Interview with Brian McClellan

Today we’ve got an interview with Brian McClellan, who I’m guessing many of you already know. I was excited to talk to him because he’s one of the few authors who have really pulled off the “flintlock” genre of fantasy, which is a little bit like my Cartographer series. He’s also studied under Brandon Sanderson, and is self-publishing a new series that I have on the Kindle but haven’t dug into yet. Lots to talk about today!

AC: Hi Brian, thanks for joining me. My readers probably know you best for your traditionally published Powder Mage and Gods of Blood and Powder series. Can you tell us a little bit about those two?

BM: Yes! Powder Mage takes place in a universe where magic comes in many forms, including the titular powder mages – men and women who can imbibe common black powder to gain fantastic powers. This is a flintlock fantasy where the technology level is roughly equivalent to our own Napoleonic Era and focuses on a lot of the same themes: revolution, war, kinship, and class division. Powder Mage was my first universe as a professional writer, and encompasses two trilogies and a whole boat load of novellas and short stories.

AC: You’ve also dipped your toe into self-publishing with your Valkyrie Collections series. How is this one different, and why did you decide to take a different route to market?

BM: Valkyrie Collections comes from an idea that has been floating around in my head for years: a collection agent who works for the supernatural elements of this world. It takes place in modern-day Cleveland, Ohio (where I’m from) and is obviously way different than my epic fantasy work. It had more of a sense of humor, is much shorter, and is written in the first person.

We actually made a small effort to sell the first book, Uncanny Collateral, to traditional publishers. I knew from the beginning it would be a difficult sell because it comes in at just 45k words and it’s urban fantasy – two things that most publishers don’t care to touch right now. The responses came back pretty universally as “this is fun, but we have no idea what to do with it.” Since I was already pretty sure that I’d end up selfpubbing it and had built that into my schedule (and wanted to experiment anyways), I just went ahead and did it!

AC: Can you talk a little bit about the biggest differences you’ve found between traditional and self-publishing?

BM: Control is the big one, and something a lot of selfpubbing gurus talk about. You are in control of the art and the editing and cover art and the marketing and everything else. Nobody is going to overrule your decisions. This is a mixed blessing as it’s super nice to be in control, but also most people have NO IDEA how to do any of that stuff and often aren’t knowledgeable enough even to hire the right people that do. Once you’ve got the right contacts, it all costs money – money that would be covered by the publisher in a tradpub situation.

The biggest upside of selfpubbing is that a much greater percentage of the profits go to the author, which is obviously super nice. But as I mentioned, there’s a lot more front-end work and monetary investment you have to put in to earn those profits.

AC: I didn’t realize this until I started doing research for this interview, but I saw you went to Brigham Young University, which is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Are you a member of that church?

BM: Nope. I don’t really understand religion, and never have, even having been raised Mormon. BYU was not a good experience for me, but that’s all I’ll say about that. I have a lot of Mormon friends that I respect a great deal.

AC: BYU has a pretty incredible tradition of producing fantasy authors. During your time there, I heard you got to study with Brandon Sanderson. Can you tell us a little about that?

BM: Brandon was a fantastic teacher. I believe I had him the year Elantris came out (and several subsequent years as creative writing electives were my only A’s), so it was before he was BRANDON SANDERSON. It was great to have a teacher who went at genre writing with a professional’s eye, showing us contracts and telling us what to expect in the business. It was also really cool was watch him grow from a newly published author into the powerhouse he is today. As a bit of a brag, I believe I was his first student to really make the big time (followed quickly by Charlie Holmberg and several others).

AC: Brandon has been a huge influence on so many of today’s fantasy authors. Can you talk some about what other authors have influenced your work?

BM: Oh, there are tons. The people I was reading when I wrote Promise of Blood included Steven Erikson, Joe Abercrombie, and Brandon. 

AC: What are you working on now, and what will we see coming out next?

