Interview with Peter Orullian, author of Trial of Intentions

I've been a fan of Peter Orullian since his debut, The Unremembered, and I'm still looking forward to Trial of Intentions, which is both a sequel and a starting point in The Vault of Heaven series. I would really appreciate it if someone could add an extra couple hours per day that's only allowed to be used for personal, free time. Thanks. 

Peter was gracious enough to let me bombard him with questions and I really enjoyed the answers he provides relating to his series and the decision for an author's definitive edition of The Unremembered, writing in general, music, and much more. I hope you enjoy...

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Bryce: Hi Peter, thanks for letting me take some time out of your busy schedule. Tell me about a typical writing day. Do you have any routines? Any music that you write better to than others? Any set schedule?

Peter: I get up at 3:30 a.m. to write before going to work. I do roughly three hours. I don’t care about word count, or page count. I just do the time. Same thing on weekends, holidays, vacations. Every day. That’s the routine.

I don’t write to music. A lot of folks ask this, since I’m a musician, and quite passionate about music. But for me, music isn’t a background thing. If music is on, it requires my attention. And if I’m in public, I’m either singing myself—much to the embarrassment, usually, of those I’m with—or trying to figure out what’s playing on the speakers of whatever establishment I’m visiting. I use Shazam a lot.

Bryce: Your publisher, Tor, just released the author’s definitive edition of The Unremembered. What lead to this new edition? If I read the first version (which I did), do I need to read this one to understand the rest of the series? Will it change my understanding of the rest of the series if I only read that first version?

Peter: First off, no, you don’t need to read the Author’s Edition of The Unremembered to be fine jumping into book two, Trial of Intentions. If you read the original version, you’re good. In fact, due to the delay—which I’ll explain in a moment—I wrote Trial of Intentions as an entry point to the series. So, readers who’ve never read anything by me can start with Trial of Intentions just fine.

The Author’s Edition came about primarily because of a bad author/editor pairing. Later, when my publisher graciously allowed for a new pairing, I got talk to my new editor, sharing what I’d originally intended, and the Author’s Edition was born. It’s actually substantially shorter than the original. I’ve sharpened dialogue and motivation, warmed up a few characters, and added some things to tie to Trial of Intentions more seamlessly.

Bryce: Speaking of the rest of the series, what are the plans for the entire series, The Vault of Heaven? How many books do we get to look forward to and now that the definitive version of The Unremembered is out, along with its sequel, Trial of Intentions, when’s the next one coming out? Because of course that’s what you want to talk about after all that work. J

Peter: I’m always suspicious of writers who give exact book series counts. But that’s just me. Originally, I’d thought six to eight books. I’m now feeling it’s more like five or six. But we’ll see. The thing I can promise you is that I won’t drag it out. I will be sure to do justice to the story I’ve conceived, but I won’t belabour it. Besides, I have other books I want to write, and I can’t really start those until I’m done with the Vault of Heaven series.

Bryce: How does writing the sequel or future volumes in the series compare with writing the first book? Do you already have a lot of the big events planned out ahead of time?

Peter: In some ways, writing the sequel was more fun. I had a lot of the world building done, so I could spend more time with narrative and character development. And Trial of Intentions is where so much of what’s unique about my world really kicks into high gear. There’s some major science stuff—astronomy, mathematics, physics, philosophy, cosmology, etc. The music magic system—which my readers and reviewers are saying is unlike anything they’ve ever read before—steps into the spotlight. I twist old tropes, challenging reader expectations. And I deal with some sensitive topics, like suicide, giving characters some deep motivation.

And yes, I have some of the big events all mapped out. Not all of them. I’ve left myself room to play. But I know the broad strokes, for sure. And the ending.

Bryce: Not only do you publish books, but you work a day job at Microsoft and write and play music. How much does music effect your work as an author? Do you find yourself drawn to other musician/authors? Do you recommend any?

Peter: Well, I think music influences my writing in a few ways. First, there’s the overt stuff, like my music magic system. I spent a lot of time developing magic in my world. I started with the idea that there’d be what I call “governing dynamics,” akin to mechanical law in our world—things like gravity and magnetism. In my fantasy world, the central governing dynamic is: Resonance. It’s a unifying principle for magic systems everywhere. Which means that while the magic systems—so far I have five—all look and are expressed differently, they all operate off Resonance. The reader can look at them and understand this, even though the magic systems are quite different.

Then, there’s music as a part of the cultures of my world. I’ve woven it in deeply. Things like entire cultures that pivot on music. Conservatories. Etc.

And I’ve had many readers tell me that they find my writing musical. I don’t try to do this. But I’ve begun to wonder if there’s something about being a musician that gets inside the words. In any case, that’s what my readers say. And whenever they do, I get a happy.

I don’t know very many musician authors, I guess. I did become fast friends with Ty Franck—half of James S.A. Corey—because we both love metal. Does that count?

Bryce: And how do you balance working full time with publishing? I know the publishing schedule can be gruelling. 

Peter: It’s mostly what I said above, I get up early. I have to. I’m too emotionally exhausted from corporate America when I get home to write fiction.

