Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Well, where do I begin? With the number of books I’ve written, I guess. It’s an easy question after all, because the answer is 0. EMBERED SOUL is my debut novel and I’m so excited to share a little bit about it with you!
As for me, I’m just a guy from Brisbane, Australia and grew up in a pretty normal suburban household. No fancy forests or horse riding for me, just my mum and I with the cats (we like cats!). My first real creative idea I remember was telling my friends in Grade 4 that I was going to create a real-life Jurassic Park. Of course, there were a lot of laughs but I was serious, though I realised that wasn’t going to happen.
Instead, I turned to writing down my ideas and then before long, I was sketching them too! I’m probably one of the few people in my generation that read LORD OF THE RINGS before even touching HARRY POTTER, and my first BIG fantasy series I read was Emily Rodda’s DELTORA QUEST! Man, how that sparked my imagination and love for creature design. I bought the DELTORA MONSTER BOOK soon after and between Tolkien and Rodda, my love for Fantasy was solidified!
That was until 2001, when HALO decided to come out and then I was on the Military Sci-Fi train before long too! I soon devoured all the HALO books I could find and then crept my way into more classical stories such as STARSHIP TROOPERS and THE FOREVER WAR. Suffice it to say, these were hardly considered the stereotypical reading of a boy between 8 and 10 years of age.
During my teens, I became heavily invested in DUNGEONS & DRAGONS and that’s where my love for storytelling truly took root! I loved dealing with all the crazy situations and encounters our DM threw at us and before long, I was crafting entire worlds for my own group of adventurers. I’ve always loved the blank check that D&D gave me to tell fantasy stories, but eventually, I wanted to go full-Tolkien and make my own from the ground up.
Fast forward 10 years or so, and here I am!
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
EMBERED SOUL is may latest (and only) novel although I have written a novella title THE SOUTHERN KING, which is exclusively available to my newsletter subscribers.
In both cases, the books were inspired by my adventures in D&D games, the monster hunting stories featured in The Witcher novels and my absolute love for Tolkien’s approach to building not only a world, but a fleshed out mythology.
That leads me to my next inspiration which are the many tales of Greek mythology. Everything from the creation of the universe, to the various war among the Gods, to the heroic tales of Heracles, Perseus and Jason! I love it all and I find that their influence and cultural impact can still be felt today in various ways that haven’t been thought of yet! And of course, I love the monsters and mythical beings featured in all of them. For any who read my fantasy, you will quickly recognise a lot of these themes and set pieces and I promise that you’ll love them!
My final inspiration (promise!) is my investment in the video game series, DARK SOULS. I mention this series specifically for three reasons. First, the awesome, dark and Gothic world that features a lost hero fighting insurmountable odds to emerge victorious bloodied and beaten is too good (I love beating my own heroes up in their battles! After all, how many games do you play where you come out without a scratch, hmmm?). Reason 2, the music! It sounds weird, but I love music and how it affects your immersion in a story. The right music can punctuate a scene like nothing else in the creative industry (if you’ve watched literally any movie with a Hans Zimmer soundtrack, you’ll know what I mean). It doesn’t sound so relevant when I talk about writing a book, but trust me when I say that DARK SOULS’s music really gets my creative juices flowing.
The third reason, and most important, is the way DARK SOULS tells its story – which is to say, it doesn’t tell you anything! What I mean by that is DARK SOULS is a rare example of perfectly executed interpretive/visual storytelling. Every piece of armour, weapon and creature fits into the lore in a meaningful way, and it is up to the audience to piece together the clues to work out the intricacies of the world. Of course, I can’t write a novel this way, but I am a big fan of getting readers invested in the world and I find the best way to do that is reveal information organically through the characters and the various scenes in my story. Even fantasy readers get tired of exposition dumps and I find that taking the effort to craft world building information into the world and dialogue is much more effective, especially if readers start discussing what they think is happening (or going to happen!).
