Authors are listed alphabetically by LAST name beginning with T
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O.E. Tearmann
Your Name(s): E.S. Argentum and Olivia Wylie
Pseudonym (if you use one): O.E. Tearmann
Genre(s) of your work: Dystopian scifi queer romance
Bio:
The O. in O.E. Tearmann, Olivia Wylie (she/her), is a professional horticulturist and business owner who specializes in the restoration of neglected gardens. When the weather keeps her indoors, she enjoys researching and writing about the plant world, the future, and the complexities of being human. Her solo work is in illustrated non-fiction works of ethnobotany, intended to make the intersection of human history and plant evolution accessible to a wider audience. She lives in Colorado with a very patient husband and a rather impatient cat.
As the “E” in the O.E. Tearmann writing duo, E.S. Argentum (they/them) brings to a life a cast of eccentric, loveable characters. They bring the same passion for diverse, character-driven stories seen in Aces High, Jokers Wild to their solo work. E.S Argentum’s fantasy and scifi romances center on GLBTQ+ relationships with the emotional comfort of your favorite puff piece, layered with rich, unique twists. They have short stories published in multiple anthologies under the pseudonym of Emily Singer, including Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Crossing Colfax and Ultimate Power, from Northwest press. When they’re not writing, they’re generally found playing video games, having existential crises, or napping with their cat.
For the curious: why Tearmann?
Both Olivia and E.S. study the Irish language. In Irish, ‘tearmann’ is defined as: noun. A refuge, place of asylum, home or sanctuary. When these two authors decided to write a series centering healthy social bonds as the best way to deal with traumatic events, and giving agency to marginalized characters, it seemed only fitting to use a name that means ‘a sanctuary’.
Why do you write in the genre that you do?
E.S.: We were both going through a pretty rough time back in 2015ish. I was originally trying to write a dystopian story on my own and reached out to Olivia for help brainstorming–and we wound up writing this sprawling story with characters we loved and themes that helped us feel better. After the 2016 election, we knew we needed to do something for our communities, Olivia suggested publishing this series, and here we are. That and I adore writing queer romances in general because we still don’t get to see ourselves on the page as much as we should, especially not in non-fetishized explicit sex scenes.
Olivia: Agreed! Representing the kind of strong romantic and platonic bonds that keep marginalized communities going has been a real joy. And sometimes it’s very simple too: a friend watching someone else’s kid while they work, a quick chat and some dating advice. A word of support in the ‘yeah, I’ve been there, it sucks’ vein. It all helps, and it’s all under-represented in story. But yes, writing queer sex that isn’t feteshized is also a real joy!
How has writing changed/altered your life?
E.S.: I’ve been writing since I was twelve, so it’s almost always been a huge part of my life. It’s helped me create and find an amazing community, helped me explore my own identities through my characters and their struggles, and it’s something that’s always been a great outlet. I can’t imagine anything else I’d rather be doing with my creative side.
Olivia: I think it’s really improved my confidence. I no longer see myself as an outsider; surrounded by the community that I’ve stepped into as an author, I feel like I belong somewhere these days.
Who are your favorite authors and why?
E.S.: Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Tamora Peirce, and Gail Carson Levine. Peirce and Levine were my first introduction to really strong female characters with agency, back when I was in middle school. Gaiman and Pratchett are both just incredible writers who tackle difficult subjects with a grace I only hope we can faintly echo.
Olivia: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, because the radio dramas were what my mom played on long car trips and I find them soothing. Diane Duane, who showed me that there was magic in all things and affirmed for me that it was always worthwhile to stand up to the cruel and the harmful, even when you’re small. Her work is still a comfort read. Charles de Lint, the author who got me through high school and showed me that good things were possible after the bad days. I still love his work. Terry Pratchett, who is and will always be both a comfort author for me and a source of so many lessons. Ray Bradbury, who always gives me a sense of wonder, whether it is blended with fear or joy. Anne Block, who showed me that kicking ass and being magic weren’t mutually exclusive. Catherynne Valente and Aliette Bodard, who are keeping that sense of wonder strong. And Alex Silver, C.B. Lewis and Jodi Taylor, who are all so much fun.
Do you believe that audiobooks are the wave of the future, more of a passing fad, or somewhere in between and why?