BM: I recently sold a whole new epic fantasy universe to Tor. You can read the announcement here. The first book should be out in 2022 (possibly sooner if I write quickly), and was bought and will be edited by the same editor who acquired both Powder Mage trilogies. Funny enough, she is now Brandon’s editor at Tor so we share that too!

AC: I noticed you do a lot of cons. I’ve never actually done one of those… Do you enjoy them, and what’s your favorite one from the perspective both as a reader and as an author?

BM: I do enjoy them! Cons are basically the water cooler of being an author. It’s one of the few times you get to go hang out with your author friends in person. You also get to meet readers, maybe convert a few new ones, and actually see that real humans are reading and enjoying your work.

I don’t really do cons as a reader, as I’m not really much of a reader any more at all (has something to do with this being my day job and not wanting to take my work home with me). My big local con, FanX Salt Lake, is a really good one. I’ve also done two cons in Poland, which is my best-selling country per capita by a wide margin, and it’s always super cool to be treated like a proper celebrity.

AC: And finally, when not reading or writing fantasy books, what are some of your hobbies that readers may not know about?

BM: I listen to a lot of historical podcasts and audiobooks. The Revolutions Podcast and Hardcore History are both favorites of mine. I play waaaaay too many video games, tending toward city builders and survival sims with a smattering of RPGs thrown in there. I also play in a weekly streaming roleplaying game on twitch with a few of my author friends every Tuesday night called Typecast RPG. So you should all totally come watch us play. 

AC: And that’s all I have with Brian! We’ve shared a lot of links today, so I won’t repeat them all, but you can click the covers above to find his books on Amazon, the link for Typecast RPG, or go to https://www.brianmcclellan.com for everything you ever wanted to know about Brian.

Interview with JA Andrews

I’ve got an interview today with the author of the Keeper Chronicles, JA Andrews. Her books are a great match for Benjamin Ashwood fans, and during the interview I realized we have almost the exact same influences. A rare occurrence of it all making sense… Each of the series she lists as inspiring to her, I currently have on my shelves!

My favorite quote from the interview, “Growing up, I loved science, math, and writing. No one ever, at any time in my life, treated writing as a possible career path. I was as likely to find the wardrobe into Narnia as I was to ever pay bills from writing.” I think that’s a sentiment that almost every author can relate to. But JA (Janice), is well on her way to paying her bills, and a lot more. And by the way, the boxset for her Keeper Chronicles series is one of the best reviewed fantasy titles on Goodreads, and it’s only $0.99.

I’m bringing you guys gold. PURE GOLD!

Let’s do this interview.

AC: Hi JA, mind if I call you Janice? Thanks for joining us today! My readers may have heard of you from your Keeper Chronicles series, but in case they have not, can you tell us a little bit about those books?

JA: Thanks for inviting me! The Keeper Chronicles are an ode to my deep love for the classic fantasy books I grew up on in the 80’s and 90’s. They have Keepers (storyteller/mages) who travel with gruff dwarves and flighty elves and run into the occasional dragon. Not a cuddly sort of dragon, more like cousin-of-Smaug dragons. I’m a big fan of the old fantasy tropes, and I wanted to see if I could write a book that uses them in ways that feel familiar, but is also full of life. I have had my books compared to some Benjamin Ashwood series, if that means anything to you.

AC: Nice! As my readers know, I’m also a huge fan of classic fantasy stories, and my love of “90’s Fantasy” is what led to Benjamin Ashwood. What inspired you to write your version?

JA: When I started writing, I found myself missing a sense of… something like wonder in the books, movies, and TV I was seeing. I realized that all my favorite stories have that… whatever-it-is in them

By the time I’d written an entire series that tried to capture that whatever-it-is, you’d think I’d have figured out a better name for it. But mostly I describe it with fluttery hand motions and an expectant expression that doesn’t translate well into type. So I write to capture the whatever-it-is. 

