Interview with Dana Chamblee Carpenter, author of Bohemian Gospel

Please welcome Dana Chamblee Carpenter to The Qwillery as part of the 2015 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. Bohemian Gospel was published in November 2015 by Pegasus.

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Dana:  Thanks for having me! I actually started writing in the third grade, but after a bit of a detour into the halls of academia to get my Ph. D, I came back to my dream of being a writer. Stories are like food or air for me--I need them to live. When I was a kid, I read everything I could get my hands on, and it didn't matter if the protagonist was a boy or a dog or a girl kind of like me; I could slip into the skin and become any of them. But there was still a part of me that knew that even the female characters I could most relate to—a Jo March or Laura Ingalls—weren't quite free enough or wild enough or strong enough. So I wrote my own stories with my own free, wild, strong girls.



TQ:  Are you a plotter, a pantser or hybrid?

Dana:  I am so absolutely a pantser that I have a hard time associating with plotters (just kidding). I still occasionally peek over the fence to see if the grass is really greener on the plotters' side (knowing where your story's going before you get there sounds SO nice), but then I start panicking at the idea of getting boxed in and trapped. I like to feel my way through a story.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Dana:  Blocking off the time to do the actual writing. I wear so many hats—mom (and the whole subset of jobs that involves), homeschooler, professor, wife, friend—that I have to be pretty fierce with myself to schedule my writing time and not forfeit pieces of it to something else.



TQ:  Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors?

Dana:  I'd like to think that almost any writer I've read is an influence on me in some form or another. But one of the touchstones for me is Eudora Welty—there's something in her writing that speaks to my soul, and I will likely forever be striving to emulate the fluidity of her narrative. There’s also Neil Gaiman, who so masterfully blends light and dark in his work and who is such a powerful role model for staying positive and encouraging in a very critical and competitive industry. I want to be him when I grow up.



TQ:  Describe Bohemian Gospel in 140 characters or less.

Dana:  Girl named Mouse. Girl has powers. Girl meets king. Girl fights demons. Girl lives in 13th Century Bohemia. #NotBohemianRhapsody



TQ:  Tell us something about Bohemian Gospel that is not found in the book description.

Dana:  Things get really dark and scary. Mouse is an extraordinary young woman and so extraordinary things happen to her. She has magical moments of joy and uncommon tragedy.



TQ:  What inspired you to write Bohemian Gospel? What appeals to you about writing historical fiction and, in particular, historical fiction set in 13th Century Bohemia?

Dana:  Mouse was my inspiration. She came to me first, and I didn't know when or where she belonged. As she slowly revealed some of her secrets to me, her story led to Bohemia and the 13th Century, which is where I learned about Ottakar, and I was hooked. I've always loved historical fiction, especially the books that focus on typically overlooked characters or develop fictional characters that challenge conventions in a particular historical setting. I want to go somewhere I've never been or see a familiar world in an entirely new way.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Bohemian Gospel?

Dana:  Anything and everything. The typical surface-level internet research served as breadcrumbs to lead me into the deeper waters of really old books that only lived in the dusty archives of a library, digitalized copies of rare and out-of-print books, music, art, architecture, and loads of research into the practices of Premonstratensian monks.



TQ:  Who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Dana:  Mouse was the easiest character to write because I knew her so well by the time I actually started drafting. It didn't take lots of mental work to imagine what she would do or say in any particular situation because I'd been living with her for a year in my head. But she was also the hardest character to write because I love her deeply and it breaks my heart (weeping and gnashing of angry teeth) when crappy stuff happens to her. I hear from readers who get so mad at certain parts of the story when bad things happen to Mouse, and I SO understand. I feel the same way. But I have to the let the story go where it needs to go; I have to let Mouse make her own decisions. And sometimes, life is really hard.



TQ:  Which question about Bohemian Gospel do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Dana:  It's actually not a question I can say here because it would be a spoiler, but it’s one my big brother asked over the holidays. He loved the book but he was upset about something that happens toward the end. His question was: Why? And we spent hours talking about Mouse's choices and the deeper underlying themes in the book. It was a great question that led to a great discussion. I'm pretty sure it doesn't get any better than that.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from Bohemian Gospel.

Dana:  I love Father Lucas' reprimand of King Ottakar when he's being "protective" and trying to keep Mouse from doing something she needs to do. Father Lucas tells the King, "We both know that she is not just a girl."

Then later, at a time when Mouse is wrestling with figuring out her place in the world, Ottakar tells her "You do have value, Mouse, not lent you by parents or a family name, but a worth all your own." I love him for that.



TQ:  What's next?

Dana:  I'm working on revisions to the sequel to Bohemian Gospel right now. The first book was only a part of her story and I can’t wait to share with readers what happens next.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Dana:  My pleasure!

Bohemian Gospel
Pegasus, November 16, 2015
    November 8, 2015 (eBook)
Hardcover and eBook, 400 pages

Set against the historical reign of the Golden and Iron King, Bohemian Gospel is the remarkable tale of a bold and unusual girl on a quest to uncover her past and define her destiny.

Thirteenth-century Bohemia is a dangerous place for a girl, especially one as odd as Mouse, born with unnatural senses and an uncanny intellect. Some call her a witch. Others call her an angel. Even Mouse doesn’t know who—or what—she is. But she means to find out.

When young King Ottakar shows up at the Abbey wounded by a traitor's arrow, Mouse breaks church law to save him and then agrees to accompany him back to Prague as his personal healer. Caught in the undertow of court politics at the castle, Ottakar and Mouse find themselves drawn to each other as they work to uncover the threat against him and to unravel the mystery of her past. But when Mouse's unusual gifts give rise to a violence and strength that surprise everyone—especially herself—she is forced to ask herself: Will she be prepared for the future that awaits her?

A heart-thumping, highly original tale in the vein of Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, Bohemian Gospel heralds the arrival of a fresh new voice for historical fiction.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million :  IndieBound
Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

About Dana

Dana Chamblee Carpenter is the award-winning author of short fiction that has appeared in The Arkansas Review, Jersey Devil Press, and Maypop. Her debut novel, Bohemian Gospel, won Killer Nashville’s 2014 Claymore Award. She teaches creative writing and American Literature at a private university in Nashville, TN, where she lives with her husband and two children.









Website  ~  Facebook  ~  Twitter @danaccarpenter

Interview with Holly Messinger, author of The Curse of Jacob Tracy

Please welcome Holly Messinger to The Qwillery as part of the 2015 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. The Curse of Jacob Tracy was published on December 1st by Thomas Dunne Books.

