Q&A for Random House (Part 2 of 3)

Ahoy, ahoy! If you’re just joining us, you may want to refer back to my previous blog post wherein I explained the context for my Q&A interview with the German division of Random House. Otherwise, let’s jump right into Part Deux.

Where do you find the inspiration for your novels?

I find my inspiration in everything. Everything I read, everything I see. Any idle thought or observation can be a seed that sprouts into something great or small. I wrote about this in-depth as part of my master’s thesis at Harvard, but one example explained how the Sword of Seeking (an artifact that appears in Book 2 of The Silent Gods) was influenced by Clarent from Arthurian legend (sometimes incorrectly named Excalibur), and the Liahona from the Book of Mormon. It was also indirectly inspired by the namesake from Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series and from the blade Blackheartseeker in Gary Gygax’s Gord the Rogue series. So pagan myth and Judeo-Chistian theology have been strong influences on my work, as have the writings of modern fantasy authors.

Beyond all that, much of my inspiration comes from analysis and conjecture. For example, Chinese tradition describes the five elements as: fire, water, earth, wood, and metal. In Hinduism, these five elements are: earth, water, fire, air, and void (or space). In occidental culture, we have only four elements: earth, air, fire, and water – but if you’re a fan of the animated TV series Captain Planet , you’ll remember a fifth element was added: Heart.

Reading and comparing these cultural perspectives led me to wonder what it would be like to have a culture that only viewed the world as possessing three elements: quaire, lumen, and t’rasang (alternatively called skywater, lightfire, and earthblood, which are themselves elemental abstracts of mind, spirit, and body, respectively). Having imagined that (and having created three Gods for each of these elements), I decided to explode one of these ‘prime’ elements into five sub-elements, which is how minerals, plants, animals, space (void), and death (fate) all spawned from earthblood.

What kind of story are you writing at the moment?

I’m writing an epic fantasy series! That seems droll, I know, but it’s succinct and precisely describes the story I hope to tell. Master of Sorrows is epic, both in terms of physical size and supporting themes. At the same time, it is undeniably fantastic, possessing both complex magic systems and creatively constructed cultures. Master of Sorrows is also the first volume in The Silent Gods tetralogy, a series I have painstakingly constructed for over a decade, which is itself part of the larger story outlined in my Lore of Luquatra notes. If I tell this first story well enough (and I find an audience that is eager to read more), I have outlines for additional books in the series . . . but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Those are the broad strokes, of course. If I were to speak more toward the themes of my story, I would instead say that I am trying to write a fantasy series where the villain sees himself as the real hero. If I can do that well – if I can write a story where the audience empathizes with the would-be villain – then perhaps I’ll have achieved my aim. It’s a delicate balance, though, since I need to actually conceive of my protagonist as a hero if I am to faithfully represent his world perspective.

Anyhow, that’s what I told Random House regarding Master of Sorrows, but I am technically no longer writing that book (since it’s going to be published in a few weeks). What I’m working on right now (as of the day of this blog post) is Book 2 of The Silent Gods, a novel that I am tentatively calling Master of the Forge. I won’t say much about what that book is about just now because folks are still waiting to read Book 1, but I will say that more of Annev’s “heroic arc” is being fulfilled. You’ll see more definition added to the magic system (more rules, more castes, more layers), and you’ll get a better idea of who (or what) is trying to fight the main character. You’ll also get a nice chunk of character development for most of the minor characters who survived Master of Sorrows, plus two more minor characters who were referenced but who appeared only briefly. Quite frankly, it’s a lot to try and fit into one book, and that tells me Master of the Forge will almost certainly be longer than my first novel . . . but I doubt fans will be complaining.

Who are your favorite authors? And why?

This is a hard one because some authors inspired me as a youth (recently exposed to the fantasy genre), and some authors inspire me still today (even after studying and practicing the genre for this long). For example, Fritz Leiber’s Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser inspired Gary Gygax’s characters Chert the Barbarian and Gord the Rogue. Gygax in turn inspired me and led me back to Fritz Leiber. Likewise, I read a good deal of fantasy literature before discovering J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, so I was inspired by Tolkien’s themes before I had even read his series.