E.S.: I think audiobooks are here to stay, but I don’t necessarily think they’re ‘the wave of the future.’ I feel like they’ll wind up in the same sort of situation as ebooks: they’re widely available and there are plenty of pieces that are exclusive to the format, but I don’t think they’ll erase print or ebooks entirely. At least, I hope not, because I really struggle with audiobooks personally!
Olivia: I think audiobooks are just another media for enjoyment, serving a purpose that compliments print media. In my own life, I read books when I’m at home, and I listen to audio when I’m out of the house. I have hypersensitive hearing, and plugging in a story to block out the noisy world is a real gift. When Kirt Graves, who reads the Aces High, Jokers Wild series, sent me the first audio, there was a special glee in being at work out in the gardens and listening to our own words coming to life! But it’s just as lovely to come home and curl up in the blessed quiet with a good book.
What is your opinion of mainstream/corporate bookstores?
E.S.: I much prefer to shop indie if I can because I’m all for supporting local communities. But I also recognize that mainstream bookstores help folks access books more easily, especially in rural areas where there may never have been an indie shop but the corporate ones deliver. I don’t think the big chains are inherently ‘evil’ or anything, but I do dearly hope they leave space for the smaller, independent places.
Olivia: My feelings are…complex. It’s great that books are getting sold, and in some ways the big stores have opened things up for Indie authors. During Covid, it’s been great to be able to order books from Amazon when my local stores didn’t have something specific.
That said, I really don’t want to see cities empty of the kind of stores where secrets wait in little nooks, just around the corner or behind the next shelf. I want places like the much-loved and punk-vibed Mutiny Information Cafe to be on Denver’s Broadway. I want Bookbar to be there as a place to buy a book, curl up in a cozy chair and read for hours. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling this way, so I hope I’m not alone in supporting these stores.
What have you found to be a good marketing tool? A bad one?
E.S.: I do social media marketing for my day job and I’m still struggling to find a good tool, honestly. A lot of marketing comes down to timing and luck, unfortunately, especially if you don’t have tons of money to throw at it. The best thing I’ve found, honestly, is just creating community. Talk to other authors and readers, join Discord servers and Facebook groups, make or find a critique group, comment on blogs. Anything that connects you personally to someone else.
Olivia: Amen to that! I’ve found that community is the strongest selling point. Consistency also helps; since we’re both really busy people, I take a week in the winter to schedule all the year’s social media on Buffer, and that’s a lifesaver. No matter what’s going on, something goes up on the pages. I have found boosted FB ads to be a bit of a money pit, so I would advise against that.
Do you believe writing should be censored – that some topics should remain taboo?
E.S.: Censorship of any kind of a very slippery slope, and as someone who writes stories about marginalized people that certain groups dislike, I worry that banning some topics would balloon out way too fast to cut out anything different. This is where trigger and content warnings are useful, I think. Letting readers know upfront what they’re getting into can help them decide whether or not this particular book is for them–that’s why we have disclaimers and notes in the front of the Aces High books. That’s not to say I condone everything everyone writes about, and there are certainly topics I’ll steer away from, but I just hate the idea of telling people what they can and can’t create.
Olivia: Like E.S., I really struggle with this. Let’s take a really obvious hypothetical that has surprising layers. Saying ‘no child sex should be written about’ is a dead easy example. Nobody wants child pornography around (well, okay, nobody who has any decency). But if you put the above rule in place, that means no The Lovely Bones, no chance for trauma survivors to tell their stories, and no light shone on abuse through the vehicle of literature. You’d really have to be laser focused if you made a rule: ‘no child sex narratives shall be represented in a positive or encouraging manner.’ That’s what makes this such a slippery slope; without nearly super-human restraint, there will be bad rules put down at some point. My basic instinct is to say ‘put rules down to stop what’s really indecent, and let people create the rest.’ But I know my history, and there are too many people who think people like Nonir and me are indecent.
For now, I’ll use trigger warnings, avoid works I find distasteful, and accept that the world is full of complexity.
Where can people find you and your work?
E.S.: My solo work is at argentumbooks.com. At the moment, I only have short stories published, but my first solo novel is coming out in April. I also occasionally tweet on @ESArgentum (though I admit I’m not as active as I’d like).
