An Interview with H T Lyon
Greetings, and welcome back to my monthly science fiction author interview slot. Today I am talking to H T Lyon, creator of the Vampires with Guns series.
What are you currently working on and what is it about? I'm working on a number of books currently and I do switch between them which helps to keep me fresh. One of them is a military paranormal series. This was promoted from a discussion online which essentially proposed why vampires wouldn't arm themselves with modern weapons. It's become my vampires with guns story. At the heart of it is questioning what it means to be human. From a writing perspective it's fun, a bit light hearted in places and has a heap of characters and quite a complex series of storylines. The challenge of keeping all that in order is part of the attraction of writing it. The second piece is a matriarchal dystopia with explores gender roles. This is way more serious, deep and revealing. It's been on the go a lot longer and has required a lot of thought creating a believable setting. I do have the odd short story that I crank out as a rest from the heavier works.
Do you aim for a set amount of words/pages per day? I have managed 1,667 words per day for a whole month but that is punishing. My real target is 200. A low target means that when I am tired, I don't feel that I am approaching the massive unachievable cliff that I need to climb. For an author who has a day job, 200 words is a good number and they do add up, especially if you get into the groove and one day 200 becomes 2,000. For those struggling, one of the best pieces of advice is to write for five minutes per day no matter what. The main issue is starting and that five minutes almost never stays five minutes!
I certainly know the feeling of writing feeling like a failure because you have too much on with your day job to write.
Do you write on a typewriter, computer, dictate or longhand? I use electronic devices - any electronic devices including phones, computers and tablets. This way, I have the best chance of writing anywhere. It have tried various mechanisms to sync the work, at one stage even using Wattpad. One Note was a huge improvement but nothing beats the performance of Google Docs! Yeah. I used Google Drive for this for ages, but then moved to OneDrive after my Surface got the sync wrong and lost two evenings' work. I don't find I can write without a proper keyboard, though. I do make notes on my 'phone when out and about, then write them up later.
What do you find the easiest thing about writing? The imagination bit is the easiest. I create scenes when driving or walking the dog or at the gym. Really, when there are a few spare cycles for thinking, then I can usually find a way to enhance my work in progress or dream up something new. It's especially rewarding to come up with a premise after reading something in the news. I love the ability to explore our society and comment on it through fiction and some of the ideas simply hit me unbidden. I read about the prison population problem in the States and this inspired a short story that commented on whether prison was now crueller than old style corporal punishment. I have an idea in mind inspired by the survivalist movement and gun culture in the States where economics researchers identify that society is doomed and the first the rest of us find out about it is when they steal all the guns and hole up in the woods!
What do you think of video trailers for books, and do you have a trailer/will you create one for your own work? I have been tempted to produce a trailer for the Vampires with Guns series. I produced what I thought was a very powerful prologue and I put it through a text to speech engine (so it was someone else's voice reading it) and it sounds good in audio format. As a paranormal/fantasy work though the visuals would be expensive to produce - more than I can afford so it's something I will keep in mind down the track. Yeah. I'm going through the same thought process with my Two Democracies: Revolution series at the moment. There are some decent stock spaceship clips out there, and I love your idea of the text to speech engine.
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me. Good luck.
H T Lyon is an aspiring writer of science fiction. A futurist with a keen interest in where our society is heading, he tends to focus most of his attention on stories that examine the direction our society is taking or that shows where we could end up. Optimistic by nature, he believes that one day we will look to settle the Solar System as we outgrow our planet and some of his stories examine how this could look. Currently, he has a number of novels underway and some short stories. His aim is to get one of these up and published before the end of the year around the other commitments that exist in his life.
You can read his blog at https://beyondescapevelocity.wordpress.com.
What are you currently working on and what is it about? I'm working on a number of books currently and I do switch between them which helps to keep me fresh. One of them is a military paranormal series. This was promoted from a discussion online which essentially proposed why vampires wouldn't arm themselves with modern weapons. It's become my vampires with guns story. At the heart of it is questioning what it means to be human. From a writing perspective it's fun, a bit light hearted in places and has a heap of characters and quite a complex series of storylines. The challenge of keeping all that in order is part of the attraction of writing it. The second piece is a matriarchal dystopia with explores gender roles. This is way more serious, deep and revealing. It's been on the go a lot longer and has required a lot of thought creating a believable setting. I do have the odd short story that I crank out as a rest from the heavier works.
Do you aim for a set amount of words/pages per day? I have managed 1,667 words per day for a whole month but that is punishing. My real target is 200. A low target means that when I am tired, I don't feel that I am approaching the massive unachievable cliff that I need to climb. For an author who has a day job, 200 words is a good number and they do add up, especially if you get into the groove and one day 200 becomes 2,000. For those struggling, one of the best pieces of advice is to write for five minutes per day no matter what. The main issue is starting and that five minutes almost never stays five minutes!
I certainly know the feeling of writing feeling like a failure because you have too much on with your day job to write.
Do you write on a typewriter, computer, dictate or longhand? I use electronic devices - any electronic devices including phones, computers and tablets. This way, I have the best chance of writing anywhere. It have tried various mechanisms to sync the work, at one stage even using Wattpad. One Note was a huge improvement but nothing beats the performance of Google Docs! Yeah. I used Google Drive for this for ages, but then moved to OneDrive after my Surface got the sync wrong and lost two evenings' work. I don't find I can write without a proper keyboard, though. I do make notes on my 'phone when out and about, then write them up later.
What do you find the easiest thing about writing? The imagination bit is the easiest. I create scenes when driving or walking the dog or at the gym. Really, when there are a few spare cycles for thinking, then I can usually find a way to enhance my work in progress or dream up something new. It's especially rewarding to come up with a premise after reading something in the news. I love the ability to explore our society and comment on it through fiction and some of the ideas simply hit me unbidden. I read about the prison population problem in the States and this inspired a short story that commented on whether prison was now crueller than old style corporal punishment. I have an idea in mind inspired by the survivalist movement and gun culture in the States where economics researchers identify that society is doomed and the first the rest of us find out about it is when they steal all the guns and hole up in the woods!
What do you think of video trailers for books, and do you have a trailer/will you create one for your own work? I have been tempted to produce a trailer for the Vampires with Guns series. I produced what I thought was a very powerful prologue and I put it through a text to speech engine (so it was someone else's voice reading it) and it sounds good in audio format. As a paranormal/fantasy work though the visuals would be expensive to produce - more than I can afford so it's something I will keep in mind down the track. Yeah. I'm going through the same thought process with my Two Democracies: Revolution series at the moment. There are some decent stock spaceship clips out there, and I love your idea of the text to speech engine.
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me. Good luck.
H T Lyon is an aspiring writer of science fiction. A futurist with a keen interest in where our society is heading, he tends to focus most of his attention on stories that examine the direction our society is taking or that shows where we could end up. Optimistic by nature, he believes that one day we will look to settle the Solar System as we outgrow our planet and some of his stories examine how this could look. Currently, he has a number of novels underway and some short stories. His aim is to get one of these up and published before the end of the year around the other commitments that exist in his life.
You can read his blog at https://beyondescapevelocity.wordpress.com.
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