Michael R. Baker's Blog, page 19

SPFBO Entry Interview: Justin. L. Anderson “Carpet Diem”

New interview this weekend for you all, this time with Justin Lee Anderson, author of “Carpet Diem”. I haven’t recovered my witty bones yet, so I’m going to save you having to listen to me talk and just get right down to it! I’ve also interviewed 15 of my fellow entrants, not bad so far, but I plan on interviewing as many as possible if I can.

 

Check out a selection of past interviews down below:

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First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write?  

 

I’ve been working as a professional writer and editor for almost 20 years, now. I started out writing restaurant reviews, then got into other things, and I eventually landed a job as editor of an Edinburgh guidebook. Ever since then I’ve worked in those kinds of jobs – the more creative the happier I was.  My first novel, Carpet Diem, was first published in 2015. It took me over ten years to write, for multiple reasons, not least because I diverted into screenwriting for a number of years after doing well in a BBC sitcom-writing competition. Carpet Diem is a comedy fantasy in the vein of Tom Holt, Douglas Adams or Good Omens. This year, I went full time, thanks to investment from a partner into our own little publishing company, and I’m planning to release two books a year starting with the one I’m currently writing. It’s a more traditional (non-comedy) fantasy with an RPG vibe. I’ll also write a sequel to Carpet Diem next year, and I’m planning an Urban Fantasy series down the road. So I guess the answer to “what do I write” is fantasy – though there’s a decent chance I’ll branch into sci-fi at some point!

 

How do you develop your plots and characters?

 

I have no idea! I tend to have ideas and characters swimming around in my head for ages. The longer they’re in there, the more developed they become. I’m very much one who doesn’t do the bulk of my writing at the keyboard – I’m always thinking about it, and pondering it internally. My wife’s always telling me I should write stuff down more, and I’ve taken that advice when I get stuck. I tend to sit down with a pad and paper, write down each of my characters and then make notes on what they’re thinking and feeling at that point of the story, and what their motivations are. That helps get me to the next scene. In terms of plot, I usually go in knowing roughly where I’m going, with beginning and end, and multiple plot points or ‘moments’ along the way, and then I tend to pants it from there – though I am becoming more of a fan of plotting with my current WIP.

 

Tell us about your current project.

 

Carpet Diem is a bit of a mad idea. The premise of a living room carpet that will settle a bet between God and Satan came to me after reading the Sandman issue, Calliope, where a writer is cursed with a constant flood of ideas – some of which were just brilliantly lateral, as you’d expect from Gaiman. Once I had that, I thought of the most unlikely character to own that carpet – a hermit who hasn’t been outside in 13 years. Once I created him, and some of the other characters, I knew it was a comedy, and I knew I wanted to do something where there are no clear good guys and bad guys, which was why I took a twist on God and Satan being nothing like our own mythology of Good and Evil – they’re actually brother and sister, and men and women are different species. The book’s had a wonderful reaction, being compared to some of my own favourites, like Good Omens and Tom Holt, as well as introducing me to new authors. I started reading Ben Aaronovitch after lots of people said I reminded them of him, and I love his stuff, so I’m glad they think so!

 

Who would you say is the main character of your novels? And tell me a little bit about them!

 

There are two, really. Simon Debovar is the main focus of the novel to begin with. He’s a 40-something recluse who’s been in the house since most of his family were killed in a pudding-related disaster. He thinks all other people are all selfish and rude. He’s got a very strong moral compass, which leads to a lot of indignation, but he’s also quite immature, due not least to his lack of social interaction. Until an angel and demon show up at his door, he basically lives on TV, baths and the internet. But the book wouldn’t be the same without his alcohol swilling, sex-mad Great-Aunt Harriet. She’s basically a whirlwind, who crashes into other people’s lives and leaves carnage in her wake. They’re both very damaged, in different ways, from losing their family. I loved writing them and playing them off each other.

 

What advice would you give new writers on how to delve into creative fiction?

 

Write something you’d want to read. Write in your own voice, don’t try to mimic someone else. And believe in yourself. Even if nobody else wants to publish what you write, you can do it yourself, and find the audience that wants to read it.

 

What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?

 

Well… it starts in Edinburgh, my hometown? I suppose, beyond that, there is a large part of the middle of the book that came to me in a dream – both the setting – an idyllic, mystical island – and one of the plot threads. I woke up from that dream and was like – “yes, that’s the next part of the story”.

 

What inspires you to write?

 

The love of doing it. I love stories. I’m not fussy about which media – books, TV, movies – any good story will get me. When I experience things I love, it makes me want to make my own stories, and when I see things I think I could have done better, it makes me feel confident enough to give it a go!

 

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

 

Oh, mostly time. I had a very busy, rollercoaster of a life while writing this book. It’s no coincidence that I finished it in four months when I had the opportunity to work on it full time. I’m absolutely loving having that chance again.

 

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

It’s probably the least funny chapter of the book, actually. Without any spoilers, it’s a scene where one character tries to rescue another from a psychopath, and it doesn’t go to plan. When I wrote it, I was reading a lot of Jo Nesbo, and his dark, Scandinavian vibe definitely influenced that whole chapter. I love how that scene ends, too. If it’s ever made for TV or film, I really want to see that scene.

 

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

 

That I could, really. And that at least some people want to read my writing!

 

It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it?

 

Good question. I was having the difficulty with my WIP, and I literally had to sit down and handwrite backstories for all of them. Once I did that, I had a much firmer idea of who they were as people, and it was easier to write them. But I think voice can be the most challenging part. Every character should have a distinctive voice, at least in your head. I think, by the end of the first draft, I will have that down for each character, and I expect to be editing a lot of their speech in the early parts of the novel – especially for one or two characters.

 

What are your future project(s)?

 

I’m currently writing Draoidh, the first book in a trilogy called Eidyn. It’s somewhere between sword and sorcery and litRPG, with a healthy dose of political and cultural allegory in there. The kingdom is based on the etymology of place names around Edinburgh, as well as a lot of the history of both Edinburgh and Scotland. The premise is that we join the story just after the end of a bloody, devastating war against a draoidh (mage), who has been neutralised by being trapped in the kingdom’s main castle. The main character is also a draoidh, and the King’s Envoy. He’s sent on a mission by the king, but keeps finding that things aren’t quite right in the kingdom. The story follows him and his companions as they try to figure out what’s really going on and who’s behind it. It should be out late 2018/early 2019. After that, I’ll write a sequel to Carpet Diem, and then books 2 and 3 of Eidyn. And then I’m planning the first in an Urban Fantasy series, called Vores, which is a sort of a murder-mystery / political thriller involving the race who are the actual inspiration for the mythology of vampires – haematovores. There’s also some magic thrown in. I originally wrote Vores as a comic script years ago, then as a TV script, which was nearly picked up by the BBC, and I can’t wait to turn it into a book.

 

If you couldn’t be an author, what ideal job would you like to do?

 

The two things I always thought I probably should have seriously considered as careers were a detective or a politician. I’m one of those people who feels like he *should* go into politics, but doesn’t really want to be a politician, which probably actually makes me an ideal candidate! But I don’t think my wife would forgive me. If I’d had the skill, I’d probably have followed in my dad’s footsteps and been a football (soccer) player.

 

What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

 

I’m on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/justinleeandersonauthor/), Twitter (https://twitter.com/authorjla) and Instgram (https://www.instagram.com/justinleeandersonauthor/), and will respond on whichever of those someone wants to chat to me!

 

And here’s a global book link to Carpet Diem: http://viewbook.at/carpetdiem

 

SPFBO Entry Interview: K.M. Alexander – “The Stars Were Right”

Back again with another interview, I gotta up my game. Once more if anyone who’s in the SPFBO (or indeed any author) and would like an interview, just get in touch and hit me up. Today’s interview is with K.M Alexander, author of “The Stars Were Right.” I have nothing witty to say this time (relying on coffee this morning to get through today), so let’s get right down to it.

Check out a selection of past interviews down below:

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First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write?  

Hey, first thanks for taking on such an enormous challenge. When I saw on Twitter, you wanted to interview all three hundred entrants I was intrigued and impressed. That said, I love the idea, and I appreciate you spending the time doing this for the community.

Okay, about me. My name is K. M. Alexander, I live and work in Seattle, Washington, and I write weird fiction. Most of my work tends to be a blend of genres. Right now I have three books out in my Bell Forging Cycle, and they are—at their core—Lovecraftian urban fantasy. But they are so much more! It can be hard to pin down, and I’m very comfortable with that. If I were being specific I’d call it a dark cyberpunk post-post-apocalyptic dystopian weird-western cosmic-horror urban-fantasy adventure—which is tough to fit in marketing material. Besides, Lovecraftian urban fantasy is more concise. It’s been fun.

 

How do you develop your plots and characters?

I started out as a plotter—or as George R. R. Martin calls them, an architect. I would take and write copious notes, I had thick character sheets, and I wrote detailed outlines before diving into prose. However, after working that way for a few years and on several novels, I am slowly starting to allow myself more freedom. I’m now willing to let the story take me in unexpected places. Martin calls those folks “gardeners. (I’ve also heard them called “pantsers”—your mileage may very.) I think that makes me a bit of a hybrid these days. I rough outline, some of the plot I see as I begin a project, but I discover much of it over the course of writing the novel.

 

Tell us about your current project.

Currently, I am working on a weird-west fantasy. It’s been a departure from the neon-soaked streets of Lovat from the Bell Forging Cycle. It’s still very much a work in progress, but it’s been a book I wrote once before, scrapped entirely, and recently re-wrote from the ground up.

 

Who would you say is the main character of your novels? And tell me a little bit about them!

 

Waldo Bell, call him Wal, is the main character in the Bell Forging Cycle. He’s a blue-collar caravan master who travels between the cities of the Territories and gets in adventures whether he wants to or not. He has a ravenous appetite, a can-do spirit, and a bit of a reluctant hero vibe going on. I’ve found him a blast to get to know.

 

What advice would you give new writers on how to delve into creative fiction?

 

There are two elements I believe are critical. The first is to read. Read all the time. Skip social media. Skip the internet. Hell, skip television and movies. Read. Read books within genres you’d usually never consider. Read your favorites. Read books you hate. It’s important to read. Reading is rocket fuel for writing.