Where You Go, I Will Go: Lessons From a Military Spouse
Bio:
I started out as a reporter/editor for several newspapers in 1982. When my husband went on active duty in the Air Force in 1992, I switched to freelance writing and wrote for several newspapers and magazines across the U.S. My husband retired in 2018 and we relocated to Normal, IL
I am the mother of twin daughters. We have two sons-in-law, two grandsons and two granddaughters, all of whom I adore. I love reading, writing, being a Nonna, and football – especially the Chicago Bears and the Ohio State Buckeyes. We also like to travel – mainly by cruise ship or travel trailer.
Why do you write in the genre that you do?
After 31 years of life as a military spouse, I feel I have a lot of fun stories to share and some wisdom I’ve gained over the years.
How has writing changed/altered your life?
I’ve always loved to write and meet people so becoming a reporter was a natural fit for me. But writing and publishing my first book was such a fascinating and rewarding process. I learned about myself along the journey and it feels good to think I may have helped even one military spouse.
Who are your favorite authors and why?
I love Jane Austen. Janet Evanovich and W.E.B. Griffin delight me with the characters they create that I grow to love over the course of a series.
In non-fiction, I like Bill Bryson and A.J. Jacobs for their humor. I like to laugh.
Do you believe that audiobooks are the wave of the future, more of a passing fad, or somewhere in between and why?
I, myself, have not jumped into the audiobook yet. I think they have a spot in the marketplace, but I think people will continue to want to read books as well. I know a lot of people who don’t even want to read e-books. I know in my personal experience that I’ve sold more paperback copies of my book than e-books. Not sure how an audiobook would fare.
What is your opinion of mainstream/corporate bookstores?
Well, since I shop mostly at B&N and Amazon, I like them. But indie stores are usually the place you can talk all things books and get to know the employees on a personal level. I like both.
What have you found to be a good marketing tool? A bad one?
I use social media – except TikTok, and I have a website, blog and email newsletter. Amazon Ads draws some sales, but not as much as I would like. I’m not pleased with the results of any of my marketing efforts so I keep studying how to do it better.
Do you believe writing should be censored – that some topics should remain taboo?
I do not believe writing should be censored. I believe parents should be involved in what books their children read. The parent needs to deem what they think is appropriate for their own child. I also feel adults should be grown up enough to make their own decisions on what they read or don’t read. If something offends them or makes them angry or any other emotion they don’t want to feel, don’t read it or recommend it to friends.
Genre(s) of your work: Fantasy, SF, horror, thrillers, transgressive, magical realism, neo-noir, and literary fiction.
Titles/Year of Published Work(s):
NOVELS: Breaker (2016, Thriller Award nominee), Disintegration (2015), and Transubstantiate (2010).
COLLECTIONS: Tribulations (2016), Staring into the Abyss (2013), and Herniated Roots (2012).
ANTHOLOGIES (as editor): The Lineup: 20 Provocative Women Writers (2015), Exigencies (2015, Shirley Jackson nominee), The New Black (2014), and Burnt Tongues (2014, Bram Stoker nominee). Plus 140 stories across a number of anthologies, magazines, and websites.
Bio:
Richard Thomas is the award-winning author of seven books: three novels—Disintegration and Breaker (Penguin Random House Alibi), as well as Transubstantiate (Otherworld Publications); three short story collections—Staring into the Abyss (Kraken Press), Herniated Roots (Snubnose Press), and Tribulations (Cemetery Dance); and one novella in The Soul Standard (Dzanc Books). With over 140 stories published, his credits include Cemetery Dance (twice),PANK, storySouth, Gargoyle, Weird Fiction Review, Midwestern Gothic, Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Qualia Nous, Chiral Mad (numbers 2-4), and Shivers VI (with Stephen King and Peter Straub).
He has won contests at ChiZine and One Buck Horror, has received five Pushcart Prize nominations, and has been long-listed for Best Horror of the Year six times. He was also the editor of four anthologies: The New Black and Exigencies (Dark House Press), The Lineup: 20 Provocative Women Writers (Black Lawrence Press) and Burnt Tongues (Medallion Press) with Chuck Palahniuk. He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, and Thriller awards.
In his spare time he is a columnist at Lit Reactor and Editor-in-Chief at Gamut Magazine. His agent is Paula Munier at Talcott Notch. For more information visit www.whatdoesnotkillme.com.
