Konn Lavery's Blog: Posts from konnlavery.com, page 29

Arts Talk Online – Edmonton Expo

Arts Talk dropped by the Edmonton Comic expo! Check out the interview he had at the 11:05 stamp. Check out the whole episode to learn more about Daniel Martin, Jamie Pruden, and Neil Chase.

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Author Assist Radio Show Sept 13, 2019

Author Assist radio show is a fun comfortable chat with independent authors. They talk about their books, life and the industry. There’s a Q&A on marketing and promotion, and they feature an independent rock band in the break.

I was part of the September 13, 2019 show along with Tosca Lee and The Bedord Band. Listen to the whole show below:

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Revisions

September is wrapped up! What a ride. The beginning of the fall is always a rollercoaster as everyone returns from holidays. This year, I was ambitious and decided to write a new first draft in September as well. That was smart. Now that the month is over, I got time to breathe, and then jump into revisions!

Welcome to another edition of Unprocessed Thoughts

The end of September always marks an important milestone for
me each year. The summer ends, which means contract work picks up, and I can
start figuring out what the hell I will be doing the following year. It is
generally the end of convention season for me too with the 3-day comic expo in
my home town.

Edmonton Comic Expo

Edmonton Expo, what a weekend. This year I joined in a super-booth collaboration with Jamie Pruden, Theatre Garage, and Rutherford Manor. The new location let me tuck the table back and talk to people – a far more enjoyable experience talking. The end of the Edmonton Expo marked the last major event of 2019. Of course, there are a few more one-day events in October and November. Those are far easier to handle compared to long conventions.

Onto Revisions

Building my writing career each year has allowed me to
figure out how to roughly estimate a year with convention dates, awards
submissions, and when to release a book. It takes careful planning and this
year I’ve practiced finding ways to work smarter and not harder. Now, I’ve got
some new goals for 2020.

Rutherford Manor II

I managed to wrap up the first draft of Rutherford Manor II
in two weeks of September. The actual book has been in the works since spring,
but that was all outlining. The drafting completed made writing the first draft
far easier. The speech to text software made a big difference too. I swear by
it now. It will get your first draft down on paper at lightning speed.

Mental Damnation IV

Earlier this year, I wrapped up the fantasy series, Mental
Damnation’s, first draft. It was the first go at speech to text and took about five
weeks to write out 110,000 words. It already has a list of revision notes that
I will be working on over the winter. Finally, after years of hiatus, we get to
see what happens to Krista.

Revisions

The two drafts mentioned are the current works in progress.
Of course, flash fiction will still be happening. This is plenty of work to
keep me busy over the fall and winter until the new year starts. Now that convention
season is over, most of my appearances will be online, keeping everyone updated
on the writing progress.

I have yet to work on two entirely new manuscripts set for release
in the following year. It’s a new milestone I’d like to tackle, and I am not
one for editing two books simultaneously. It becomes too challenging to become
submerged into either story. With that in mind, I’ll be doing revisions on one
book at a time to get into the world of Rutherford Manor and Mental Damnation.

Beer Note: Mainframe Category 12 Brewing

This red ale brewed by the British Columbia company Category
12 is a lot heavier than what you’d expect for a red ale. It Is fairly dark and
has a slight grainy texture. You can taste the little bit of sweet caramel with
each sip as well.

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Go Indie Now Town Hall LIVE Graphic Designers

This is a question and answer format. So if you are watching this live please post your questions in the chat and we will ask them during the show. If you are watching this after the fact, please post your questions in the comment section and I will have our group double back and give you an answer.

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Scrappers Part II

Scrappers Angie and Ruggy have been sent by their operator
to a location deep within The Lost. This is no ordinary Scrapper mission. The
two came across a crashed starship. Is it one of the deadly Harvesters or
something else entirely?

Scrappers Part II continues August’s flash fiction that brings readers into a continuation of a sci-fi horror universe. Enjoy the story in written word, audio, artwork and soundscape.

Scrappers Part II









Dual Freaks

Flames crackled. Gravel moved around with each step. My
heart pounded. Sweat beaded up over my face. I kept my gaze forward, keeping a
close eye on my partner, Ruggy. He moved closer to the flickering orange heat.
The sun had set entirely. The night vision goggles we used tried to balance out
the contrast of light and dark but were of little use. One thing was clear, the
silhouette of a muscular arm reaching for the skies.