Second, like any creative skill, you need to hone your ability. So write. Write all the time. Write through different emotions. Write when you want to write and write when you’d rather be doing anything else. Write and allow yourself to stumble. That is so important. Learning to fail is a part of becoming successful. It’s all about honing that skill.

Oh, also ignore all advice. If something else works for you, great! There is no right way to do this. Writing is a very personal journey. What is habitual for someone might not be right for you.

 

What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?

 

Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong was a massive inspiration for Lovat—the central city in my novels. Kowloon was a densely populated neighborhood that existed in Hong Kong during the middle of the 20th-century. Thirty-three thousand people lived within 6.4 acres of space stacked atop each other up to a height of 140 ft. The result of this mass was an isolated, multileveled community, filled with all manner of individuals, organizations, businesses, schools, and unique cultures. Lovat is that but expanded to the size of a sprawling megalopolis.

 

What inspires you to write?

First and foremost, I want to tell stories. I want to entertain people. However, going further, I want to explore the messy reality of humanity through fiction. I think genre, be it science fiction or fantasy, is the perfect vehicle for those type of stories.

 

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

Each book has its challenges. For The Stars Were Right, it was really getting the tone down. I wanted the bleakness of Lovecraft to be present but not overpowering. So often cosmic horror doubles down on somber nihilism, and I wanted something different.

 

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

Chapter Four is probably my favourite chapter. It’s really where the story gets going, and the interplay between Wal and other characters was a lot of fun to write. There’s another chapter later on that I shall not talk about for fear of spoilers. It was a scene that I had planned from the very beginning, and it was a blast to write when the time came.

 

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

Writing the rough draft is the easy part.

 

It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it?

Reading helps a lot, reading history in particular and conflicting viewpoints. Learning empathy for other perspectives is a critical piece of writing realistic characters. Writers who work without empathy are pretty easy to spot, their characters are often dull and lifeless, the gray corpses of tropes with no vibrancy.

 

What are your future project(s)?

I technically have three projects I’m working on at the moment. Currently, I’m finishing that weird-west novel I mentioned earlier. I have a strange near-future urban fantasy political thriller I am kicking around. And, of course, there’s book four of the Bell Forging Cycle.

 

If you couldn’t be an author, what ideal job would you like to do?

I do it already, along with writing, I’ve been a graphic designer for about eighteen years. I started out in print, moved quickly to the web, and found my place in software and interaction design. That said I still dabble in all sorts of design. It’s as creative as writing but uses a different part of my brain. It’s nice to be able to move between them on a regular day. They work great in tandem.

 

What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

You can find out more and read an excerpt from The Stars Were Right, my SPFBO entry at: thestarswereright.com

 

Or just check it out on Amazon: amazon.com/dp/B00FJT7AMS

 

Otherwise, I’m all over the place:

 

My website: kmalexander.com

My blog: blog.kmalexander.com

My series: bellforgingcycle.kmalexander.com

Twitter: twitter.com/KM_Alexander

Goodreads: goodreads.com/author/show/7134844.K_M_Alexander

Instagram: instagram.com/kmalexander

 

Many thanks for the chance! Hoping you guys are enjoying them. I’m certainly enjoying the chance of interviewing as many of my fellow entrants as possible. I plan on getting the next one up for this weekend.

 

SPFBO Entry Interview: Keith Mcardle: “Fallen Empire”

So I’ve returned with another interview, this time with Keith Mcardle, author of “Fallen Empire.” No witticisms from me, so let’s get right down into it.

 

Check out a selection of past interviews down below:

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First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write?  

 

Hi Michael and thanks for the opportunity mate. My name’s Keith and I’m an Australian author of fast-paced fiction in the contemporary, sci-fi and fantasy genres.

 

How do you develop your plots and characters?

 

I think George R. R. Martin’s explanation for this really struck a cord with me. He said that there are two types of authors, the gardener and the architect. The architect maps out the entire novel in intricate detail. He/she knows exactly where the final nail will be driven before they place pen to paper. The gardener has a seed in their hand, they know it’s the seed of an oak, they know in which type of ground to plant it and how to cultivate it. They know which fertilisers to use and how often to water the seedling. The gardeners have a rough idea of how the tree will look when it’s grown. I’m more of a gardener.

 

Tell us about your current project.

 

The Ironstone Saga is a fast-paced fantasy adventure that would lean more to Dark Fantasy than Grimdark. It is akin to the Georgian Era of Britain as far as weapons, technology and infrastructure are concerned. We follow the adventure of Vyder Ironstone, an assassin hailing from the highlands far to the north of the land upon which the first book is set. He is tasked with a very dangerous mission. If the mission fails, the country will descend into bloody war. The problem? He is killed inside the first chapter. But a powerful witch may have a solution to bring him back. But he is a changed man.

 

Who would you say is the main character of your novels? And tell me a little bit about them!

 

Vyder Ironstone is a highland assassin. At his heart he is a good man, but comes from a dark past. His wife was murdered, something for which he feels eternally guilty (as he was not present when she was attacked). He works for coin, but still has a moral compass. I won’t go into too much detail about him, because I don’t want to spoil, ‘Fallen Empire’ (the first book in the series). He is a good man, even a kind one, but there’s also a violent element to his nature.

 

What advice would you give new writers on how to delve into creative fiction?

 

I consider myself a new writer, but for what it’s worth, I’d suggest four things: jump in and start writing, keep your mouth shut and ensure your ears are open. And read. A lot. I’ve learned so much in particular over the last 2 years from editors, manuscript appraisers and also from fellow authors far more experienced than I. I’m still on that learning curve, too. There’s always something new to learn.

 

What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the world building within your book?

 

The most interesting part for me are the people in the world of ‘Fallen Empire’. Although they are not exact copies of real people, most of the characters are based upon people I have known or know. With almost a decade of military service under my belt, I have served with some amazing men and women. Where we were based in Afghanistan, we received incoming enemy fire on most days (primarily rockets and mortars), and for the fact a rocket that ricocheted off the concrete not ten feet from me failed to detonate, I wouldn’t be here today. These experiences tend to extract a certain type of dark humour and robust attitude to life that few other jobs could ever replicate. It also breaks some people as well, unfortunately. Right or wrong, it’s these experiences and watching how others experience and react to them that can make for great character traits (including heroic, cowardly, comedic and saddening). The world itself would be forlorn but for the men and women who are ensconced within it.

As I was a member of Army Aviation (helicopters), we often worked for units such as the Australian Special Air Service Regiment and the Australian Commandos. These men are a cut above and breed apart. However, despite the news or movies, they’re not heroes (by their own admission), nor are they supermen. They are soldiers. But they are soldiers who choose to place themselves in extraordinarily dangerous situations to ensure the success of the mission they have been tasked. Knowing these kinds of people also gives me great traits for some of my characters, particularly the warrior type characters. More often than not, these soldiers (the real life ones) are softly spoken, calm and unflappable in any situation. As a side note (and something I’ve always found interesting), it’s usually the blokes who are loud mouths, boastful and like to strut, who will turn to water when a dangerous or life threatening situation kicks off. It was the Special Forces guys I based many of my King’s Own soldiers (in Fallen Empire) upon.

 

What inspires you to write?

 

I wouldn’t say inspiration as such. I consider writing my ‘blow off valve’. I work as a Paramedic and as one could imagine, we do see some terrible things sometimes (and some amazing things too), and it is into writing that I channel my energy. So my writing and para-medicine are a symbiotic relationship if that makes sense?

 

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

 

Making time to write the minimum number of words I’d set myself for that day. Many days were easy, but some days, when a lot was happening in the lives of my wife and I, I found it challenging. But, needs must and the writing refuses to be ignored!

 

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

 

I enjoyed writing every scene in Fallen Empire. However, the one scene I enjoyed immersing myself within was Rone’s charge. In a desperate situation, against all odds, Rone and his force of one hundred King’s Own warriors, charge on horseback against thirty thousand enemy soldiers. As with many elite forces, surprise, agility and speed are their only weapons to success. It was an intense scene.

 

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

 

I certainly did. Thanks to two amazing ladies (Devin Madson and Lee Murray), I gained a firmer grasp on showing not telling, and eliminating ‘filtering’ from my writing. Fallen Empire took on a new, tighter feel thanks to the advice from these wonderful authors.

 

It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it?

 

As I’ve said, although I don’t replicate physical characteristics of real people in my writing, I do exhume traits from men and women I have known or know and inject them into the characters of my world.

 

What are your future project(s)?

 

To complete the remaining two novels of the Ironstone Saga and then return to the Unforeseen Series (a series of novels, which will be five in number when I’m finished) about how everyday Australians struggle to survive following an Indonesian invasion of their homeland.

 

If you couldn’t be an author, what ideal job would you like to do?

 

Travel around the world experiencing new cultures (all expenses paid).

 

What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow  you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

 

My Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/KeithAuthor/

Or e-mail via my website: https://www.keithmcardle.com/contact.html

 

Many thanks for the interview Keith! I will try and get another one up in a few days! If you’d like to check out my own SPFBO entry The Thousand Scars, check the link down below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SPFBO Entry Interview: Jesse Teller “Song”

Back with another interview to kick off August! More importantly, it is officially SPFBO season, so arses on seats for everyone who’s entered. It’s going to be a nervous five months, so let’s enjoy it and support everybody as much as possible.

I hope to increase the frequency of these if I can, and today I’m going to officially kick off the SPFBO with an awesome interview with Jesse Teller, author of Song and one of the favourites to win from Kitty G’s group! A nice titbit that in the prediction brackets, Jesse is the guy who is beating me to first place, relegating me into second place in our category. The more you know, eh?

To those who haven’t taken part in my interview round, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. I would like to interview as many people as possible to help as much as I can for this great event.

 

Check out a selection of past interviews down below:

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And now, the interview! It’s a long one!

 

First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write?  



If you want to know about me, you have to start at my family. I was raised working class, taught from a young age you work often and you work hard. My work ethic was hammered into my head. The man that raised me was a hard-working man, pulling 14-hour shifts at the place he worked. My mother was diligent about raising her family, dogged in her execution as a housewife and a starting point for our lives. Every member of my family was hard working. It’s ingrained in my body. I’m not good unless I’m working on a piece. When I take time off from writing books, it doesn’t go well. It starts to affect my mood and disposition, my self-esteem.