AC: A two parter — What series from the 80’s / 90’s are your books most like, and if it is someone different, which author do you admire the most? Aka, who’s got “whatever-it-is”? 

JA: Excellent question. My first fantasy love was the Belgariad by David Eddings. I had never been so swept up in a story, or so invested in characters as I was the first time I read that series. Anne MacCaffrey’s Pern books, Dragonlance, and Raymond E Feist’s Magician books are more favorites of mine. I think what they all had in common was a freshness and wonder to the worlds and the magic their characters were discovering, and so I do think my writing is a bit like those.

AC: The boxset for the Keeper Chronicles series has some of the best reviews I’ve ever seen! 4.59 stars on Goodreads.com, which is a lot better than any of my books! What is it about this series which you think engages readers so thoroughly?

JA: I would pay a lot of money to know the answer to this question, because then I could lay to rest the lurking fear that I’ll never be able to repeat it. From the reviews, readers seem to connect emotionally with the characters, which I’m thrilled about. I think this is the unexpected result of the fact that I have very little visual imagination. 

When I’m writing, I don’t see the story, I hear it and feel it. So my descriptions tend toward the emotions in the scene as opposed to the visual. In fact, my rough drafts have so little visual description that my critique partners probably have “Describe what this looks like!” Programed as a shortcut on their keyboards.

On an unasked for and barely related tangent, my lack of visual imagination is paired with a lack of visual memory. I cannot remember what people look like. I can recognize them, but I can’t picture them. Even people I’m REALLY close to are hazy in my mind’s eye. So I have this terrible fear that someday I’m going to be the sole witness to a crime, and the only way I’ll be able to describe the criminal is with something like, “He had a heavy presence. And his hair was angry.”

AC:  Noted. I will be sure to plan any of my future crimes to take place in your vicinity. It’s funny you say that about visualization, though, because I think I’m the same way. I have to admit that I very rarely am self-aware enough to think about these things. In my Benjamin Ashwood series, I never bothered to describe the main character, Ben. It was a bit on purpose, to allow the readers to feel more comfortable putting themselves in his shoes, but also because he had no strong physical characteristics in my mind. I’d dreamed of his actions, rather than his face. A good thing we are not writing romance… Anyway, let’s get a little specific on writing craft. When building your characters, if you’re not assigning eye-color, what are you doing to formulate these imaginary creatures we’re going to want to follow for several books?

JA: That’s interesting about Ben, because now that I think about it, I have no idea what he looks like. Which is not unusual for me, EXCEPT I feel like there was a freedom to his character. Like I could make him look like whatever I wanted, instead of feeling like I’d just forgotten you said about him, which is what I usually do.

When I am creating characters, it’s usually based around whatever is broken inside them. Which is cheerful. I like my characters to all have some sort of deep ache that they try to ignore during regular life, but the story just keeps shoving it in their face. I generally have a good emotional picture of all my characters, and how they act, just not what they look like. “I’d dreamed of his actions, rather than his face” is a perfect description.

AC: Ok, enough of this woozy floozy writing craft! Let’s get to the invasive personal questions ;) In your bio, you say you’re an unemployed rocket scientist. You’ve got to give us the backstory on that!

JA: Growing up, I loved science, math, and writing. No one ever, at any time in my life, treated writing as a possible career path. I was as likely to find the wardrobe into Narnia as I was to ever pay bills from writing. And, as a girl, everyone was thrilled to help me move toward the sciences. My father is an engineer, so it seemed like a logical path to take. 

Unfortunately, not too far into engineering school, I realized that while science was fun, a large part of engineering involved deciding how thick a bolt had to be to keep a bridge from collapsing. Which didn’t really grab my fancy. 


Except aerospace engineering. I already had a deep love for fantasy worlds by this point, and working in space is the closest we get to a fantasy world in real life. Yes, there are the same physical laws, but when you have no atmosphere and gravity is weak enough that it’s more of a suggestion than an irresistible force, everything changes. There is such a fantastical aspect to designing things that can travel in such a bizarre environment. 