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Holly:  I started getting ideas for stories almost as soon as I could write independently. I remember in the second grade, watching The Apple Dumpling Gang on The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday night, and getting this brainstorm of how I could continue the story. I stapled together a little book, started writing in my laborious 7-year-old handwriting, and then the teacher took it away from me because I wasn't getting my seatwork done.

Like most young writers I wrote to amuse myself, and insert myself in my favorite stories. But I always had a proficiency for language, and I love the rhythms and patterns of it. I love words and I love the structure of a good scene and I love trying to capture a moment in words. One of my favorite movies when I was twelve or so was Willow, and I got so mad when I read the novelization of it because it didn't match what had happened on the screen! So I rewrote the love scene between Sorcha and Madmartigan and tucked the typewritten pages into the book. And that incident is sort of exemplary of the way I still write: I see scenes in my head and I try to capture them in words as accurately as possible.



TQ:  Are you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?

Holly:  I'm a hybrid. I either start with a character and build a situation that will put him through the maximum amount of torture, or start with a situation and build the type of character who would be more likely to suffer under the circumstances.

Once I have the character, setting, and conflict in place I can hammer out the opening scenes, establish the mood and start exploring themes. Usually additional conflicts will present themselves and that keeps things interesting. But I periodically hit points where I have to stop and brainstorm again, to look at the plot threads I've laid down and extrapolate where they will lead. Sometimes more research is required. Very often my brain will toss up these—let’s call them premonitions of scenes—the high-tension moments in the story where there is a revelation or a power-shift or some other major event (screenwriting manuals call these pinch-points or tentpole scenes). I write these scenes out and use them as signposts to write toward. These drafted scenes rarely make it into the final version—at least not in their original form—but they always contain critical plot points that get used one way or another. To me it feels more like a topographical map than an outline. I know where I'm going but not necessarily how I will get there.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Holly:  The challenge is always getting it done versus keeping it fun. Like most creative people I have my fingers in too many pies, and I get resentful really fast if I start thinking I must work on this story. So I try to maintain that feeling of writing to entertain myself, and to do that I have to make it my leisure time, no exceptions. Luckily my husband and I are both independent as cats and he can amuse himself while I work. He likes to read, too, so sometimes if I haven't written anything in a while he'll nudge me, "Go write some more good words for me to read."



TQ:  Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors?

Holly:  Toni Morrison, pre-90’s Stephen King, Mary Balogh, Octavia Butler, Barbara Michaels, Charlaine Harris, Joss Whedon. I tend to value storytelling over beautiful prose. Style should be transparent, in my opinion, which is to say, a writer should have enough mastery over language to convey exactly a mood or feeling that will make me nod and go, "Yes, that's what that feels like," but not in such a showy way that I’m admiring the writer’s turn of phrase instead of empathizing with the character. I won't read books where the supposed appeal is the writer's clever imitation of someone else's style, because it always feels like a filter between me and the action, akin to having a head cold.



TQ:  Describe The Curse of Jacob Tracy in 140 characters or less.

Holly:  Cowboy tries to maintain his bromance in the face of his burgeoning psychic power & the intriguing English witch who wants to exploit it.



TQ:  Tell us something about The Curse of Jacob Tracy that is not found in the book description.

Holly:  I’d want to assure hesitant readers that while this may be a western, it’s not your grandpa’s western. There are no sinister Mexicans in this book, or wise spiritual Indians, or whores with hearts of gold. There are Jewish farmers, and Chinese rail workers, and French Acadian trappers and various and sundry other people just trying to make a living and get along with one another. And I tried to represent that without passing judgment on any of them. Trace is more like Bruce Banner than the Lone Ranger; he's driven to help people but he never swoops in and solves a problem on his own. I wanted to write the kind of hero who would bring people together instead of applying paternalistic “solutions.”



TQ:  What inspired you to write The Curse of Jacob Tracy? What appealed to you about writing a Historical Fantasy/Western/Horror novel?

Holly:  In the most cynical analysis, you might say Westerns and Horror are an obvious fit, because Horror stories are all about fear of the Other, and Westerns are all about the Other being conquered by the Norm. What difference does it make if your (white, straight, male, Christian) hero goes around shooting Indians or zombies? The difference is reflected only in our current collective fear. It’s not a coincidence that both the western and horror genres are outgrowths of the 19th century, with its legacy of colonialism, genocide, and paternalism. And it’s not surprising, given that context, that both westerns and horror are fraught with racist, misogynistic tropes.

I never set out to write a “revisionist western,” but I did want to get away from the clichés. For one thing, I am constitutionally incapable of writing a story without a dominant female character. And since I’d already written my share of ass-kicking warrior women, this time I went with a sickly, manipulative little harridan. And I saddled my hero with self-doubt and an egalitarian mindset. Trace’s arguably anachronistic attitude toward people beyond his ken makes him more sympathetic to a modern reader, but it also makes sense to his character: he was part of the establishment and it failed him. But he’s smart enough to step back, examine the values he was taught, and re-calibrate for himself.

And the monsters, too—rather than have the monster be the “other,” that is, a thinly veiled metaphor for some foreigner—I was thinking in terms of the monsters being very intimate: Trace’s religion, the color of Boz’s skin, Miss Fairweather’s illness. And the tangible monsters they encounter are often metaphors for those personal demons. Of course there are examples of “imported” monsters, as well, like the keung-si (Chinese “vampires”) but I tried to always twist those imported monsters, as a dual symbol of cultural appropriation, and adaptation of immigrants to the new life they found in America.

That was the challenge and satisfaction of these stories; vivisecting the tropes until they screamed. I learnt that from Miss Fairweather.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for The Curse of Jacob Tracy?

Holly:  All of it. And by that I mean, I had to get into every aspect of my characters’ lives, from the clothes they wore to the food they ate—and how it was obtained, which is something few of us have to think about these days. The specifics of travel was a recurring frustration: Wikipedia will tell you the trans-continental railroad was completed in 1869, but it won't tell you how fast the train traveled or how much tickets cost or how sleeper-cars worked or how many days were lost on side-tracks or to breakdowns. Things like that. I spent a lot of time and money acquiring maps, and then identifying landmarks that still exist today, so I could map them on Google and calculate out the distance between two points, just so I could figure out how long it would take Trace and Boz to travel from Miss Fairweather’s neighborhood at the north end of St. Louis, to Carondelet township at the south point of the city.

One of the funnest parts of research was learning to shoot. I learned to shoot a single-action Colt .44 revolver (replica, of course), as well as a .22 rifle, a .50 cal deer rifle, and assorted shotgun loads. Shooting a long-barrel revolver is nothing like shooting a semi-automatic pistol. The recoil is completely different, the grip is different, the amount of time it takes to reload is significantly longer.