My work has to keep going, it has to keep moving. As far as what I write, I write high fantasy. I think that, with me, I wanna see the spectacular swordsman who cannot be beat, and come up with ingenious ways of defeating him. I wanna see the wizard invoking magics beyond human comprehension and find a way to weaken him. I want the unstoppable assassin. She can kill with little more than a thought, with as much effort as it takes for a deep breath, but other elements tie her up and make her at times helpless. I wanna deal with great forces, humanise them, and make them vulnerable.

 

How do you develop your plots and characters?



The development is very organic. I don’t really plot out a book. I’ve heard outlines are useful to some. They never have been to me. For me it’s kind of an exercise in trust. I trust that when I reach for it, it’ll be there. When I was a kid, no matter how poor our family was, no matter the money troubles, there was a certain level of trust I had in my family that when I got hungry and I reached for food, it would be there. Not always what I wanted, not always what I planned for, just like in my work, there were times when I reached for an apple and got a beet. But there was always food, just like there’s always story. You gotta learn to trust in your provider.

A child trusts in their parents, and I trust in the force that provides me with story. We could talk for hours about what that force would be like, what the force would be called, what that force would look like. Me at my most mystical says it’s a muse with a fiery whip and a bad attitude making demands. At my most practical, I would say my brain was raised by a working class family and it knows work is the way of life. So when my brain sits down at my computer screen with my keyboard laying out in front of it, it knows to produce. The story is there every time I reach for it.

 

Tell us about your current project.



Right now I’m working on three, but we’ll stick to one being published next year. The book is called Legends of the Exiles. It’s coming out April 15, 2019. Legends is a series of four novellas all telling the story of four different women and the struggles they go through living in a male-dominated barbarian society. The four main characters are all powerful women in their own right, living in harsh situations for a woman.

There is a bit of romance in each story, but that’s not unique to this book. Romance and love are themes I like to delve into in all my work. So there’s a bit of a romantic flair, but I wouldn’t call it a romance novel. It deals with strong topics like fate and loss, grief and pain. In the writing of the book I fell in love with the characters. They’re very easy to grow attached to. I worry sometimes how Legends will be received, as it is a book about women’s issues written by a man. But when a story needs to be told, it doesn’t matter who tells it if they tell it right. So I’m excited about Legends of the Exiles, excited about readers getting to know four women that I love.

 

Who would you say is the main character of your novels? And tell me a little bit about them!



Let’s keep our focus on The Manhunters and talk about Rayph Ivoryfist. Rayph comes from a race of longevity. You could say that he’s nearly immortal. Baggage comes with that, pride comes with that, arrogance. Rayph, when he was younger, was being trained to take over a very powerful group of warriors, but a turnabout of fate pulled him away from that. Now he finds himself self-exiled from his home and serving a kingdom of humans.

Rayph is a good man. He tries to do good. His arrogance gets in his way, but he has a lot of friends and loved ones, and he relies on them. Rayph leads a group called The Manhunters, which is sort of a bounty hunting crew that is hunting down criminals escaped from a prison. He’s in over his head, facing enemies just as powerful as him, just as cunning. He’s armed with his understanding of the nation he lives in and the people he has gathered around him. Rayph is an exercise in hope, a force dedicated to light that fights back darkness. My characters often times speak to me, inspire me in ways, and every time I find myself challenged and overwhelmed, I think of Rayph.

 

What advice would you give new writers on how to delve into creative fiction?



Write all the time. My wife and I read a book when I had decided to become a writer. It’s a Stephen King book called On Writing, the only craft book he ever wrote. She read it out loud to me, and we marvelled at the genius of King. I learned a lot of things from that book, none more important than this: Stephen King writes 2000 words a day every day that he’s writing a book. He does not allow any excuse, no matter how powerful, to get in the way of his word count. He does not allow for any weakness in his will. He is stalwart in his work ethic and his production. So in a moment of mind-blowing arrogance, I said to myself, “If Stephen King can do it, I can do it.” I had just been watching the show West Wing, and a candidate for presidential office was going over the schedule for the last two weeks of his campaign. The schedule was gruelling, with no time for sleep, no time for any kind of rest. And he said, “You can do anything for two weeks. You can hang from your thumbs for two weeks, as long as it comes to an end. You can get used to anything.”

I started thinking about that. I started thinking you can get used to anything. Any experience no matter how extreme can, if done long enough, become commonplace. The human body, mind, and will, is designed to adapt. So I told myself 2000 words a day, every day. My wife has a good job. She supports our family with plenty, freeing me up to explore writing and nothing else. When I first started writing, it took seven hours every day to produce 2000 words. But you can get used to anything, right? Soon, that amount of time started to dwindle. My mind was trained to create the moment I sat down at my computer. And soon, 2000 words wasn’t enough. It changed to three. Years later I dabbled for a little while in 4000, but I found my home in 3000. So I write 3000 words a day every week day. It shakes out to just under 200 pages a month, and I have the theory that work inspires more work. Halfway through a book, the ideas for the next book start coming. Work inspires more work. So if you keep that cycle going, you’ll never run out of ideas.

 

What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?



Rayph Ivoryfist is inspired by my son Rayph. When I look into my son’s eyes, I see hope for the future. We are providing him with every tool he will need to live his life. Every bit of confidence, every bit of learning that he will need to succeed in life. He’s a hope for our family and it’s future, and he is a hope for the world at large. My son will one day do great things, of that I have no doubt. He’s an excellent problem solver. I took that and used it when I created this book. He is an honorable child. A deep thread of justice runs through my son. Helping people is a way of life for him. He is fierce and gentle, violently intelligent, and blessed with a kind of gentle wisdom. He was all the inspiration I needed.

 

What inspires you to write?



I would assume you get this answer a lot, but I’m gonna try to say it in a way you’ve never heard before. Necessity inspires me to write. Storytelling has been a constant in my life, for all of my life. I was obsessed with the stories my family told and obsessed with the stories of my friends. In college I was a history major with a literature minor. So for years, all I did was study stories. My mind will not shut up with this. The creation of tales comes whether I want it to or not. I write to stay sane because, like I’m sure you’ve heard many times before, these characters will not leave me alone. I’m inspired by them to write the stories I write. I asked my colleague ML Spencer why she writes and her answer was, out of love for her characters. She writes so the world will know her characters, know their struggles and their loves, and when she said that, I realised I wasn’t alone, because it was the exact sentiment I’ve been thinking and feeling for years.  

 

What was the hardest part of writing this book?



I’m gonna talk about The Manhunters series as a whole. When I first wrote the books, they told the story of Rayph Ivoryfist and Rayph Ivoryfist alone. I wrote them years and years ago, and they’ve just been waiting for production ever since. They were short books, 200 pages, but I knew in some way they were incomplete. I knew I wasn’t capturing all of the story. It bothered me for years, caught in my teeth, like a piece of meat that you pick at and play with with your tongue. The story wasn’t done. There was more to be told. For years it haunted me.

When it came time to revise Song, I knew there was a big chunk of the story missing. It came to me as a challenge. I had an idea for another character that hadn’t appeared in the book to that day. When I got the idea for this, it came so completely and so perfectly that it was as if it had been there all along. I came to my wife and my beta reader, and I said there’s something missing from this book, and they said I was crazy. They said it was fine the way it was, but I knew they were wrong. Another wife would have argued, don’t touch it, leave it alone, it’s perfect.

But my wife has complete faith in my process and my ability, and she just let me go. When I finished writing Konnon into the book, both my wife and my beta reader were amazed that there had ever been a time when he was not part of it. His story added so much depth, and all of their doubt was washed away. When I started working on the second book and I saw the same void, they just waited to see what I would add, to see who I would add, and it came to me to add Aaron. The hardest part about writing The Manhunters series has been finishing the book after it was done, weaving the tale of another point of view character through the story. But now that it’s finished, I can’t imagine the story told any other way.

 

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?



There’s a very very humble section of Song. There’s a swordfighter named Konnon. He makes all his money by using his blade and all of his money goes toward medicine for his daughter. He has friends everywhere, and one of his friends is raising her so Konnon can be out earning money to keep her alive. The chapter I love so much is when Konnon goes to visit her. She lives in a farming village and he goes to see her during harvest time. So of course, he hangs up his swords and helps them bring in the harvest. It is a humanizing story of a man working in a community, spending time with his invalid daughter and just existing in a simple kind of life.

When I was writing it, it filled me with a sense of contentment that I feel very rarely in my work. Normally, my work is very intense. It’s harrowing, with constant struggle and high stakes. But this chapter was so humanizing and so fulfilling. I come from a working class family. All my life it was not odd for me to work to the point where I was exhausted beyond mobility. It was not strange for me back then to work until my body just couldn’t work any more. And I found that life very fulfilling and very challenging. Writing this chapter with Konnon was like going back to my roots, and it soothed me in a way I hadn’t felt in decades.

 

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?



Well writing any book teaches you to trust yourself. People who don’t trust their ability are locked up by it. They accomplish nothing. I find that these people have a tendency to write a chapter and spend months editing that chapter, unable to move forward in the story, and I think it’s in large part because they don’t trust themselves. They don’t trust that they can make mistakes, keep trudging through the work, get it all done, and come back with a greater understanding to clean it up.

And that can be the hardest thing about writing a book, is dealing with the fact that you know it’s not perfect while you’re writing it, and moving forward anyway. But it’s like washing dishes in a dishwasher. When you load a dishwasher, you rinse the dish off, get the caked-on stuff off, but the dish is not clean. Just like when you’re writing a first draft, the draft is not clean. But when you’re done loading the dishwasher, and you start the machine, what you end up with afterwards is a clean dish. Writing a rough draft is like loading a dishwasher. Editing a draft is like starting that dishwasher up. I learned in writing the books I’ve written that I can write something imperfect and come back later with a better understanding of it and polish it to perfection.

 

It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it?