The only problem, which probably wasn’t surprising to anyone but me, is that there isn’t a huge demand for rocket scientists in the work force. So I ended up taking a job as a telecommunications engineer for a few years until we had our first baby and I could bail on engineering and do anything else at all. 

My husband is a physician, though, and since “rocket scientist” is one of the few things that trumps “doctor”, I feel like the degree has been put to good use. 

AC: And now you’re in Montana with a young family?

JA: We do live in Montana, and I’m torn between saying my children are young, and weeping about the fact that they’re about to move out and leave me. In actuality, they’re 8, 10, and 13. So probably somewhere in the messy middle. I homeschool them and find them to be among the most interesting people on earth.

Also, I write my books specifically so that my kids can read them if they want. So even though they’re written for adults and deal with complex issues like grief and guilt and whether our lives are turning out how we’d expected, they have a solid PG rating. The violence is minimal and there’s no sex, mostly because they tend to be very light on romance.

AC: Being able to stay home and write is the dream for many budding authors, but with little kids in the house, it can also be a nightmare! And I only say that because my guys are 7, 4, and 2 now, and they are nightmares… Can you tell us a little bit about your schedule, and how you manage your work / life balance?

JA: Thankfully my kids are getting older and more independent. I’m thoroughly impressed with authors who can write with tiny, volatile energy balls running around their house.

That being said, I do get most of my writing done early in the morning. A happy side effect of homeschooling is that no one needs to be out of the house early, so kids sleep in and leave me alone until usually sometime between 9 and 10. My productivity does take a nosedive after that, though.

AC: Outside of family and writing, what are your hobbies, and what would you do if suddenly you found yourself with twice as much time?

JA: This made me laugh hard enough that a child stopped by to see what was so funny. Between homeschooling and family—and a husband who works from home as well—I have no hobby besides writing. But I love getting to write, so probably with twice as much time, I’d write twice as much. I’m not sure if that makes me dedicated and focused, or obsessed, but there it is.

AC: Now that the Keeper Chronicles are complete, what’s next from you, Janice?

JA: I’m about to publish the first book in a new series that takes place in the same world, several hundred years before the Keeper Chronicles. It’s called the Keeper Origins, and, unsurprisingly, tells the stories of the first Keepers. If the stars align, I hope to have the entire trilogy out within a year. My practical inner voice has a lot of snarky, skeptical things to say about that goal, but I try not to listen to her too often.

AC: And that’s all I’ve got for today. Reminder, JA’s boxset is one of the best fantasy reviewed titles on Goodreads, and it’s only $0.99 on Amazon. What else do you need to know?? When you’re done reading that, you can find out more about her at: https://www.jaandrews.com.

Interview with Jeff Wheeler

I’m very excited today to share an interview with Jeff Wheeler. If you got my books on Amazon, then you’ve almost certainly heard of him. The guy lives at the top spots on the fantasy charts! Even when my last series ended up in an obscure subgenre called gaslamp — which no one has ever heard of — I found Jeff there waiting… I had to talk to the guy.

He has an expansive catalogue, which you’ll learn more about in the interview, but if you can’t wait to read all of that, the best places to start with the books are The Wretched of Muirwood or the soon to be released The Killing Fog (preorder). The Wretched of Muirwood is classic Jeff, the Killing Fog is new Jeff. If you liked Benjamin Ashwood, then Muirwood could be a good fit. If you liked the Cartographer, then his Harbringer series is a closer match — though Jeff isn’t as dark & dirty as I am. And if you trust nothing I say and want to skip to his best-selling series, it’s Kingfountain.

Actually, just read the interview…

AC: Hi Jeff, thanks for joining me today. My readers likely know you best from your Kingfountain or Muirwood books, but you’re pretty prolific. Before I lost track, I think I counted 29 titles across several series! Can you tell us a little bit about the different series and your new one coming out?