The small UI chat message window at the bottom corner of the
goggles lit up as Ruggy typed out a new message.

LET’S CIRCLE AROUND, WE’RE HEADING STRAIGHT FOR IT,
he typed.

My eyelids twitched, navigating the chat program’s keyboard,
typing.

GOT IT, I replied.

The two of us circled around as a haunting groan came from
the silhouette’s location. The arm moved down to the ground. The being was
trying to push itself up. It was wounded, how injured we didn’t know. Ruggy and
I had to be cautious. This thing was looking more and more like a Harvester the
closer we got.

As bold as Ruggy was for investigating the fire, I was not.
All I wanted to do was run. Get the hell out of here as quickly as we could.
The lack of site, the obscure stinging smell, and this massive being was enough
to send me heading for the cruiser. Ruggy needed me though. Scrappers stuck
together. There was no other option. Scrapper’s code always comes first.

Another sound screeched through the fire, this one was more
distant. Violent. The noise caused Ruggy and I to turn towards the origin,
trying to spot anything. Large torn scraps of metal pierced from the ground. The
remnants of some sort of spacecraft.

THERE’S TWO, Ruggy typed out.

THAT DIDN’T SOUND THE SAME, I replied.

NO SHIT. STAY ON GUARD.

Ruffling from the first being picked up. We turned to see it
attempting to stand upright, limping. A second screech erupted. The being
reached for an object on the ground, a large spear.

SEE? HARVESTER. Ruggy typed.

The spear was a clear indicator of a Harvester. All humans
knew it. They used those damned electrically charged spears to numb us.
Harvesters needed us in good shape, ideally. That didn’t mean they weren’t afraid
of brutal force.

WHAT’S THE PLAN? I asked.

The Harvester collapsed onto its spear, holding the rod tightly
for support. Okay, it was critically wounded.

KILL IT, Ruggy typed.

A howling shriek boomed before I could type anything. A new bulky
humanoid burst from the flames. Naked, claws, spikes, all colliding with the
Harvester. The two humanoids tumbled onto the ground towards us, skidding to a
stop. We leaped back as they came into view, rifles aimed.

Pareidolia

An entangled, burnt lump of bloody limbs wrestled to get on
top of one another. I froze, staring at the Harvester who landed with its back to
the ground. The helmet was half-complete. Hardened foam caked around the damaged
edges, revealing the face of the Harvester. It had blond patches of hair, most
of it had scorched off the scalp. It scowled, blue eyes looking at its
opponent. The Harvester’s large arms shook violently as it held onto the
primitive being’s wrists. The second humanoid, slightly shorter, drooled as
it’s sharp jaws remained open. Spikes pointed upright all along the back and
outer limbs. The clawed feet hooked into the thighs of the Harvester,
puncturing the flesh. Reddish-green blood poured out of the wounds.

SHOOT, Ruggy ordered.

I didn’t reply. I could only stare at the Harvester’s eyes
as it wrestled with the naked beast. Harvesters were taller than us – more
perfect you could say – stronger, and relentless. Yet, they were once us.

An ear-shattering clack erupted from Ruggy’s rifle. He fired
several times as the automatic weapon projected the bullets into the Harvester
and beast. The Harvester yelped in pain, a human cry. The beast howled like a
dog. It ripped its claws free from the Harvester and landed on all fours,
dashing away from the scene, blood drizzling on the ground behind it.

I lifted my rifle at it and pulled the trigger, firing at
the creature as it disappeared from the crash site, vanishing into The Lost.

Shit, I thought.

Ruggy shouted, “eat it gene freak!” as he continued to fire
at the Harvester. The bullets pinged off of the remaining armour. The exposed
skin was defenceless, letting the bullets pierce into the flesh. Blood splattered
all around. Its eyes squinted in agony as red and green liquid oozed out of its
mouth.

I turned my weapon to the Harvester and paused. No human had
been this close to a Harvester before. Especially in such a defenceless state.
A part of me wanted to try and help the Harvester. Reason with it. Show the
being that we weren’t that different after all. We could create a paradigm
shift between the two species. No. It’s been tried before. It was a foolish
idea.

No Traces

“He’s going to spray!” Ruggy shouted.