Having said that, there are certain fantasy authors that continue to resound in my subconscious, and their influences can be felt as an echo in my own writings (though their resonance may be too subtle for others too notice). These are, in no particular order…

- David Eddings (because he was the first fantasy author I read and because I love how Gods, men, and prophecy influence each other in his stories);

- Robert Jordan (because of the depth and breadth of what he contributed to the genre);

- Brandon Sanderson (because of everything he’s taught me via reading his stories, listening to his lectures and podcasts, and studying his writing methodology and magic systems);

- R.A. Salvatore (because the strangeness of Menzoberranzan’s dark elf culture gave me something to aspire to);

- Edward W. Robertson (because reading Dante Galand’s story showed me how to make an anti-heroic necromancer still seem heroic);

- Patrick Rothfuss (because his stories are uniquely beautiful and worth aspiring to).

Each of these authors has weaknesses (as all authors inevitably do), and I am not blind to them. Even so, I take inspiration from their strengths and I pay careful heed to the things I would like to do better (assuming I can do better than any of them).

Even so, I will give a second nod to Sanderson and Rothfuss because they are my contemporaries and because their writing styles and outputs are so uniquely different. Likewise, I frequently find similarities between their writing and my own and that gives me two good measuring sticks for guiding myself as an author, particularly as I seek to establish my own voice, style, and writing practices. I’m not vain enough to say I am a hybrid of the two authors (well, okay, maybe I am that vain, but I won’t say it aloud). What I will instead say is that, if I could synthesize the best of those two men, that’s the type of writer I aspire to be.

Which books did you read recently?

Given that I answered this question a few months ago, my answers have changed since then. I’ll tell you what I told Random House, though:

“I recently finished reading Arcanum Unbounded, and I must say I was delighted to read something with Kelsier in it again (and Spook, if only briefly). I also re-read The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss (still as good as I remember – better actually), and just before that I had finished reading Ed McDonald’s brilliant debut novel Blackwing. Its sequel, Ravencry, just came out and I am starting to read that. I use the term ‘read’ very loosely, though, since it has been a long time since I’ve actually read a book. Instead, I listen to audiobooks. I usually do this when I’m driving my children to school or doing housework, and that makes it easier to keep up with my reading list. Otherwise, if I find the leisure to sit down and read a tangible book, I typically use that time to write my own fantasy series.”

Today, I would say that I finished reading/listening to Ravencry (which was great) and I am simultaneously reading the hard copy to Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence (his Book of the Ancestor series is phenomenal), and I am listening to The Runelords by David Farland, which is a series I explored as a teen but which I didn’t get a chance to finish because the series wasn’t finished yet and life got in the way of things. A similar thing has happened to R.A. Salvatore’s books, wherein I’ve read half his body of literature but nothing written in the last decade (something I hope to amend in the near future).

What is your philosophy in life?

My faith keeps me pretty grounded, so I treat others as I want to be treated and try not to sweat the small stuff. I see the good and bad in everything, but I spend more time focusing on silver linings and trying to empathize with others. I’m not always good at this last part, but I think intentions count for about 1/5 of actions (regardless of whether that’s actually true). Overall, I’d say that I’m neither an optimist nor a pessimist but a ‘realistic idealist.’ I think that’s good ground for any fantasy author to be standing on.

To illustrate this point, I’ll mention two sayings that I often reflect on and which, consequently, guide most of my actions. The first is ‘This too shall pass,’ which I take to mean ‘Bad stuff doesn’t last forever, so be patient and push through it and things will get better.’ It has a second meaning, though: ‘Good stuff doesn’t last forever, so appreciate what you have while you have it.’ Some people might think that’s a pessimistic view of life, but I disagree. It keeps me mindful of the future while being grateful for the past and present. It also enables me to be nostalgic for the present while I am still living it.