TQ:  Your bio says you're a costume designer. Has that affected your writing?

Holly:  I hate to admit this, but the original reason Curse was set in 1880 is because that's my favorite sartorial period of the 19th century. The bustle went away, but skirts became very narrow, even tied behind the knees. Sleeves became so tight a lady could hardly raise her arms. Wearing those dresses was yet another form of research and really helped me get into the head of Miss Fairweather, to understand how her clothes could be both armor and fetters to her. Throughout the book Trace notes her fine clothes as indicative of the distance between them, and a subtle reminder of the power she exerts over him, in terms of money, magical knowledge, and social influence. In fact the only moments of real honesty between them are when she is sick and in her dressing gown, or in her work apron.

From a completely different perspective, sewing has shaped my writing in terms of seeing it as a process. When you make a dress you start with a pattern, and the more precise the pattern the less you have to alter the assembled garment. So it is with fiction: the more you plan ahead, in terms of research and plot, the less rewriting you have to do. Writing is more difficult than sewing, in part because the “pattern” is so amorphous, but it helps to see the story as a thing constructed of parts, because then it can be pulled apart and made-over. It’s a pain in the ass to rip out stitches, but you have to do it until the dress fits correctly and all the plot holes are closed up.



TQ:  Who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Holly:  Boz was easiest, because he’s the simplest. He knows who he is and so doesn’t do the waffling and whinging that Trace does. He has to be the rock and the voice of reason throughout the book, so that makes him predictable in a reassuring way.

Sabine Fairweather was and continues to be the most difficult, because she’s so complex and volatile. From the beginning I didn’t know how good, bad, or ugly she would prove to be, or how she actually regarded Trace, whether she had any respect for him or simply saw him as a tool to be used and discarded. I’m writing book three now and I still feel she could go either way.



TQ:  Which question about The Curse of Jacob Tracy do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Holly:  It’s not a question so much as a temperature reading—I’m always curious to know what readers think of Miss Fairweather. Do they admire her? Do they trust her? John DeNardo at SFSignal said Trace and Sabine’s relationship was “beautifully uncomfortable” and that struck me as about right.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery lines from The Curse of Jacob Tracy.

Holly:  There’s a bit about halfway through where Miss Fairweather basically calls Trace a sanctimonious prude, saying he only cares about the helpless and pious. But he’s changed too much by this point, he knows he’s not the altar-boy he used to be, and he replies,

“I gotta confess, these days I find myself inclined toward the worldly and sinister.”
“Sinister?” she echoed, amusement in her voice. “Is that how you see me?”
“Well I know you ain’t pious,” he said, “and if you claimed to be helpless I’d be lookin for the knife in my ribs.”
He could tell she took that as a compliment. “What a relief, then, to know I needn’t play the damsel in distress. How tiresome that would be.”
“Wouldn’t suit you,” he agreed, and won himself a wry gleam from those cool blue eyes.

If you took that conversation out of context of the rest of their relationship, you’d almost think they were flirting (like Bond and any good supervillain!). And I love these little moments of jousting between them. This is a battle of wills between two very strong and stubborn individuals.



TQ:  What's next?

Holly:  Well the second book is with my publisher, and I’m hacking out the third one, to finish off the main arc. I’m also working on peripheral pieces, to flesh out the world and bring some of the supporting players front and center. Boz, in particular, has his own story to tell, because at the end of Curse he’s no longer quite as sure of things as he was in Chapter One.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Holly:  My pleasure! Thanks for having me.

The Curse of Jacob Tracy
Thomas Dunne Books, December 1, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 320 pages

St. Louis in 1880 is full of ghosts, and Jacob Tracy can see them all. Ever since he nearly died on the battlefield at Antietam, Trace has been haunted by the country's restless dead. The curse cost him his family, his calling to the church, and damn near his sanity. He stays out of ghost-populated areas as much as possible these days, guiding wagon trains West from St. Louis, with his pragmatic and skeptical partner, Boz.

During the spring work lull, Trace gets an unusual job offer. Miss Fairweather, a wealthy English bluestocking, needs someone to retrieve a dead friend's legacy from a nearby town, and she specifically wants Trace to do it. However, the errand proves to be far more sinister than advertised. When confronted, Miss Fairweather admits to knowing about Trace's curse, and suggests she might help him learn to control it—in exchange for a few more odd jobs. Trace has no interest in being her pet psychic, but he's been looking twenty years for a way to control his power, and Miss Fairweather's knowledge of the spirit world is too valuable to ignore. As she steers him into one macabre situation after another, his powers flourish, and Trace begins to realize some good might be done with this curse of his. But Miss Fairweather is harboring some dark secrets of her own, and her meddling has brought Trace to the attention of something much older and more dangerous than any ghost in this electrifying and inventive debut.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

About Holly

HOLLY MESSINGER lives in a bohemian town in eastern Kansas, where she writes in coffee shops and sews costumes for a living. Her costumes have appeared at some of the world's biggest cosplay events, including Hulu's launch party for "The Awesomes" at San Diego Comic Con. She also appeared as a judge on the premiere season of SyFy's "Heroes of Cosplay." Holly's short fiction has appeared in Baen's Universe and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. The Curse of Jacob Tracy is her first novel.

Website  ~  Twitter @HollyMessinger  ~  Facebook

Interview with F. Wesley Schneider, author of Bloodbound

Please welcome F. Wesley Schneider to The Qwillery as part of the 2015 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. Bloodbound was published on December 1st by Tor Books.

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Wes:  I’ve been writing for a long time. My Mom says, as a kid, I used to tell her stories and insist that she write them down. So, I guess I’ve always enjoyed telling stories.

Professionally, though, I started writing in 2000, about the time the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons released. I’d been a D&D fan for years and had already targeted working on Dragon magazine (the monthly, D&D rules and news magazine) as my dream job. But the new edition of D&D debuted with a license that allowed other publishers to release their own game content, leading to a boom in small presses looking for D&D compatible content. Already used to creating detailed scripts for my personal games, I tried my hand at a few open calls. There were some projects for charity or exposure and a lot of rejections—all proving educational in their own ways—but eventually I started getting my work accepted and getting paid for it. When the first paycheck hit my mailbox, I realized I might actually be able to make my hobby into a career. I kept submitting, kept working, got better assignments with more established publishers—including Dragon magazine—and in 2003 landed an assistant editor position at Paizo Inc., then publishers of Dragon and Dungeon magazines.



