Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi folks! I’m a former middle school special education teacher who splits my time between Enterprise, Oregon, and Portland, Oregon. I love living in the Wallowas, especially with the strong writer and artist community here. I enjoy riding my horse, quilting, skiing, hiking, fishing, hunting, and of course writing!
My particular love is speculative fiction. I have completed a multigenerational cyberpunk family saga, The Netwalk Sequence, which focuses on mother-daughter relationship dynamics as four generations of women deal with the challenges brought on by the development of a new wireless digital implant which not only allows telepathic-type communication…but can allow digital personality uploads that survive after death. Add a particularly complex, unexplainable artifact that looks like a war machine…but is not created by any known human technology, with unknown motivations, and, welp…life gets interesting. The Netwalk Sequence includes four major books (NETWALK, NETWALKER UPRISING, NETWALK’S CHILDREN, and NETWALKING SPACE) as well as two collections (LIFE IN THE SHADOWS: DIANA AND WILL and LEARNING IN SPACE: BESS AND ALEX), a novella (SHADOW HARVEST) and assorted short stories, most of which are in the two collections. A third collection, THE DISRUPTION CHRONICLES, will eventually be published.
My second series, Goddess’s Honor, a non-European high fantasy, is two-thirds complete. It is abut two cousins. Both born of adversity. Both touched by the Seven Crowned Gods. Both descendants of the great Miteal family that once ruled the mighty Daran Empire. Both belonging to the exile nations that sheltered the remnants of the Miteal.
The Ralsem family leaders who now control Daran fear these two women. They dread what Katerin and Rekaré may do to the Ralsem should they decide to seek vengeance for the wrongs done to their ancestors. For the Gods have spoken…and at some point, the Ralsem will pay…
For now, the Gods are silent as to when and if Rekaré and Katerin will turn their attention to Daran. But the Gods also have their own agenda…which may not be what Katerin and Rekaré intend to do. Together, these two cousins could threaten the Gods themselves….
PLEDGES OF HONOR and CHALLENGES OF HONOR are now out. CHOICES OF HONOR will be released in early 2019. There are also assorted short stories and a novella connected to the series which are currently available. After I finish CHOICES, I’ll pull together collections of the Goddess’s Honor short stories.
Overall, I have twelve books of my own out and stories in several anthologies. I also am planning a Weird West/alt-West series, as well as at least one contemporary fantasy series. I’m always coming up with new ideas. My current joke is that I used to write a short story, then look at it, shake my head, and realize it was the first chapter of a novel. Now, I say that I write a supposedly standalone book, look at it, and realize it is the first book of a series. Writing evolves….
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book, KLONE’S STRONGHOLD, has two basic inspirations. About a decade ago, while driving a backroad on my way to our hunting area, I noticed a road sign that read KLONE’S LANE. As I do when driving for a long period, I started thinking about what might be down that rutted dirt road. Images of a high-tech lab, bizarre cloning experiments, and other things spun through my thoughts, but I couldn’t get them to coalesce.
Then we went to a String Cheese Incident multi-day performance in a rural Portland venue. For some reason, it kept resonating with me, until one day Reeni spoke up and started talking in her inimitably Reeni manner. I don’t usually write first person but Reeni demanded to speak for herself. Things expanded from there, especially when I discovered that there is an active group of Sasquatch sightings in the vicinity of Klone Lane.
The story mutated along the way, as stories can do even when rigidly scripted. But it developed in a fun way. I’m still finding out things about the story and the subcharacters, including the fact that many people (including Reeni herself) mangle her full name, reversing the first and middle names. So in one circumstance she is Irene Marie, in another, Marie Irene. If Reeni has to be formal, she goes by Marie–but she often chooses not to. The reasoning for that will show up in the next book.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I really am boring about my writing habits. I have devised strategies to cope with the frequent trips we make between Portland and Enterprise (350 miles, at least a 6 hour drive most of the time). They include keeping a reference binder, detailed outlining so that I can pick up the writing at any moment without digging and backtracking, and use of backup technology as well as versioning.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I have many influences. Early influences include Mary O’Hara–not so much MY FRIEND FLICKA but the two sequels to FLICKA, THUNDERHEAD and GREEN GRASS OF WYOMING. O’Hara probes into the depths of human relationships under the cover of the horse story in a deft and skilled manner not often seen in horse books.