JW: When the writing bug bit me, I decided early on that I didn’t want to be confined to just one world and only tell stories in it. Most readers know me for my Muirwood series and Kingfountain series, which take place on two different worlds, and then the Harbinger series which creates conflict between both of them. Most of my books have a medieval feeling to them, except Harbinger which has a more Steampunk vibe. My new series, The Grave Kingdom, is something totally different and takes place in a world with Chinese mythological elements.

AC: You had a few books out beforehand, but you really got going with the Legends of Muirwood series back in 2013. It was published by Amazon’s fantasy imprint, 47North, and if I have my timing right, that was just shortly after 47North got started. How did you end up with them, and were you nervous about starting with a new imprint?

JW: I originally self-published the Legends of Muirwood series, launching all three books simultaneously after multiple rejections. It was on the market at the time 47North was born and was picked up by their editor, David Pomerico, who had been recruited from Del Rey to help with acquisitions. David was interested in those books as well as the Mirrowen series which I had started writing after finishing Muirwood.

AC: Ah, I didn’t realize it was self-published first! Amazon is rarely known as a book publisher, but thanks to their retail presence, marketing prowess, and a savvy selection of authors, they’ve grown into one of the largest. Can you tell us a little bit about what it’s been like working with them?

JW: Having spent most of my career at a tech company, I really understand Amazon and where they’re coming from as a disruptor in the publishing scene. What I really wanted was a long-term partner who would continue to innovate and not just sell books the traditional way. It was a perfect match, and I’ve enjoyed the partnership, especially their ability to turn out my books as fast as I can write them. It means they’ve been open to testing aggressive launch schedules and all that it entails. But what most people don’t really understand is their unparalleled ability to match readers with writers they’ll love. No other publisher can do it the same way.

AC: The book publishing and retailing businesses have seen huge upheaval in recent years, and just about everyone predicts more is to come. What changes do you expect to see happening in the next 5 years?

JW: It’s true that change always happens. We’re already seeing more of a shift to audiobooks than in the past, and I think that trend will only accelerate. People just don’t have as much time to sit down and read as they used to. The ability to listen while driving or going to the gym and then being able to switch to reading a digital version at the same spot is something that is helpful. With services like Kindle Unlimited, we’re seeing another huge shift in the industry that will have long-term implications. But I don’t foresee an end to reading. Yes, books compete with TV shows, movies, videogames, listening to music, and other forms of entertainment, but it’s not going away any time soon. People crave an escape from the pressures of daily life and the ability to immerse themselves in words. That won’t change.

AC: Let’s get back to your books. With so many different series, I’m curious about what inspires you. We can’t cover them all, so how about we start with your upcoming March 2020 release, The Killing Fog?

JW: The idea for The Killing Fog originally came during a family cruise to Alaska. That’s where the plot and world building started, but things really exploded when I was invited to the International Writing Conference in Beijing in 2018. I got to spend a month in China and really immersed myself in the lore and culture of that country. But like all of my series, it’s the story that drives it. The emotional connection I feel to the characters and what they’re about to go through. The setting is just part of the ambiance. What really matters, to me, is the human experience. I chose fantasy as my genre because while I love history and majored in it during college, I didn’t like feeling constrained to follow things that happened. Most of my books are based on obscure historical details that I then re-vamped into something new.

AC: Back in my corporate days while I was writing the early Benjamin Ashwood books, I traveled extensively for work. A lot of the places I visited made their way onto my pages. Sharp-eyed sleuths deduced I was in Hamburg, Germany while writing Book 3, for example. I love traveling, and I love finding places in this world that slide naturally into a fantasy setting. Can you tell us the most magical place you’ve visited, and have you drawn from that for your books?