TQ:  Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Wes:  Absolutely a plotter. The outlines for anything I write typically end up being pretty meaty and I certainly don’t leave them alone once I start writing. No battle plan survives engagement with the enemy, and as I get into the nuances of a story I often go back to the outline and add notes for things to pick up later or that I can kick back to past chapters.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Wes:  Overwriting. That sounds like the “I’m too honest” answer to an interview question, but it’s actually something I need to get better at. You sure can go on for a thousand words about the variety of statuary covering a cathedral’s facade, but if it doesn’t matter to the story, who cares? Sometimes I get what I think is a cool idea, indulge it a bit too far, and then in editing think: Why’d I waste my time with this? What does this actually do to further the plot? Does the lily need this much gilding? Bloodbound might have released a year earlier if I was a bit more economical in my writing. (This probably applies to interview question answering too!)

Fortunately, I take a pretty sharp hacksaw to my writing. Even better, I have amazing editors in James Sutter and Chris Carey—both fantastically talented authors themselves. They’re certainly not shy about trimming the fat. So in the final equation it works out.



TQ:  Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors?

Wes:  Nobody writes a fight scene like Robert E. Howard. At the same time, “Pigeons from Hell” remains one of the creepiest stories I’ve ever read. I love how he shifts from slow-build tension to fast-paced action, the stark contrast making both more effective. You also only need to look at Bloodbound’s cover to see the influence of Howard’s monster hunter, Solomon Kane.

I’m also a big fan of gothic horror in general, not just Howard’s southern gothic tales, but classics like Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black, and Le Fanu’s “Carmilla”—all three of which influenced bits of Bloodbound. Growing up in Baltimore, Poe’s also an inescapable force and I think he manipulates that whole city’s perception of what a writer is—he certainly did mine. And no one writes a vampire story without constantly comparing their fanged characters to Dracula, so Stoker’s work was certainly at hand during most of Bloodbound’s writing.



TQ:  Describe Bloodbound in 140 characters or less.

Wes:  If Van Helsing stopped pursing Dracula, how would a snubbed Dracula respond? And who would step in to stop him?



TQ:  Tell us something about Bloodbound that is not found in the book description.

Wes:  The majority of Bloodbound’s characters—and certainly all the true ass-kickers—are women and the only romantic relationship involves a queer vampire.



TQ:  What appeals to you about writing Fantasy?

Wes:  Fantasy writing’s a genie with infinite wishes—you want it, you got it. In Bloodbound, I wanted to play with a slew of gothic tropes, be they familiar menaces—vampires, ghosts, horrors from below, mind-controlled minions—or classic creepy settings—like insane asylums, ominous cathedrals, dilapidated manors, and opera houses. I got to use every single one of those, as well as many more. In other genres, you might be restricted to just a few for believability’s sake—and certainly, even here, you need to keep things plausible—but in fantasy, no one’s going to tell you no. If you can come up with a reason, anything goes.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Bloodbound?

Wes:  Bloodbound is set in a nation called Ustalav, which is part of the larger Pathfinder world. That world wasn’t created to tell just one story, but to host pretty much any fantasy tale you might want to tell in fiction, roleplaying games, whatever. As editor-in-chief at Paizo, I was one of the creators of that world, but Ustalav, our land of gothic terror, is easily my favorite part. I even wrote a game accessory called Rule of Fear entirely about the country. But all of this work on Ustalav and the Pathfinder world has happened over nearly a decade. So I still had to go back and read a ton of world lore to make sure Bloodbound meshed with existing work. It can be daunting working in such a thoroughly detailed setting, but that’s also how you find stray gems just waiting to be picked up and turned into stories of their own.

Beyond that, my sister-in-law, Aimie Schneider, is a nurse who was good enough to talk me through some of how a vampire’s body might respond to drug injections. I wanted to know if having, essentially, an undead heroin addict could be a thing. Her advice was fantastically helpful in leading me away from ideas that it just didn’t seem like the real biology or medicine supported.

So I’d add that as a caveat to what I said before. In fantasy, anything goes—but real things still have to work like real things. Even in fantasy, you still have to check your science.



TQ:  Who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Wes:  Considine, a vampire cast out from undead society, was by far the easiest. He’s a character who hates his situation, but he distracts himself with a parade of fine things and attractive company—not to mention, spying on his “sister” Larsa. Considine’s spoiled and likes it that way. He’s effete and self-interested, cynical and easily bored. He’s a vampire playboy, but knows he’s stranded on a cultural desert island, and that no matter how many dodos he dresses up as butlers, he’s not really lord of the house. I love writing Considine, not just because he’s got the best sarcastic banter, but because he’s got the most potential to turn from a spoiled brat into an antihero. There’s also more than a measure of self-indulgence in writing a self-indulgent character, because you can write the first thing that comes to mind—filters are for people who care about who’s listening. And if you can come back later and make a comment even snarkier, so much the better!

For hardest, that’s two main characters, Larsa and Jadain, have that honor. That might seem strange since they’re so prominent. Larsa’s a hard-bitten, straight to the point, half-vampire vampire hunter. Jadain’s a priestess sworn to the goddess of birth and death, who tries to see the good in people. They’re very different characters, but they’re both determined and willing to do anything for certain causes. The chapters switch back and forth between their perspectives, giving us Larsa’s point of view in one then Jadain’s in the next. So I’m particular about making sure that they both have distinct voices, especially when they’re both in more action-oriented chapters where they have to be direct. Jadain’s usually the one that gets trickiest. While Larsa’s usually sharp, even in tense situations I need to make sure that Jadain’s humanity and optimism comes through, or else she starts to sound like Larsa. It wasn’t a balancing act I expected going in, but it made an interesting challenge.



TQ:  Which question about Bloodbound do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Wes:  Pathfinder fiction and game material has a reputation for featuring characters of diverse genders, ethnicities, sexualities, etcetera. Does Bloodbound continue this trend?

Certainly! Bloodbound’s two main protagonists are both women, as are two of the story’s deadliest antagonists. A swordsman from the Egypt-inspired land of Osirian joins them, regularly offering a critical perspective on the Transylvania-esque lands of Ustalav. Aside from the immortal characters, there’s also a hero in her seventies who proves she’s not too old to head into a fray. Considine too is openly queer, though I’m not ready to pin him down as gay, bi, or otherwise quite yet. But writing Bloodbound was a long process and already I’m looking back at things with an eye toward what I might have done differently. I’m going to be keenly interested in hearing readers’ criticism about what I got right, what I got wrong, and how I can make the next story even better.

Also, being a guy who’s married to a guy, I know I started writing concerned about making the story somehow “too queer.” I’m not entirely sure why—probably something between personal insecurity and not wanting to scare off fantasy readers coming to my stuff for the first time. That’s not to say the queer elements are subtle in Bloodbound—there’s one particular relationship between two guys that is plainly there, but it’s a tertiary plot. I feel like I’m over my beginner’s anxiety now, though. If I get to play with these characters again, I’ve laid the seeds to make their relationship much more of a central feature.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery lines from Bloodbound.