In my life I’ve been blessed to know many sorts of people. I’ve had acquaintences from almost every walk of life. But it’s not this that guides me in getting to know my characters.  It’s the basic understanding of how the human mind works. My childhood was very abusive, so I found myself as an adult needing to go to therapy. I went to therapy for seventeen years, and in that time, I studied the people in my life and the way human experience and human minds work. It was a master course in behavior and depth of emotion. And it became very easy for me to understand the people I was writing about.

 

What are your future project(s)?



My plan is to create a world, destroy the world, and show a post-apocalyptic view of that world. I call them Acts I, II, and III. Act I is completed. The rough drafts have been written. I got an early start and I didn’t publish until I had written for years. So I have a backlog of books waiting to be put out. Act I is five series, spanning 26 books. Act I is done. Act II depicts the rising of four great armies that will collide in a world war and destroy the entire world. They will kill or scare off the gods, burn the essence of magic, destroy the landscape, and the tattered remains of the armies will struggle for survival. By the end of the second act, the world will be destroyed. The third act will be the ramifications of the first two. As plotted out currently, the second act will be five series, spanning 23 books, and I’ve finished the second book of that group. For now, I am concentrating on putting out what has been written and continuing production of what is to come. When I talk about my plan, people begin to roll their eyes. In the end we’re talking about a fantasy world consisting of 58 books. Numbers make a fool of me. And what I’ve decided is that I’m just gonna have to show people it can be done instead of trying to convince them.

 

If you couldn’t be an author, what ideal job would you like to do?



I could be a book critic, but I’d be a crappy one. When I read a book or watch a show or movie, I’m trying to like it. I go in looking for its virtues, blinding myself of its faults. I’d like to say firefighter. That’s my boyhood dream, running into a flaming building to save people’s lives. I’m past the age where that’s possible. If I couldn’t write though, I think my dream job would be working for my family, doing my best to make sure my wife is the happiest woman in the world, dedicating myself completely to my children. That sounds bad, it sounds like because I’m a writer I don’t have to make my family happy, but that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that I have two passions in the world. One is writing fantasy. The other is my kids and my wife.

 

What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?



Before I became a self-published author, I just wanted to put out books and leave it at that. But after I became a self-published author, I saw an opportunity that traditional authors don’t always have. Talking to a book reviewer recently, I was told they prefer reading self-published books because of the interaction it provides with the writer. Reviewing traditionally published books does not always allow for communication with the writer of the book. So once I realized this opportunity, I started taking full advantage of it, dedicating myself to a web page, dedicating myself to a blog, and freeing myself up for an open dialogue between myself and the reader.

I have always liked the part of the book at the back that says About the Author, but for my favorite traditionally published authors, that section was always the same. My blog allows me to have a continuing, ever-changing section of my work about the author.

My blog, found at jesseteller.com, has stories about my life, intimate things told about my life and how I became the man and the writer that I am. I stay current with my readers by providing them with a Facebook page called Jesse Teller: A Path to Perilisc, where they have only to open a message box and type a thought or word and it immediately comes to me.

In my newsletter I provide a unique look into the inner workings of my world. I believe a newsletter should be more than an ad page. I believe my newsletter should be a way of talking to my readers and providing them with insights into the world they read about. So every newsletter I put out has an article about something that needs to be talked about with my work.

My desire is to become more active on Twitter @JesseTeller. Because I walk around all day long with my work and with thoughts about my work and so my desire is to keep talking about my work through my day and post things I think the reader might be interested in. However, most of my day I walk around thinking about my work and am so engrossed in it that I forget to stop and talk to my fans, so on Twitter I’ve not yet trained myself to engage with people very much. But I hope to get better about that in the future.

What an excellent series of answers, and thanks so much for sharing the time with me Jesse!

I’ll try and get more interviews up in a few days. Keep the responses coming and if you’re up for an interview, just contact me! In the meantime, here are some of my own links:

 

Blog:  http://bit.ly/1RMNPho

Facebook Author page: http://bit.ly/2kiNHSk

Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/2kZ4wix

World-building Services: http://bit.ly/2kBMiCB

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Thethousandscar

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2knxeHY

Patreon: http://bit.ly/2laP311

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B017GDAO3Q

Also, there is a massive SPFBO sale going on. Click the link down below for more!

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SPFBO Entry Interview: Tony Mitchell “The Ember Child”

First off, an apology that it has taken so long to post up another one. Been a bit ill this past week, and somehow typing while holding my nose with blood gushing from it doesn’t make for good productivity. I prefer blood to come out of my adversaries, not my own, and especially not spewing onto my keyboard!

But on the plus side, the UK heatwave seems to be fading. Good, because it needs to return to the LandofFuckThatShit. Can’t deal with these heatwaves where you just want to rip off your skin. The most important thing is I am back with another interview for you guys, this one with Tony Mitchell, author of The Ember Child.

 

Past Interviews:

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Anyway, onto the interview with Tony!

 

First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write?

 

I write fantasy mostly.  The Ember Child is my first completed novel, but I’ve got a series of stories already planned that are set in the same world.  I’ve got plenty of other ideas too, including westerns, post-apocalyptic adventures, and action thrillers… there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get them all down!

I also have a blog where I document and reflect on some of the more interesting challenges life throws up.  If you think you’d enjoy a light-hearted, humorous take on life’s big and not-so-big issues, or if you just want to keep up-to-date with my real writing, you should check it out.

 

How do you develop your plots and characters?

 

I usually stumble across the idea for a story, then try to develop a basic arc for the plot.   I always want to know the ending first – not write it, just know it – as I want to make the pay off as good as I can for the reader.  From there, I can usually work out the best starting point for the story and get a feel for how long it’s going to be. With my beginning and ending in mind, I start to plan out the scenes in between.  This is where the characters come in, adding some meat to the bone.

 

It sounds cliché, but the characters kind of write themselves.  I’ll know the role I want a character to play, along with some of their characteristics, but for the most part their personality and backgrounds emerge as I write the story.

 

This means some characters manage to do the unexpected, and there have been more than a couple of occasions when bit-part players have managed to force themselves into the main narrative.  Occasionally this means tweaking the plot a bit, but I find that one of the true joys of writing.

 

Tell us about your current project.

 

Well, The Ember Child is part one of a planned trilogy, but, as it’s fairly self-contained, I’ve decided to put the sequels on hold while I work on a couple of stand-alone projects set in the same world.

The current work in progress tells the story of a revered warrior who finds out he’s developed a terminal illness and doesn’t have long to live.  Having dedicated his life to the gods, he’s slightly miffed that his only reward is this terrible sickness. As a result, he sets out on a quest to stand before his gods and ask them one simple question: why?

Obviously there are a few obstacles along the way, not least his own people, whose laws prohibit visits to the sacred landmark at which our hero wants to ask his question.  The story involves quite a diverse cast and I’m really enjoying writing it at the moment.

 

Who would you say is the main character of your novels? And tell me a little bit about them!

 

Most of my writing to date has involved multiple POV characters, and I can’t see that changing anytime soon.  For the Godsbane Trilogy though, of which The Ember Child is book one, the premise was to write about three main characters, with each book focused on one of the three.  Trying not to be too spoilery, the three characters are destined to collide… brutally. The main idea behind the trilogy was to give readers a taste of each side of the argument, so that they’re hopefully conflicted themselves as to who they want to win.

 

With that in mind, The Ember Child is very much Halasan’s story.  On the day he is born, Halasan’s home city of Danara is attacked by the Lucian Empire, a growing power that has swept across the land like wildfire.  As the rightful heir to the throne, baby Halasan is evacuated to safety under the protection of his father’s most trusted soldier. We next see him sixteen years later, when we learn he has been training, both physically and mentally, for the daunting task of returning home and reclaiming his father’s throne.  Although he understands the enormity of the task before him, his protector and teacher has ensured he is infused with the same grit and determination that his people are renowned for. Whether the tools the old soldier have given him are enough to get the job done is a different matter entirely, and Halasan realises he has much to learn having spent so long isolated in hiding.  Although he goes through some interesting growth himself, I think one of the most intriguing things in the story is watching the effect Halasan has on the characters around him – how some refuse to be bowed by his claim to the throne, while others are moved to switch allegiances entirely.

 

What advice would you give new writers on how to delve into creative fiction?

 

As I’m really just starting out on this journey myself, I’m not sure I’m the best placed to give advice to new writers.  I’d just say go for it. If you want to write, write. The more you write, the better your writing will get. I’m definitely a better writer now than I was when I started The Ember Child.  Indeed, I’m a better writer now than I was when I finished The Ember Child. The key is to know every day is a school day, and just keep going. Reading helps too. Read as much as you can as often as you can.  If you can’t read, maybe invest in Audible, or something similar, as even listening to books will help you improve.

 

So yeah, as Nike would say, just do it.  You’ll have so much fun!

 

What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?

 

Quite a lot really.  Looking at Domanska (the continent in which the book is set) now, it seems I’ve essentially created a playground where I can visit any of the historical cultures I find fascinating – from the city states of ancient Greece to the overwhelming might of the Roman Empire; from the nobility of the Samurai to the raw savagery of the Goths.  There is a flavour of them all to be found somewhere in Domanska, though the history, mythology, and religion that drives them have been crafted in my imagination.

 

What inspires you to write?

 

Probably the same thing that inspired me to play with my GI Joe back when I was a kid.  I just loved living in my imagination and telling stories, even back then, even to myself.  I suppose it’s pure escapism, even more so than playing a game or watching a film, because you’re in control.  You create the characters and direct the plot, and that’s exciting.

 

I’d probably still play with my GI Joe, if it was socially acceptable.  As it is though, I guess I’ll stick to the writing.

 

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

 

Probably how it all started.  I was actually writing another novel originally, which I had gotten around two thirds of the way complete, when, inexplicably, I managed to delete the second third.  This was back when I was young, before I understood the wisdom of backing files up. It was pretty devastating at the time, but I decided that rather than trying to rewrite what I’d lost, I’d start a new project.  

 

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

There’s a chapter quite late on called The Climb.  Again, I’ll try to avoid spoilers, but that chapter pretty much encapsulates everything the book has to offer, from action and emotion to victories and loss.  The same is true of Part 3 in general. By that point everything was set up, so it was just a case of sitting back and letting the story flow.