Bryce: Are there any things that have kept you grounded when times get tough?

Peter: My family. And music. And the sky, mostly at night.

Biggest priority in my life is my family. Being a dad is the best thing I’ve ever done. Love it!

And I can put on certain bands and listen to their music and it helps the bullshit fade away.

And I’m a bit of an amateur astronomer. I’ve always loved the stars. I find looking up at them always puts things into perspective.

Bryce: Do you have any recommendations or advice to authors trying to break into publishing?

Peter: Read. Write. Keep doing those things. Keep pushing yourself to learn and improve. Don’t give up, no matter what anyone says. And then try to be your most gracious, authentic self, and go out and meet other writers in the real world—not just online. We’re usually very supportive and helpful. We’ve been there.

Bryce: Traditional publishing versus self-publishing. What are your feelings of both, what do you feel are their strengths and weaknesses?

Peter: I’m of the mind that they can/should co-exist. Traditional publishing is less nimble, more risk-averse, but they do often have more editorial rigor, as well as access to the retail channel, which is where most books are sold. Self-publishing allows for rapidity, more chance-taking, and more revenue for the writer, but it has virtually no access to retail assortment, and the digital shelves are crowded—not to mention that discovery is a challenge, and most writers don’t understand how to drive digital discovery of their work (and to be fair, much of it is out of their control); plus the majority of self-published work hasn’t gone through the editorial rigor I mentioned, or smart product packaging and design. Oh, and with all the review gaming that goes on, it makes it hard for readers to wade through the sea of titles.

Bryce: Thanks for stopping by, Trial of Intentions is one of my most highly anticipated books this year and I can’t wait to jump in. Any final comments?

Peter: Thanks, Bryce. Love hearing that! I hope you enjoy it.

Nothing really. Just that I appreciate your time; as one who puts a premium on time, I’m genuinely grateful for yours in doing this interview. Cheers!

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Thanks again to Peter! Check out his books below and a quick author bio:

Peter Orullian has worked in marketing at Xbox for nearly a decade, most recently leading the Music and Entertainment marketing strategy for Xbox LIVE, and has toured as a featured vocalist internationally at major music festivals. He has published several short stories. The Unremembered is his first novel. He lives in Seattle. 

The Vault of Heaven:

1) The Unremembered

2) Trial of Intentions

Also check out Peter's Goodreads page for a list of all the short stories and anthologies he's been involved in, such as Unfettered and Blackguards.

Interview With ... Me!

S.C. Flynn has been running a great series of interviews with some wonderful bloggers and influential people in the online discussion of Science Fiction and Fantasy (Fantasy Literature, Fantasy Book Critic, Stainless Steel Droppings, Dag Rambrout from SFFWorld.com, and so many more).

So in other words, you're probably asking yourselves why I've been interviewed. :) I don't make the rules, but you can find it here: Interview with Only the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy.

After just over 5 years of blogging, I guess I should thank those who've "tuned" into the blog. Thanks for all the fun discussing something I have such a great love for. I hope you take some time to read through some of the responses of those others interviewed as well. Flynn has done a great job.

Additionally, I wanted to note that I'm still running two giveaways at the moment:

1. Mark Lawrence's Prince of Fools, book 1 of The Red Queen's War - SIGNED. I've got 2 copies to giveaway. I'll give this another week or so.

2. Peter Orullian's follow up to The Unremembered, Trial of Intentions. I've got 1 copy to giveaway to one lucky winner. I'll announce the winner on Monday, so you have until then to enter.

Interview - Wesley Chu, Author of The Lives of Tao

Wesley Chu is the debut author of The Lives of Tao (review) from Angry Robot. Aliens have been stranded on earth millennia ago and influence some of humanity's greatest people and events in their attempt to make it back to their home. The Lives of Tao deals with one of those aliens and his human host, Roen Tan. This book is a great ride from page one and comes highly recommended.

Wesley was nice enough to answer a couple questions and even give a little of the backstory of how the history of his world has developed, but I have to warn you this is the interview lacking the Banzai Chef. :) And seriously, check out The Lives of Tao, it will only make you happier.

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OTBSFF: What made you want to become an author and when did you first start writing?

I’ve always been a huge reader. One of my favorite memories in grade school was when they handed out those little catalogues for the students to buy books. I nearly impoverished my parents buying every damn book on the list. I eventually burned through all stuff I wanted to read and had to venture into Judy Blume territory.

I think my writing career started sometime between second and fourth grade. The exact date is a little fuzzy. I wrote a story about how all the planets in our solar system used to run into each other and got into fights which caused all the pock marks on their surfaces. Eventually, the King Sun got annoyed and enforced gravity on them. My English Professor father read it and told me that it wasn’t terrible. And thus a lowly writing career was born.

OTBSFF: What has been your favorite part of releasing your debut novel?

I’ve had so many highs that depending on what day you ask me, the answer to my favorite part of the release would change. The most recent high was my release party on Saturday May 4th. It was held at NV Penthouse Lounge in downtown Chicago and The Book Cellar was kind enough to do offsite sales. The bookstore had ordered 127 books and sold all but 4.