Why do you write in the genres that you do?
They are the stories that I’m most excited to tell. I tend to lean into the tragic, because I feel that we learn more from our failures than our successes. In every story there is conflict. I started out more crime and neo-noir, but have been focusing more on speculative fiction lately. I’m known as a horror author, but I think that these days a lot of what I’m doing is cross-genre, hybrid fiction, that taps into a number of genres.
How has writing changed/altered your life?
It’s what I do now, so it’s changed everything. I spend 25 years in advertising, but the last 10 as an author, editor, teacher, and publisher. It’s the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done, professionally.
Who are your favorite authors and why?
Oh man, where to being? Started out with Stephen King as a kid, read all of his work. The beats like Kerouac and Burroughs changed me. One day I saw Fight Club and then read Chuck Palahniuk, which changed everything. That got me to Craig Clevenger, Will Christopher Baer, and Stephen Graham Jones. SGJ is the only one of those three still actively writing. Which got me into my MFA, and that added some great influences as well—Cormac McCarthy, Joyce Carol Oates, Denis Johnson, Haruki Murakami, Mary Gaitskill, John Cheever, Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, etc. I read a lot of small press authors these days, so aside from those mentioned, I love all of the Dark House Press and Gamut authors, especially Brian Evenson, Benjamin Percy, Angela Slatter, Damien Angelica Walters, Kristi DeMeester, Usman Malike, and others like Livia Llewellyn. The list is huge.
What is your opinion of mainstream/corporate bookstores?
Well, they seem to be essential. I love bookstores, new and used, but at the end of the day I know that places like Amazon get me in front of people. A necessary evil. Nothing will ever replace that small, local bookstore, though.
What do you hope your readers will take away from your work?
I want them to feel something. Sometimes it’s a good cry, a sense of loss, other times happiness, or the thrill of surviving. I don’t want them to say, “Meh.”
How much does personal experience play in your written work?
A lot. I put a lot of myself into my work—heart, mind, and soul. The best stories work on those three levels—physically, moving through the world, action on the page; emotionally, getting the reader to feel something, that intimacy, that trust; and mentally, that sense of epiphany, that denouement, and understanding.
How do you find the motivation to complete a book/story?
First, you have to have a story to tell, something powerful, that means something to you. It can’t just be entertainment, for me. When it’s working, it flows out of me, a body without organs, trying to just keep up with the visions in my head. On my best days I’ve written, edited, and finished stories that were almost 7,000 words. For novels, I wrote 40,000 words in one week, 12,000 words in one day my best. It was nuts.
What makes you NOT finish reading a book?
If I’m bored, if I don’t care about the characters, if nothing new and exciting is happening.
Do you believe writing should be censored—that some topics should remain taboo?
I won’t glorify some subjects. I was very careful writing about molestation and rape, but I also know I probably won’t write those scenes again. There had to be justice, vengeance, a balance. I can’t see there being a need for child pornography, in fiction, and there is so much misogyny these days, it’s not needed in our stories, for the most part. I will say that I’ve read some powerful books that were pretty dark, that made me feel complicit—American Psycho, The Girl Next Door, The End of Alice. Dark stuff. I know where my line is now, where I won’t go.
Any pet peeves in writing? In reading others’ work?
I don’t like stories that open with somebody waking up. Hate stories about writers writing about writing. Don’t like stories that curse in the first line. Fuck is such an empty word. It can be powerful, when used appropriately. I hate writing that doesn’t try hard to do something original—be it voice, setting, characters, plot, etc.
Ted Darling Crime Series (currently 12 books, first published 2015 – no 13 out Autumn 2019)
Sell the Pig Travel Memoirs Series – (6 books – first published 2012)
The Dog with the Golden Eyes – children’s illustrated fiction, published 2017.
Bio:
Retired journalist, freelance copywriter and copy editor. Born in Britain, now living in France as a French citizen. Enjoys walking and camping with her two rescued border collies, Fleur and Rosie, gardening, reading and writing.
Why do you write in the genre that you do?
Travel memoirs because a lot of people are interested in hearing about starting a new life in a new country. And I did it with an 89-year-old mother who had dementia.
Crime fiction because it’s long been my favourite genre to read and watch on television.