Rugg’y words shot me out of my internal dilemma. My eyes
widened as the Harvester managed to reach for his inner bicep, fingers pressing
a touch screen that lit up red.

“Go!” Ruggy said, snagging my arm.

A loud beep came from the Harvester’s torn-up suit as small
black holes opened all over the armour. Translucent liquid sprayed out of the
suit in all directions and over the Harvester. Sizzling sounds followed as the
liquid came into contact with the Harvester and the ground.

We barely made it out of the vicinity of the sprinkle,
coming to a halt. The liquid had wholly covered the Harvester. A chemical
reaction transformed it to foam, expanding in size. The Harvester clenched its
teeth in pain as the foam ate away at his armour and flesh. The foam’s colour shifted
into a slight green as the rest of the Harvester’s form was shrouded in the foam
substance.

“Damnit!” Ruggy said.

I looked over at him to see that some of the liquid had
gotten onto his shoulder. He tried to brush it off as it swelled up.

“I think it ate through my coat. I can feel it compressing,”
he said.

The foam had stopped expanding, turning a slight red – proof
that it had eaten some of his flesh. “It’s toughening,” I said, looking at it.

“Don’t get too close, kid,” Ruggy said stepping back. “Shit
it stings.”

“We gotta get back to the cruiser and take care of it.”

“It’s not that bad. It hardened. Doesn’t matter if we slice
it off now or later.” Ruggy said, his gaze locking onto the Harvester’s
consumed form.

The being was engulfed by the froth. Snapping sounds picked
up – crushing bones from the hardened fizz that began compress. Only a blob
remained, in a rough humanoid pose. The surrounding ground had speckles of the
foam in a light grey. All of the foam continued to compress inward, crushing
the rocks – and Harvester – underneath.

“Pricks,” Ruggy said while walking towards it. “They always
manage to pull off that stunt just when we got them.”

“I’ve never seen that before. I mean, I’ve seen videos of it
in training,” I replied while walking up to Ruggy.

“Not the same is it?”

“Not at all. We really can’t cut the foam open?”

“No point. The acid eats away the surface and the foam
crushes everything else. Plus, this shit is harder than diamond once it shrinks,”
Ruggy said, kicking the foam on the ground. “If we could ever get our hands on
even a fraction of their tech, it could change our situation.”

“Or understand their biology better,” I replied. “They look
so human.”

Ruggy sighed. “Don’t let their appearance fool you next
time. When I say fire, fire, understand?”

“Yeah, sorry. It just threw me off. I’ve never seen one
without their suit.”

“Most don’t, because they pull off that stupid self-destruct
system. Remember, just because they look like a perfect us, doesn’t mean they
are us. Their minds are fucked up with a superiority complex.”

“Right,” I said, turning to look at the fire and nearby torn
metal. “What do you think happened here?” I asked.

Ruggy shrugged. “The Harvester crashed. The question is,
what the hell was it doing with that other thing?”

“I don’t know. It ran away before I could do anything about
it,” I replied.

Ruggy walked from the caked Harvester towards the ships
remains. “It was fast. Now it’s wandering The Lost. That’s something we gotta
report.”

“We should go back,” I said.

“Not yet, let’s scope out the rest of this mess. The
operator sent us here. Let’s see what was going on.” Ruggy said while walking
towards the flame.

I followed Ruggy, taking one last look at the deceased
Harvester. The fizz had compressed to a solid-state, perfectly outlining the
shape of the giant humanoid, like some sort of dried-acid statue. Never before
had I been so close to a Harvester. Most people that did didn’t survive. They
were too fast, too strong, and too cunning. If that thing hadn’t been wounded
and attacked, we would have been dead. That was a guarantee. In an odd turn of
events that hostile beast was our saviour.

Review

Ruggy and I walked cautiously through the rubble of the
Harvester’s spacecraft remains. There were remnants of cables and hardware on
the ground, too burnt to try and sample. We continued on, deeper into the mess.
Most of the ship had been destroyed in the crash. Plus, Harvesters had a pretty
clean method of destroying their technology, like they do with themselves.
Anything of value regarding their ship was mostly disintegrated.

SOME GOOD METAL HERE, Ruggy typed out.