Originally, I had guestimated that I’d have between 75 to 100 guests and the party would go on for three hours. I ended up having 250+ guests and the party went on until well past 1 AM. It was a pretty surreal night. Imagine if you took your entire life and condensed it to one room. It was like an episode of This is Your Life!

I had my writing friends, my Kung Fu friends, my Asian friends, my old colleagues, and assorted people I haven’t seen in a decade all there. In a way, it felt like a retirement party. I think at one point, I had 6 of my old managers from different jobs talking to me.

OTBSFF: History is such an important part to the story and the lives of the Quasing and it quickly begins to feel like the Quasing influenced everything. Is there any part of human history that the Quasing did not influence?

The Quasing definitely played a significant role in humanity’s history, but they couldn’t be everywhere at once, could they? There were definitely parts of history, some great, some bungled, that humanity did all on its lonesome.

Warren G Harding winning the presidency is a fine example of human ineptitude. The Pig War of 1859 was another wonderful all-human event. And who can forget Coca Cola’s decision not to buy Pepsi Co for a couple of pennies and a sponge bath. Basically, there were thousands of famous and not-so famous blunders that can be attributed to sheer human stupidity.

On the other hand, there were several great events that humans are credit for accomplishing on their own as well. The invention of paper was probably the most significant contribution humans ever made without Quasing assistance. The creation and signing of the Magna Carta was another. The Quasings’ influence, though large, wasn’t absolute. Back during the times leading up to the Spanish Inquisition, they were against any significant peace treaty that would promote stability within the world. During the modern era, certain inventions like choosing VHS over Beta had supporters from both Quasing factions (due to investments), but in the end, it was the porn industry that made the choice for them.

OTBSFF: Are you a history buff and could I easily guess which country’s history you are most fascinated with?

I am a huge history buff, and I’m pretty sure you couldn’t guess which country’s history I’m most fascinated with because I’m not sure myself.

Historical events, to me, are like scotches. What I like and what I’m interested in changes depending on the day of the month. I remember spending two weeks once reading everything I could get my hands on about all the pontiffs between 800 AD to 1600 AD. Then there was a three day period where I researched everything I could on the meat packing industry from 1900s to 1930s. And then there was this one time I spent a few days correlating the sales of men’s underwear to the American economy.

Psst... By the way, my entire investment strategy is based on the Underwear Index. No joke.

OTBSFF: The Lives of Tao deals largely with espionage, from the boring stuff like staking out a mailbox to tracking down secret weapons and killing targets. Are you secretly a spy? (Don’t worry, I won’t tell a soul)

Do you know the pay scale of the people in covert ops? The market value for covert operations is totally wacked. First of all, no one takes into consideration the collateral risk and damage a spy needs to endure, not to mention the fact that whoever this dude dates starts the entire relationship with a lie. That means I’ll never get a girlfriend, and I can’t live without that. Oh wait, I’m married already. Well, same thing.

And let’s be honest, I’m too much like the meerkat in The Lion King. Hakuna Matata, bro. And I guess while we’re at it; I have a very low pain threshold. If I get an ingrown toenail, I’m bedridden for weeks. Me? A spy. Child please! 

You believe me, right? Right? Of course you believe me. In fact, I was never here.

OTBSFF: I’ve heard you are a man of many talents including being an actor and stuntman. What would you say has influenced your writing the most?

To be perfectly honest, neither influenced my writing that much. If I was to answer honestly, I’d have to go lame and say reading has influenced my writing the most.

However, I will admit that martial arts played a huge part in how I visualize fight scenes. I took pride in knowing that I could re-enact every fight scene in The Lives of Tao. That’s all past tense because I’m just not so limber anymore.

Acting has also helped with the dialogues in The Lives of Tao. The craft of acting has always been less about the words and more about the timings and emotions that stems from a scene. That’s the same approach I take when I write my characters chatting it up.

OTBSFF: Are there any literary influences that have really had an impact on your writing?

This is such a loaded question because there have been so many literary influences over the years. That’s why I always default to Piers Anthony and Lawrence Watt-Evans.

They were the authors of the first two fantasy novels I’ve ever read. My English professor father took me to the literary section of a bookstore and told me I could pick out any books I wanted to read. I’m pretty sure he wanted me to choose Tom Sawyer or Macbeth or Thomas Moore. I made a beeline toward the fantasy section and chose the shiny picture of the floating sword and the picture of the goofy lion with wings that had a scorpion tail on it. And in case you can’t guess the books, they are The Misenchanted Sword and A Spell for Chameleon.

OTBSFF: I know authors are not their characters, but I can’t help imagining the author as either looking like a character on the cover of their book or the main protagonist’s description. Would you say you’re more like Roen toward the beginning or end of the book?

I would say I’m more Enzo. Oh wait; you don’t know who he is yet. Well, you’re about to find out come October. Stay tuned. =)

OTBSFF: Who was your favorite character to write outside of Tao?

Looking back, I’m going to have to say Sean. There’s something to be said about complex villains who are not only smart, but also suave and complex. A good villain is better than the hero in every way. He’s not only more powerful, but more intelligent, more suave, better dressed, and definitely better with the ladies. He should be better than the hero in practically everything. Okay, we’ll throw the hero a bone and give him more heart.