John Steinbeck was another early influence. One of my high school teachers used TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY as a text for a creative writing class. I started reading Steinbeck then, but was especially taken by his writing journal for EAST OF EDEN, JOURNAL OF A NOVEL.
Within the speculative fiction genre, Zenna Henderson and her People stories are a direct influence on KLONE’S STRONGHOLD. Reeni is very much like the teachers who encountered the People in Henderson’s books. Other influences include Lois McMaster Bujold, Jay Lake, Elizabeth Bear, C.J. Cherryh, and my mentor, Phyllis Irene Radford.
The challenge is that I read a lot of things across many genres. Right now I’ve discovered ranch romances because there’s a lot of them available locally. But I am also reading Luis Alberto Urrea, Jamie Ford, and a lot of other folks. I am a wide and voracious reader. These days, however, if the language plods and the plot doesn’t engage, I don’t read it. Period.
And oh yes. Other influences also include Hunter S. Thompson, Ed Abbey, Ken Kesey, Thomas McGuane, and others of that ilk.
What are you working on now?
I am rewriting a short novel that I got the rights back from my publisher. It was called SEEKING SHELTER AT THE END OF THE WORLD but is now loosely titled BEATING THE APOCALYPSE. It is a cli-fi apocalypse that verges on the edge of thrillerdom. I’ve reversed the death of one character, added the antagonist’s point of view, and plan to extend the story by another 20,000-30,000 words. It’s the first time that I have so significantly changed out one of my works, but I was not completely happy with the first version of the story.
Here’s the tagline and blurb:
Sometimes simple shelter is not enough.
When it looks like the toxic Clouds will bring about the end of unprotected life in North America, Rianna O’Conner, one of the Canaries bioengineered to monitor Cloud impact on humans, falls into despair. Her boyfriend and working partner Bobby Jones has disappeared in Portland and is presumed dead. She wants to know his fate before she dies.
Then she discovers that she doesn’t know the truth—about Bobby’s fate, about the Clouds, about the Canaries’ original purpose. Can Rianna lead what remains of the Canaries to a safe haven and try to survive if not stop the pending apocalypse…or is it already too late?
I’m looking at a fall release, perhaps even November.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I am still figuring out promotion! Things change so quickly in the publishing business these days that what may work for one book does not necessarily work for another.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice for new authors is to keep writing, keep trying, and keep an open mind. Develop more than one project and be aware that you really, really do have more than one book in you. Write your stories–and then be ready to move on to the next book. One thing that really makes me sad is to see someone who is so married to one idea that they never write anything else. Love your darlings while you are writing them–then set them free and move on to the next book. It’s the best thing you can do for them.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I have ever heard doesn’t come from a writing book.
“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” Dr. Benjamin Spock, BABY AND CHILD CARE. It works for writers as well as new parents!
What are you reading now?
I have just finished a biography of an early Navajo trading post operator–DESERT WIFE.
What’s next for you as a writer?
My next project is going to be taking a month or so off from writing books to draft short stories. I’m developing a new alt-West/Weird West series, and writing short stories is one way that I explore that world. I also have a number of short story ideas that have been demanding to get written, so it’s time. After that, I do have a two-year publishing schedule. I plan to start work on the final book in the Goddess’s Honor series, CHOICES OF HONOR, and will need to decide what else happens in that world, if anything. There will be more short stories tied to that world as I figure out the details of CHOICES–that is one way I worldbuild. I also have a pile of old, half-developed projects that need to be fleshed out and written. It will be a while before I run out of writing ideas!
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?
Oh, that’s a tough one. Can I say that I’d bring a Kindle stuffed with ebooks and some means of charging it instead?
Author Websites and Profiles
Joyce Reynolds-Ward Website
Joyce Reynolds-Ward Amazon Profile