Q:
If you knew you'd die tomorrow, how would you spend your last day?
There’s
a poet in me that would spend the time with my wife at a pond, lazily
watching the wind blow the reeds, letting the sound of ducks farting
waft over us as we partake of some pastries. Utter nonsense.
Thankfully, I am a pragmatic man. No, I will ready a horse with
barding, and myself don my assortment of the finest LARP ready armor
and weapons. I, as my forefathers before me, will then sack Euro
Disney.
Q:
If you knew you'd die tomorrow, how would you spend your last day?
A:
The worst kind. Picture a world where everyone is forced to wear
shoes one size too small. Where roving bands of Imperial Inquisitors
scour the land, inflicting upon the populace a ceaseless march of the
worst sort of memes. Where butter is currency, and even the sweet
escape of death is polluted – as the solemn death dirges are
replaced by the upbeat crooning of Rick Astley.
Q:
When did realize that you wanted to be an author? When did you first
consider yourself a writer?
A:
I
was sitting in math class some odd twenty years ago, thinking to
myself “this is mind-numbingly boring, but not really painful. If
only I could add the long wait times, to the feeling of grinding a
lemon in my eye, daily…” Soon after I discovered writing, and
editing, the query letter dance – but only then did my dream come
true!
No,
really, I have been dabbling since my early teens. It was only when I
was pushing towards the time when I could drink legally, that it
clicked for me. On the plus side writing is a profession that goes
well with potential alcoholism.
The
second question is a bit more difficult to nail down, and it also
depends; on my mood, on the time of the day, or if I have eaten
anything. I.E. I am saying there are days where, even now, I don’t
consider myself a ‘real’ writer. It apparently is a common
problem, and I am no exception.
Once
upon a time I didn’t consider myself a writer until I was
published. The goal line moved to being traditionally published. Then
an award-winning author. Then to some nebulous financial baseline.
Nowadays?
I just write, and try not to think of the existential stuff.
Q:
Besides writing, what other secret skills do you have?
A:
I enjoy taking blocks of wood and torturing myself with carving them
until the abomination comes out to resemble something close to the
boat. I don’t know why I continue to do this, but it was born out
of reading Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series. Afterwards I
just had to have a model boat, so I made one.
Q:
You were born in Alabama but now live in Switzerland, how have these
life experiences influenced your writing?
A:
That would be a book by itself. A deep, boring, and weird book with a
lot of references to cheese…But a book, nonetheless. Perhaps in the
simplest of ways it helped instill within me a “I am going to do
this no matter what,” mentality that helps me complete goals. In a
more complex, deeper assessment I think moving from a place with a
lot of wide-open spaces, to a crammed country like Switzerland has
created within me a desire to roam. And there are a lot of beautiful,
inspiring places to visit in Europe.
Q:
Your work contains a lot of humor - why do you take this approach?
A:
I believe in balanced writing. For instance, having parts of
beautiful prose peek out over quick, terse text. In this case the
humor is to balance the darkness. And the Melody of Three can get
dark, and very scary at times.
Q:
Tells us about your main characters, what makes them Tick?
A:
Christaan De Rein is eccentric, fussy, but also brave and witty. He
is known as The Inspector, representing his role among other Artisans
(Sorcerers) in the Curatorium. But there is a lot more to him from
his title. He has a long history of love, loss, and well, plain
living that he carries with him. In short, I tried to make him human
and grounded – as grounded as an old fop that doesn’t age can be.
Niena
is a dreamer, and a bit naïve – though the latter is fast
changing, as she is learning not to trust others so quickly. She is
strong willed, compassionate, but also unsure of herself. Her bravery
is a subtle affair. I like to think of her as any typical teenager,
thrust into a position of too much attention and danger.
Q:
What do you think about the current publishing market?
A:
That is a loaded question, and one I’ve devoted more than a few
blog posts too. The short and sweet of it, rather saturated. But I am
not just talking about just the number of books. There is a glut of
related publishing services, all promising miracle solutions. And the
sad part of it, is that for every valid one there are 10 scams,
helping to create a weird tango where it is easy to publish a book,
but harder to get noticed.
This
also has the alarming effect of suppressing independent authors.
There will always be those that are one and done; broken down by the
amount of work to initial results ratio. Well, when editing,
promotional, and organizational services fail you (because they
weren’t legitimate), it can add to the stress. This increases the
literary graveyard. So, while the barrier to entry is lesser, the
fence to hop over for financial success is a bit more difficult to
manage. And any time taken out to research a company is time that
could be spent elsewhere.
My
personal suggestions to aspiring authors is to read the related
writing forums and groups (20booksto50k facebook group is solid for
marketing), and to invest in a newsletter early on. For the latter
Storyorigin is free, and will give you a lot of opportunities to grow
your reader base, get reviews, and other.
