Interview with Mark Johnson

Author of 

The FireWall Series

...

Please tell me a little about your current work in progress.

I’m currently in the fifth book of my first Epic Fantasy series; FireWall. The series is about a threat that’s discovered to a god’s life, how that threat has to be kept secret, and the rise of the harassed paladin entrusted with saving the God’s life – before millions of people die from the fallout of the god’s death.

Where did you get the idea for this book or series?

Before I began writing this book I was mostly inspired by ‘forbidden archaeology’ type of books that explain how our society is the remnants of a much older society that’s been forgotten. I’m also inspired by archaeological mysteries ranging from Indiana Jones, to Tomb Raider, to Jack McDevitt’s ‘Engines of God’.

Do you write in more than one genre?

Nope, pretty much Epic Fantasy/Dark Fantasy. With touches of sci-fantasy.

Tell me about something that you believe makes your writing unique or worthy of attention.

I’m very interested in writing about the failure of institutions and how that opens itself to corruption. I’ve been involved in local politics, here in New Zealand and it’s… disappointingly mundane.

I’m also interested in the idea of immortality. Not that I want to be immortal, but if you were to get tapped on the shoulder as a teenager and told ‘hey, you’re going to live until three hundred’, how would that shape your development and interaction with regular mortals? I think about it a lot, and the answers are still evolving.

Is there anything about your personal history or personality that manifests strongly in your writing?

As I hinted earlier, my despair at large institutions. I used to be a high school teacher and the slide away from teaching anything useful in the New Zealand Syllabus really made me wonder about how institutions can drift so far and still call themselves what they were named as.

 What else would be helpful for readers to know about you?

I live in New Zealand and I’m a runner.

Excluding your own work, what underrated author or book would you recommend that more people read? Why?

David Estes’ ‘Fatemarked’ series. It’s so very, very good.

Which of your books do you most highly recommend? Why?

I’d recommend you start at the beginning: The Renegade Within. The series’ protagonist who has gotten caught up in some pretty strange stuff decides to break ranks and investigate the strange goings-on within her own organization – with some pretty sinister implications.

Which break, event, decision, or fortuitous circumstance has helped you or your writing career the most?

It was realizing that the teaching profession—which I was so good at—had broken down into nonsense that boiled down to pointing at the whiteboard and saying ‘do this, do this, do this’, and that was all that awaited me until I reached retirement.

What question do you wish you would get asked more often?

Question: What historical perspective should more people be aware of?

Answer: Planet Earth spends approximately 90% of its time in an ice age. At the end of the last ice age, 12,000 years ago, most of the places we now live were elevated ice boxes. Then the ice melted very quickly and the seas rose. The inhabitable places were flooded. Most of human history and development has been lost beneath more than 100m of seawater.

Do you have a catch-phrase or quote that you like? What is it? And why do you choose it?

Oscar Wilde: “Never argue with an idiot. They will only drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”

In the age of social media, I think a lot more people need to let go of things they disagree with and just get on with their lives.

_____________________________________________

Thanks to Mark for participating in the interview.

Those of you who have not signed up for my author newsletter - you missed out on two free books and two 99 cent deals--the entire Tomahawks and Dragon Fire series (so far). I only shared the information about the special with my subscribers. If you would like to sign up but don't know how, make a request in the comments and I'll post a link to the sign up page.

 Author Interview with

Darian Smith

Author of The Agents of Kalanon Series

Please tell me a little about your current work in progress.

I’m currently working on the Agents of Kalanon series which I describe as being murder mysteries in a fantasy world.  Kind of like CSI but with swords and magic.  The main character, Sir Brannon Kesh, is an ex war hero with a passion for healing as a way to atone for the lives he had to take.  When a member of the royal family is murdered and a new war is threatened, he must join with a socially awkward priest, a vain mage, an alluring ambassador, and a corpse-animating shaman to investigate and protect the world from a dark plot.  Each book has its own mysteries to solve but there’s an overarching story throughout the series as well.

Where did you get the idea for this book or series?

I’ve always enjoyed reading fantasy but also watching murder mystery shows – everything from Criminal Minds to Murder She Wrote.  One day it occurred to me to blend the two and create a team of forensic type investigators in an epic fantasy world.

Do you write in more than one genre?

Mostly I write fantasy but when it comes to short stories I have dabbled in literary fiction, sci-fi, and even children’s stories.  I also wrote a paranormal romance which won the Koru award from the Romance Writers of New Zealand. 

Tell me about something that you believe makes your writing unique or worthy of attention.

I think it’s an interesting blend of genres so that’s something different about the Agents of Kalanon series.  Solving murders happens a bit in urban fantasy but having a police procedural format in an epic fantasy is a bit different to most.

Is there anything about your personal history or personality that manifests strongly in your writing?

My background is in counselling and family therapy so I bring a lot of that understanding into my stories, particularly with character development.  The characters all have layers and histories that have an impact on their behaviours in the current story. 

What else would be helpful for readers to know about you?

I guess it would be helpful for people to know they can find my books on Amazon and that I’m easily found on Facebook or as @DarianWordSmith on Instagram and Twitter.  Also my website is www.darian-smith.com

Excluding your own work, what underrated author or book would you recommend that more people read? Why?