Too often in SFF, the quality of villain takes a back seat to the mindless zombies, savage orcs, or feral space blobs. Well, people, it’s time we demand a higher quality of villainy in our antagonists and evil doers. That baddie should be able to kick everyone’s ass and still look sharp doing it!

OTBSFF: Finish this sentence: If I were a Quasing…

I would pretend he doesn’t exist because as a writer, I already have the best job in the word. Lame; I know. Well, that and I have a very low tolerance to bullet wounds. Remember, the low pain threshold thing?

OTBSFF: Your debut just came out and the sequel, The Deaths of Tao, is already slated to come out toward the end of the year, how did you swing that?

Due to the great reception that The Lives of Tao received, the angry robot overlords have pushed up the release of the sequel, The Deaths of Tao, up to October 29th, 2013. 

In Deaths, several years have passed since the events of the first book. I’m not going to give too much away, but it’s safe to say that things have gone slightly downhill for the Prophus since the events of the first book.

Interview - Courtney Schafer, Author of The Shattered Sigil Trilogy

Courtney Schafer has become one of my new favorite authors with her debut series, The Shattered Sigil. She exploded on the scene last year with The Whitefire Crossing (review) and followed it up this year with a sequel, The Tainted City (review), that was just as good if not better. While I had no idea what to expect going into TWC, I was immediately charmed and would even go so far as to say it was my biggest surprise of last year. You can imagine I'm looking forward to read more of what Courtney has in store and the conclusion to this trilogy will be no less than stunning I'm sure.

If you're unfamiliar with this series, following is the description of the book one, The Whitefire Crossing:

Dev is a smuggler with the perfect cover. He's in high demand as a guide for the caravans that carry legitimate goods from the city of Ninavel into the country of Alathia. The route through the Whitefire Mountains is treacherous, and Dev is one of the few climbers who knows how to cross them safely. With his skill and connections, it's easy enough to slip contraband charms from Ninavel - where any magic is fair game, no matter how dark - into Alathia, where most magic is outlawed.

But smuggling a few charms is one thing; smuggling a person through the warded Alathian border is near suicidal. Having made a promise to a dying friend, Dev is forced to take on a singularly dangerous cargo: Kiran. A young apprentice on the run from one of the most powerful mages in Ninavel, Kiran is desperate enough to pay a fortune to sneak into a country where discovery means certain execution - and he'll do whatever it takes to prevent Dev from finding out the terrible truth behind his getaway.

Yet Kiran isn't the only one harboring a deadly secret. Caught up in a web of subterfuge and dark magic, Dev and Kiran must find a way to trust each other - or face not only their own destruction, but that of the entire city of Ninavel.

This interview delves mostly into the writing process and some very peripheral questions about magic and the world that . There is only one question that even asks anything about the third book in the series, but for the most part this interview is spoiler-free.
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1. Let’s get to the important stuff right away. If the nominees in this last election were mages in Ninavel, what type of mages would they be?

Ha!  Always great to get a question no one's asked before. :)  As for the political nominees...they'd be middling mages of no great talent.  To quote Ruslan in The Tainted City, "Some men confuse magical power with the more mundane sort...Lesser mages are particularly prone to this error.  When they reach the limits of their talent, they often turn to the accumulation of wealth, or seek to reign over the untalented, as if that makes up for their lack." 

2. What got you in to writing? What self-respecting electrical engineer becomes a writer? Didn’t your parents teach you any better? J

My parents certainly tried.  I remember when I was at Caltech, I once considered switching majors from electrical engineering to geosciences. Volcanoes and earthquakes are cool, and besides, the geoscience students go to tromp around Death Valley as part of the classwork.  My father's response to this idea: "I'm not paying a fortune in tuition for you to end up scratching out a living from government grants. Besides, geoscience is only for losers who can't hack it in real physics. I raised you smarter than that."  (My father and Sheldon Cooper of Big Bang Theory share certain regrettable intellectual snobberies, although they differ wildly in other respects.)  I found a solution that kept both my parrents and me happy: I stayed in electrical engineering, but focused on image processing and remote sensing...which means now I get to do geoscience while earning an industry salary, ha! But I can only imagine my father's apoplexy if I'd said I wanted to become a writer.

Yet for all my parents' Tiger-Mom-ish attitude about careers, they always encouraged my love of reading, even of genres they didn't personally enjoy (like fantasy). And it's that love of stories that eventually led to me writing The Whitefire Crossing. I'm a fast reader, and I got frustrated with waiting for new books from my favorite authors to come out.  In the end, I decided I would stop whining and start writing more of the kind of book I wanted to read: a story with magic, intrigue, adventure, characters with secrets, reluctant friendships...and mountaineering, because I love that too.
   

3. Your two main characters are male and I always wonder what goes into a writer’s thought-process when writing characters of the opposite gender, especially the main characters. Obviously, this was done extremely compellingly in your books. Does it make the process more difficult (or even easier) and did you always know or want your two point-of-views (POV’s) to be male?

