Sea Serpents and Gunslingers: chatting with S.A. Hunt.

A couple years back, S.A. Hunt returned from Afghanistan, hung up his uniform and set to writing a fantasy epic that drew upon all the fiction he’d known and loved since a child, salted it lightly with his own experiences while deployed, and wrapped it in a metaphysical, mind-bending bow. The first self-published novel in his series, Whirlwind in the Thorn Tree, has been described as “visceral,” “enthralling,” and “effortless and incredibly natural,” by reviewers, and “snappy, sarcastic, and blood-soaked” by me. It’s a gunslinging, wild-west spec-fic roller-coaster packed with faceless monsters, sky-scraper sized automatons, sword-fights, shootouts, hallucinogens, and hilarious banter. Oh, and the follow-ups, Law of the Wolf and Ten Thousand Devils? Even better. Sam Hunt was kind enough to lend me a couple hours to pick his brain clean, and oh boy, did I pick. Ruz: Give me your elevator pitch. Thirty seconds until I reach my floor, no stuttering allowed. Sam: A soldier comes home from Afghanistan and finds out at his father’s funeral that the fantasy-world in dear old Dad’s gunslinger novels is actually a real place…and it’s going to become the battleground for a war that threatens all universes real and fictional. Ruz: You drew a lot on your own experiences in painting the harsh, merciless world of Destin. Would you actually ever want to visit? Sam: I actually would like to visit (probably not the Khyirz), mostly for the characters and to visit places like Maplenesse and Ostlyn. The world itself was largely inspired […]