Interview With Author Andrew Platten
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a cheese-loving extrovert—the “likes pubs and crowds” sort, not the “leading the karaoke” type—who’s busy all day, curious, and easily absorbed in my own research. I’m passionate about flying (though I’ve hung up my pilot’s headset), a view junkie, and I inhale podcasts and articles on the social sciences, and more recently, history. I’ve published a book and a novella, with another book and novella ready to go this spring.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Chains of Fear and Fury will launch in March 2025, completing the Weavers of Destiny duology—at least for now. I’ve started a new project (see below). The inspiration came from falling in love with the characters and world of Strands of Time and Magic and wanting to take them out for one last spin before putting them away. I enjoy setting myself a new challenge with each book or novella, and for Chains, I wanted to create multiple interconnected story arcs that weave together and drive the ending (à la Game of Thrones).
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I wish I could say I wear a jaunty hat or sit in my boxers, but I’m pretty boring, I’m afraid. I have to write in the morning (my brain gives out around lunchtime), and although I plan out the book well before starting, I have no control over my characters—they run amok with the plot. Strands was originally designed as a tale about a time weaver trying to prevent a temporal disaster. Levi is still in there, but he became almost a cameo because Brylee got her elbows out.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I try to write what I love to read. The Name of the Wind, The Way of Kings, Game of Thrones, and The Farseer Trilogy capture me with their complex plots, deep characters, and hard magic systems. If it feeds your spirit, feast well, I say.
What are you working on now?
I’ve just started a new trilogy, and the characters are already misbehaving. The plan is a Sanderson meets Bernard Cornwell mashup—definitely epic fantasy and sword and sorcery, so it should appeal to my Weavers readers—but structured around events in Henry VIII’s era. Life is often crazier than fiction, and the antics these nobles got up to rival anything Game of Thrones can throw at us. If Tara (Taranu’r Anian Glyn) doesn’t take over, I’ll retain the real historical events but replace the motivations behind them with the needs of a magical war unfolding beneath King Henry’s nose.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I am new to Awesome Gang but have heard great things about you from other authors. To date, Facebook ads have been the most successful for Strands of Time and Magic.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Yes—don’t do it, I don’t need the competition.
Seriously though, treat it as a skill, which means putting in the hard work to learn it. But play to your best learning style. I’m a self-driven researcher who does best when left alone to follow my nose wherever it takes me. Put me in a classroom with a lesson plan, and I’ll fail.
Find reliable alpha and beta readers. Get at least one other person to edit your book (I’m lucky enough to afford two professionals, and there are still errors aplenty). We all have blind spots.
Celebrate your achievements, including those four- and five-star ratings and the readers who rave about your work. The one-stars will come, and you’ll need the balance.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Kill all your darlings” is a favourite, but it should really be “be prepared to kill all your darlings.”
Not Game of Thrones style, though. I do get attached to things that are interesting in themselves but bog down the story. I’m getting better at cutting them, although sometimes I hide them elsewhere when my wife—my self-named biggest cheerleader and harshest critic—convinces me they aren’t helping.
What are you reading now?
I’m reading Julie Strong’s The Tudor Prophecy. Another habit of mine is to immerse myself in books similar to what I’m trying to write. It’s very well written, and I’d certainly recommend it to readers who like (Julie’s own description) Game of Thrones meets Little Women. I’m only getting started, and it’s been more of the latter and less of the former so far—but there’s time for that to change.
I already know my trilogy will have quite a different tone, but it helps to have a sense of what life was like back then. The Other Boleyn Girl is up next, which might be closer, though it lacks the fantasy elements. I haven’t seen anything quite like what I’m trying to create.
Have I discovered a wonderful niche, or is there a gap here for a reason? The wonders of being an indie author.
What’s next for you as a writer?
As I’ve alluded to, I’m working on wrapping my equivalent of FitzChivalry Farseer’s flesh around Tom Builder’s skeleton.
Can I make a convincing story out of 15-year-old Arthur Tudor dying from a curse laid by the Poets of Ireland, rather than the sweating sickness that was most likely the real cause of his tragic passing?
I’ve still got room on my street team if being a beta reader for such a mashup sounds like jam for your toast.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
In addition to Kvothe, Kaladin, and the gang listed above, I’d look for a non-fiction work entitled something like: “How to Live Off the Land in Luxury, and Build Escape Boats Faster Than Robinson Crusoe.”
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