Wes:  

I pressed his arm against the wall and drank fast, draining him like I was throwing down a shot. I didn’t like sharing from the same flask as my quarry, but if the evening was taking the turn I feared, I wouldn’t have another chance.

Anyway, he deserved it.



TQ:  What's next?

Wes:  Well, next week I’m a guest of honor at GaymerX, where I’ll be talking a lot about the intersections between queerness and gaming of all types. It’s an amazing show and I couldn’t be more honored to be speaking. If you love gaming and you’re going to be in the San Jose area next week, we’d love to have you stop by. Everyone’s welcome!

Writing-wise, I swing between gaming and fiction pretty readily. I’ve got a massive adventure called “The Hellfire Compact” kicking off Pathfinder’s new Hell’s Vengeance Adventure Path in February. A few months later, I’ve got a story, “Stray Thoughts,” in the Eclipse Phase: After the Fall anthology. It’s a detective story involving a private eye mom, her sex worker son, and high-tech possession on an aerostat over Venus. It sounds bizarre—and I guess it is—but it turned out to be one of the more emotion rich stories I’ve ever written, so I’m interested in hearing what folks think.

Beyond that, I’m already starting to feel the fiction bug again, so who knows where that might lead!



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Bloodbound
Pathfinder Tales 30
Tor Books, December 1, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 480 pages

Larsa is a dhampir-half vampire, half human. In the gritty streets and haunted moors of gothic Ustalav, she's an agent for the royal spymaster, keeping peace between the capital's secret vampire population and its huddled human masses. Yet when a noblewoman's entire house is massacred by vampiric invaders, Larsa is drawn into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse that will reveal far more about her own heritage than she ever wanted to know.

From Pathfinder co-creator and noted game designer F. Wesley Schneider comes Bloodbound, a dark fantasy adventure of murder, intrigue, and secrets best left buried, set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Role Playing Game.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

About Wes

Editor-in-chief at Paizo Inc. and co-creator of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, F. Wesley Schneider is the author of dozens of Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons adventures and accessories. Aside from having passionate opinions about horror, world-building, and storytelling, he’s spoken at length on inclusively and LGBTQ topics in gaming. His novel, Bloodbound, releases in December, while his next major roleplaying offerings, The Hellfire Compact and In Search of Sanity, debut in 2016.

Wes lives outside Seattle with his husband and a particularly unlucky black cat.

Website  ~  Facebook  ~ Twitter @FWesSchneider  ~ YouTube  ~  Instagram

Interview with Michael Livingston, author of The Shards of Heaven

Please welcome Michael Livingston to The Qwillery as part of the 2015 Debut Author Challenge Interviews and The Shards of Heaven Blog Tour. The Shards of Heaven will be published on November 24th by Tor Books.

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Michael:  Hi there! Thanks for having me.

I started writing stories as a kid, and the encouragement of my teachers really helped me to aspire to the craft. In fact, I started down the path to becoming a professor in part because I thought it would leave me with blissfully free summers in which I could write novels. Little did I know that I would need to be writing academic books, too!



TQ:  Are you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?

Michael:  The Shards of Heaven features a rather intricate series of plots and point of view characters, and it's situated amid the real events of history -- all of which means that at some level I need to be a plotter. The history has to work.

At the same time, my outline is actually nothing more than a simple spreadsheet that describes the events of each chapter in one or two sentences. So I afford myself as much room as possible within that script to let my characters take over.

I guess that makes me a hybrid.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Michael:  As a professor I have a fairly busy life of teaching, grading, and doing research and writing on the academic side of my life. So finding the time to get into the mindset of my fiction is by far the most difficult thing for me. I've had to learn to keep the Muse on speed-dial, ready and waiting for any chance I get to steal an hour of time here or there to write.



TQ:  Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors?

Michael:  My tastes in literature are really quite diverse, from medieval writers like Chaucer to modern writers like Brandon Sanderson. On my shelf you'll find J.R.R. Tolkien next to Tennyson, Dan Simmons next to Shakespeare, and Parke Godwin next to Gilgamesh. I try to learn something from every author I've read.



TQ:  Describe The Shards of Heaven in 140 characters or less.

Michael:  It is history and fantasy colliding at the rise of the Roman Empire as Caesar's children fight to control the artifacts of gods old and new.



TQ:  Tell us something about The Shards of Heaven that is not found in the book description.

Michael:  At its core, this novel is about fashioning a reality from the fog of mythology. I have long been fascinated by the similarities between various legends of the ancient world, and so I tried to find a hidden thread that would bind them all together into a historical adventure that's part Indiana Jones and part Game of Thrones.

As an added bonus, if you liked Pullo and Vorenus from the HBO series 'Rome', I'm pleased to say that they ride again in this book.



TQ:  What inspired you to write The Shards of Heaven? What appeals to you about writing Historical Fantasy?

Michael:  The Shards of Heaven is actually the backstory for another Historical Fantasy I started writing years ago. It grew so intricate and interesting that I realized it simply needed to be told on its own merit.

As for my interest in Historical Fantasy, it really stems from my interest in both worlds: I was trained as a historian, but I've always loved the fantastic. Like J.R.R. Tolkien, another professor of medieval literature who wrote his fantasies in his spare time, I have simply grown fascinated with the holes in our knowledge about the past, and the exciting tapestries we can weave through them.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for The Shards of Heaven?

Michael:  Given the strong historical element, I write with stacks of research at hand: whether that constitutes the tactics of a battle, the archaeological remains of a temple, or the technological workings of ancient armor, I need to know everything I can about my topic. My hope is that this knowledge base doesn't overwhelm the story but instead quietly percolates under its surface, making it all the more real.

Plus, I think it will lead to some surprises when those who know the history come across the various Easter eggs I've slipped into the narrative.



TQ:  Who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Michael:  The easiest point-of-view character for me was Didymus, the chief librarian of the Great Library in Alexandria. He's a polymath, and while I wouldn't call myself that I do recognize the thirst he has for knowledge. He needs to know, and that need runs so deep it can be all-consuming. For better or worse, I never had any problem facing the question of what someone like that would do or say.

Far more difficult for me at the beginning was the daughter of Cleopatra and Mark Antony, Cleopatra Selene. She's a headstrong little girl in the novel -- something I have no experience being! -- but historically she grows up to become one of the most remarkable rulers of her age. It was hard to get that balance right at first, but as I'm writing her in the sequels I'm finding she's one of my favorite characters to engage. I hope readers will adore her as much as I do.



