In July we'll be reading The Warded Gunslinger
Space Western / Space Opera (cross genre tropes)
Bingo Squares:
* First in Series (Hard Mode)
* Under the Surface (Hard Mode)
* Self-Published or Indie Published (Hard Mode)
* Space Opera
* Set in a Small Town
Length: 27 000 words / 140 pages (Short novel / Novella)
SCHEDULE:
Q&A - 14.07.2024
Midway discussion - 19.07.2024
Final Discussion - 26.07.2024
Q&A
What brought you to ? What do you appreciate about it?Â
The magic of Reddit. I frequented a lot of writer's forums, mostly private ones, but I wanted some place where I could just hang out in the background and listen to people talk about my favorite genre. And since I was already on Reddit, I searched for fantasy, and voila! here I am. And while I'm not the most active of posters, I do relax on on an almost daily basis.
Who are your favorite current writers and who are your greatest influencers?Â
Sanderson, of course, and Martha Wells, Louis McMaster Bujold, but right now I've fallen into LitRPG, and my absolutely top series right now is Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. It's a completely absurd fantasy dungeon crawl wrapped in a sci-fi Running Man-style deathmatch with intergalactic politics, tons of gore, enough cursing to call in the exorcist, and a sense of humor that's perfect for me.
As for influencers, I'd say the old guard of SF, with Vance, Zelazny, LeGuin, Bujold, Hambly (Barbara), Asprin, Heinlein etc.
Can you lead us through your creative process? What works and doesn’t work for you? How long do you need to finish a book?
I'm a complete pantser - comes from my time as a daily news journalist, which was "interview people, rush back to the office, fill two pages of a broadsheet from memory." I start every story with a spark of an idea, and a first sentence. Then I write a second sentence, then a third. I never know what the next sentence will be, I just give in to my subconscious and transcribe what it tells me to write.
I also write clean. That means that I don't write very fast - my absolute top speed, ever, when I was tracking such things, was still less than 2k/hour (some people, especially ones that use dictation, can write five or ten thousand words per hour.) But I also fix every problem while I write, reading over what I've written, and improving it, filling plot holes, doing continuity checks etc. So by the time I reach the end, I've got a complete novel, with no need to edit.
I do run it through a couple of spell checkers, and a proof reader or three, but I don't do any structural changes, ever.
Although, to be fair, I do throw out a lot of words. When I write myself into a corner, I backtrack a few chapters, throw them out, and start writing from the point where everything feels right. Sometimes I can salvage some or most of the thrown-out work. Sometimes, it's just lost. But I learn every time I do it, and my amount of usable-to-lost is constantly climbing.
But, yes, it is painful to get mired in the muddy middle of a novel, or, worse, the ending, and having to throw the whole thing out (it's happened, but not often.)
The time it takes me to write varies a lot between books. My absolute record speed is just shy of three weeks, from first word to finished novel. My absolute worst speed, for a novel that I did finish, is over two years. Yes, those were some very frustrating and painful years.Â
The interesting part is that readers don't seem to see much difference between the slow and the fast written stories. If anything, I've gotten more praise for my speedily written tales than for my slow ones.
How would you describe the plot of The Warded Gunslinger if you had to do so in just one or two sentences?Â
A Fistful of Dollars in space, with magic.
What subgenres does it fit?Â
Probably Space Opera, with a liberal dash of Space Western and some Space Fantasy. Or maybe it's the other way around. But it's got a rogue gunslinger, a gangster boss, a small mining outpost, and a dragon.
How did you come up with the title and how does it tie in with the plot of the book?
It's the main character - The Warded Gunslinger. There might be a better title out there, but my muse haven't been able to deliver it to me.
What inspired you to write this story? Was there one “lightbulb momentâ€? when the concept for this book popped into your head or did it develop over time?Â
As all my books, it started with the Bucket, almost crashing on a darkened moon. From there, Jake's story moved on, surprising me in several places - my subconscious is a great ally and a fun partner to work with!
If you had to describe the story in 3 adjectives, which would you choose?Â
Oh, wow, I truly suck at these kinds of things - writing the blurbs for my stories is a horrible ordeal. But OK; I'll say: fast-paced, snarky, fun.
Would you say that The Warded Gunslinger follows tropes or kicks them?Â
Follows the tropes, all the way! It's a classic B-Western set in space, in the vein of Firefly, Sergio Leone, and even A New Hope.
Who are the key players in this story? Could you introduce us to The Warded Gunslinger protagonists/antagonists?Â
Jake/The Warded Gunslinger is your typical rogue fighter, snarky, lonesome, very, very competent (I'd almost classify him as competence porn, but he's got enough of a stubborn streak to do dumb things.)
Hao, Jake's mechanic/sidekick is basically Chewbacca, with less hair and more talk. And she takes absolutely no shit from anybody.
Tomlin, the local aide, is your typical teen who's taken on too much responsibility, becoming the sheriff in his own mind.
As for the bad guys, you've got the Boss, the Killer, and the Brute. They've got names and back stories, but they're basically there to kill people and die gloriously (or vaingloriously, as the case might be.)
Have you written The Warded Gunslinger with a particular audience in mind?
Yep, me. I have no idea how to position it - I write stories that I like, and that's what keeps me working even when times get tough.
Alright, we need the details on the cover. Who's the artist/designer, and can you give us a little insight into the process for coming up with it?Â
I'm going to get a lot of shit for this one, but the artist is Dall-E 3, with a lot of editing by me.
At first, I bought a custom cover, bought a hundred-pack of stock images for it, too, and the cover was... so-so. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't very good, either.
Then, as I was playing around with Midjourney for conceptualising, I realised that I could create a better cover. I can't draw, but I've been photo editing for over twenty years, first in Photoshop but lately in Affinity Photo and Designer. Using that, I could put together a better image than my cover editor did.
Now, if I could afford a really good cover illustrator and/or designer, I'd totally go with that. But for now, I can't.
What was your proofreading/editing process?Â
In simple steps: me as I write, me as I re-read and edit, Microsoft Word, ProWritingAid (sometimes), betas, proofreaders.
What are you most excited for readers to discover in this book?Â
Fun. I don't have a message, I don't advance a political view, I just want to share the fun with people who enjoy snarky action heroes and lots of BOOOM! CRASH! KA-POW!
Can you, please, offer us a taste of your book, via one completely out-of-context sentence?
Sure, and I'll cheat giving you two:
My encyclopedia agreed, calling Jackson Depot a booming settlement boasting exceptional hospitality. Judging by the lack of heat signatures on the scanners, or anyone visible, I’d say the entry had been written by a marketing specialist.