Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a Canadian fantasy author. I grew up in Nova Scotia in a little town called Stewiacke that has a population of around 1300 people. I didn’t have to push a button to cross the street until I was 23 years old and was living in Regina, and was trying to get across a busy 4 lane highway. I know that probably seems preposterous to anyone living in a big city, but I was terrified. I was actually wondering if the light would really change and the cars would really stop for me. I’m from the Maritimes, okay.
I’ve written 1.75 books so far. Soon to be 2.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book (which is actually my first book) is “The Cracked Altar.” There was a million things that inspired all the various characters and things that happen in it, so it’s difficult to talk about what inspired the book as a whole. Ultimately, I always wanted to write books, even as a kid. It was I way I could escape into that other world for longer; live there even. And I knew that if I was writing a book there’d have to be knights; there’d have to be dark, forbidden magic; and there’d have to be this girl at the centre of it.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really. I keep a pen and paper on my bedside table in case I wake up in the middle of the night and just have to write some stuff down. I usually can’t go back to sleep until I do. I’m sure that’s pretty normal for writers though. However, I do get up at 5 a.m., take a cold shower and say Morning Prayer before I start writing for the day. That might be weird for some people who stay up really late and take long hot showers.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Probably everything I’ve ever read has influenced me to some degree. I read a lot if old stuff because I want to be influenced by masters who have stood the test of time (Poe, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, etc.) In college, my sister gave me a copy of “Longman’s Anthology of Gothic Verse” which had a whole bunch of dark Romantic stories and poetry in it by guys like Percy Shelly, Lord Byron, Samuel T. Coleridge, Walter Scott. I found that stuff really relevant to what I was doing in the Cracked Altar, and I wanted those kind of moods and emotions to pervade my own work.
That being said, my favourite book of all time is definitely Sabriel by Garth Nix. I remember being in grade 10; I had just been expelled from the Christian school and was back in South Colchester Academy, and because my courses were messed up, I had these extra free periods which I spent reading in the library. I was looking for a new book to read, and when I discovered Sabriel on the lower shelf it was like I had found a tome of dark magic. I couldn’t believe that there was a book. It has such a unique take on Death and necromancy, and Sabriel was such an infatuating heroine. My mind was blown!
What are you working on now?
My next novel, the one that’s 0.75% complete. It’s kind of like a historical fantasy based on the Norse sagas–particularly the Tyrfing Cycle. It’s the story of Hervor Angantysdottir. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get this out by June, so fans of Viking stories and Norse mythology should keep an eye out. (Yes, that was a reference to Odin). I’m really looking for to releasing it!
I’m also working on a short story about a priestess-in-training who has to keep vigil in this corrupted temple on the eve of her consecration.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I really can’t comment on this. I’m too new to online promotion.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Writing is art. Being a writer is art + business. If you’re serious about being a writer and making money from your work, someone is going to have make business decisions. If you go the traditional route, those business decisions are going to be made by a publisher upon reviewing a profit vs loss analysis done up by the acquisitions editor who wants to buy your work; If you go the indie route, you’re going to be making those decisions yourself.
Also, if you do decide to self-publish, you need to know that there is this whole vampiric industry that preys on self-publishing authors. You’ll need to do a TON of research and learn a whole bunch of new skills, and you’ll need to be super critical of everything you watch and read because there’s going to be someone trying to sell you something every step of the way. That said, we live in an amazing era, and you can learn a lot for free!
Either way, the earlier you start learning about the business aspect of being a writer the better. A good place to start would be Writers Digest and Jane Friedman’s blog. And even if you do plan on going indie, you absolutely must check out Janet Reid’s Query Shark and read ALL the queries. Her information is extremely valuable and will make you a better writer.
www.writersdigest.com
www.janefriedman.com
http://queryshark.blogspot.com/
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Sara Douglass had a great little bit on her website talking about how the most valuable tool a writer has is his/her reader’s imagination. I really think that this goes hand in hand, or is even the same thing as Ernest Hemingway saying “Don’t describe emotion; create it.” So often writers are told to show not tell, and I think this often gets interpreted as longer more frequent descriptions. Sometimes, maybe even a lot of times, that is the right thing to write. But for example, I had a college buddy once tell me he was reading this Resident Evil book. He said he found it annoying because whenever Jill Valentine shot a zombie’s head off, the author described in such detail that he was forced to visualize it as it was written AND WAS UNABLE TO IMAGINE IT FOR HIMSELF.
Sometimes saying less is more. People automatically visualize characters, places, things, even with minimal detail. Use that to your advantage. Choose very carefully what you tell your readers. Let them make the story theirs.
I can’t describe the exact way my first kiss made me feel, and I shouldn’t try, because it isn’t important for anyone to feel what I felt. They should be having their own experience. If you’re writing a scene like that, you should create it in a way that your readers are vividly reliving their own memories. Make them feel sixteen again. Don’t tell them what it’s like to be sixteen. They know! And if they haven’t reached that age yet or they’ve never had a first kiss, I guarantee they have an idea in their minds of what they want it to be like and what they’d like to experience. It’s your job as a writer to transport them to that moment!
Doing this is hard because it’s intuitive and requires a lot of deep insight and restraint. But it’s what makes writing art.
What are you reading now?
My brother let this compendium of all Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Cimmerian stories. You want to read something that’s going to get your heart pounding? Check out, “The Scarlet Citadel.” Howard’s writing is lush and really fast-paced; a lot happens in a really short time and it’s usually all very bad.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Well I’ve always had people telling me I’ve got a great voice for radio, and I’ve got a bit of recording experience (I used to play in a black metal band) so in addition to finishing up the Hervor book and learning how to more effectively promote my work, I’m intending to put out an audiobook for “The Cracked Altar.” I really think it’ll be a lot of fun.
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?
Definitely not Robinson Crusoe. Maybe T.H. White’s “The Once and Future King,” “Dracula,” “The War of Souls” (That’s a Dragonlance trilogy), the Holy Bible… Really, if I’m going to a desert island I should choose more practical reading material. I’ll probably die of thirst and hunger before I get through it all, or end up using most of it to wipe.
Author Websites and Profiles
Timothy J. R. Rains Website
Timothy J. R. Rains Amazon Profile
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