YEAH, I’LL GET THE ROVER, I replied while navigating
through the goggle’s interface. My eyelids made slight movements to get to the
rover’s retrieval command. The interface confirmed the rover’s signal. It’d be
here in no time to carry the scraps. It’s always wise for Scrappers not to keep
their rover around until we found something of value. Rovers are expensive and
the one good piece of tech we get. The last thing we need is a Harvester to
destroy it. Man do those rovers save our asses from having to haul heavy
scraps.

WE MIGHT NEED THE WHOLE CRUISER AT THIS POINT, Ruggy
typed out while walking around a large curved exterior of the craft. He
carefully avoided nearby flames and any sharp pieces of metal that stuck out of
the ground.

YEAH. LET’S JUST SEE WHAT ELSE IS HERE AND THEN WE CAN
CALL THIS IN, I replied.

We stopped several times, looking to see if there was
anything useful on the ground. Most of it was just scraps, the type of things
we’d usually gather. Regardless of the danger, we both knew that this was going
to be a good scrapping session. The operator would be pleased.

CHECK THIS OUT, Ruggy typed.

I hurried up to my partner to see a human-sized glass pod
was shattered on the ground. It was probably not glass, but some Harvester
equivalent. The broken pod was half melted away and a third missing. Tubes
could be seen at the base of the cylinder shape.

“Think that beast came out of here?” I asked.

“Maybe,” Ruggy said in a low tone. “Look,” he added.

Several smaller pods were beside the large one. These were a
little cracked but intact. Inside the pods were flesh-sacks floating in a
translucent substance. The sacks were a light pink colour, but
semi-transparent. Inside, small baby-like beings floated. Their eyes were
closed, sleeping peacefully, undisturbed by the chaos that had just occurred.

“What are these?” I asked, leaning down.

Ruggy extended his arm out, stopping me from tilting any
further. “Stay up,” he ordered.

One of the small creatures wiggled, moving its tiny,
undeveloped hands around in the sack. An ambilocal cord was attached to the
belly that reached the top of the sack.

“These are infants,” I said, standing upright.

“No, they’re not Angie,” Ruggy said, pointing his rifle at
the baby.

“Are you dense?” I asked. “I know what a damn baby looks
like.”

“Yeah but this was a Harvester’s craft,” Ruggy replied.

I shook my head. “Harvesters capture people. They take us to
mess with genetics. This is a damn baby!”

“They also grow their own people in incubators.”

“So even if it is a Harvester baby, it’s a life,” I argued.

“A Harvester life. Or maybe that beast we saw,” Ruggy
replied. “Either way, it isn’t one of us.”

“Ruggy, are you listening to yourself? You want to shoot
these infants?”

Ruggy let go of his rifle and threw a swift hand across my
face. The slap hit hard, probably turning my cheek pink. My eyes widened,
feeling my flesh hum from the aftermath.

“Angie! Wake up. These are not humans.” Ruggy shouted. “They’re
genetic freaks. They forced their DNA to evolve away from us. They look similar
to us, but so did the great apes, and look at how we treated them when they
were around.”

I swallowed a thick lump of saliva. Ruggy was trying to be a
good person, but I knew he was getting frustrated. That slap was ‘nice Ruggy.’ ‘Mean
Ruggy’ would have decked my ass and just do what he wanted. He was only trying to
educate me.

“I know it’s tough to grasp,” Ruggy said. “We’re living in a
fucked-up world where the lines of being human are blurred. This is why we
stick to the code. Us against them. Harvesters broke all morale centuries ago
when they edited their first DNA strand. Even if we saved these offspring and
try to raise it, they don’t grow like us, and they don’t think like us. They’ll
question themselves, and that is a can of worms we don’t need. Now raise your
damn rifle.” Ruggy lifted his weapon, pointing at one of the pods.

I stared down at the second pod, looking right into the
small being’s soft face. It wiggled around gently in the sack, stopping until
it was facing me. Its eyes flicked open. White. Nothing but a white ball inside
of the eye socket. Inhuman.

We fired at the pods, the bullets shattered through the
glass, ripping through the embryo sacks and shredding into the small beings.
The translucent liquid poured out of the broken glass, followed by streams of reddish-green
fluids.

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A Celebration of Madness – Daniel Martin and The Infamous IV

I’m pleased to say I will be at the Daniel Martin and The Infamous concert this November with the novels available for signing!