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
To be honest, no. I’m a simple guy with a set of goals for my novels. My writing ethos is defined by three simple rules, laid out by three highly successful writers:
1. “Little by little, one travels far.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
2. “Write everyday! Start with 1,000 words a day and you’ll have a novel before you know it.” – Stephen King
3 “SIT YOU A** DOWN AND WRITE!” – Patrick Rothfuss
So, nothing too flash I guess, but highly effective. The only really odd thing I do is listen to crazy soundtracks from various fantasy style artists to help me get in the mood. If I was writing sci-fi, I suspect I would do something similar. Like I said, music is powerful, and I make full use of it.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Well, you’ve already heard of my love for Tolkien and Rodda – I owe both of them much. But there are plenty of other authors that helped me on my journey.
Sapkowski is one of them! Admittedly, I didn’t know about his Witcher novels until I played the game in 2007. But when I found them, they were an instant hit with me. The monsters and the visceral action made them supreme page turners and it was also my first real introduction to political intrigue in fantasy. There were some pretty raw scenes in that book that I didn’t quite understand at the time, but grew to appreciate with time. What stuck with me most, however, were the unique monsters that populated this dark world. I loved how there were things I’d never even heard of and have never encountered outside of The Witcher and I’ve made it one of my main writing goals to create monsters unique to my own fantasy world. I can’t wait for you to meet them.
The next big name is Raymond E. Feist. What an absolutely, outstanding world builder! Seriously, there aren’t many writers out there that have written more than 30 novels set in the same world, so of course I was captivated after reading Magician! He was the first author that showed me that you didn’t have to leave the world, which you worked so hard to create, just because your trilogy has finished. No, instead, he showed over the course of many series how you can grow your world as easily as you grow your characters. The world you find at the beginning of The Serpent War Saga is so different to what you see by Magician’s End and it took me a few moments to remember that we were still in Midkemia! Let’s face it, we never REALLY want to leave the fantasy world we’ve spent hours adventuring in and as long as there is a story to be told, Feist proved that any writer can do it, so long as you’re up for the challenge!
This brings me to one of my favourite writers of all time and another fellow Aussie (Rodda is also from Down Under, did you know?). I’m talking about the late Sara Douglass and her marvelous Axis Trilogy! This is a series that I believe deserves WAY more attention than it receives and one I recommend any and all fantasy enthusiasts to check out. In a similar way to Feist, she created an amazing, fantastical world filled with crazy mythologies that I have not seen represented anywhere else to a similar effect. She is awesome and I like to think my writing carries on her legacy, if only in some small way.
Look, this list is not exhaustive and there are many, many more authors I’d like to mention, but those named here have been the ones to spark my own creativity and for that I would like to thank them! So if haven’t read any of their works, get to the library and do yourself a favour!
What are you working on now?
Many things!
Apart from expanding my world, it’s map and my list of characters and races (I’ve made my own original races too!), I’m working my way through the first draft of Book 2, which will follow on from EMBERED SOUL. I’m also drafting up the storyboard for my next novella, which will feature on the newsletter list and will accompany Book 2 as we work to it’s release.
There isn’t too much I want to say about the next book right now, since EMBERED SOUL hasn’t even published yet, but I can say that it will be bigger, bolder and raise the stakes way past where they were in EMBERED SOUL. It’s already at 105,000 words and there is still so much I have left to write. It’s going to be great!
I’m also doing some slightly less interesting stuff called marketing, which isn’t as fun as writing, but will work toward making sure I can write and publish easily in the future. Such is the life of an indie author, but I love it!
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Literally anything on the internet! Ok, maybe not EVERYTHING, but in the age of social media and self-publishing, the options are nearly limitless!
Choosing no more than two social media platforms to manage is a good place to start. I use Facebook and Instagram, but you can choose whatever you feel best suits your needs and interest. If you haven’t published before, the focus should entirely be on building your newsletter/email list subscriptions – that’s where your best people and most loyal fans will stem from. It also gives you the most focused and effective audience to advertise your novels and blogs to.