For me, it didn’t feel hard at all to write male main characters.  In both engineering and climbing, I’ve spent my life surrounded by guys, so I feel I’m at least reasonably familiar with the mindset.  Not that I think of it that way when I write…I just try to make the character on the page feel like a real person.  The gender surely factors into that, but for me it’s at a more subconscious and less deliberate level. 

As for why I chose to write two male main characters…well, I was writing the book I wanted to read, and I confess I’ve got a slight preference for male protagonists.  I think it's because as a reader I like to have that frisson of romantic attraction on top of my more general interest in a cool character. This strikes me as strange since I'm not a big romance fan. Yet similarly, my husband prefers to read books with female main characters, so at least I know I'm not alone.  Yet I've talked to many, many women who prefer to identify with a main character rather than (for lack of a better word!) objectify them. Doubtless they are more psychologically well-adjusted. :)  Anyway, my preference is only a slight one - I've loved many books with female main characters, and I can certainly see myself writing a female protagonist in future novels - but that's why Dev and Kiran are guys and not girls.

4. I really enjoyed your naming scheme. Many of the characters, especially the main ones (Dev, Kiran, and Marten for example), each had a shortened form of their name. It gives the flair of the exotic while making it easy for the reader to glide over. Was this just part of the process or did you come at this from a reader’s perspective?

For the Alathian characters like Marten, I was definitely thinking of “reader comfort.”  I wanted Alathian names to reflect the more formal, rigid nature of their society, so I made the full versions long (and set up the custom that Alathians only use family names in public; first names are reserved for immediate family and lovers, and even then, used only when assured of privacy).  Yet I didn’t want readers to stumble over long polysyllabic names all the time, especially in The Tainted City, which features a lot more Alathian characters.  So I decided the Alathians would use a short form of their family name when among friends (or close professional associates).  As you say, it’s much easier on the reader that way!  

The Ninavel natives like Dev, Melly, Cara, etc. have short, Anglicized names to help suggest to the reader the rough-and-tumble, wholly informal nature of Ninavel’s society.  (For anyone curious to know more about how I came up with all the character and place names, I did a guest post for Abhinav Jain’s “Names: A New Perspective” series in which I go into detail on the process.) 

5. I think I understand this and I know of other notable works that do the same (Heroes Die for instance), but how did you decide to have one POV written in first person and the other in third, especially in your debut?

When I was first writing The Whitefire Crossing, I wasn't thinking at all of publication yet. I played around with both 1st and 3rd person POV for Dev and Kiran, and found Dev flowed best for me in 1st, Kiran in 3rd. Since I was writing the book for myself, I happily kept right on writing it that way.  Of course, the real question is: why did that better flow happen? The answer lies in my preferences as a reader.  I love 1st person for snarky, active, highly opinionated characters (Harry Dresden in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series, Gen in Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief, etc).  For introspective characters, I prefer the greater emotional distance of 3rd person - it keeps the narrative from getting bogged down in angst and analysis.  It's also a heck of a lot easier to keep secrets from the reader in 3rd than in 1st, and I wanted many things about Kiran to be a gradual reveal.  So for me, the POV switch worked really well, and I don't regret doing it, though I'm aware it bothers some readers.

6. Saladin Ahmed, author of Throne of the Crescent Moon, is quoted on the front of The Tainted City and he describes a sword-and-sorcery renaissance that is going on right now in fantasy. More specifically, he says, “Fantasy is in the midst of an exciting sword-and-sorcery renaissance right now, and Courtney Schafer’s carefully observed, white-knuckled fiction is a shining example of this renaissance.” When you started writing, was this renaissance something you wanted to contribute to with The Shattered Sigil series?

Not as such.  I really was just writing the book I wanted to read.  (Even now, I’m not totally sure the Shattered Sigil books quite fit in the sword-and-sorcery subgenre…after all, there’s not a single sword in the novels.  Ice axes and knives, yes, but no swords.  That said, the story does have the adventurous feel and intimate character focus common to sword-and-sorcery books, so it’s certainly a better fit there than epic fantasy – I admit I twitch every time I see someone refer to Whitefire as epic.)   Anyway, genre quibbling aside, I’m with Saladin – as a reader, I’m hugely excited about the resurgence of sword-and-sorcery in a more modern form.  I’ve read so many great books over the last year – everything from Arabian-influenced fantasies like Saladin’s novel and Howard Andrew Jones’s The Desert of Souls, to urban capers full of clever criminals, like Douglas Hulick’s Among Thieves.  It’s a great time to be a fantasy fan, with so many awesome new books hitting the shelves.

7. Magic plays a huge part in your books and we find out lots more information about it in The Tainted City. While the magic is glorious for its users, it seems to be extremely difficult to perform. How much of your electrical engineering background went into the creation of the magic in The Shattered Sigil? Also, would you say electrical engineering gives you as much ecstasy as the mages get from casting their magic?