This will be their final concert in the “Taste of Madness” era, and they will be playing much of the music from the album as well as never-before-heard songs from our future full-length album.

Come be part of this unforgettable, monumental, all-ages evening.
Guest acts and details to be released later.

When and Where?

Saturday, November 16, 2019 at 6 PM – 11:30 PM

The Rec Room South Edmonton
1725 99 Street NW, Edmonton, Alberta T6N 1K5

More Information can be found on the Facebook Event.

The post A Celebration of Madness – Daniel Martin and The Infamous IV appeared first on Konn Lavery.

Halloween Book Signing

Head over to Strathcona Chapters for a Halloween signing!

I’ll be heading over to Chapters Strathcona (Whyte Ave) for a signing of my novels. Drop in for a meet & greet the author, artwork, and of course, the books themselves.

When and Where:

Saturday, October 12 from 11:00am – 4:00pm
Chapters Strathcona
10504 82nd Avenue,
Edmonton, AlbertaT6E 2A4

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Capital City Press Book Festival

This year I will be at the third annual Capital City Press Book Festival from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Discover locally written and published booksGet your books signed by participating authorsAttend panels on a variety of topics featuring some of Alberta’s top writers

Attendance is free and everyone is welcome!

When and Where?

October 5th from 10am – 4pm

Address:

Clareview Recreation Centre
3804 139 Avenue Northwest, Edmonton AB

Full Information Can Be Found Here.

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Rutherford Manor Art Exhibition Grand Opening!

Rutherford Manor is proud to present an exhibition of the unique art and photography that bring to life our creepy characters and stories. Please come and join us for some visiting, cosplay, viewing, eating, drinking, and just some fun at this Grand Opening of our first Art Gallery Exhibition!

Meet these talented Artists and Photographers in Person

Jamie Pruden, Sean Gordon Lee Nielsen Kerstyn Karen Photo Junkies Conor HildebrandtOver 25 Unique Show Pieces with Descriptions!FREE WINE AND GOODIESCreepy Cosplay EncouragedMeet Special Guest Konn Lavery author of The White Hand!



DATE: Oct 2nd at 6:30 PM

The Orange Hub Main Foyer
10045 156 Street, Edmonton, AB
NO CHARGE TO ATTEND

Bring a friend, share on social media, and wear a spooky costume! Let’s get into the Halloween spirit!

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Edward Willett expands the Worldshaper universe with his new novel, Master of The World

For September’s guest author we have Edward Willett, who is a writer and performer from Regina, Saskatchewan. He has authored more than 50 books of various types. He is well known for writing in the science fiction and fantasy genres. Some of his work has been published by DAW Books in New York, such as the novels Lost in Translationand 2009 Aurora Award-winning novel Marseguro. He has also been published with Bundoran Press. Let’s welcome him to the blog.

Hi Edward Willett, thank you for joining us. Can you introduce yourself to
the readers?

Hi, readers! As the introduction says, I’m a multiply
published author—I’ve actually lost count of exactly how many books I’ve had
published. They run the gamut from non-fiction (local history, science books,
biographies, and computer books) to my first love, science fiction and fantasy.
There’s even one book of poetry! I’ve written for children, young adults, and
adults.

I started my career as a newspaper reporter at the weekly Weyburn
(Saskatchewan) Review. (Weyburn was the town where I grew up.) At the
ripe old age of 24r, I became news editor there. Then, in my late 20s, I became
communications officer for the then-fledgling Saskatchewan Science Centre,
which is what brought me from Weyburn to Regina, where I’ve lived ever since.
After five years at the science centre, I quit my job and became a fulltime
freelance writer, which I’ve now been for 26 years.

In addition to writing (and some editing), I’ve done quite a
bit of acting and singing, both professionally and just for fun. I’m married to
a telecommunications engineer and have one daughter, who is currently enrolled
at the University of Toronto. Oh, and we have a black Siberian cat, Shadowpaw—can’t
forget him, since I used his name on my own little publishing company,
Shadowpaw Press.

Tell us about your latest release, Master of The World.

