Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a transplant Seattleite and already a Pacific Northwest stereotype; I often spend weekends holed up in coffee shops writing, I eat organic/local/sustainable as much as I can, my day gets better when the mountain is out, and I don’t own an umbrella. I’m also a teacher at a local college (writing, of course), and a perpetual grad student. When I’m not doing that, I like video games and photography.
I was born in San Diego but brought up in the Arkansas Ozarks. I spent most of my early writing “practice career” trying to ignore that fact, but eventually I decided to go ahead and use it to my advantage. I normally don’t buy into the whole “write what you know” thing (because goodness knows I’ve written about a million things I haven’t experienced), but this series of books I’ve been working on are grounded in the people and things I grew up around, for better and for worse.
My first attempts at writing novels came when I was around eleven, and since then, I’m positive I passed that “million word” threshold after which you’re supposed to be able to write publishable work when I was about 20. Yeah, that’s a myth. I finally got confident enough to release a book from my clutches a few years ago, and I published my first novel in 2012. My second is in the editing stages and will hopefully come out early next year, and the third one is in its infancy. All told, I’ve probably gotten at least to the middle of 15ish books, and I’ve finished maybe five of them. Is that a lot? I don’t know. The books have ranged from a Redwall knockoff (my first book) to historical fantasy to high fantasy to what I write now, which is contemporary fantasy with a twist (or five).
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The book I just finished is called The Lost Are Like This, which is a sequel to my first one, The Wicked Instead. The series is written in conjunction with Tiger Gray’s No Deadly Thing. Eventually the two series will merge into a co-written series.
My half of the series follows two brothers from the Ozarks, Cary and Lindsay, who were raised in a religious cult compound. They escape after Cary is paralyzed in a hunting accident. Later, they come to realize they’re descended from a line of very powerful magic users called táltosk. They have the ability to travel along the World Tree, on which rests innumerable different worlds. The World Tree is in danger of becoming corrupted. Its collapse would destroy every sentient world, and Cary and Lindsay are told that they’re princes, descended from a line of extraordinarily powerful táltosk, who are supposed to be the ones who have to heal the Tree. The first book is about the brothers’ fight to break away from their old life, which continues to haunt them, and begin learning about their new one as táltosk.
They start to learn they can’t trust just anybody, but they have to trust themselves, something they’ve never been taught to do. They get magical horses and cool powers, but it’s really about that journey.
The second book picks up where the first leaves off. Cary and Lindsay have begun their new life, and now they have to take charge of it. They’re suddenly saddled with all of these new powers and responsibilities, but dealing with that isn’t easy, especially when things keep crumbling around them. Where they had to learn to trust themselves in the first book, now they have to figure out how to trust other people, searching out allies in their fight against their enemy, who is a familiar face from the first book. Their enemy stole something that’s of vital importance to the World Tree; Cary and Lindsay have to figure out how to get it back even as their own world is in danger of falling apart.
What inspired the series in general is my long-time love of mythology coupled with my wish to write from the perspective of someone who is exasperated by but affectionate in a way toward Ozarks culture. I wanted to write about the kinds of people I know.
Other inspirations were many and varied. I have Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials to thank for planting thoughts about religion, mythology, and multiple worlds in my mind, Avatar for making me pleased/frustrated enough to write a disabled character, a band who will remain nameless for inspiring me to write about a pair of brothers, and the media kerfuffle about the Westburo Baptist Church and other cults for giving me inspiration for my villains.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know if it’s that unusual, but I have a weird combination of paper organization and digital writing. I tend to do most of my outlining and background developing on paper, because something about the physical act of writing makes my brain work in a different way (that’s scientifically proven, yo). I’m a little neurotic about how my world building is organized: on graph paper, using different colors of pens.
When I’m stuck or struggling with a scene, I’ll write it longhand, though I also use my iPad and Google Docs to write when my mind is working fast enough.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
When I was growing up, I read lots of animal books: every Redwall book I could get my hands on, The Wild Road by Gabriel King, Watership Down, and the Clan of the Cave Bear series. (Yeah, I thought they were animal books. I was wrong.) Books like the Dragons series by Patricia Wrede and the Chronicles of Prydain were my main exposures to epic fantasy. I’d say they’re sort of atypical epic fantasy in some ways, and I’m sure they led me to write atypical fantasy.
Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel/Naamah series and Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials are my favorites, and I kind of want to be them when I grow up. Garth Nix’s Abhorsen series also had a pretty heavy influence on me. But there are other books that have influenced me, too. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is my absolute favorite book. A lot of my style as well as my desire to take a nuanced, in-depth look at a family or a tight-knit group of people comes from that book.
What are you working on now?
The Lost Are Like This is on my editor’s desk, so I got right to work on the next book. It’s not a direct sequel; it follows one of the secondary characters from The Lost Are Like This in an earlier part of his life, between 1998 and 2000. He’s a different kind of guy than Cary and Lindsay, much more worldly and educated, and more experienced with magic as well. I’m also writing a novel in first person for the first time in many years, which is a challenge. I normally struggle a lot with it, but this character, Adam, has grown to have a pretty strong voice, so hopefully that will smooth the way somewhat.
I’m doing NaNo for the new book, and you can find me at nanowrimo.org as Avery Teoda. Hopefully I’ll keep up and post excerpts there.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
That is something I’m still figuring out. I think what’s worked best for me so far is actually personal contact. I’ve sold the most copies at conventions.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
1) Do your research. Nothing loses my faith as a reader quicker than blatantly inaccurate or implausible information that’s represented as fact. This goes double for when you’re writing about a group you don’t belong to, whether it’s soldiers, another gender, a minority group, a different generation, etc. The best way to make sure you’re representing something fairly is to ask somebody who knows.
2) Remember that your story doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Historical, political, social, and economic context is not only necessary (in any genre), it makes your world more complex, nuanced, and interesting.
3) Let your first drafts suck. Just get it done. You can fix it later.
4) Don’t let your first draft KEEP sucking. Do actually fix stuff later.
5) Look for the stories that don’t get told. Alternate narratives are the most interesting ones.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Decide what to be and go be it.
What are you reading now?
A bunch of things, but foremost Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. I read a lot more nonfiction these days.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m going to keep on indie publishing. As I mentioned above, my Twisted Tree novels will eventually merge with my co-author’s to become one series, at which point, who knows? I’m sure I’ll also branch out to different worlds. I just want to keep writing the things I want to read.
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?
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
His Dark Materials, Phillip Pullman (totally going to cheat and say a compendium edition with all three books)
Cosmos, Carl Sagan
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