If electrical engineering gave me as much ecstasy as blood mages get out of casting, I’d be spending all my free time designing algorithms and circuits, not writing fantasy novels. J I am quite fond of my day job, though, and certain elements of my engineering training definitely crept their way into the magic system of the Shattered Sigil books.  (As a co-worker once said, after I explained how blood mages cast channeled magic: “So…they basically lay out giant circuit diagrams to direct the flow of magical power.”  Me: “Oh my God, you’re right!”)  The mix of analysis, experience, and intuitive insight that mages like Kiran and Ruslan need to create their spell patterns is also reminiscent of analog circuit design, which is quite the black art (especially compared to the straightforward, logical world of digital circuitry).

8. I’ve heard you are a voracious reader, what are some of your writing influences? What’s one book you would recommend dropping everything to read?

I always find the influence question tough to answer, because I feel like my writing comes from a gestalt of the thousands of books that I’ve read, not to mention the life experiences that I’ve had.  How do you untangle it all?  But here are a few authors whose skill and talent amaze me, whose novels I’ve read and re-read until they’re falling apart: Dorothy Dunnett, Emma Bull, Joan D. Vinge, Carol Berg, C.J. Cherryh, Guy Gavriel Kay, Patricia McKillip, Megan Whalen Turner…and Mark Helprin, whose magical realism novel Winter’s Tale is the absolute perfect choice for a book to lose yourself in during the winter holidays.  (I re-read it every year just before New Years.)  The beauty and power of Helprin’s prose is breathtaking.  There’s a famous NYT review of Winter’s Tale that says, “…I find myself nervous, to a degree I don’t recall in my past as a reviewer, about failing the work, inadequately displaying its brilliance.”  That’s how I feel every time I recommend Winter’s Tale to others.  I flail around trying to describe the book (“It’s about New York City! But with flying horses, and time travelers, and an enigmatic bridge-builder…”), only to end up forcing the book into the confused listener’s hands, saying, “Never mind, just read it.”  

  

9. I’m always curious about how authors get started writing. With all that you’ve read, was writing just a natural extension? When did you think, I really gotta get all these ideas down on paper?

I mentioned before that I came up with the idea for The Whitefire Crossing when I got frustrated waiting for new books to come out, but I needed another catalyst to actually sit down and start writing.  Ever since I was a teen, an idea for a story would occasionally strike me and I’d play around with bits of scenes, but I never made it past a couple pages because I had this crazy idea that you shouldn’t move on in a story until you had a scene absolutely perfect.  It always took me so long to get any one scene “right” that I figured I wasn’t meant to be a writer. 

Thankfully, not long after I had the idea for Whitefire, some friends from work invited me to try NaNoWriMo with them.  (For anyone unfamiliar with NaNo, the idea is to write 50,000 words of a novel during the month of November.)  I was skeptical, but I gave it a shot – and wow, what a revelation!  To meet that wordcount, I had to turn off my inner editor and let words spill out without worrying over quality.  I found that if I could just get the story down first, later revisions were much easier.  Don’t get me wrong, plenty of revision was needed – after I completed my 120,000 word first draft of Whitefire, I ended up doing a white-page rewrite of the entire book to get it to publishable quality – but without that original push from NaNo, I’d never have written the story at all.  So I always look back fondly on November 2007 as the moment I first became a writer. 

10. How was the whole process for book two compared to writing book one, was it any easier than your first book? More or less stressful?

Oh gosh. Way, WAY more stressful.  Mostly because of time pressure.  Between day job and parenting, writing time is a rare and precious commodity for me.  I thought I had a handle on that, having done a huge revision of Whitefire right after my son was born.  Back then I was a total zombie from lack of sleep, and I had to write in brief 20-minute spurts during the rare intervals my son napped (he was not an easy baby).  I figured writing Tainted City would be no sweat in comparison – after all, my son had outgrown his difficult babyhood, I was at last getting more sleep, and I had the experience of writing the first novel under my belt. 

Hahaha.  I soon found that published authorhood brings with it a mountain of non-writing tasks.  Guest blogs and interviews to do, giveaways and other promo to arrange, emails to agents/editors/booksellers/convention folks/readers – all of that eats into writing time like you wouldn’t believe.  Plus, during 2011 I was running the Night Bazaar blog, which meant I had a pile of admin duties to handle every week.  The psychological pressures of the infamous second novel are nothing to sneeze at, either.  I wanted to write the best book I possibly could, and not disappoint readers who loved Whitefire - but obsessing over that was a sure route to stressing myself right out of any productivity.

In the end, I just kept plugging along, no matter how far away the finish line seemed.  I sacrificed sleep, paid for extra childcare on occasion, offloaded as many non-writing tasks as I could (I turned over the Night Bazaar to Night Shade Books in Jan 2012, which helped immensely), and tried my hardest to shut out all the inner demons and outer voices and write the story just for myself, the same as I did with Whitefire.  So yeah, writing The Tainted City was a real challenge – but the satisfaction and joy I feel now in the finished book is all more tremendous because it was so hard for me. 

11. Any info you can give on The Labyrinth of Flame, third book of The Shattered Sigil would be tremendous. Are there any plans for more books in this same world?