TQ:  Please tell us a bit about the historical Juba II on which your character is based.

Michael:  Juba II, like Cleopatra Selene, is an amazing historical figure who should be far better known. His father, the king of Numidia, fought against Julius Caesar and ultimately chose suicide over being paraded through Rome in Caesar's Triumph. Young Juba was taken into Caesar's household as an adopted son -- an act intended to demonstrate his mercy. Add into this potent background his ethnic separation from the Romans surrounding him and the passionate intellectualism that ruled his life, and you could hardly ask for a more fascinating figure to build a story around.

For more about what he does, and the power he learns to wield, read the book!



TQ:  Which question about The Shards of Heaven do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Michael:

Q: In your book, several of your characters decide that God is dead. Do you anticipate any hate mail from that?

A: I don't think that's a terribly shocking thing for my characters to conclude, but if it does bother anyone, I hope they don't write me about it. I hope instead they purchase boxes and boxes of my books and burn them. On live TV. You simply can't buy that kind of publicity.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery lines from The Shards of Heaven.

Michael:  My favorite passage is this:

Like a sudden exhalation, matched with an echoing boom that reverberated in Vorenus' chest, the rain came back against them, stinging like a thousand tiny arrows.

And behind the rain came the roar of an angry god.



TQ:  What's next?

Michael:  I'm polishing off The Temples of the Ark right now, which is the sequel to The Shards of Heaven. It is scheduled for release in November of 2016. The adventure of the Shards, I'm happy to say, is just getting started!



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Michael:  Thank you for having me. Happy reading, everyone!

The Shards of Heaven
The Shards of Heaven 1
Tor Books, November 24, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 416 pages

Julius Caesar is dead, assassinated on the senate floor, and the glory that is Rome has been torn in two. Octavian, Caesar's ambitious great-nephew and adopted son, vies with Marc Antony and Cleopatra for control of Caesar's legacy. As civil war rages from Rome to Alexandria, and vast armies and navies battle for supremacy, a secret conflict may shape the course of history.

Juba, Numidian prince and adopted brother of Octavian, has embarked on a ruthless quest for the Shards of Heaven, lost treasures said to possess the very power of the gods-or the one God. Driven by vengeance, Juba has already attained the fabled Trident of Poseidon, which may also be the staff once wielded by Moses. Now he will stop at nothing to obtain the other Shards, even if it means burning the entire world to the ground.

Caught up in these cataclysmic events, and the hunt for the Shards, are a pair of exiled Roman legionnaires, a Greek librarian of uncertain loyalties, assassins, spies, slaves . . . and the ten-year-old daughter of Cleopatra herself.

Michael Livingston's The Shards of Heaven reveals the hidden magic behind the history we know, and commences a war greater than any mere mortal battle.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

About Michael

MICHAEL LIVINGSTON holds degrees in history, medieval studies, and English. He is an Associate Professor of English at the Citadel, specializing in the Middle Ages. His short fiction has been published in Black Gate, Shimmer, Paradox, and Nature.










MichaelLivingston.com  ~   Twitter @MedievalGuy
Goodreads

Interview with Michelle Hauck, author of Grudging

Please welcome Michelle Hauck to The Qwillery as part of the 2015 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. Grudging is published in digital format on November 17th by Harper Voyager Impulse. On December 22nd, the Mass Market Paperback of Grudging will be published. Please join The Qwillery in wishing Michelle a Happy Digital Publication Day!

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Michelle:  Hi! Thanks for having me on The Qwillery! I started writing about five years ago after a semi-serious illness. Once that health problem healed, it’s like my life and imagination came flooding back that had been missing for years. All of a sudden I had all these ideas. My husband said why not write them down (not that he imagined it would ever get this far), and I spent the next years learning how to do that. I think for writers you are always learning more.



TQ:  Are you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?

Michelle:  If you’re talking never write anything down beforehand and never making any outline, then I’m a complete pantser. I do, however, have very basic plot structures in my head, sort of like a midway point direction I’m aiming to reach with the story. I almost never have any ending in mind and rarely much besides a basic concept. The rest all evolves as I go along. I’m often surprised by characters who were supposed to be tiny instead taking on a life of their own and getting their own perspective. It’s also neat when a small detail you included on a whim can become a plot point down the road.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Michelle:  I write very slowly. I often hear of writers churning out a book in a few months and feel some envy. I wish I could be speedy and finish a book faster. It takes the better part of a year, probably because I conceptualize as I go. Though, I have to say what I end up with is usually very close to the finished draft. Taking so long does mean that it’s not a rough draft, but a fairly polished one, which saves a lot on time in the editing process.



TQ:  You've written YA Epic Fantasy. What are the differences for you in writing adult versus YA Epic Fantasy?

Michelle:  Tone and voice are a big part of the difference. Also, the audience you have in mind as you write. Adult characters have a lot less to do with the story in a YA. That was my goal with Grudging. Unfortunately, pantser. The adult characters in Grudging took on a life of their own and my YA ending up selling to an adult publisher in Harper Voyager. So there’s a lot for both age categories in Grudging. You have the main characters being teens, but several perspectives from adult characters with adult voices.



TQ:  Describe Grudging in 140 characters or less.

Michelle:  I’m a big fan of twitter. Lemme see?

Enormous army. Desperate city. Father sends his sons for help from traditional enemy. Will the witches' voice magic save or destroy? #honor



TQ:  Tell us something about Grudging that is not found in the book description.

Michelle:  There’s so much about this book that isn’t in the description. Despite the dark tone and themes, the characters have a real playful side. They kept breaking out into jokes and banter, and I couldn’t seem to stop them. I guess that’s how you know you’re really feeling the characters—when they do as they please.

In many ways the story is about a family and honor. Julian, the father, is the mayor. He sends his sons, Salvador and Ramiro, to find a witch to save the city. Most of the scenes involve at least one member of this family.

In this society I created, becoming a “man” is important and it takes the form of earning your beard. So the way they wear their beards is a way to express personality, much like today with tattoos. Watch for that and it will tell you more about the characters.

And there is a whole side plot about loyalty involving some pretty special horses.



TQ:  What inspired you to write Grudging? What appeals to you about writing Fantasy?

Michelle:  The truth is I had finished a project and needed a new idea and found it in a song: “Come Along” by Vicci Martinez and Cee-Lo Green. Most of the main plot ideas come from lines in that song. Friends, foes, God only knows, led to the title, Grudging, and the main theme of uncertainty between traditional enemies. Trespassing, this is their land is the arrival of the Northern army. Truthfully, that’s the first time I ever used a song for inspiration.

