10 Questions with Travis Hermann
1. What made you choose to set a story in feudal Japan?
I’ve been a fan of Japanese history and culture since I was in high school. If writers are designed to write things we’re passionate about, then writing a story with a Japanese setting was inevitable for me.
2. Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?
There are several. As for writers whose work changed my life, set me afire, there are the old pulp adventure writers, Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Throw in Stephen King, and you have my formative years. A little later on, I discovered Fahrenheit 451, a book that changed the course of my life. I was always aware of Ray Bradbury, the Martian Chronicles, and his short stories, but it was Fahrenheit 451 that just broke me open. Every time I read it to this day, I am amazed not only at that books sheer prophetic genius, but that it still speaks to me at a fundamental level.
3. How did you go about doing research for Heart of the Ronin? What was the process like?
This is a story where starting research changed my life.
In about 1999, I knew that I wanted to write a samurai novel, so I started doing some research at the library. I had been a samurai film fan for over a decade, but I knew I still had a long way to go. With a couple of months of research under my belt, I started writing, and quickly realized that I was still hopeless ignorant about Japanese culture, how it works below the surface. The cultural paradigm differences between East and West often mystify people, so I knew I had to get my mind in there. I took a Japanese conversation class at the university, and it set me on fire. My teacher told me about the JET (Japan Exchange Teaching) Program, and three years later, I was on a plane to Tokyo to become an English teacher in a foreign land.
By this time, I had written a complete draft of the novel, and by sheer happenstance or serendipity, my JET position was in Fukuoka prefecture, exactly the locale where I had set my story. First-hand research is invaluable, so I went around to the shrines and old fortifications and saw what the land looked like, and read the accounts of what had happened. Much of that found its way into the story in some form or another.
4. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Fahrenheit 451.
5. How is writing screenplays different than writing novels?
The form is so much different than narrative prose. You have to be much more cognizant of what the camera can portray, because the only thing that goes on the page is what the camera can show. You can’t just give a character an entire paragraph of inner monologue. Screenplays also force you to be a lot sharper on your dialogue because of the firm page constraints. You get 120 pages or less for a two-hour film; that’s it. It really forces you to economize.
6. What current writing projects are you working on?
Right now, I have a number of irons in the fire. I’m shepherding Sword of the Ronin through the editorial process and learning the ropes of what it means to publish indie-style. As for creative projects, I’m working on a steampunk novella, and I’m probably going to start a new novel this summer.
7. How has living in the Far East affected you as a writer?
My personal horizons have broadened considerably. Anyone who lives for any length of time in a different culture experiences tremendous shifts in how he views the human race. And compared to America, Japan is as alien as it gets on this planet. All of those experiences go into the subconscious mill, and re-emerge in sometimes interesting ways. Learning Japanese also gave me tremendous insights into how language works, and how language shapes thought processes, insights I would not have had just swimming around through English like a fish in water it can’t see.
8. What type of scenes do you most enjoy writing?
I love writing scenes with high emotional impact. Sometimes those are action scenes, sometimes they’re sex scenes, sometimes they’re simple conversations. It’s the emotional pique that makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something.
9. Is there any subject that is off limits for you as a writer?
Not so far. If my brain is strongly resisting going in a certain direction, that tells me that maybe I need to go there. There is certainly stuff that typically doesn’t interest me, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t go there if the story demanded it.
10. How do you define success as a writer?
There are lots of ways to define success, I think, and it’s something that I wrestle with since I do this full time.
There is of course the monetary success, with enough dedicated readers to sustain your career.
And then there is the critical success, where you get recognition from fans or peers in the form of Hugo or Nebula awards.
And then there are those moments where a reader chooses to share with you just how much your book has touched his or her life.
All of those are amazing feelings, although I can’t say what the first two feel like. Writing is such a hard, soul-crushing business, subject to the whims of editors, agents, fans, and circumstance, that I think writers need all three of these.
A) They need and deserve to get paid for their work. People who think it all should be free either suck or are delusional about how the world works.
B) Not everything a writer creates will be gold. Many writers go their entire lives without quite reaching the masterpiece level. But some recognition from peers and fans can go a long way to assuaging the pain of low-sales numbers. Vice versa, healthy sales numbers go pretty far too when the rest of the industry just thinks you’re a hack. E. L. James is laughing all the way to the bank.
C) And a heartfelt fan letter can keep a destitute, otherwise unknown writer going for a long time.