 

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

 

You can edit too much.  I think one of my biggest weaknesses as a writer is feeling the need to edit every line until it’s perfect, which slows down the entire writing process and can make things feel a little less natural than they should.  Truth is it will never be perfect. Sometimes it’s better to just let go and move on. That’s what I’m trying to do these days – prioritising getting it down over getting it perfect.

 

It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it?

 

I delve into their history a bit, try to understand their motivations.  If you know where a character has come from, it goes a long way to telling you where they want to go and what they’re willing to do to get there.  

 

What are your future project(s)?

 

Well, as mentioned, I’ve got two sequels to The Ember Child to write, though I think I’ll revisit the novel I half deleted first.  Hopefully I’ve improved enough as a writer to make it better than it ever was. Besides that, I plan on writing a collection of short stories exploring the history of some of the characters from The Ember Child.  Then there’s that western to write, if I can ever tear myself away from Domanska long enough.

 

If you couldn’t be an author, what ideal job would you like to do?

 

Tough one.  I’ve just been promoted so I should probably say I already have it… but maybe manager of Liverpool Football Club.  I’m a big supporter, the wages on offer are crazy, and my experience on the game Football Manager tells me I’d be ridiculously successful.  Jurgen’s doing ok though, so I’ll keep plugging away at the writing.

 

What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

 

I’ll always welcome comments and questions about my work, especially constructive criticism, and any and all methods are fine with me.  For anyone who gives my work a go, an honest review on Amazon will always be greatly appreciated – it really does help us authors!

 

Otherwise, you can find me at the following locations:

Personal Blog: https://storiesfromthecave.com/

Twitter: @oldmanmitchell

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/storiesfromthecave/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/325411.Anthony_Mitchell

I’ll look forward to hearing from folk!

And if you fancy giving The Ember Child a go, you can find it on Amazon in paperback and Kindle format:

 

Conclusion

Many thanks for the time, Tony! It feels good being back doing this again. I’ll try and get more interviews up in a few days. Keep the responses coming and if you’re up for an interview, just contact me! In the meantime, here are some of my own links:

 

Blog:  http://bit.ly/1RMNPho

Facebook Author page: http://bit.ly/2kiNHSk

Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/2kZ4wix

World-building Services: http://bit.ly/2kBMiCB

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Thethousandscar

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2knxeHY

Patreon: http://bit.ly/2laP311

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B017GDAO3Q

SPFBO Entry Interview: Phil Williams “Under Ordshaw”

Well it’s been over a month, and the UK still has its heatwave. Yippie. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a huge fan of sweltering summer where people tend to smell like musky water buffalo. We all look like we’ve been swimming, but without all the fun.

But I’m here to bring you guys the latest of my SPFBO author interviews. My latest victim is Phil Williams! Everyone aggressively clap for his arrival:

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I promise you, everyone who joins my hideout will be returned almost as good as new within twenty four hours. All jokes aside, I greatly appreciate the chance to interview him. His book Under Ordshaw is his entry into this year’s contest, and it looks like a blast to read. Here is the link down below:

Past Interviews:

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First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write?  

I’m a UK coastal dweller (now) and an author of dystopian and contemporary fantasy fiction, typically concerned with reluctant heroes, ambiguous morals and fantastic creatures/machines. I’ve written in a ton of other fields, thanks to an eclectic background in education, copy-editing and business writing. I’ve also produced some rather popular grammar guides for foreign learners of English.

 

How do you develop your plots and characters?

To be brief: through a lot of daydreaming. I rehearse scenes in my mind, playing them out over and over, and use a similar process when I write. I spew words onto the page and see where that takes me (with an idea of the overall end game), then rinse and repeat until the specifics click.

 

Tell us about your current project.

Under Ordshaw introduces the Ordshaw universe, focusing on a UK city with a terrible secret. A whole diorama of unusual goings on, in fact. It’s an urban fantasy thriller, taking a host of ordinary (kind of) people on an extraordinary ride. There’s dark humour, a lot of mystery and something bordering on horror all in the mix.

 

Who would you say is the main character of your novels? And tell me a little bit about them!

At the centre of the story is Pax Kuranes, a professional poker player with few responsibilities, or friends. She’s a sharp talker who would rather be left alone. Pax mostly comes out at night, which puts her in the wrong place when the forces of the Ordshaw underworld collide. Thankfully, she’s got a quick wit and a good sense for solving mysteries.

 

What advice would you give new writers on how to delve into creative fiction?

Write as much as you can, whenever you can, in the form that comes easiest. Don’t question what you should be writing – if you’re happy writing it, that’s where you belong. When you’ve nailed all that, do whatever it takes to keep improving – educate yourself and work with other writers and readers to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Most of all, though, read as much as you’re physically able.

 

What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?

Ordshaw holds a candle to many cities, particularly those that vie to rival London. I’ve lived in a lot of great cities and there’s a bit of all of them in there. The elements of the unreal, however, are inspired by the moments when you have a flash of fear and your ‘worst case scenario’ takes you to unnatural places. For a split second you believe that pipe groan or that shadow darting across the road is something else. What if…

 

What inspires you to write?

I look for moments of heightened emotion –a piece of music that touches me, a piece of art, something in the news, anything that for a moment conjures a feeling of something more than you see on the surface. Those feelings conjure scenes and interactions that I strive to play out in writing.

 

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

Letting go. I could’ve edited Under Ordshaw on a loop for decades.

 

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

Without giving too much away, a large part of this story is about Pax forming an unlikely friendship, and the way they play off each other made every scene when they’re together great fun for me. Besides that (and the pleasure of unleashing unusual creatures), I particularly enjoy Holly Barton’s scenes – she’s a conservative suburban mum, with some very dry responses to the insanity of the Sunken City.

 

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

One of the things I’m continually realising as I expand on the Ordshaw stories is how complex this story is, and how careful I have to be to reveal it to the reader. There’s a great degree of puzzle-solving that goes into creating a puzzle, after all. My editor’s done a great job on helping me draw out the essential information for this stage of the journey, and a lot got pushed back; parts of this story aren’t likely to surface until the third book, now. And it’s happening again as I write the second book.

 

It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it?

Writing and rewriting, putting them in situations and revising the way they play out until something really rings true to their character. Then I whittle that down to only the details that seem necessary to the story. There’s a huge amount of content that goes into my novels that gets cut. For each page of conversation Pax holds in Under Ordshaw, there were probably ten pages of additional dialogue; for every throwaway comment about her background, paragraphs of ideas about where she comes from.

 

What are your future project(s)?

The sequel to Under Ordshaw is on the cusp of completion, which is great because I think most readers will want more ASAP. Following that, I’ve got about half a dozen follow up novels and short stories to expand on the series, so there’s a few years’ work in that. I’ve got at least one more entry in the Estalia series coming, too – potentially an explosive finale. And there’s a 5-book near-future dystopian series in the works (2 books are more or less written…but it’s the editing that takes time!).

 

If you couldn’t be an author, what ideal job would you like to do?

Something outlandish, I imagine. I’d probably end up dying prematurely doing something I thought would make a good story. Scuba explorer, maybe?

 

What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

My mailing list is my main point of contact for readers – I love receiving emails from readers and (being a writer) tend to spend more time than I should writing back. You can get on the list from my site: www.phil-williams.co.uk (with a free book offer).

You can also find me here:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/fantasticphil

Facebook: www.facebook.com/philwilliamsauthor/

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/6579274.Phil_Williams

Or you can stop reading about me and just check out Under Ordshaw: https://www.amazon.com/Under-Ordshaw-Phil-Williams-ebook/dp/B07CXYSZVN

 

Many thanks for the great interview, Phil! I’m really liking this system. I will continue to put out the interviews at least twice a week. To all those who would like an interview, don’t hesitate to drop me a message.

 

SPFBO Entry Interview: AJ VanOrden “To Walk a Ruin”

And we return with a new interview, this time with AJ VanOrden, with his book: To Walk a Ruin. I’m starting to get the hang of these! As always, if anyone wants an interview, just give me a bell and I’ll do what I can to fit you in!

 

Past Interviews:

I think at this point I will just offer a selection of interviews, or we’ll be here for a while I imagine! So if you’d like to check out my previous interviews with my fellow SPFBO authors, just click on the cover and it will take you to the article!

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Interview with AJ VanOrden

First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write?

I write pulpy dark fantasy mostly. I’ve written a novel as well as several short stories on the same world as To Walk a Road of Ruin.

 

How do you develop your plots and characters?

Grinding, mostly – I think of an interesting scene or event and then how my characters would react to it, as well as how it ties to what I’ve already written and where I’m hoping to get to. I throw them together on the page, and then start sanding off all the rough edges and cutting away things that don’t make sense.

The general shape of To Walk a Road of Ruin itself and my primary characters kind-of drifted out of the fog for me one day – I was six months into my first real, full-time job, and was stuck on something until 2 A.M., just watching a file build. Having somehow exhausted the internet already, I opened a word processor and started to write the first things that came to me, which quickly became the first chapter of the book.

 

Tell us about your current project.

I’m currently working on a sequel to To Walk a Road of Ruin, called Where Wolves Fear to Tread, that’s currently about 60% done with its first draft, as well as various short stories. It picks up right where To Walk a Road of Ruin leaves off, and ties into one of my favourite shorts as well, Wolfhound (currently on Amazon for just 99 cents).

 

Who would you say is the main character of your novels? And tell me a little bit about them!

Saga of Samarkand is the main character of To Walk a Road of Ruin, and most of the story occurs in his direct perspective. Saga is, to be blunt, a wastrel – he and his companion Richter threw away educations at the University at Luxor to wander the world instead, and have been stumbling from one misadventure to the next ever since. He’s been living by his wits and his skill as a gunfighter, but his conscience and sense of wasted potential is starting to get the better of him.

 

What advice would you give new writers on how to delve into creative fiction?

Never stop writing.The minute you get off either horse, it becomes so much harder to get back on. I had some pretty severe family trauma a few years back, which derailed my writing of my sequel and am only really getting back into the groove of it now. It takes a lot to convince yourself to write something, that you’re good enough, and if you stop you have to start the whole process over again.

 

What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?

Saga himself is based around a lot of the qualities I saw in my best friend in high school and college, while Richter is based mostly on things I either aspire to or hate about myself. I’m also a huge student of history and mythology, and a lot of the names and concepts from those sources get scooped up and repurposed in what I write. I really like the feel of a world similar to our own but with the details rearranged and reimagined.