JW: I'm definitely inspired by places I've been. Sometimes little things like hiking the redwoods of California ended up in my books. As for the most magical place I've been, it was probably a river walk in the Sierra Gordo mountains in Mexico. The water was so pristinely clear it seemed like a magical fountain. The river walk led to a massive grotto with waterfalls. That location ended up in my Harbinger series. I still get chills when I think about it. 

AC: You’ve also mentioned that your work is strongly guided by your faith. Can you tell us some about that, and how it reflects in the themes you write?

JW: When I was working on the craft, it seemed to me that the Grimdark fantasy genre really took off. I grew up with Terry Brooks, David Eddings, and Weis and Hickman which all feature noble characters trying to defend against the forces of darkness. I wondered if I would have to change what I wrote about in order to find an audience, but I shouldn’t have worried. I write what I like to read and have found that the audience for less gritty material is still alive and well and grateful for an author they can share with their parents as well as their kids. I don’t think those themes (I call them Virtus) will ever go out of style and have been foundational to epics since the tales of Arthur and his knights.

AC: I believe Brandon Sanderson is another devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? Tell us the secret, is there something about the religion which makes one an excellent epic fantasy author? 

JW: I won’t say that we’re all excellent epic fantasy authors, but there are more of us than you may know (Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Mull, Charlie N. Holmberg, Emily R King, Orson Scott Card…). There isn’t a special training we all get, but if you consider the history of the religion and its founding, it does seem fantastical. A farm boy from upstate New York has a vision? He’s led to golden plates with ancient hieroglyphics on them? All that’s missing is Gandalf and a quest! I think members of my Church have great imaginations and the Church encourages us to develop talents and try to contribute to the world. One of the articles of our faith says, “If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.” We’re encouraged to pursue higher education, excel in our chosen fields, and be examples to others. I spent over twenty years working on the craft before getting published with 47North. It might look easy, but it’s really just a lot of hard work.

AC: Can you talk a little about your journey to becoming a full-time author?

JW: The spark was lit while I was an 8th grader growing up in California. I wrote five novels while in high school, all of which were terrible. I’ve always wanted to be a full-time author, but I knew as most people do that I needed a job to pay the bills. It was my missionary training for my church that qualified me to start working at Intel in their training department. I thought of it as a part-time job just to put myself through college and it ended up being a career. But I was always writing stories during that time. Last November, I published my first non-fiction book about my 20+ year journey as a writer called “Your First Million Words”. It goes through all the ups and downs during those years and I hope it inspires people to stick with it.

AC: It’s incredible to think of the changes that have happened in our industry over those 20 short years. Sticking with it will always be good advice for a budding author, but is there anything else you recommend for someone who is just now trying to get into the industry?

JW: My advice would be to train your eye to look at old things in new ways. Publishers aren't just looking for the "next" story that is the same as everyone else’s. Editors and readers crave something new, or something a little different than what they're used to. We reject a lot of fiction in my e-zine Deep Magic because it just feels like something we've already read before. Looking at things with fresh eyes is key and I think a great opportunity for up and coming authors.

AC: And finally, tell us something no one knows about Jeff Wheeler? 

JW: My wife and I have known each other since we were teenagers, so she has an unfair advantage knowing just about everything there is to know about me. When I tell a story from a childhood that she hasn't already heard five times, it's a rare event. So I'll qualify the question with something most people don't know about me. I used to publish stories under the pen-name J.T. Slain back when I first created Deep Magic. It stood for "Jerk the Slain" which was a nickname I got from a friend when I was a dungeon master in high school. This was because of my cliffhanger endings and plot twists that had my friends hating me sometimes. My friend James would see my sly grin after pulling one of those jerky twists and he just came up with the title and it stuck.

AC: And there we have it, the infamous JT Slain, ladies and gentlemen. Remember, you can find all of Jeff’s books on Amazon HERE, you can find him at jeff-wheeler.com, or check out the e-zine at deepmagic.co.