Master of the World is the second book in the Worldshapers
series, published by DAW Books, which began with Worldshaper last year.
In Worldshaper, the main character, Shawna Keys, has a pleasant, low-key
life: she’s just opened a pottery studio in a small city in Montana, she has a
great boyfriend, she has a wonderful best friend. But then everything changes in
an instant. Black-clad gunmen storm the coffee shop where she’s having lunch
with her friend. Her friend is killed. She’s about to be killed. She refuses to
believe it’s happening…and just like that, it isn’t. It hasn’t. The gunmen
are gone. The coffeeshop is undamaged…but her friend, Aesha, isn’t there, and
no one remembers that she ever existed.

A mysterious stranger, Karl Yatsar, shows up and explains to
Shawna that her world, which she thought was the only world, is in fact a
Shaped world—and that she Shaped it exactly the way she wanted it when she was
thrust into it ten years before. Not only that, it’s only one of a plentitude
of Shaped worlds in a vast extra-dimensional Labyrinth. And now, she’s about to
lose control of it. The Adversary, the leader of the gunmen, who touched her
forehead before threatening to kill her, has stolen her knowledge of the world
and is already turning it against her. They have to flee her world
entirely…not just to save her life, but because Karl believes she is a
powerful enough Shaper—even though, much to his shock and bewilderment, she didn’t
remember being one—to travel through all the worlds of the Labyrinth, gathering
the knowledge of each, and taking it to the mysterious Ygrair, the one who gave
all the Shapers, who originally came from the First World—our world—their
own worlds to Shape. Ygrair has been wounded and weakened, and needs someone to
bring her the knowledge of as many worlds as possible so that she can save the
Labyrinth and all its myriad worlds from the depredations of The Adversary, who
wants to enslave and then destroy them all.

In Worldshaper, Shawna and Karl embark on a hazardous
cross-country journey, trying to stay one step ahead of The Adversary, to find
the only place where a Portal can be opened into the next world, where Shawna
can begin the quest she’s been saddled with

 In Master of the
World, Shawna finds herself in that next world over, but without her guide
and mentor—Karl was left behind. In her first two hours, she’s rescued from a
disintegrating island by an improbable flying machine she recognizes from Jules
Verne’s Robur the Conqueror, then seized from it by raiders flying tiny
personal helicopters, and finally taken to a submarine that bears a strong
resemblance to Captain Nemo’s Nautilus. Oh, and accused of being both a
spy and a witch.

Shawna expects—hopes!—Karl Yatsar will eventually follow her
into this new steampunk realm, but exactly where and when he’ll show up, she
hasn’t a clue.

In the meantime, she has to navigate a world where two
factions fanatically devoted to their respective leaders are locked in
perpetual combat, figure out who the Shaper of the world is, find him or her,
and obtain the secret knowledge of this world’s Shaping. Then she has to
somehow reconnect with Karl Yatsar, and escape to the next Shaped world in the
Labyrinth…through a Portal she has no idea how to open.

Master of The World is part of the Worldshaper storyline, how
many novels do you estimate to have in the series?

The series is open-ended: the concept allows me to tell any
kind of story in any kind of world. Potentially, it could have any number of
novels (although I know how it ends, there’s no rush getting there). I’m
currently writing Book 3, which takes place in a world with werewolves and
vampires!

You’ve done a lot of writing, as mentioned on your website, over 50 books.
When and what did you first start writing about?

I’ve always been drawn to science fiction and fantasy. I
have two older brothers, both of whom read it, so the books were around the
house. My very first complete short story, written when I was eleven, was
called “Kastra Glazz: Hypership Test Pilot.” My mother typed it up for me and I
showed it to my Grade 7 English teacher, Tony Tunbridge, who did me the honor
of taking it seriously and providing some actual criticism—criticism which,
rather than prompting me to give up, instead prompted me to try to make the
next thing I wrote better. (I dedicated my recent stand-alone science-fiction
novel The Cityborn to Tony by way of thanking him.) I went on to write
three science fiction and fantasy novels in high school, so my course was set
early on.

Edward, you are a performer too. Care to elaborate more about this aspect
of your life?

