bills don’t stop, the responsibilities don’t pause, and sometimes finding the space to write feels like trying to carve out a quiet moment inside a storm. But little by little, you find ways to make it work.

Some days it’s easy, and other days you just have to put your head down and keep going. The important part is showing up for the story, even in small moments. That’s how the books eventually come together – one determined page at a time.

11. Do you believe in writer’s block?

Dustin: I think it’s a chronic condition for me.

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Title: All the Shadows We Become
Series: N/A
Author: Dustin Blackwall
Genre(s): YA Romantasy, Thriller

When the shadows come alive, Ava and Caleb discover the only safe place is in each other’s arms. But the closer they get, the darker the truth becomes.

Caleb Ward is trying to forget the night he almost died.
Ava Lin is trying to understand why he survived.

But Hollow Creek isn’t letting either of them move on.

What starts as a strange blackout spirals into a trail of eerie clues, shifting shadows, and a connection between Ava and Caleb that grows hotter and more undeniable with every new secret uncovered.

Something happened that night.
Something dangerous.
And it’s waking up.

Amazon | Bookbub | Goodreads

Ava told herself she had a job to do.
A simple vitals check. Routine. Clinical.

But the second Caleb stepped out of his hoodie, every ounce of training she’d ever had tried to evaporate at once.

Under the thin lantern light, he looked unreal – like someone carved him in secret and forgot to tone it down for real life. Broad shoulders, smooth lines of muscle, a chest that rose and fell in slow, steady waves. Even the long cut of his waist looked sculpted, defined by a faint shadow that dipped beneath the band of his shirt.

She swallowed hard. Professional. She had to stay professional.

“Sit… sit still,” she said, though her voice wavered.

Caleb obeyed, but the motion only made things worse – muscles shifting under his skin like a quiet ripple, arms flexing as he rested them on his knees. There were faint veins along his forearms, subtle but impossible to ignore, and his hands… strong, warm-looking, capable.

Ava’s fingers hovered before she touched him.

Focus. Just focus.

But then she wrapped the blood pressure cuff around his arm, and her fingertips brushed the heat of his skin – the kind of heat that wasn’t just temperature. Caleb drew in a breath, low and surprised, and she felt it like a pulse of electricity between them.

“You okay?” he asked softly.

“Yeah,” she lied instantly.

His eyes flicked to her mouth for half a second – half a second – and her heartbeat misfired so hard she nearly fumbled the stethoscope.

Get it together, Ava.

She leaned closer, pretending she needed to hear his pulse better, but really just trying to anchor herself. Caleb smelled faintly of clean soap and something warm, something masculine that made her knees weaken.

“Your heart rate’s elevated,” she murmured.

His voice dropped: “Yours too.”

Her hands trembled.

Professional. Right. Any second now.

ALSO BY THE AUTHOR:

When data itself begins to speak, who decides what it’s trying to say?
Light Years To Midnight — a globe-spanning thriller where science, faith, and code collide in a race against a countdown written into the fabric of reality.

Amazon | Bookbub | Goodreads

The wind whipped dust across the plateau as Jonas crested the ridge, breath burning in his throat. Below him, the satellite dishes of the abandoned relay station stretched into the dark like a field of frozen giants. Their metal frames groaned under the rising storm, each bent toward the same invisible point on the horizon.

He wasn’t alone.

A faint beam of light—too controlled to be an accident—flickered between the dishes. Jonas crouched, heart thudding, watching as a woman stepped into view, her silhouette sharp against the skeletal machinery. She moved with the alertness of someone who had been running for far too long.

Elena.

He had seen her face in files, in encrypted packets, in the warnings that had chased him across continents. But seeing her here, in the flesh, felt unreal—like walking into a photograph he wasn’t meant to understand.

Before he could speak, a second figure emerged from the opposite end of the array. Maya paused only when she spotted Elena, recognition flaring across her face. They had never met, not really, but the anomaly had braided their paths tightly enough that the moment felt inevitable.

Jonas stood and lifted a hand, but movement in the distance froze him mid-step.

Engines.

Low, tactical, deliberate.

A convoy approached from the north, its headlights dark, its tires crunching through gravel like muffled gunfire. Special operations—unmarked, unhurried, confident. Not hunters, but collectors.

Elena’s eyes locked on his.
“Are they here for you,” she whispered, “or for all of us?”

Maya stepped closer, her breath sharp in the cold air. “Does it matter?”

Something pulsed beneath the earth—three beats, a pause, three more—vibrating up through the metal frames of the dishes. The sky above them shimmered, faint but unmistakable, as if answering the rhythm.

Jonas swallowed hard.

“No,” he said. “It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s already found us.”

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Dustin is a lifelong fan of science and speculative fiction, blending his fascination with astronomy, technology, and the unknown into stories that explore the edge between logic and wonder. When he’s not writing, he’s reading, stargazing, or chasing trails on his dirt bike — always searching for what lies just beyond understanding.

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