Interview: Robert Eaton, Author of The Hero Always Wins
Today, I’m very fortunate to be joined by Robert Eaton (@heroalwayswins on Twitter), author of the new release The Hero Gets the Girl, which is Book 2 in the saga known as The Hero Always Wins.
Rob is a member of the Genre Underground indie author alliance, and one of the first indie authors who really blew me away when I started reading. He’s continued that tradition in his new book by giving us a hard-rocking, heavy-drinking awesomely good time with The Hero Gets the Girl.
C.K. Thanks for being here, Rob. Let’s get right into it. Your first book was awesome. What have you done with the sequel to make sure that it reaches the same level?
R.E. I really dove into my characters in this book, exploring their motivations and feelings. The love affairs and feuds from the first book boil over in the sequel. Also, magic is at the center of everything. Magic brings power, but it also brings vanity, heartbreak, and pain. This is a story of men and women who obtain power they’d never dreamed of, power they were never ready for. Unbridled power crossed with unbridled emotion is a dangerous combination, and this book shows that in explosive fashion.
C.K. Just for some background, could you say a bit about why you decided to go independent with The Hero Always Wins?
R.E. Fantasy is a fickle beast. The market is flooded with options, and the big houses want proven formulas from proven names. For a new author pushing a blend of dark mystery crossed with satire of common fantasy cliché, traditional publishing is a tall hill to climb. For me, I was far more interested in getting my work out there to the niche audience that enjoys it than I was battling the mountain of grunt-work required to put books on supermarket shelves.
C.K. You’ve talked a bit on other venues about how you incorporated music into The Hero Gets the Girl. Care to elaborate?
R.E. I love rock and roll. I was a kid in the late 80s and early 90s, and grew up watching hair bands give way to grunge. I’ve read so many fantasy books rooted in ancient mythology; I decided wanted to write one rooted in something I actually care about. So for this book, I created a medieval version of the Sunset Strip circa the late 80s.
In the 80s, the Sunset Strip was ruled by hard-rocking, hard-partying bands that lived and died by the motto of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. In The Hero Gets the Girl, I’ve re-imagined that era in a land where electric guitars and neon lights are replaced by medieval string instruments and magical powers. The rest of the scene is much the same: cocky pretty-boy musicians, leather clad groupies, and enough drug-charged lust to kill a man and bring him back again.
C.K. The scenes with the band definitely evoked that 80′s hard-rock era for me, even though I’m not nearly as familiar with the backstage antics of the bands. It was sort of like a history lesson wrapped in fantasy. Very nicely done.
Do you have a set number of books you’re planning for this series, or is the intent to keep it open-ended?
The story has a fixed ending, and several carefully planned twists along the way. I know it will be at least four books, but could be as many as six. The plot for book three is pretty well set at this point, but I’m still weaving sub-plots for the book(s) beyond. It’s not open-ended, but more open-middled. Is that even a word? Hah!
C.K. Ah, the George R. R. Martin school of plot planning. You seem to be doing a much better job of keeping it focused, though!
The world you’ve created is both fascinating and believable. What were your main considerations for designing it? Did the world come first, or did you create it to have a place to put the characters?
I think my world is extremely simple. My settings are largely based on places I’ve lived or at least visited. I use plants and geology that I know in real life. My castles and towns are not much different than you’d find in any period piece from medieval or early-Renaissance Europe. It’s much like my incorporation of 1980s music culture into this book: my settings are places I know and love.
My world was created for my characters, and I purposely kept the scale fairly small. I wanted to write about individual combat, not world politics. To do that, I needed a world where individual characters could make a difference, a world where a few hundred people constituted a formidable army. The result is a world that is much more medieval England, with small feudal houses, than a land of nations fighting across all of Europe.
C.K. One of my biggest problems with world-building is that the scale always seems to get away from me. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger the more I think about it, and I realize that it’s very hard for one person to make a difference. I must congratulate you on keeping your scale focused; I find it very hard.
So, tell me: what was the single biggest difficulty you ran into when writing The Hero Gets the Girl?
R.E. The biggest difficulty was simply forcing myself to sit down and write. I love to write, but I also love to play video games, play my guitar, sing, watch movies, work out, hike, and so many other things. Also, like anyone else, my life is full of less-fun activities that suck my time away. I usually have far more time to think than write, and have so many stories in my head that once I finally put fingers to keyboard, the words just pour out.
C.K. I definitely understand that. So, given all of those things you have to do, how long will we have to wait for Book 3 (assuming you’re planning one?)
R.E. Let’s start with the second part of that question: yes, I am definitely planning a Book 3. I’m excited about Book 3 for several reasons. First, my young characters will go from discovering who they are to living their lives. Second, the lore behind my magic will start to come to light. Third, if you thought my first two books left your head spinning, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
That said, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my writing career, it’s that I am bad at sticking to timelines. The book will come when it comes; hopefully it won’t be as long as it was between Books 1 and 2, but no promises. One thing I will promise: Book 3 will be worth the wait!
C.K. Well, I’m certainly very excited about Book 3. I can’t wait to see where it goes from here. Thanks for being with us, Rob.
Readers, you can get your copy of The Hero Gets the Girl at Amazon.com for Kindle right now, or it is also available in paperback. These are books you do NOT want to miss.