I’ve always sung—my father was a choral director—and I got
the acting bug at age 11 when I played Petruchio in a one-act adaptation of The
Taming of the Shrew. I carried on acting and singing, whenever I got the
chance. In Weyburn, while I was at the newspaper, I was a founding member of
Crocus 80 Theatre, a new community-theatre group, and had leading roles in many
plays, and also directed twice. When I moved to Regina, I immediately
gravitated to Regina Lyric Light Opera (now Regina Lyric Musical Theatre), a
community theatre group that did musicals (it was in a production of The
Music Man that I first met my future wife.) I did a lot of shows with
Lyric, Regina Little Theatre, and Regina Summer Stage.

When I went full-time freelance, in addition to writing, for
three years I performed with a professional opera company, Prairie Opera, which
did six-week tours of Saskatchewan schools, typically two shows a day. That made
a nice addition to my fledgling freelance income. A few years later I was hired
by Regina’s professional theatre company, Globe Theatre, for a production of On
Golden Pond (I played the boyfriend from California). As a result of that,
I became a member of Canadian Actors’ Equity. I’ve continued to perform every
chance I get, both professionally and (more often) just for fun. I’ve been in
dozens of plays, musicals, and operas. I’ve also sung with many choirs,
including the Canadian Chamber Choir, an auditioned group made up of singers
from across the country.

I’ve combined my writing and performing sides a few times in
shows I’ve written and directed. Two I’ve done for Regina Lyric Musical Theatre
had fantastical elements. In 2013 I wrote and directed As Time Goes By: A
Love Story with Music and Ghosts, which did indeed have ghosts in it, and
this past year I wrote and directed The Music Shoppe, which might not
sound fantastical, but in fact took place in a mystical music store with an
ageless proprietor and a mysterious mechanical pianist with magical abilities.
Both were hits with audiences.

What was your most challenging novel to write to date?

Worldshaper was challenging because it’s designed to
set up an open-ended series. My editor at DAW Books, Hugo Award-winner Sheila
E. Gilbert, and I spent a lot of time trying to make sure that everything that
was needed to enable the series to work going forward was built into the first
book. It was also a bit challenging to write because it’s an interesting mix of
first-person (the main character, Shawna Keys) and third-person (her guide and
mentor, Karl Yatsar, and her enemy, The Adversary) viewpoints.

Now that Master of the World is released, do you have other novels
in the works?

In addition to Book 3 of the Worldshapers series,
I’ve got a middle-grade fantasy, Fire Boy, in circulation to publishers;
I’m finishing the editing of a young adult science fiction novel, Star Song,
which I’ll be bringing out myself through Shadowpaw Press; and I’ll be writing
another young-adult story, a dark fantasy called Changers (involving
shapeshifters) for ChiZine Publications. I have some other books I want to
bring out through Shadowpaw in the not-too-distant future, novels I’ve never
found a home for that I think deserve a chance to see the light of day, but I
have to fit those in around other work so they won’t be for a while yet.

And I have ideas for many more…

Is your writing and performance inspiration intertwined or are these parts
of your life entirely separate?

It’s all one thing. I find there’s a great overlap between
being and actor and director and being an author. Actors pretend to be other
people; writers do the same. Directors move actors around on stage and guide
them in their interactions with each other in order to best tell the story
being presented. So do writers. I’ve always felt, when I’m acting, even though
I’m bringing some other author’s characters to life, that I’m using many of the
same mental muscles as I do when I’m trying to make my own characters live and
breathe on the page.

Also, in Worldshapers, I’m able to make lots of musical -theatre
jokes, so there’s that.

Any final thoughts you’d like to share with the readers and aspiring
writers?

I urge both readers and aspiring writers to check out my podcast, The Worldshapers. It features hour-long conversations with some of the biggest names in science fiction and fantasy writing, with a focus on their creative process, from the generation of ideas to the planning process, the writing process, and the editing process. I also ask them about their philosophy of writing: why they do it, why they think anyone does it, and what impact they hope it has on readers. The interviews are all fascinating and offer great insights into the writing process. You can find it www.theworldshapers.com.

I particularly like the episode where E.C. Blake (the
pseudonym under which I wrote a fantasy trilogy called The Masks of Aygrima)
interviews me…

Thank you Edward Willett for joining us!

You can find Edward through the following links below.

Website: edwardwillett.com

Amazon: amazon.com/Edward-Willett/e/B001IR1LL6/

Goodreads: goodreads.com/author/show/22635.Edward_Willett

The post Edward Willett expands the Worldshaper universe with his new novel, Master of The World appeared first on Konn Lavery.