Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve published three novels. The fourth is in editing, and I’ve got eleven more novels planned across various genres.
In regards to telling you about ME… well, that’s an intimidating question. Always is. I wilt under its weight every time I hear it, caught between boasting or confessing.
The boast: I write with purpose and meaning. I will not waste a reader’s time, and the depth of my narrative will often sneak up on you and bite you!
The confession: I want to be read so, so badly that it triggers my guilt. Each time I assert my books I feel like I’m lying. All the glowing reviews can’t alter that feeling, so I keep it to myself.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My most recently published novel is called Trampling in the Land of Woe. The inspiration for this novel is complicated, but its DNA contains classic literature and steampunk all wrapped around a love story. Hephaestion, Alexander the Great’s lover and right-hand man, breaks into Hell while World War I is happening on Earth. His mission is to rescue Alexander, and the narrative follows him through the landscape of Dante’s afterlife from The Divine Comedy.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I know many people have rituals or special methods in which they approach their craft, but I’ve yet to settle on one. Each book is different for me and thusly requires a different mindset. Even if I would develop a charming or eccentric habit for writing, it would only last for the duration of that particular novel.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
James Clavell, M. M. Kaye, Issac Asimov, Flannery O’Connor, Shakespeare, Milton, Conrad, Charles Stross… this list expands and contracts daily with certain names rising above others at different times. I suspect I am more influenced by specific novels than the writers themselves, in which case I, Robot and Modern Prometheus really carved me as a narrator.
What are you working on now?
I just finished the sequel to Trampling in the Land of Woe, so it is time for a break! I’m going to write a humorous short story to relax, play a bunch of video games, and finally read Noble House.
After that, I’ll begin the next sequel and finish up the trilogy! It will be called The Patron Saint of Wrong.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My editing and publishing team. I’m honestly useless at self-promotion, but my editors are my champions. Never would they represent me if I produced anything less than excellence, which is why they are amazing at their jobs. Here’s my editor’s website: http://www.upgradeyourstory.com/
Do you have any advice for new authors?
No.
Tempting as it is to leave it at that, I don’t want to give anyone the wrong idea. When I say ‘no’ it isn’t out of disdain. It’s that you, the new author, need no advice. You sit there trembling over the blank page, wringing your hands over your word selection. Fear rules far too many of your keystrokes.
No advice from me will fix that. So I won’t provide advice. Advice isn’t what you need. What you require is guts and discipline. Write. Just pound away and know that you can’t make mistakes while writing. Whatever doesn’t work you can throw out later or simply overhaul. Whatever DOES work is a joyous miracle, and it will propel you further into your craft.
Find the steel in your spine and tolerate no excuses from yourself.
Wait, is that advice? DAMMIT!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
IF ~Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
What are you reading now?
Noble House! I’m only two chapters in, so don’t spoil anything!
I’m also reading A Call to Action by Jimmy Carter because I find his work well-researched and heartfelt. He’s a male feminist like myself, and the tone of voice in his writing has a steady confidence that drowns out the screeching of popular news.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Crippling anxiety and insecurity. It’s my jam.
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?
Hmmmm….
First, a book on navigation and celestial cartography. This would engage me with the clear sky above, and I would eventually know how to navigate myself purely by the stars.
Secondly, I would need a survival guide for the biome in which I’m stuck. Assuming there is flora on this island, I could procure water by digging up wet sand and filtering it through cloth etc… and a guide would help with making that an efficient process. I’d need full control of fire and a means to chop down and carve trees. Said guide should also have a section on shallow fishing as well as suggestions on how to re-purpose fish bones and coconut shells into something more useful.
Third, a book of some kind on how to construct watercraft. Up to this point, I’ll have done my best with survival, materials, and navigation. I’ll not resolve to die on some island when my wife and son are worrying about where I am.
Author Websites and Profiles
William Galaini Website
William Galaini Amazon Profile
William Galaini’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account