Children’s fiction because something I saw about true crime cases made me wonder about children involved.
How has writing changed/altered your life?
I’ve written for a living for a large part of my life. Now I wrote for a living doing something I very much enjoy.
Who are your favorite authors and why?
I enjoy Ian Rankin and Val McDermid for crime fiction. As I live in France I now read mostly in French and have enjoyed discovering new authors through the local library, and being lucky enough to meet some, including Ghislain Gilberti, Ian Manook, and Olivier Norek.
What is your opinion of mainstream/corporate bookstores?
Anything which helps/encourages more people to read gets my vote.
How much does personal experience play in your written work?
Quite a bit, with the crime. I was a court and coroner’s court reporter for ten years.
What motivates you to complete your (writing) work?
I love doing it. The day I no longer do, I’ll stop.
Do you believe writing should be censored – that some topics should remain taboo?
Tricky! I do think there is a modern trend to overwrite, not to leave anything at all to the readers’ imaginations. I think that knowing when to draw a veil is a good thing, a skill many writers should consider developing.
I was born and raised in Spain and moved to the US in 1996. I taught Spanish in College for many years, but I have been teaching at private high school for the last 12 years. Besides writing novels and short stories, I have also made a few short films, TV commercials and written screenplays and movie reviews. I moved to Wichita (Kansas) in 2009, where I live with my wife and two children.
Why do you write in the genre that you do?
Horror has always been my favorite genre. I am not sure why, but most of the ideas I have are influenced by the movies I watch and the novels I read, which tend to be works of horror.
How has writing changed/altered your life?
I have been writing for many years, so it is just part of my routine. It has always been a way to entertain myself, research and focus on something that excites me. So I guess it has changed my life because it keeps me busy in the best possible way.
Who are your favorite authors and why?
Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft are the first names that come to mind. I started reading both when I was about 13 years old and absolutely loved everything they wrote. To this day I am still amazed at their creativity and ability to immerse readers in their stories. I also truly admire Carlos Ruiz Zafؚón for the beauty of his prose and the complexity of his storylines. But there are many others like Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Clive Barker or John Farris.
Do you believe that audiobooks are the wave of the future, more of a passing fad, or somewhere in between and why?
To me, audiobooks are just another way to enjoy a story. They are not better or worse than printed books, just different. Reading, listening, watching are all great ways to be transported. I think it is great that now we have all these options so all kinds of audiences can enjoy these works of art.
What have you found to be a good marketing tool? A bad one?
I am very new at this and I do not have a lot of experience. But social media seems to be a very powerful and useful tool. Most people use these platforms, and they are quick, cheap, and easy to use.
Do you believe writing should be censored – that some topics should remain taboo?
It depends on the topic, and the age of the readers. But if we are talking about adults, I do not think that censorship works. All adults should be mature and educated enough to decide for themselves.
What is your opinion of Trigger Warnings?
I do not have a problem with them, especially as a father of young children.
Do you find that you sell better in person (at events) or through social media (like a personal blog, website, or Amazon)?
As I said earlier, I am very new at this. But so far social media and Amazon have been the most efficient.
Where can people find you and your work?
They can find me on Facebook and buy my work on Amazon.com
Magic & Mischief Anthology, The Risky Business of Romance, Trade Secrets – 2020
A Town Called Nowhere 2021
Bio:
VK Tritschler is a full-time busy body and part-time imagination conjurer. She lives on the amazing Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, having moved there from her hometown of Christchurch, New Zealand. Her family consists of a very patient husband, two rampant boys, and too many pets to mention.
She has a wonderful set of amazing writers who support her in the form of Eyre Writers, and in return, she offers crowd control services for the Youth section who are the future best-selling Australian authors. Her first book “The Secret Life of Sarah Meads” was released in 2018 and since then she has participated in the NYC Writing Challenge, the Clunes Booktown, and helped organize and run the Eyre Writers Festival. Her paranormal romance is “Magic & Mischief” with her story “Vital Impetus” which came out in July 2020. An anthology of magical stories from around the globe.
Her next novel “The Risky Business of Romance” was released in October 2020 – a romantic suspense set in rural South Australia. Her next novel – Trade Secrets is a rom-com based in Adelaide came out in December 2020. “A Town Called Nowhere” a paranormal romance about were-panthers set in rural Australia, was released in April 2021.