 

What inspires you to write?

Reading other people’s works, role-play-gaming, and the tiny red-haired monster my wife and I summoned a few years ago (my daughter).

 

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

Convincing myself it was worth pursuing. After the first few chapters, I had to set it aside for a bit to focus on work-related things and I began questioning it. On a whim, I gave the first few chapters to my older brother, and received an email full of threats as to what he’d do to me if I didn’t let him finish the story about 15 minutes later.

 

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

Chapter VIII of To Walk a Road of Ruin is, by far, my favorite –it may be my favorite thing I’ve written anywhere so far. I tend to write linearly, rather than scenes on their own that I then string together, and knew things were leading to this spot for months before. Any time I hit writers block, I knew I had to get through it so I could get to here, and any time after I knew I had to keep trying to top it.

 

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

That things I write that seem mundane or transparent to me, as the author, are exciting and a mystery to the reader. I feel like a lot of potential writers get stuck in their own head, seeing their story from the inside out rather than the outside in, where every twist is blatant, every reveal is dull and nothing surprises or scares them because they can see the end from the beginning. Having an outsider perspective while writing (like an alpha-reader) is essential, if only to keep you from constantly second guessing things.

 

It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it?

Letting go, mostly. To get into the right head space to write with Saga’s voice, I have to forget the things I’m pondering or worrying over and give him room to breathe. I have to remember he’s not my mouthpiece, but that I’m essentially having a conversation with him when I write.

 

What are your future project(s)?

After Where Wolves Fear to Tread, I have a third and final story for Saga, as well as a handful of shorts I’m still hammering on. I’m also currently in the planning stages of a couple of podcast ideas my brothers and I have been bandying about for a while now.

 

If you couldn’t be an author, what ideal job would you like to do?

Technical writing and editing are probably the best use of my skills outside of writing fantasy, and is a large part of what I do with my current job. I’d also love to do museum work, should I ever find the time and money to finish up my history degree through the masters or doctorate levels.

 

What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

My blog at this point is pretty defunct , but here are my facebook and goodreads pages

https://www.facebook.com/ToWalkARoadOfRuin/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6570345.A_J_VanOrden

Reviews and word of mouth on Amazon, Goodreads and anywhere else you talk about books is sure to draw my attention and response as well. Like most self-published authors, stuff like this is absolutely vital to my reaching an audience, and the more people who talk about it, the more it spreads until things reach a kind-of critical mass.

SPFBO Entry Interview: Kevin Wright “Lords of Asylum”

Well, at least I can do something right at the moment. Even though most everything else goes to shit, I’m a pretty rad interviewer.

So, onto the cool stuff! I will be interviewing as many entrants into SPFBO as possible. I doubt I’ll be able to interview all 299 entries, but I’ll try and get as many out there as I can. Today’s unfortunate victim (wait, I said that? I meant to say, wonderful volunteer…*cough*) is Kevin Wright, author of the Lords of Asylum novel which is his entry into 2018 SPFBO! I could do with one of those uniforms for my men. Tyir, you need to get your shit together, son.

 

Past Interviews:

In order to check out the previous interviews, click on the respective awesome book covers and it will take you straight to it! (The joy of learning new things about WordPress…)

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Interview:

 

First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write?  

 

My name is Kevin Wright and I’ve worked as a firefighter and emergency medical technician for the past eighteen years in my home town. I train in a martial art called bagua that most people have never heard of and have begun dabbling in HEMA, which even more people have probably never heard of. I’m not good at either, but they’re fun and a great workout. I adopted a pet bearded dragon named Julie last November. And lastly, I’m married with two awesome kids. I write fantasy, horror, and steampunk, none of it very well. I prefer to spread out my lack of writing prowess along a multifaceted front so that a wide variety of readers can dislike my work. I’m kidding, obviously… I hope.

 

How do you develop your plots and characters?

 

I consider the process of developing plot to be like planning a road trip. I like to have a destination and map before I begin. There. I know where I’m going. I jot down a few landmarks so I know how to get there.

Then, along the way, if I find a cool side road I’d like to check out, I take it, even if it veers off in the wrong direction. Then I reassess, reconfigure, and move on. And on, and on, and on… With characters I start off with a basic idea of what kind of person a character might be, then, as I write him/her, they’ll gradually form in my mind and on the paper. It’s like getting to meet them piecemeal as I write, which is fun.

 

Tell us about your current project.

 

I’m working on the second draft of, ‘Husk,’ a sequel to my SPFBO 4 entrant ‘Lords of Asylum.’ ‘Husk’ follows the further exploits of Sir Luther Slythe Krait and his cohorts as they try to survive the aftermath of the events in ‘Lords of Asylum.’

 

Who would you say is the main character of your novels? And tell me a little bit about them!

 

The main character of ‘Lords of Asylum’ and ‘Husk’ is Sir Luther Slythe Krait. Both stories are told in the first person from his perspective.

Krait’s an ex-lawman now down-on-his-nonexistent-luck hedge knight wandering Europe during the Black Plague years. Say 1350 to early 1400’s. His grand scheme in life is to just scrape together enough cash to get loaded and maybe find a warm bed with a warm body in it.

There is a sadness to him, though, and while his past is opaque, it’s evident he’s has lost a great deal. It’s also evident that he used to be a man guided by morality and integrity. That has, for the most part, fled, with the occasional act of chivalry either forced upon him by his brother Stephan or some vestigial impulse.

Along with Krait are his brother, Stephan, the brains and moral center of the crew, and their feral comrade in arms, Karl.

 

What advice would you give new writers on how to delve into creative fiction?

 

First off, read the stuff you want to write. Have some grounding in your neck of the woods. Know what’s out there. Go online to groups and ask what a good primer set of novels is for your genre, then get to it.

Next, read everything else.  Mix and match.

You never know where you’ll find inspiration for your next work or the one you’re working on currently. Grounding yourself in a variety of genres will only enhance your writing. Read women’s lit. Read cookbooks. Read classics. Contemporary. History is huge.

Finally, but most importantly, WRITE. Get your butt in the chair and just do it. And don’t wait. Do it today. Now. I’m fairly boring, so stop reading this and go do it.

Also, if you’re inexplicably still there, listen to everyone’s advice on writing then find out what works for you. What gets you results? Then do it. Do it as much as you can and be patient. It’s a marathon, as they say, not a sprint and the race keeps going on long after you’ve published.

 

What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?

 

I used to work in a neighboring city that is fairly downtrodden. Seeing old pictures of what it used to look like in its heyday and comparing it to what it is now is sad. You get this feeling of a treasure trove of history that lies buried just beneath the surface. You see old mill buildings hundreds of yards long that are completely abandoned. Towering red brick smokestacks dot the horizon. Empty lots overgrown with tangles of weeds amidst the most urban environment you could imagine. It’s spooky and abandoned but kind of awesome in a sad way.

 

What inspires you to write?

 

Anything with a kernel of truth in it. People I meet. Places I visit. Shows I watch. Music I listen to. Books I read.

My favorite is when someone says something off the cuff and awesome. I tell them right there and then that I’m going to use it in a book someday. Then I write it down so I don’t forget it. Sometimes.

 

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

 

The first draft is always the hardest part for me. I struggled through writing the first draft of ‘Lords of Asylum.’ It took about a year and a half. I went through depression. Anger. Regret. Then something would click and I’d feel awesome again and burn on for a couple chapters until I’d start over with the depression again. I’m not sure it’s a healthy process, but it is what it is, and it works.

 

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

 

My favorite is Chapter 8, where Krait meets Brother Tomas the mad monk amidst a banquet of the dead. I love that chapter for its horrific atmosphere and the interplay between the sarcastic Sir Luther and Brother Tomas, who’s lost more than a few of his marbles.

 

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

 

Perseverance. I’m married with two children and when my first child was born, it really hamstrung my writing time. I actually stopped writing long fiction and focused exclusively on short stories for almost three years because I didn’t think I could maintain focus long enough to complete a novel. But, on my second child’s first birthday, I told myself I could do it and started writing ‘Lords of Asylum.’ I told myself that despite everything going on in my life, I could maintain. I could persevere. I could complete it. And I did. It took me five years of snatching moments to write, but I it got done. For me, maintaining forward momentum, even if it’s just a fifteen-minute session each day, is crucial.

 

It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it?

 

It’s about empathy. I write a character into a situation and then go through the mental exercise of putting myself into his/her shoes. What would I do? How would I react? What would I say?

The problem is, I’m pretty boring so I set a boring baseline. So, I consider how I would react if I wasn’t boring? How about if I were a knight trained from birth to fight to the death in single combat? Or an acid-tongued queen who’s been widowed and trying to survive the aftermath of a civil war. Or a monk who’s lost everyone and everything he’s ever known?

What are your future project(s)?

 

I have a book entitled ‘The Clarity of Cold Steel’ which is a steampunk detective novel set in an apocalyptic alternate future. It’s the first in a steampunk detective series. I also have a standalone horror novel in the back of my mind that’s set in a homeless camp amid an outbreak of terrifying monsters. I’m not sure which is next up but one of those two.

 

If you couldn’t be an author, what ideal job would you like to do?

 

I think it’d be awesome to be a detective. Piecing together disparate narratives into a single cohesive story all in order to right wrongs and serve justice? Sign me up.

 

What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

 

My Facebook author page or email.

– Facebook fan page: http://bit.ly/1nZem3j

-Email: Kwright50@hotmail.com

– Lords of Asylum http://amzn.to/242AqeO

-Amazon Author Page http://amzn.to/2noAXKj

-Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12261491.Kevin_Wright?from_search=true

 

Final Words: 

An excellent interview Kevin, and best of luck to the event! I’ll leave this with a little sneak promotion of my own entry The Thousand Scars. Just click the badass cover. You know you wanna!