Using platforms like Book Bub and Good Reads are essential too, because it’s focused on an audience that exclusively wants to find and read cool, new books. If you consider your novel to be ‘cool’ and ‘new’ then you need to set up an author profile and learn how to advertise here.
The final way to promote your book is to hunt down whatever email and contract address you can find for reviewers, bloggers and authors whose opinions you’d value. It can be a little disheartening when you have one reply for every hundred emails sent, but that’s just how the industry goes. Just remember, you need as many people to know you exist, so every email and message sent will add up! So don’t give up!
Also, do whatever you can to get an Audiobook produced! Audiobooks are a MUST in this day and age – that’s what my marketer says, and I’m inclined to believe her, because I listen to a TON of Audiobooks.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice revolves around consistency, meeting quotas and discipline. You can’t ever finish a story without those qualities and I think that’s where some struggling writers fall down. Of course, bear in mind that I’ve not yet sold a copy of my novel, but I have finished writing and editing one and am halfway through my second book. I wrote EMBERED SOUL’s first draft in less than 3 months and it numbered to just over 110,000 words.
The only way I could do that was by planting my butt in the chair and typing away. Even if I didn’t want to write that day, I still found a way; because despite how fun and energising writing is to me, it’s still a form of work and like all work, you just don’t feel like it some days. Achieving little quotas, like 1,000 words a day (or even 500 words if that’s what you can do) makes you feel great and that you’re progressing to that finish line.
I never go back and read any part of my first draft. To do such a thing is to invite uncertainty and doubt into your mind and you can’t afford to do that when you need it full to the brim with ideas, inspirations and dialogue for your characters. If I ever feel the urge, I just think about another piece of advice that Stephen King gave me in his memoir – “That’s what re-writes are for!” So I will just power through that first draft until I hit that last full stop.
To wrap things up then, I suppose my GOLDEN RULE is this – Write SOMETHING everyday and finish your ENTIRE novel before going back to review it!
I’d highly recommend setting a word count, and 1,000 words isn’t actually that much in the grand scheme of things. And, please, don’t worry about your first draft – it’s not going to be up to your standard, but that’s ok! The editing and re-write process will take a long time, so you will have plenty of time to make it pristine! So just please, for love of writing, FINISH THAT FIRST DRAFT and the rest will fall into place! ๐
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I refer you to my three simple rules for writing. Those three quotes are bang on!
But there is also another piece of advice that I heard from Neil Gaiman, and I love it:
“Make good art!”
Simple, right? But no less true. When times are tough and you’re feeling down and it seems like no one is going to read your story – it doesn’t matter – just make good art and all will be well. Don’t worry about selling another book, just keep writing another book (I kind of stole that from George R.R. Martin, but thought you’d be done with reading quotes by now).
What are you reading now?
I’m sinking my teeth into Tad Williams’s LAST KING OF OSTEN ARD. I never read his first series MEMORY, SORROW AND THORN, but his name is a big deal in the fantasy genre so I want to check it out. I only wish I knew THE WITCHWOOD CROWN is a sequel to the first series. So I guess I’ll be going back to read really soon (and I can’t wait! Mr Williams is freaking awesome!)
What’s next for you as a writer?
Publish EMBERED SOUL and finish Book 2. That’s it ๐
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?
This is an unfair question for people who read lots of trilogies, but I will give it a good crack!
LORD OF THE RINGS, because I can read that forever!
BATTLE AXE, which is the first book in Sara Douglass’s AXIS TRILOGY and I haven’t read it for a while; and
THE MEMOIRS OF ULYSSES S. GRANT – what? You didn’t think SFF was all I read, did you?
Thank you so much for reading my interview and I can’t wait for you all to read my story! EMBERED SOUL comes out April 7th on eBook, Paperback and Audiobook.
Until then, read with joy, write with success!
Will
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