VK Tritschler will be attending the Australian Romance Readers Association (ARRA) Conference on the Gold Coast in August 2021 where you will be able to meet her personally and get your books signed!
I love to be in love. There is something almost endless in writing romance, because you get to explore every aspect of human relationships and development. Also – there is a special tingle you get when you know you are writing something that feels as real as an actual kiss.
How has writing changed/altered your life?
It has brought out my joyful side again. Because in my writing I am not encumbered by humanity, I can engage in worlds and places that I physically cannot visit at the moment, so it has given me a freedom which I am grateful for. But also, it has endeared me to such wonderful friends in other writers, authors and readers. I feel very spoilt.
Who are your favorite authors and why?
I have always been fond of the great writers, and the legacy they bring. Jane Austen and her starkly funny take on the ridiculousness of company. Charles Dickens and his broad fingered poke at the darker side of humanity. But recently I have been reading more local authors, as I have gotten to known them, and it has brought about a new interest in finding friendships behind the books.
Do you believe that audiobooks are the wave of the future, more of a passing fad, or somewhere in between and why?
I love to listen to audiobooks myself, so it would be pointless for me to not think they are an expanding market. But are they the holy grail? Probably not. As humans we have given oral history and story for a millennia, so its not technically a new way of presenting a story its just new packaging.
What is your opinion of mainstream/corporate bookstores?
I miss bookstores. I miss being able to browse and read the covers, and find all of your favourites in one place. But I also understand that like blacksmiths, and hatters, there is a time and a place for all commodities. Eventually innovation and creation take their toll on all things material. Still, if the world was to reach its pinnacle and an apocalypse was to take over there is some solace that books will again become the gold I believe them to be.
What have you found to be a good marketing tool? A bad one?
The best thing, and any marketer worth their salt will tell you this, for selling anything at all is the good word of someone who already brought it. Word of mouth! Be it friends, bookclubs, groups, forums. Wherever people of a similar ilk congregate in your genre THAT is where you need to be. Make your books the conversation that everyone is having.
Do you believe writing should be censored – that some topics should remain taboo?
There are no taboo topics in the written world, just themes and times for things to be written. A hundred years ago it was almost unheard of for a woman to write in her own name, now it seems the world is full of female authors. Time is not a lineal thing, it is a constantly moving shadow, and from those ducky hues new things emerge and others are hidden away.
Where can people find you and your work?
The easiest place to find me is on my website at www.vktritschler.com – I try and keep everything central and easy to locate there including my social media sites if you want a more regular update.
Wayne Turmel
Name: Wayne Turmel
Genre(s) of your work: Mostly Historical Fiction, some short pieces of indeterminate genre
Titles/Year of Published Work(s):
The Count of the Sahara (2015)
Acre’s Bastard (2017)
Bio :
Wayne Turmel is a former stand-up comedian, car salesman, corporate drone and business owner. After 20 years of being pretty well-known in the business communications field, and writing 7 books, he decided to turn to fiction to save what’s left of his sanity.
His two novels, The Count of the Sahara, and Acre’s Bastard, have won numerous online and indie awards. Originally from Canada, he lives in the suburbs of Chicago with his wife, The Duchess, and Byron, the world’s crankiest cockatiel.
Why do you write in the genre that you do?
The stories that captured me as a child were always set in someplace far away and long ago from small-town Canada. Treasure Island, The Three Musketeers and the like. I have just always been intrigued by the people who lived in other times. Also, swords are cooler than guns.
How has writing changed/altered your life?
Wow, going deep aren’t we? I think there are small-scale changes…. when I have a creative outlet I’m happier and easier to live with than when I’m just being a corporate drone. Joining my local writers group has given me a social outlet that I desperately needed–they say that writing is lonely, but being a writer is actually a social act.
Also, because my writing involves people and places that don’t involve mid-fifties white guys in American suburbia, it becomes an exercise in empathy. What were people thinking then? How did things become the way they are?
Who are your favorite authors and why?
Wow, I am a bit of a book slut, not too discriminating across a lot of genres and styles. I tell people I’m the love child of Alexandre Dumas and Hunter S Thompson and let them figure it out. Dumas, Stevenson and Kipling knew how to tell a story and grip the reader.