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SPFBO Author Interview: Melika Dannese Lux”Deadmarsh Fey”

And we’re back with a new interview! Nothing witty to say today so let’s get down to it. This one is with Milika Dannese Lux with her SPFBO entry Deadmarsh Fey. Down below is the Amazon link to her book (pick it up!) and I will also link as usual the past interviews. The list is….picking up, isn’t it? (coughs)

 

Past Interviews

SPFBO Entry Interview: Patrick LeClerc “Out of Nowhere”

SPFBO Entry Interview: Aaron Cross “Robocopter Ski Patrol”

SPFBO Entry Interview: Mike Morris “He Who Fights”

SPFBO Entry Interview: Matthew Olney “The First Fear”

SPFBO Entry Interview: Kayleigh Nichol “Sorcerous Rivalry”

SPFBO Entry Interview: Scott Kaelen “The Blighted City”

 

First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write?  

 

I have been an author since the age of fourteen and write novels that incorporate a variety of different genres, including historical fiction, suspense, thrillers with a supernatural twist, and dark fantasy. With my most recent release (and SPFBO 4 entrant), Deadmarsh Fey, I have transitioned into storyweaving fantasy full-time, but before this book, I had written an historical romance/family saga, City of Lights: The Trials and Triumphs of Ilyse Charpentier, and an historical Gothic suspense/thriller, Corcitura. The vampires in that one are definitely in the Classical tradition and would feel right at home sharing a pint or two of Sangue de Vita with Dracula or Varney or Count Orlok. In other words, they’d sooner rip out your throat than be caught undead sparkling.

 

How do you develop your plots and characters?

 

Plots have always seemed to come into being after I already have a character, or set of characters, in mind. Certain paintings and other forms of art have inspired character (and story) ideas in the past, as well, specifically the works of the Pre-Raphaelites—Sir Frank Dicksee and John William Waterhouse being my favorite artists in the Brotherhood. Additionally, I have always found the work of Henry Fuseli morbidly entrancing, so much so that one version of his Nightmare ended up playing a pivotal role in Corcitura during an early scene set in the Louvre. The painting, and its ominous presence in that scene, still chill my blood to this day.  

 

The meanings and stories behind names have always fascinated me, too. One chief reason characters tend to appear first in my imagination before plots do is because I research names and their origins ahead of anything else. Then, if inspiration starts tugging and insisting and refusing to leave me in peace unless I do something with what I’ve gathered, I give in and start storyweaving from there. This is what happened with the name Deadmarsh. I’d heard it in passing in 2002, and immediately thought, “Wow! What a creepy and portentous name to build a legend around!” I never expected it would take twelve years to finally invent a story to go with this name, but waiting for the right tale to make itself known was worth it.  

 

There are many characters in Deadmarsh Fey who have Welsh names, and that was by design. If you dig a little deeper into what these names mean, you will see that I instilled traits into the characters that hearken back to what they were christened. With some of them, you would have also probably been able to hazard a fair guess as to their true identities and motivations…if I hadn’t made use of double blinds and false clues to throw readers off the scent. Being tricksy like this in my writing is one of my favorite things to do, because to have names be the sole source of a character’s reason for being, what makes him or her tick, would be to destroy the character’s autonomy—and would also be very lazy writing. Not to mention an unrewarding experience for the reader, and also myself, as the author. I have to stay engaged and be kept on my toes when crafting a novel, which is why I don’t outline, but prefer to figure things out along with my characters. It keeps things fresh and exciting, as does palming the ace as often as I can.   

 

Tell us about your current project.

 

My current project is the sequel to Deadmarsh Fey—set seven years later—and the second novel in Dwellers of Darkness, Children of Light. Several times in Deadmarsh Fey, I mentioned the Vickers family, particularly Isobel, the youngest daughter, who is Roger’s contemporary and good friend. Near the end of the novel, Isobel’s and her family’s link to the Deadmarshes, and the beings hunting them, is hinted at, and, to a certain extent, revealed to Roger in a shocking way. What he discovers leads directly into book two, Isobel’s story, which takes place on a desolate rock called Cutwater Island. Here there be sharks, and demons of the deep. And a creature whose memory is as fathomless as its desire for revenge.     

 

Who would you say is the main character of your novels? And tell me a little bit about them!

 

Each novel in Dwellers of Darkness, Children of Light has a different protagonist through whose eyes we see the story. In Deadmarsh Fey, this is Roger Knightley, ten years old and cousin to Havelock (Lockie), the Deadmarsh heir. Roger is a bit of a firecracker, and though he is just a child, he’s a well-read one, which has resulted in his having quite a vivid imagination. Sometimes, this exacerbates situations, yet it also means that Roger is unencumbered by the inability to accept wonder and the inexplicable at face value. Because of this, he’s able to understand and recognize the dangers the creatures rampaging out of the Otherworld and into our own pose to himself and his family sooner than the adults and certain other characters around him. He also has a wry bent to his personality, and a stubborn streak, that help and hinder him in various ways as the book progresses. And he’s obsessed with dragons. You’ll have to read the novel to find out if that’s a fatal character flaw or not.

 

Story wise, the events in Deadmarsh Fey, though cloaked in the garb of fantasy, are about fighting for the ones you love. That is the main driving force behind Roger’s actions and those of his friends and allies. It’s not just about survival, or stopping the Dark Wreaker—a nebulous entity that has bedeviled the Deadmarshes for seven hundred years—and his servants from  being unleashed upon this earth, but about saving the very souls of those who are most important to you, those you’d sacrifice everything for. And that is something that has always appealed to me, not only in storyweaving, but in life.

 

What advice would you give new writers on how to delve into creative fiction?

 

Absolutely do NOT write what you know. That is the worst and most stultifying piece of advice I have ever been given. If I’d followed it, Deadmarsh Fey would not exist. Don’t write what you know. Write what you dream, and make sure to instill your entire being into what your heart and soul are calling you to breathe into life.

 

What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?

 

The setting of Deadmarsh Fey is rural England in the late 19th century. Both of my previous novels have taken place in this time period, so I was already very familiar with the mores and history and other elements of this era. For the crafting of Everl’aria (the Otherworld that is seeking to join itself to our own throughout the novel), I wasn’t inspired so much by real-life examples as I was by the mythology of Norway and Wales, which I tapped into to create my own legendarium for Deadmarsh Fey and the successive novels in Dwellers of Darkness, Children of Light.

 

I was also incredibly inspired by the works of Arthur Machen, an author I’d first encountered in 2007 after reading his disturbing yet fascinating short novel The Great God Pan. Once read, it is impossible to forget, but I never delved into any more of Arthur’s stories till many years later, quite accidentally, but at exactly the time I needed to most. As I discovered, he seemed to view the fey (faeries) as dangerous and lethal beings you should never trust or turn your back upon if you wanted to live. That was how I’d always imagined they truly were, so I felt I’d found a kindred spirit in Arthur, and validation for my own theories about the fey, when I read The White People and Other Weird Stories in the spring of 2013. I see this moment as the catalyst for my ideas about Deadmarsh Fey starting to coalesce—and my excitement level for the book shooting up into the stratosphere. It would be less than a year after reading this collection that I began writing the novel.  

 

Incidentally, as an homage to Arthur, I named Havelock (Lockie) after a minor character in A Fragment of Life.

 

What inspires you to write?

 

The desire to weave stories and lose myself in other worlds. J. R. R. Tolkien, who has been a defining force and inspiration not only on my writing, but also in my life, once said that fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. I never took this to mean that writing fantasy was a way of denying reality, or hiding yourself in invented worlds because you couldn’t face daily life in our fallen one. Quite the reverse. The concept of crafting myths and legends around very human characters who inhabited worlds that reflected the glories and evils of our own, that mirrored them in some unique yet hauntingly familiar way, fired my imagination like nothing else ever had. This is the reason I don’t write contemporary fiction. Not because I can’t, but because swathing a story in the trappings of fantasy makes the experience so much richer for me as a writer, and also, hopefully, for the reader, than it would a tale stripped of its glory set in modern times. And just because something is classified as “fantasy,” doesn’t mean it can’t be realistic. If anything, it should be more so. I have always endeavored to create characters that are human, with all our foibles and weaknesses, hopes and dreams—and longings for “home.” By home, I don’t mean a building, but a deep ache within the heart to find the place where we belong. And home, for me, at least when it comes to writing, has always been in these other worlds, where I can best use the time that has been given to me to shine a blinding light onto the darkness.  

 

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

 

From a logistical standpoint, the hardest part was realizing that Deadmarsh Fey had to come first in the series. Until that realization finally sank in during the spring of 2014, I’d spent the previous year working on what would become the fourth book in Dwellers of Darkness, Children of Light. Writing this book first meant that I was trying to tell the end of the saga without knowing its beginning, which made for an incredibly frustrating experience. And yet I do not regret it, because what I wrote in that novel laid the foundation for all the legends and myths and conflict in this one. So, looking back, I see that it was necessary to go through this, since without that fourth book, Deadmarsh Fey could never have been written.  

 

On an emotional level, the ending of Deadmarsh Fey was extremely hard for me to write. Over a three year period, I’d spent every day with Roger and company, and had grown incredibly attached to all of them…but not so attached that I would force them to act out of character just to please me. In the back of my mind, I’d always known how Deadmarsh Fey had to end, but the way it unfolded was not at all what I had been expecting and made everything that came before it so much deeper and more meaningful. This change of direction was due to a character showing me that his way was the only way things could be. And he was right.  

 

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

 

There are four chapters that stand out in my memory as favorites. Now Face-to-Fey, Warnings and Visitations, Iron Reveals, and one I cannot mention the name of because it will spoil a story arc for not only Deadmarsh Fey, but book three in the series as well.

 

Now Face-to-Fey put my plotting to the test because it offered definitive proof that things were truly rotten at Deadmarsh. Up until this moment, deniability was still plausible for some characters (one in particular), but several plot points that had been simmering away for many chapters finally exploded in this one—and could no longer be discounted.

 

Warnings and Visitations sets up the conflict for book two, the story of Isobel Vickers and her family that I mentioned above. It was a complete joy to write this chapter, since I had been looking forward to doing so for over a year by the time I finally got to it.

 

Iron Reveals has a HUGE, well, reveal about the creatures bedeviling Roger and his family. In my imagination, this chapter had a different tone and feel entirely, but once I let the characters take over and do with it what they wanted, it turned out even more cohesive and startling than I could have hoped for. I also indulged in some serious schadenfreude  while writing this, since it was truly the first instance in the novel of the shoe being on the other foot, meaning that certain unsavory characters finally got a taste of what it felt like to be on the defensive.