I’m working on Labyrinth right now, and having a blast.  I can’t give plot details without heading into spoiler territory, but I will say that Dev and Kiran are in for a hell of a time, with plenty of difficult decisions and dangerous alliances ahead.  Also, there will be canyoneering, and creatures out of myth, and readers will get to see a few new parts of the Shattered Sigil world.  (For those readers who’ve bemoaned the lack of a map in the previous novels – I’ll do my best to ensure Labyrinth has one, I promise!) The book doesn’t have an official release date yet.  Night Shade only bought two novels in my initial deal, and Labyrinth is not yet under contract.  Readers needn’t worry, though. No matter what happens, I intend to write the book – after all, I want to know how the story ends! – and I’ll publish it myself if necessary.

I might write more novels in the same world one day, though probably with different protagonists.  I definitely have some ideas for some short stories.  I’ve been meaning to write this one story set back in Dev’s Tainted days for ages now, but my writing time is so limited I always end up focusing on the novel at hand.  Perhaps once the first draft of Labyrinth is done, I’ll finally get the chance to play with short stories. 

12. How did you get to be so awesome and in your debut works for crying out loud?

Admit it, you’re just trying to see if you can inflate an author’s ego to the point it affects the Earth’s gravity.  I will not fall for your diabolical experiment, sir!  (But thanks for the kind words. J)

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If you'd like to learn more about The Shattered Sigil series and Courtney Schafer, check out her website at www.courtneyschafer.com. She also has a signed set of The Whitefire Crossing and The Tainted City that are up for auction for Pat Rothfuss's Worldbuilders charity fundraiser. As Pat explains:

Heifer International is my favorite charity. It helps people raise themselves up out of poverty and starvation. Heifer promotes education, sustainable agriculture, and local industry all over the world. 

They don’t just keep kids from starving, they make it so families can take care of themselves. They give goats, sheep, and chickens to families so their children have milk to drink, warm clothes to wear, and eggs to eat.

You can go directly to the book auction page here. 

An Interview...with Me???

Mieneke at A Fantastical Librarian has been interviewing science fiction and fantasy bloggers in her "Blogger Query" series of posts and I'm up this week. I've been enjoying these since it's inception, getting to know fellow bloggers better than I already do in many instances and just seeing how passionate people function in the blogging world and out.

In the interview, you'll find out such things as why I keep running two blogs, what I think about negative reviews and ratings, and so much more, way more than you ever wanted! Find my interview here.

Jon Sprunk Interviewed

Over the last couple years I've been heartily enjoying The Shadow Saga (Pyr) by Jon Sprunk and this last week saw its stunning conclusion in print. My interest in this series was first piqued when I saw the excellent Michael Komarck cover for Shadow's Son (see below) and it's been a great ride since.

This trilogy revolves around an assassin named Caim and his Fae (and invisible) companion, Kit. While starting off centered around assassination, the series evolves into a much more epic adventure filled with action.

Thanks to Jon for stopping by, he was nice enough to let me pepper him with questions even as he had a very busy week due to the release of the final volume in The Shadow Saga, Shadow's Master.

Check out my reviews for Shadow's Son, Shadow's Lure, and Shadow's Master.

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• Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your debut work, The Shadow Saga?

Of course! I live in central Pennsylvania with my family. My first fantasy novel, Shadow’s Son, was published in the summer of 2010 by Pyr Books. Since then volumes two and three (Shadow’s Lure and Shadow’s Master, respectively) have been released, and the books have also been published overseas in eight or nine languages.

Shadow’s Son tells the tale of a lonewolf assassin named Caim who gets pulled into a government plot involving an extinct dynasty, a powerful religious body, and a particular brand of dark magic. In the subsequent books, Caim goes back to his homeland (and beyond) to track down the people who killed his father and abducted his mother.

• The Shadow Saga has been called good ol’ fashioned sword and sorcery, being compared to such greats as Michael Moorcock and Fritz Lieber. Is this an accurate assessment? How would you categorize the series?

I remember when I was pitching the first book, I just called it fantasy, or maybe ‘dark’ fantasy because of its themes, but since then the series has been deemed sword & sorcery, which I think is awesome because I grew up on Moorcock, Leiber, Howard, and so on. But I don’t get too hung up on categories. Hell, on Amazon the first two books are placed under “Historical Fantasy,” for what that’s worth.

• What book got you into fantasy? Was there anything that made you think, “I can do that?” Also, what is a book we should drop everything to read?

I don’t recall any single book that made me realize fantasy was the genre for me, but I’m sure all the Conan books I read as a kid didn’t hurt. The Lord of the Rings was certainly instrumental (although I never thought I’d be able to match it in scope or grandeur).

As far as recommending a book, there are too many to list. I think The Black Company (Glen Cook) was revolutionary. Robert E. Howard, although a flawed person (aren’t we all?), wrote some marvelous stories. Same with H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith.

• Caim is the ultimate assassin, but he’s got heart as well. How did Caim come about and how much is he a part of you?

Let me answer that in reverse order. Caim is nothing like me. Although I started training in various martial arts when I was ten years old, I work studiously to avoid the kinds of violent situations where Caim feels most at home. Then again, both Caim and I have little patience for assholes, so you never know . . .