Modern writers like Jack Whyte and Ken Follett still crank out great historical fiction. Foreign writers like Arturo Perez Reverte and Leonardo Padura give us insight from different cultures. Indie authors like Lavinia Collins and others just inspire me to do good work and quit whining about not having an agent.
What is your opinion of mainstream/corporate bookstores?
Will you hate me if I say they are necessary? Bookstores are a business, and well-run, efficient businesses can offer more selection and convenience than an indie book store. It’s more convenient for the buyer.
The problem with them is they tend to have TERRIBLE taste and push what’s easiest… big press books that have gotten lots of press, celebrity bios, all that stuff, and the staff tends to be woefully unaware about books in general. The point is, it has to be easy for people to buy books or they won’t do it. Also, walking the shelves allows you to find surprises. ONline, you have to pick what you think you want, and can’t browse.
And small book stores may be terrific, but by definition they are going to have less selection (and sadly, be more expensive). That doesn’t mean I don’t love them and try to support them best as I can.
As an indie author I’ve had mild success getting into local stores both indie and big-box, but it takes a lot of work and you don’t make much money per book. Hey, if people can’t easily buy books, they’ll stop doing it, and that means they’ll never find you.
What do you hope your readers will take away from your work?
My favorite reviews are when someone says , “I didn’t think I would like a story about _____, or I’d never heard of this person, but I loved it” I want them to come away having enjoyed the ride first and foremost. Then I get a kick when it drives people to Google the subject and learn more. If you’re reading Historical Fiction and think you now understand a time period or person, you’re not doing your job.
Finally, I want them to have fun. My topics are serious, but there’s always humor to be found in even the most horrible circumstances. It’s how humans have survived so long.
How much does personal experience play in your written work?
I think all writers draw on their life for characters. There are certain people in my books who are an awful lot like people I know. Also, when you’re plotting your story, you have to ask, how would I act in those circumstances? I’ve never been a 10 year old half-French, Half-Arab boy in the crusades, but I have been 10.
How do you find the motivation to complete a book/story?
I don’t start until I’m really passionate about a story. It can gestate for a long time before I sit down to write. I’ve been writing to deadlines most of my adult life, so I can make myself do it, and frequently crank out a lot of words at one sitting (of course, it can be a long time between sessions while I’m noodling the story in my brain).
I waited until i was past 50 to tackle my first novel because I wasn’t sure I could do it. The trick, as the old cliche goes, is to eat that elephant one bite at a time. I find that by writing in small chunks, say 3-5000 words, it’s not too intimidating, if I do that 15- 20 times I have a whole novel.
What makes you NOT finish reading a book?
There are only two things that will stop me…. 1) if it’s just badly written. A lot of indie books especially haven’t been edited or proofed properly. When it becomes too much work, I give up. 2) If it is just over-written. I read a lot of sword and sorcery, and if the person is a nonstop parade of multi-syllable names and places with too many consonants, or the response to every question is a long-winded oratory with references to a dozen gods, it becomes a distraction. Surely there were people in mythical worlds named Bob, right? And sometimes, people just say, “yes.”
Do you believe writing should be censored – that some topics should remain taboo?
I don’t think writing should be censored, AND I think we need to play fair with readers. A writer has the right to tackle any subject they want. That doesn’t mean their words will be embraced or appreciated, and people have the right not to publish or pay for that work. I will tell you, the more distasteful or controversial the topic, the more skillfully it has to be written.
I ran into this on Acre’s Bastard. There is a scene in chapter 2 where someone attempts to molest young Lucca. It’s pretty intense (I’m actually proud of it as a writer.) Someone wrote me a nasty note about not warning about “graphic” content, as it apparently triggered her PTSD associated with her own assault as a young girl. That was NEVER my intention, and I’m not sure i need a big warning label on the front of the book, but some people feel that scene rules the book out for them. I feel I did the subject justice, they have the right to hate it.
Any pet peeves in writing? In reading others’ work?
I have become obsessed with active verbs vs passive. Was standing, vs stood, for example. I am becoming more and more of a minimalist as I get older… unless it’s someone incredibly skillful like Mark Helprin, who can describe something for three pages and make me love it.
Where can people find you and your work?
My website, which also features other historical fiction authors: www.WayneTurmel.com
Sue Rovens 