I’d have to recommend my wife’s book, Home of the Heart.  Adrienne Smith writes small town contemporary romance so if anyone enjoys that genre, I heartily recommend it. 

 

 Which of your books do you most highly recommend? Why?

While all the books stand alone, I’d recommend starting with Kalanon’s Rising, the first in the Agents of Kalanon series as the best introduction to the characters and the world in which they live.

Which break, event, decision, or fortuitous circumstance has helped you or your writing career the most?

I’ve had a few lucky breaks, particularly with winning awards or being a finalist in competitions but probably the decision with the most impact was choosing between traditional publishing or being an indie author.  At the time, I had an agent and was going the traditional route. I’d had several short stories published in anthologies and magazines and won competitions etc but hadn’t yet had a novel published.  Traditional publishing is a very slow process and waiting around with no control over your career can be disheartening.  Indie publishing was something I was becoming more aware of as a legitimate route that was losing the stigma it once had and could offer quality products and greater control for the author.  I decided I would apply for a grant from a local writer organization and leave the decision up to fate.  If I got the grant, I would use the money to publish my novel myself.  If I didn’t, I would continue waiting for traditional publishing.  I got the grant.

What question do you wish you would get asked more often?

I’m always up for a wacky question but I guess from a practical standpoint, because I’m usually being interviewed about my fiction, it would be good to be asked about my non-fiction as well.  I wrote The Psychology Workbook for Writers which describes a number of theories used by counsellor and psychologists and how they can be used to create realistic characters and conflict in fiction.  It’s a short book that has been well received by writers around the world.

Do you have a catch-phrase or quote that you like? What is it? And why do you choose it?

My wife and I quote movies and even TV commercials to each other all the time.  Especially movies like The Princess Bride.  It’s difficult to pick just one.

_____________________________

Thanks to Darian for participating on the blog today.

Just a reminder that my own series, Tomahawks and Dragon Fire continues with Book 4, Promise of Carnage and Flame. It's available in ebook and paperback.

HERE'S THE LINK and the ebook is available for 99 cents for a limited time.

and I'll soon be doing a special offer but only subscribers to my newsletter get to know the details. You can become a subscriber here - click on the newsletter link at the top of the new page

 

Yes! Book Four in the series is ready for purchase! Click this link to get it.

I had a great time writing this book. A few chapters in, a can of awesome exploded like a dozen eggs in the microwave, splattering the entire story with stupendous possibilities. Naturally, I scrapped the rough outline in favor of the new found fabulosity. (I know that's not a word, but it makes the sentence sing like a rockstar Dean Martin and Nat King Cole, or maybe it's Martin and Lewis). 

Two of the supporting players from the previous books get a big share of the spotlight in book four. Both of these characters become richer and deeper. Additionally, a few new characters may be more important than they appear. Finally, more dragons rage against the cause of liberty--hence the carnage and flame promise, but that doesn't all come from the dragons. Prepare to be surprised.

I'm looking for reviews, so the price is currently only 99 cents.

____________________________________

Some thoughts about some different books:

I've had this book, which I'm not going to name, in my e-library for a few years but hadn't got around to reading it. I had picked it up for free (a habit I have). I finally read it. I found it pretty good until the last 20% when it went completely off the rails. It was a murder mystery with an ex-cop running a record store as the primary character. The end reveal of the murderer was so bizarre that I thought it might be a dream sequence--but it wasn't. It felt like there should've been another 10 or 20 pages of story to unravel the mystery, but instead the author opted for a weird reveal scene and info dump by way of conversation to conclude it. Don't even get me started on the romantic interest that seemed like it had been wedged into the story as an afterthought, or an editor's suggestion. I'll stop my criticism there because if the book had been bad all the way through, I wouldn't have been so disappointed. If the author had nailed the ending, I might have come away thinking that it was a great book. Instead the award-winning author totally goofed it, in my opinion, and left me feeling like I had found a dead mouse in my dessert.

I also finished The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer Lytton.

As you might suppose, I also got it for free. Unfortunately, the story was thin while the descriptions of the religion, politics, philosophy, technology, and a multitude of other details filled the rest. Reading it reminded me of some other story from a book or television -- but I can't remember what it was now. I cannot recommend the book.

I've started into Michael Moorcock's The Ice Schooner and have to admit that I like it, so far. I'm only thirty pages or so into it. It's quite different from the Elric of Melnibone -- which I couldn't bring myself to finish.

________________________

The weekend was a mixed bag. Friday was great. I went fishing with the musketeer and El Supremo and caught a record number of bass--record for me anyway. Those guys would have been happy to go home an hour earlier, but they stayed to humor me as I was having a good time catching the first, the most, and the last fish. They did finally switch their jigs (or jig trailers, or jig covers (I'm not sure what they're called) to match mine and they started catching as well, or almost as well. 

Saturday was a bust. I had two major things to accomplish at home. I spent all my time on the first one, and couldn't figure it out. I wasted a lot of effort and a lot of time.

Now I'm looking forward to getting Promise of Carnage and Flame formatted for paperback. As soon as that's done, I'll get to work on my dystopian thriller.