I’ve been a fan of Japanese history and culture since I was in high school. If writers are designed to write things we’re passionate about, then writing a story with a Japanese setting was inevitable for me.
2. Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?
There are several. As for writers whose work changed my life, set me afire, there are the old pulp adventure writers, Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Throw in Stephen King, and you have my formative years. A little later on, I discovered Fahrenheit 451, a book that changed the course of my life. I was always aware of Ray Bradbury, the Martian Chronicles, and his short stories, but it was Fahrenheit 451 that just broke me open. Every time I read it to this day, I am amazed not only at that books sheer prophetic genius, but that it still speaks to me at a fundamental level.
3. How did you go about doing research for Heart of the Ronin? What was the process like?
This is a story where starting research changed my life.
In about 1999, I knew that I wanted to write a samurai novel, so I started doing some research at the library. I had been a samurai film fan for over a decade, but I knew I still had a long way to go. With a couple of months of research under my belt, I started writing, and quickly realized that I was still hopeless ignorant about Japanese culture, how it works below the surface. The cultural paradigm differences between East and West often mystify people, so I knew I had to get my mind in there. I took a Japanese conversation class at the university, and it set me on fire. My teacher told me about the JET (Japan Exchange Teaching) Program, and three years later, I was on a plane to Tokyo to become an English teacher in a foreign land.
By this time, I had written a complete draft of the novel, and by sheer happenstance or serendipity, my JET position was in Fukuoka prefecture, exactly the locale where I had set my story. First-hand research is invaluable, so I went around to the shrines and old fortifications and saw what the land looked like, and read the accounts of what had happened. Much of that found its way into the story in some form or another.
4. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Fahrenheit 451.
5. How is writing screenplays different than writing novels?
The form is so much different than narrative prose. You have to be much more cognizant of what the camera can portray, because the only thing that goes on the page is what the camera can show. You can’t just give a character an entire paragraph of inner monologue. Screenplays also force you to be a lot sharper on your dialogue because of the firm page constraints. You get 120 pages or less for a two-hour film; that’s it. It really forces you to economize.
6. What current writing projects are you working on?
Right now, I have a number of irons in the fire. I’m shepherding Sword of the Ronin through the editorial process and learning the ropes of what it means to publish indie-style. As for creative projects, I’m working on a steampunk novella, and I’m probably going to start a new novel this summer.
7. How has living in the Far East affected you as a writer?
My personal horizons have broadened considerably. Anyone who lives for any length of time in a different culture experiences tremendous shifts in how he views the human race. And compared to America, Japan is as alien as it gets on this planet. All of those experiences go into the subconscious mill, and re-emerge in sometimes interesting ways. Learning Japanese also gave me tremendous insights into how language works, and how language shapes thought processes, insights I would not have had just swimming around through English like a fish in water it can’t see.
8. What type of scenes do you most enjoy writing?
I love writing scenes with high emotional impact. Sometimes those are action scenes, sometimes they’re sex scenes, sometimes they’re simple conversations. It’s the emotional pique that makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something.
9. Is there any subject that is off limits for you as a writer?
Not so far. If my brain is strongly resisting going in a certain direction, that tells me that maybe I need to go there. There is certainly stuff that typically doesn’t interest me, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t go there if the story demanded it.
10. How do you define success as a writer?
There are lots of ways to define success, I think, and it’s something that I wrestle with since I do this full time.
There is of course the monetary success, with enough dedicated readers to sustain your career.
And then there is the critical success, where you get recognition from fans or peers in the form of Hugo or Nebula awards.
And then there are those moments where a reader chooses to share with you just how much your book has touched his or her life.
All of those are amazing feelings, although I can’t say what the first two feel like. Writing is such a hard, soul-crushing business, subject to the whims of editors, agents, fans, and circumstance, that I think writers need all three of these.
A) They need and deserve to get paid for their work. People who think it all should be free either suck or are delusional about how the world works.
B) Not everything a writer creates will be gold. Many writers go their entire lives without quite reaching the masterpiece level. But some recognition from peers and fans can go a long way to assuaging the pain of low-sales numbers. Vice versa, healthy sales numbers go pretty far too when the rest of the industry just thinks you’re a hack. E. L. James is laughing all the way to the bank.
C) And a heartfelt fan letter can keep a destitute, otherwise unknown writer going for a long time.
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