Fantasy has always been my obsession. It’s the only thing I will ever write, I think. I love the freedom to explore so much because any situation you can dream up, you can do in fantasy. This genre just gives you so much room to explore and create and build not only characters, but whole worlds and societies. And you don’t have to have just one. Grudging has multiple societies and explores the way that those clash.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Grudging?

Michelle:  The main society in Grudging is based on Spain. I did a lot of online research on medieval Spain: what they ate, what their houses might look like, the sort of names they might use. I also studied much more about early saints in the Catholic Church and based most of the details on real saints. I looked at pictures of armor.

But I also visited the desert in Tucson to get the setting and see the real plants and animals that live in that environment. There’s nothing like feeling the weather firsthand. ☺ I went to a Mission-built cathedral in Arizona and used that for my description of the church in Grudging. So some parts of the world in Grudging is built on reality, but most of it came from my imagination. It’s great you can do that in a fantasy world.



TQ:  Who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Michelle:  They were all easy at times and incredibly stubborn at others. I think it depended on the day. But my easiest and hardest characters to write turned out to be secondary characters. There’s a priest called Father Telo who started as a detail and grew to an important role and his own point of view—totally unplanned. He could be hard to write because I had to research his words more as he was a priest. How would a priest react to this? What sort of platitudes would he say? That’s pretty far out of my comfort zone.

Ramiro’s mother Beatriz was very fun to write and probably the easiest, because she just said things. She blurted out truths. They say there’s a little of the author in every character and that’s so true. Beatriz is a little flaky, yet so full of heart. I think readers will be drawn to her perhaps most.



TQ:  Which question about Grudging do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Michelle:  You mean besides where can I buy it and how soon will it be a major motion picture? Hmm. Tough one.

Part of the story takes place in the desert and the other part in a swamp. A character has a close encounter with quicksand. Did you ever experience quicksand for yourself?

Why no. I can’t say as I did that research first hand. That came from watching the process on tv and staying well away.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery lines from Grudging.

Michelle:  How about two quotes from the mothers of the main characters.

Beatriz the hero’s mother says this: “But what does one pack to venture into a swamp and meet with a witch?” I think that’s a question we all should ask when we get up in the morning.

On the other side of the equation, we should hear from the mother of a witch. “Everything in nature is given for a purpose. The wolf doesn’t kill for sport. The blackbird doesn’t fly for show. We don’t use magic except to defend.” Keep that in mind when you suddenly find you have the ability to use magic.



TQ:  What's next?

Michelle:  What’s next for a few years will be writing the rest of the Birth of Saints trilogy. The second is tentatively titled Faithful. Of course things get considerably worse for the characters. The description of what makes an enemy will get skewed and a little fuzzy. There might be some romance. Out of the chaos, a saint will be born to save them all. Or perhaps destroy, because pantser. ☺



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Michelle:  Thank you for inviting me! That was a lot of fun answering questions and being able to ramble on about my favorite subject—myself writing.

Grudging
Birth of Saints 1
Harper Voyager Impulse, November 17, 2015
eBook, 432 pages
Mass Market Paperback, December 22, 2015

A world of chivalry and witchcraft…and the invaders who would destroy everything.

The North has invaded, bringing a cruel religion and no mercy. The ciudades-estados who have stood in their way have been razed to nothing, and now the horde is before the gates of Colina Hermosa…demanding blood.

On a mission of desperation, a small group escapes the besieged city in search of the one thing that might stem the tide of Northerners: the witches of the southern swamps.

The Women of the Song.

But when tragedy strikes their negotiations, all that is left is a single untried knight and a witch who has never given voice to her power.  And time is running out.

A lyrical tale of honor and magic, Grudging is the opening salvo in the Book of Saints trilogy.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million
Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

About Michelle

Michelle Hauck lives in the bustling metropolis of northern Indiana with her hubby and two teenagers. Besides working with special needs children by day, she writes all sorts of fantasy, giving her imagination free range. A book worm, she passes up the darker vices in favor of chocolate and looks for any excuse to reward herself. Bio finished? Time for a sweet snack.

She is a co-host of the yearly the writer contests Query Kombat, Nightmare on Query Street, New Agent, PitchSlam, and Sun versus Snow. Her Birth of Saints Series from Harper Voyager starts with GRUDGING on November 17, 2015. Her epic fantasy, KINDAR’S CURE, was published by Divertir Publishing. Her short story, Frost and Fog, was published by The Elephant's Bookshelf Press in their anthology, Summer's Double Edge. Elephant’s Bookshelf Press also published another of her short stories, The Unfinished Task, in their winter anthology, Winter’s Regret. She’s represented by Sarah Negovetich of Corvisiero Literary.

Twitter: @Michelle4Laughs
Blog: Michelle4Laughs: It’s in the Details
Facebook: Michelle Hauck, Author
Goodreads: Grudging
Goodreads: Kindar’s Cure
Tumblr: Michelle4Laughs

Interview with Patrick S. Tomlinson, author of The Ark

Please welcome Patrick S. Tomlinson to The Qwillery as part of the 2015 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. The Ark was published on November 3rd by Angry Robot Books.

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Patrick:  I wish to say upfront that I’m only answering these questions because unnamed persons at The Qwillery are holding my dachshund hostage. I started writing in 2009 when I was horrified to discover just how much time each day I was spending not being rich and famous.



TQ:  Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Patrick:  We really need another word for a writer who doesn’t use an outline. “Pantser” sounds just a little too indecent exposure-y. Anyway, I started out writing on instinct, but as I’ve come along, an outline has become an increasingly important tool for me. A good outline gives me direction, lets me spot problems in the plot before they force a big rewrite, and drastically increases my daily word count. But at the same time, I’m not a slave to them. Typically, my outlines run about ten chapters ahead of wherever I’m at in the WIP at any given time. Fewer than that and I pause to push it out a few more chapters to keep the story on course. THE ARK is the first book I wrote this way, and I finished the rough draft in six months, which was months faster than the other two novel length works I’d completed previously.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Patrick:  Watching the success of my friends and colleagues. Gods, how I loathe them.



TQ:  Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors?

Patrick:  It’s a long list. Douglas Adams is why I started writing. My first novel began life as Hitchhiker’s Guide fanfic, because I was so upset over how the last book ended that I sat down to write a sixth. That one has since been massively rewritten and is now in the hands of my agent. Additionally, the satirical brilliance of Terry Pratchett has provided a nice warm little home for my sense of humor for many years. I can’t stop reading David Weber’s Honorverse books for military sci-fi. I think that Walter John Williams’ Praxis trilogy is the best space opera written in the last twenty years, with apologies to Ann Leckie’s excellent Ancillary cycle. Ramez Naam’s Nexus trilogy has been hugely impactful on the way I think about near-term futurism. I’m also a big fan of John Scalzi’s breezy character building and his plot pacing. I eat those books up.