When I was planning the series, my main character was originally going to be a break-in artist. A cat-burglar who would avoid fights rather than engage. Yet as I fleshed out the story, I realized that I wanted a more visceral experience that included violence. That’s when I remembered a few chapters of a novel I had written years before and abandoned, about an assassin who gets betrayed by his employer and goes on a homicidal rampage. I took that character and retooled him to fit the story of Shadow’s Son. And the rest is history.

• What is it about assassins that you like so much?

I don’t particularly like assassins, although in another life I think I might have been a good one. I like reading about assassin though, because they break one of the basic rules of society. Thou shalt not kill. And once you go there, turning back is extremely difficult. That was the story I wanted to tell in this series, about one very flawed man’s attempt to redeem himself. Or at least to make sense of the shambles his life has become.

• Kit is one of my all-time favorite characters and one of the things that really sets this series apart. What was the inspiration for her? Who came first, the world (including shadows), Caim, Josey or Kit?

Kit is a happy accident. I didn’t have her in my initial outlines. Yet, when I started writing that first scene with Caim in the duke’s castle, Kit just appeared. And she’s been flitting in and out of Caim’s life ever since. I think some of my inspiration for her might have come from Tinkerbell as played by Julia Roberts in the movie Hook, her unrequited longing for Peter. For a kid’s movie, it’s a very grown-up sentiment.

The story idea came first, including the primary characters. Things like setting and the shadow magic came later.

• Who is the character you most enjoyed writing, had the hardest time writing? (I guess they can be one and the same too)

Caim and Ral were the easiest. Their sections seemed to ‘click’ in my head without too much anxiety. Kit was more of a challenge when I had to write her perspective in the later books. Maybe I was self-conscious about trying to get her Fae-ness “just right.” And all the villains are pretty smooth for me. I like the darker sides of people.

• How did you come up with the language for the Northmen? I’ve been known to speak some German and I noticed at least a bit of Scandinavian influence.

I’m no Professor Tolkien, so don’t dig too deeply!

For the Northmen, I knew I wanted them to resemble the various tribes of northern Europe, so I started with Old Norse as a basis for the words and names, and changed them a bit to make it more unique.

• Do you have any plans to go back to the Shadow Saga now that it's finished, whether it's sequels, prequels or novellas?

The short answer is: not at this time. I think there's still a lot to explore with Caim and Kit and Josey (and Hubert, too), but I'm a one-project-at-a-time kind of guy and all my energy is going into this new book.

• What else do you have in store for us? I know there’s some mysterious “work in progress” going on, can you tell us more about it?

There’s always something in the works. Up next is an epic fantasy series centering around two soldiers captured by a foreign land ruled by wizard-kings (and –queens). These soldiers both fight to be free again, but their battles take them down divergent paths.

• What kind of writer are you, there’s always discussion about outliners versus free-writers? Do you fall into any of those? And what was the hardest part about writing this series?

I’m an outliner. It’s just how my brain constructs a story.

The hardest part of writing this series was how to end it. Ending a novel is difficult enough for me as I try to pull together all the storylines and themes into something satisfying. Concluding a series is like that, but harder because you’re drawing that last novel to a close while at the same time pulling together the whole saga. Or, at least I tried to.

• Any advice for wannabe writers in getting published or just plain writing something people want to read?

There are a few things I’ve picked up that are as near to “rules” as I can see.

One, read. If you don’t love to read fiction, falling so deeply into a book that you lose track of time, writing as a profession probably isn’t for you.

Two, write. A lot. I write almost every day. That includes Christmas, my birthday, my wife’s birthday, and every day in between except when I’m on vacation.

Three, develop patience. Just about every aspiring author imagines their first book will be published, resulting in a life of fame and wealth. The reality is somewhat less impressive. You’ll likely write several books (including months of revising and re-revising each one) before you get published. This means years of toil for no pay and no accolades. Get used to it. Because once you are published, riches and awards are the exception, not the rule. You might be the next J.K. Rowling, or you might die penniless and unknown. If you have talent in any other profession, I advise you (strongly) to pursue that instead. But if you simply cannot not write….

Four, develop a thick skin. Once you are published, your beloved book will be out in the cold, cruel world where people will trash it, mock it, and publically ponder whether or not you are an imbecile. If you are easily discouraged by negative criticism, save yourself a lifetime of abuse and take up knitting.

• How much of an impact do you think social networking, either through your own efforts or others has had with your series?

At first, I would have said none. But over the last couple years I have gained a small (but loyal!) social media following. They help me spread the word about my work, so I think it depends on luck and how much you put into it.

• Do you read every review of your books and does anything that is said influence anything you do?

I read all the ones that I know about. The interwebz is a huge place, so there are probably things said about my books (and me) that I never see. I like knowing how the series is hitting people. I don’t know if it actually influences me, except that if I saw the same criticism again and again and I thought it was valid, I might try to address it in future works.

But probably not. I’m a stubborn bastard at heart.

• If you were to see someone reading your book in public (like on a bus or something) what would you do?

Smile and go on with my day.