 

And then there is the chapter that must remain nameless for now. This final favorite will always be special to me because everything in it came together in a seamless and unsettling way. And quickly, too, which is always a plus! That it takes place in a library, and is bookcentric, was yet another reason I enjoyed writing it as much as I did.  

 

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

 

Deadmarsh Fey truly taught me how to let go and give the characters free reign. This probably sounds a little odd, but I’ve found that if you get the ball rolling for them, they tend to take over and make your job a lot easier. Not a cakewalk, mind you, because I still had to juggle several story arcs that needed to be resolved to make everything not only in Deadmarsh Fey, but the other novels in the series, come full circle. Yet it was exciting to get to work each day because I knew the direction the book had taken was the one that was meant to be.

 

The book definitely made me grow as a writer, as well, and showed me that it was important not to get too attached to scenes or any other pieces of writing (dialogue especially) to the detriment of the story. What didn’t work was cut, and the novel ended up being much better because I had gotten out of my own way and hadn’t tried to force things.

 

It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it?

 

I try to place myself in my characters’ shoes as much as is conceivably possible, attempting to see the world of the story through their eyes, and understand why they’d react the way they would in any given situation. Of course, you can’t remove yourself entirely from the equation, but I strive not to influence their actions too much. Carver, Kip, and Incendiu, just to name a few, all went their own way, and while I do have a strong attachment to them, the greatest tie I felt when writing the book was to Roger. This was because of the range of emotions I experienced with him. As I said earlier, the entire book is told from his viewpoint (third person), and because of that, I felt like I became Roger in this story. I experienced things along with him, which meant that everything he endured, everything he felt—pain, fear, excitement, terror, disillusionment, panic, elation—I felt  deeply, too. It was simultaneously exhausting and rewarding. And made it very difficult to put him through the ordeals I had him undergo. Very difficult, yet not impossible, and I felt wretched afterward, but it was what the story called for.  

 

What are your future project(s)?

 

After I finish the sequel to Deadmarsh Fey, I will be working on the next two novels in Dwellers of Darkness, Children of Light. All the books already have titles, but these are rather sensitive, so I’m holding them in reserve till I announce the publication of each novel.

 

If you couldn’t be an author, what ideal job would you like to do?

 

I used to want to be a marine biologist, and would have pursued this path, if a certain wizard with a long grey beard and big pointy hat had kept his words of wisdom to himself. I blame my decision to become a writer on Gandalf the Grey (as portrayed by Ian McKellen in The Fellowship of the Ring), who got to me as an impressionable sixteen year old in the winter of 2001 as I sat, awestruck and enraptured, in a darkened theater and heard him speak this iconic line to Frodo:

 

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

Right at that moment, I made my decision, and have never looked back.   

 

What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

 

Readers can contact me through my web site: https://booksinmybelfry.com

 

And also Twitter (https://twitter.com/BooksInMyBelfry ) and Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/950456.Melika_Dannese_Lux)   

 

Additionally, Deadmarsh Fey is available across all Amazon sites in paperback and Kindle editions.

 

Amazon.com:  https://www.amazon.com/Deadmarsh-Dwellers-Darkness-Children-Light-ebook/dp/B07C7PKNPW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1531149809&sr=8-1&keywords=deadmarsh+fey

 

Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deadmarsh-Dwellers-Darkness-Children-Light-ebook/dp/B07C7PKNPW/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1531149905&sr=8-1&keywords=melika+dannese+lux

 

Thank you for this opportunity, Michael! I enjoyed answering these questions! Best wishes, Melika.

 

You are most welcome for the interview, and certainly one of the more in-depth answers! I had a lot of fun reading this. The next interview I will try and get out this weekend, if I can. I’ll be honest, I’m struggling with my mental health of late, but I’ll do what I can to keep them up.

 

SPFBO Entry Interview: Patrick LeClerc “Out of Nowhere”

20 degrees heat at 11pm last night. That sort of thing shouldn’t happen. Anyway, rant over! I unfortunately missed yesterday’s planned roll call due to health issues, but I’m back with my latest interview. This time it’s with Patrick LeClerc, author of his SPFBO entry Out of Nowhere and his Immortal Vagabond Healer series. Just rolls right off your tongue? A link to his book is down below, as well as the links to the other interviews. (That section is getting increasingly long…)

 

Past Interviews:

SPFBO Entry Interview: Aaron Cross “Robocopter Ski Patrol”

SPFBO Entry Interview: Mike Morris “He Who Fights”

SPFBO Entry Interview: Matthew Olney “The First Fear”

SPFBO Entry Interview: Kayleigh Nichol “Sorcerous Rivalry”

SPFBO Entry Interview: Scott Kaelen “The Blighted City”

 

Interview with Patrick LeClerc, author of “Out of Nowhere”





First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write?

 

I’m a paramedic with a degree in history. I enlisted in the Marines right out of high school, and worked a series of jobs while I figured out what I wanted to do. I unloaded trucks, I plowed snow, I painted houses, delivered pizza, probably a few things I forget. In college I was a nationally ranked sabre fencer, and now I do historical European martial arts, archery and brew my own beer.

 

My writing is every bit as focused as my career has been. So I write some urban fantasy, some historical fantasy, some sword and sorcery and some military s/f. The constant thread would be a hero who is skilled and competent, but always a commoner. Never a member of the aristocracy, never the “chosen one.” I also like to focus on camaraderie. My protagonist is never a lone wolf. Nobody really is for very long. I like the character to have a tribe, a group that he can depend on.  

 

How do you develop your plots and characters?

 

I start with an idea. Usually it’s a character. Then I try to put that character in a situation and see what would happen. From there, the plot kinda grows organically. The character’s reactions will drive the and the plot will uncover more about the character and eventually I have a story.

 

I’ve tried to outline, but it kills my drive to write. I wind up wasting far too much time staring at the blank page. If I just jump in, I write much faster and more than make up the time I need to neaten things up at the end.

 

Tell us about your current project.

 

I’m finishing up “Robbing Death,” a sequel to “Broken Crossroads” which is a pulp inspired sword and sorcery novel. The main characters are a thief and a retired mercenary. It’s a lot of swashbuckling, witty banter, vicious crime syndicates, ancient curses, glittering treasure. It’s a lot of fun. I was inspired by Fritz Leiber’s “Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser” stories.

 

 

Who would you say is the main character of your novels? And tell me a little bit about them!

 

The main character of my submission to SPFBO is an immortal who can heal others with a touch. He is without his oldest memories, so he doesn’t know his origins, or why he can do what he can do. He does know that people fear what they don’t understand, so he has spent centuries living incognito, lying low, often as a soldier, since armies move around a lot and the faces change, and now as a paramedic, which is also a transient workforce, but also where he can use his talent for healing without drawing too much attention to himself.

 

One of the driving forces is he knows any friendship is temporary, which is another reason he works the jobs he does. He surrounds himself with comrade who will be very close, depend on one another deeply, but for a relatively short time.

 

Now, just as he starts to develop some deeper connections, his life is endangered, and he has to make a decision. Run away, moving on and starting over, like he has for centuries, or fight and protect his current life and the people who matter to him.

 

What advice would you give new writers on how to delve into creative fiction?

 

Write. Don’t overthink it, just write. You’ll write a lot of bad stuff at first, but that’s part of the process. And read a lot. Pay attention to how your favorite authors use language.

 

And above all, do not let the ‘rules’ you’ll see on every writing forum shackle you. Listen to Barbosa. Rules are more of a …guideline, really.

 

What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?

 

Well, worldbuilding for ‘Out of Nowhere,” the book I submitted, isn’t really much of a topic, as I used our world. The city of Philips Mills is a composite of a number of cities I worked in as a paramedic.  

 

What inspires you to write?

 

Lots of things. If I had to pick one, it would be music. Song lyrics tend to evoke images that I want to build stories around.

 

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

 

Writing in first person. I like the immediacy that first person brings. I like the voice, I like being in the MC’s head and writing in a conversational tone. But when the MC doesn’t know what the antagonist is doing, neither does the reader. That can make it tough to build suspense or tension, because the reader simply doesn’t see the impending danger.

 

You can do it. It’s a common issue in detective fiction, where our hero has to work out the situation and deal with limited knowledge, but it is a challenge.

 

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

 

I really love writing banter. I love the back and forth between characters.

 

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

 

I learned a ton. This was my first published novel, and I found a great group of writers who were able to give me some amazing feedback. It wouldn’t be the book it is without that help. Stephen Godden Ren Warom, Louise Cole, Gary Bonn, Raymond Coulombe, Kevin Wright, Janet Alison Brown, Timothy Goyette.  All great writers who gave me a lot of direction. You should read their stuff. I know Kevin has a book in the competition

 

It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it?

 

I cheat.

 

My main character is a paramedic with a lot of military experience. So that wasn’t hard. I have a good background in history, so the immortal thing, the memories of the past wasn’t hard. His friends I drew from people I know, mixing and matching and making composites. The villain was tough, especially as, being a first person narrative, I didn’t get into their heads at all, just showed their actions from my protagonist’s perspective.

 

My advice on writing characters is to observe the people around you. Then file off the serial numbers.

 

What are your future project(s)?

 

I have more books planned for three series. “Out of Nowhere” which already has one sequel, “Spitting Image,” will be an ongoing series. My near future military s/f is getting a prequel, and my pulpy fantasy story is getting a sequel. I also have some ideas about a fairly straight Paramedic story and vague ideas about a different urban fantasy story. More like classic detective fiction than “Out of Nowhere” is.

 

If you couldn’t be an author, what ideal job would you like to do?

 

International jewel thief.

 

A life of travel to exotic locations. Daring acrobatics. Thrilling escapes. Seducing beautiful INTERPOL agents.

 

I could get behind all that.

 

What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

 

The best place is my own website: inkandbourbon.com You can find everything there. I’m on Facebook and Twitter, and currently contributing to Quantum Muse Books, which is a association of independent authors who help one another bring out our books.

 

My entry: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JBNRK9A

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4738921.Patrick_LeClerc

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patrick.leclerc.5205

Twitter: @PatrickLeCler17

 

Thanks for the opportunity to answer some of these questions.