TQ:  Describe The Ark in 140 characters or less.

Patrick:  THE ARK is a murder mystery set on a generation ship one month from reaching its destination. A “Sealed Airlock” thriller, to coin a phrase.



TQ:  Tell us something about The Ark that is not found in the book description.

Patrick:  The people living onboard are part of the most invasive and controlling surveillance state ever conceived. Their every movement is logged and tracked. Everything they consume and recycle is relentlessly monitored. Yet inside the modules, they are self-governing. The surveillance state exists with their full knowledge and consent, and is generally viewed as critical for both survival and basic fairness. Which, in a very real sense inside the delicate balance of an artificial environment, it is.



TQ:  What inspired you to write The Ark?  What appeals to you about writing Science Fiction?

Patrick:  I’ve always been fascinated by the idea and the promise of generation ships. Realistically, if we’re going to send actual meat-bag humans to other star systems, generation ships are how we’ll do it. I was watching a show on Discovery channel, (I’m pretty sure) about all the hurdles to building one. But then I started thinking about what could motivate mankind to actually do it. Then what happens during the trip to change the nature of the society aboard. Then what happened on the other side. A story emerged quickly after that. Then I started making doodles of what the ship would look like and it was all over.

Science Fiction holds a special appeal for me because it requires so many different disciplines of story-telling. Not only do you have to create believable characters, but the entire world and society that they inhabit. And unlike pure fantasy, it has to have a level of internal consistency and scientific plausibility, which requires a whole other base of knowledge. Writing sci-fi forces us to walk on this weird tightrope of imaginative freedom and scientific constrictions. It’s fun finding the balance and trying to do it with narrative flare.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for The Ark?

Patrick:  All kinds. From a plausible propulsion system based on existing technology, to acreage requirements for food production, to a safe number of people to ensure genetic diversity. The size and design of the Ark itself was entirely driven by the scientific requirements of moving fifty-thousand people twelve lightyears. The story and characters were then placed inside that artificial environment and allowed to develop organically.



TQ:  Who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Patrick:  There’s one character in particular, the museum curator, Devorah Feynman. She’s this tiny old lady, but is an absolute holy terror with a one-track mind and a sharp wit. I loved writing her. She’s just the star of every scene she’s in.

The hardest was definitely the main character’s love interest, Theresa Alexopoulos. I had real trouble trying to balance her role as Bryan Benson’s secret girlfriend and subordinate, while making her the strong and independent character I’d envisioned her to be. However, she’s promoted to a POV character in the next book in the series, TRIDENT’S FORGE, and I feel like she gets the attention and development there she deserves.



TQ:  Which question about The Ark do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Patrick:

Q) Could we really make a giant starship that moves by pooping out atomic bombs?

A) Yes! We really could! Indeed, the idea has existed since the 1950’s. A variety of different organizations pursued the technology under the label Project Orion, including the U.S. Air Force, NASA, and even the British. We even built a technology demonstrator that used conventional explosives. You can find the clip on YouTube. We only abandoned the concept as a result of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which was some hippie crap about not detonating thermonuclear weapons in the atmosphere. Boo, hippies, boooooo!

Indeed, the reason the Ark was designed as a Project Orion ship is because it’s the only proposal to facilitate interstellar travel we have that could realistically be scaled up with existing or near term technology. Since the disaster that convinces humankind to build the ship is discovered less than a hundred years from now, I didn’t want it using some far-future tech like an Alcubierre drive that might be possible someday. I wanted something that, if our backs were against the wall, we could start building today. And we have all these nukes lying around not doing anything…



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery lines/paragraph from The Ark.

Patrick:  [Bryan Benson and curator Devorah Feynman viewing the gun that killed Arch Duke Ferdinand in Sarajevo]

“Is it dangerous?”
“Are you kidding? The last time some idiot got his hands on it, sixteen million people died. Then they did it all over again a couple decades later and thirty million people died. This gun shaped world affairs for an entire century.”
“Can I hold it?”
“Don’t press your luck, detective.”



TQ:  What's next?

Patrick:  Well, next up immediately is another round of rewrites for the second book in the series, TRIDENT’S FORGE. It’s a very different book from THE ARK, less murder mystery and more action- adventure with some frontier survival thrown in for good measure. I’m already happy with it, but there are some spots that need to be fleshed out so readers have an easier time accessing what was in my head while it was being written.

But after that, the real fun starts. In addition to writing sci-fi full time, I’m also busy developing my career as a stand-up comedian. The very first novel I wrote, which I mentioned earlier, was a sci-fi comedy in the tradition of Adams and Pratchett. I’ve just finished rewriting it after four years away and have submitted it to my agent. If that thing gets the green light, look out. I’ve got synopses ready for the next five books in that series.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Patrick:  Whatever. I did your damned interview. Now give me back my dog, you monsters.



Note from unnamed persons at The Qwillery: No dog or author was harmed in the making of this interview though it was touch and go about the author for a while.

The Ark
Children of the Dead Earth 1
Angry Robot, November 3, 2015
     (North American Print and eBook)
November 5, 2015 (UK print)
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 400 pages

Humankind has escaped a dying Earth and set out to find a new home among the stars aboard an immense generation spaceship, affectionately named the Ark. Bryan Benson is the Ark’s greatest living sports hero, enjoying retirement working as a detective in Avalon, his home module. The hours are good, the work is easy, and the perks can’t be beat.

But when a crew member goes missing, Benson is thrust into the centre of an ever-expanding web of deception, secrets, and violence that overturns everything he knows about living on the Ark and threatens everyone aboard. As the last remnants of humanity hurtle towards their salvation, Benson finds himself in a desperate race to unravel the conspiracy before a madman turns mankind’s home into its tomb.

File Under: Science Fiction [ Last Gun in the Universe / We’re Not Alone / Poison and Nukes / Race to the End ]

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : Kobo

About Patrick

Patrick S. Tomlinson is the son of an ex-hippie psychologist and an ex-cowboy electrician. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with a menagerie of houseplants in varying levels of health, a Ford Mustang, and a Triumph motorcycle bought specifically to embarrass and infuriate Harley riders.


When not writing sci-fi and fantasy novels and short stories, Patrick is busy developing his other passion for performing stand-up comedy.


You can find Patrick online at his website: www.patrickstomlinson.com, on Twitter @stealthygeek and on Facebook.