The second saying that I live by is ‘One must always have the foresight to plan for the unforeseen, if not in detail then in substance.’ This is similar to the Boy Scout Motto, ‘Be Prepared,’ (though less concise). The take-away, though, is that I believe we can handle any surprises in our lives so long as we have the foresight to anticipate them. We may not know exactly what to expect (as that is the nature of surprises), but even acknowledging that – acknowledging that sometimes we can’t anticipate the future, good or bad – is a small way of immunizing ourselves to life’s unseen challenges. The consequence of these two philosophies is that I am a very grateful person who savours the present, appreciates the past, and ponders the future. I plan for a lot of things and, while I find comfort in routine, I also enjoy adapting to whatever life throws at me.

A few other things round out my philosophy on life, which I’ll mention briefly here, but I won’t expound on them for fear of being too didactic:

– Ignorance breeds impatience.

– Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

– No one will believe in you more than you believe in yourself.

– Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. – Voltaire

– Don’t leave for tomorrow what you can do today. – Claudio M. Costa

What do you do when you’re not writing?

Lots of things (too many, probably). I take care of my two boys when they aren’t in school, plus our two large-breed dogs (a Great Dane and a St. Bernard-Mastiff). I also mentor students in China who are learning English. I own a board game company (Broomstick Monkey Games) and have co-designed one title (Imperial Harvest) as well as its sequel (Royal Strawberries). I don’t actively publish or design tabletop games right now, but I enjoy playing and sharing games with others and I love attending game conventions when that’s possible. I also enjoy playing League of Legends when I am between writing projects (I’m pretty terrible at it, but I enjoy playing as Teemo and Shaco). I generally stay away from video games, though, since they distract me from my fantasy writing. Outside of board games, I love movies (I studied both screenwriting and novel writing in college) and I make it a point to see any superhero movie that reaches the theatres (though, again, I don’t do that as often as I’d like). If I’m not doing any of those things, you can probably find me doing house projects or traveling with my family.

Five things about you we don’t know yet …

(1) I’m not a big sports guy (quite the opposite, actually), but I enjoy playing hockey (in all its forms) as well as non-traditional sports like dodgeball, capture-the-flag, laser tag, paintball, and e-sports. I also have a green belt in Judo.

(2) Despite being an introvert, I love performing and speaking in front of people; I am an amateur actor, voice-over artist, and magician (very out of practice, but I still know my way around a deck of cards). I also did a lot of theatre in high school and won a national acting competition for experienced duo-comedy actors.

(3) Despite having some acting chops, my sister Whitney Call (Meek) is the big actress in the family. She’s a professional writer-comedian whom many folks have seen on the BYUtv show Studio C . Whitney and I were always very close growing up and we have been fierce supporters of each other’s creative careers. I’m immensely proud of her and won’t hesitate to tell people that she (and her husband Stephen) are two of the most talented people I know. You can look for their new creative endeavor JK! Studios the same year my book is released.

(4) A few years ago, I had the idea of building a perma-wardrobe composed entirely of greys, blacks, and yellows (my favourite colours). Since then, I’ve been hunting for the perfect shirt-pants-shoes combo – one that I can buy a dozen copies of so that I’ll never have to fret over which clothes to put on when I wake up in the morning. This is partially due to the fact that I’m colour blind, but the larger reason is that I want to minimize my wardrobe choices while focusing my decision-making on more important things (like character arcs and series plot points). I think it’s also fun to give yourself a ‘brand’ (something visual that people associate with you), and I’m just eccentric enough to take great delight in that.

(5) I enjoy repurposing things that others have abandoned, which can range from reviving archaic words and phrases to recycling or reusing discarded hardware. This (along with my proclivity for prototyping board games) has turned me into an accidental arts-and-crafts hobbyist. This has also translated into having a strong affinity and affection for abandoned buildings, ancient ruins, and post-apocalyptic settings. I just learned that this makes me an “urbexer” (urban explorer), though I don’t explore ruined buildings that would be illegal to enter (…yet). More often I explore disused and ignored parts of cities and neighborhoods – basically, anything people overlook and drive right past as if it’s part of the background (or that they choose to ignore). I’ve found some great places doing this (hostels, board game cafes, hobby and craft stores, etc). I’ve also met a lot of quirky cashiers and store owners who are willing to tell you their life story. Haha.

That’s all for now.

Tune in next week and I’ll answer all the sordid questions asked about my soon-to-be-published-debut-novel, Master of Sorrows.

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