SPFBO Author Interview: Gabriel Michaelson “Hunter”
Very kindly got reminded that I still had this interview tucked away! This one is with Michael Allison (Gabriel Michaelson) , author of Hunter. The cover is pretty nifty!
It is a cold Tuesday morning, I need coffee and I need to work out my characters. Enjoy the interview!
First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write?
Well, I write fantasy. All jokes aside, my name is Michael Allison – I write under the pen name Gabriel Michaelson, and I write adventure fantasy about superhumans travelling around their world searching for an object and the pitfalls they experience along the way.
How do you develop your plots and characters?
I’d like to say my plots and characters come to me as I write. One thing I appreciate especially is creating villains. I think, “why would this character do this obviously evil thing”, and then I draw that out in the story. Whether that becomes a flashback chapter or not is dependent on the importance of the character. For instance, in Hunter, one of the primary villains has two chapters dedicated to him. Other villains get developed through there as well, but you’ll find the focus is on one character.
As for my plots, it is very much a Point A (1 million Zig Zsgd) Point B thing. It’s like if someone wanted to go to the fridge to get a glass of milk, it can’t be that straightforward. Perhaps her roommate Chad drank all the milk. Damn Chad. Now she has to go the grocery store, but that’s closed because it’s a Sunday, so she has to head deep into town and then dragons attack. You get the gist.
I plan ahead, like way ahead. I have the end written out in some form, much of the muddle, a lot of the first three books done and all I have to do is to hit those points. The characters and plots that inform those characters now form themselves as I write them. The consequences of an action may present itself in book 3, or an action that I want to take in Book 2 may need to be set up in book 1 and so on, which is why I plan ahead both forward and backward.
Tell us about your current project.
Hunter is something that I’ve always wanted to write. When I first thought of it as a child, it was named “Cicada” and I had the idea of a massive quest spanning planets at first with a treasure at the end of it. I scaled it down to continents,and everything just kind of fell into place. I wanted Knights to play a part, so the Rune Knights were born. I wanted massive god like enemies, and thus we have the Orisha.
The Nephilim (previously known as the Ten Princes in planning), were created as a teaser for the Nephilim, but grew to have sagas crafted around them as antagonists.
Right now I have the overall structure of Hunter plotted out into three main sagas, that seems a good number. I’d delver into them, but…spoilers.
Who would you say is the main character of your novels? And tell me a little bit about them!
Derek is the main character of Hunter. I’d say he’s a very earnest character. He’s been very isolated for most of his life, so when he finds friends or people he likes, he’d love to help them. He’s also someone who – due to that isolation – does not place much value on his own life, so he’d be willing to throw away his life to help others.
He’s not aware he’s in a novel or a story where his successes or failures are (for better or worse), preordained so while he has an end-goal in mind, he’s not going to throw away any more prudent, more immediate opportunity that presents itself.
However, Hunter is also an ensemble cast, and the other characters that Derek finds himself allied with drive the plot just as much.
What advice would you give new writers on how to delve into creative fiction?
Be like Derek. You’ll never know until you try, and if you don’t try, you’ll always wonder what if.
What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?
Well, my story is very much inspired by mythology when it comes to the world building aspects.
The Orisha for instance, are named after the Yoruba deities . I thought it was very common to see people draw from greek or roman cultures for fantasy, and I thought it would be something to try, pulling from a culture that I am part of which is very underrepresented in the fantasy world (and the world at large.)
For the Rune Knights and some of the weapons of the main characters, I draw inspiration from celtic mythology primarily. This reflects in the names of their weapons in story, in my head I also imagine celtic runes when someone uses runes in the story.
A fun fact, the name godspark comes from the Higgs boson and its somewhat tongue in cheek name as the God Particle. I’d written a story about that ages ago, and when it came time to pen Hunter – godspark seemed a natural name for a power.
What inspires you to write?
Well, I do want to sit down and read my story, and I discovered that beaming my thoughts at peoples head wouldn’t work so – I had to get into it myself. If you have a story to tell, no one’s going to tell it for you.
What was the hardest part of writing this book?
Starting. Finishing. Hitting publish. All of them equally hard. The voices in your head tell you you can’t do it, and that no one will read so it’s up to you to hunker down and beat them back with a broom if possible.
What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?
My favourite parts to write were two self contained chapters that delved into the characters and the world of the story. It’s the part of the book where you get to ask a character, “who are you?”, and then they tell you for better or for worse. “This is who I am. This is why I am. Here’s some tidbits about the world as well.”
Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?
I learned that I could stay up all night writing books and not die. I also learned how hard, and how easy it was to write. Self discipline is a difficult thing to train, but once you have it, you have it.
It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it?
We learn more about people when we see the situations they get put into, and i believe that’s the same for fictional characters as well. Little by little we get a sense for what a character would do in one situation as opposed to another. Once I wrote a scene where a character would have acted out of character to resolve that scene, when it came to writing it, it was like the characters scolded me. “I can’t do that, don’t make me do that,” they seemed to be saying.
What are your future project(s)?
I’m currently working on my second series, Strikers (Tentatively titled Sentinel Book 1: Masked) for release soon. I’m also working on Hunter Book 2 – Target right now, and I’m hoping to have both of them out by Christmas this year.
If you couldn’t be an author, what ideal job would you like to do?
I’d say if I couldn’t talk about imaginary people or things my ideal job would be a journalist, someone who tells stories about real people, or real things.
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’d love to be followed on Goodreads, and a kind word via email (Gabriel@gabemichaelson.com) never went amiss.
