Interview with Shawn Wickersheim: Author of The Penitent Assassin

Today we are welcoming Shawn Wickersheim to Flight of the Dragon, one of my very favourite Tweeps! Shawn lives in historic Woodstock, Illinois with his wife and children. You'll have to excuse me if I gush a little (and I'm not usually prone to gushing) because Shawn's book, The Penitent Assassin, is the best book I have read all year. Seriously.  

Thanks so much for joining us Shawn (long emphasis on the so - gushing, remember?). What genre do you consider your books? 

Fantasy. 

No, really?

Should I narrow that down a bit? I've been told The Penitent Assassin is 'dark' fantasy. Others have called it 'high', while still others have suggested 'low'. Some have claimed it to be an 'epic'. Eventually, it will become a part of a series, though it is a stand-alone book. Let me explain. I intend on writing a variety of fantasy novels all set in the same world and all connected to each other one way or another. Some will be "Mallor" books (Mallor is the main character in The Penitent Assassin), others will not, however when I'm finished there will be a completed story arc encompassing all of the books. I'm working on a series title right now and will likely reveal it when my next books are released.

Oh, I stumbled across the term 'scoundrel' fantasy last year after reading Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy. I like that term, but honestly, beyond 'fantasy', I don't mind what people want to label my books, as long as they are reading them (and hopefully enjoying them!).

Oh, I'd just call it 'high' - or even 'epic' . I believe epic refers to the scale of the conflict and not, as is the common misconception, the number of books... oh wait, we're here to talk about you, not my genre definitions. It looks like you have more than enough opinions already! (Psst! As for scoundrel lit, the Bloody-Nine wasn't all that bad... No, really!).

Have you ever hated something you wrote? 

All the time. I am incredibly hard on myself when it comes to my writing. I often have to remind myself that it's okay for first drafts to be crappy. In the past, I used to suffer from writer's block after reading my horrible first drafts. I saw no way to make those early drafts better. But I pressed on. Now, I embrace the editing process. I love editing. I realize those crappy first drafts are just the means for me to get the basic story ideas out of my head so I have something to work on. I know, some people are probably reading this and thinking, "DUH!", but I had to work past the idea of having to get it right the first time and just focus on getting it out. I truly love writing, but the real magic comes from the editing.

I'm not sure if we have the same problem or not. Possibly, but I think I take mine in a different direction - compulsive editing! 

What are your current projects? 

In The Rush of Betrayal, life should be good for foreign ambassador, Lord Ian Weatherall. He's rich, he's married to the local princess and their young son is heir to the throne. But all is not as it should be. Friends have mysteriously died, others have been financially ruined and his marriage is falling apart. There are rumors that many in the city are unhappy with the racial mix of their future king and some are calling for his removal. Suddenly, Lord Ian's business ventures sour too. Is this all the work of one man bent on seeing him and his son destroyed, or is it a conspiracy by many to incite war against his native land? Will Lord Ian be able to uncover the truth in time, or will he fall victim to the worst kind of betrayal? Discover the answers when I release The Rush of Betrayal: Book One in June 2012 and Book Two later this year.

If you've read The Penitent Assassin, you'll likely guess all is not as it seems and these books will also have quite a few twists and turns and surprises in them. (And if you haven't read The Penitent Assassin yet, you still have a little time before the new books come out!) After these two books are released, I plan to begin work on a direct sequel to The Penitent Assassin. 

If you haven't read The Penitent Assassin, you should go forth and read it immediately! Beg, borrow, or steal a copy (or even buy it, Shawn might prefer that), just read it! Say, where did this sword come from? Ahem *hides sword behind back*. 

You're a tease, Shawn, waving the hint of two new books under my nose, like freshly-baked muffins recently gone from a room.... And I still find it ironic (or maybe it's just convergent evolution) that my first book has betrayal in the title, and your second does, while your first has penitent and my second does! But Shawn's are published and mine are not, so anyone reading this shouldn't waste anytime looking for mine. Just go read The Penitent Assassin.  

What books are you reading now? 

I just finished Scott Lynch's "The Lies of Locke Lamora". I've been aware of this book for a while and it sat in my mental 'to read' pile for a good year and then in the span of a week, I had three or four people insist I read it. I'm glad they did. I truly enjoyed the world and characters Scott Lynch created and I just ordered the sequel from the bookstore where I work. I'm currently reading a couple of books right now, "The Sour Lemon Score" by Richard Stark and "The Fall of Billy Hitchings" by Kirkus MacGowan.

That's right, I added it to my 'to read' list because of the discussion we had with Kirkus. And it's still there... because I'm here, doing this interview, instead of reading. 

What do you do when you're not writing? 

Think about writing . . . 

Hmm, is that better or worse than using one's free time to interview people who think about writing?  

I am a stay-at-home dad with two young children and they keep me busy during the day. I work part time at a local independent bookstore most evenings and I drive for a bakery at night. In between, I write. That's not to say I don't have fun too. In my free time, I enjoy biking, reading, watching movies, fixing up my house and hanging out with my family. 

Oh gosh, is this how exhausted people feel when I tell them everything I do around writing? Oh, no, wait, that's just sleep deprivation, never mind. Is there anything of you in any of your protagonists? I've read the Penitent Assassin and I'm kind of hoping maybe no... 

Mallor, from The Penitent Assassin, is a determined, stubborn and often single-minded man who hates to lose and refuses to quit until he gets what he wants and according to my wife . . . well . . . let's just say when I set a goal for myself I can 'sometimes' get a little determined . . . and stubborn . . . and single-minded.

Also like Mallor, I'm fiercely loyal to my friends, very protective of my children and deeply in love with one woman. Fortunately for me, I'm married to the love of my life and she accepts me for who I am . . . even if I am 'sometimes' just a little determined . . . and stubborn . . . and single-minded. 

Thankfully you chose some of Mallor's less violent qualities. I'm not sure if our protagonists would get along like a house on fire or try to kill each other.

Okay, how about a few fun questions and answers?What is your favorite color? 

It's changed over the years, but lately, my favorite color is green. I find green to be a very relaxing and yet mentally stimulating color and since I'm remodeling my tiny home office this summer, I figure it's time to paint it a color I like. 

I'm afraid to ask what the colour is that you don't like that's currently on the walls of your office. I'm thinking about some of the colours they always seem to paint hospitals... 

What is your favorite drink? 

Mt. Dew. Or milk. Wait, was I supposed to name something alcoholic? Some sort of cool mixed drink? Beer? Sorry, I work too often to really enjoy anything alcoholic anymore. 

Nope, non-alcoholic drinks are acceptable. It just means you're not going to raid my liquor cabinet, which means more for me! 

If you were a car, what kind would you be? 

Probably some sort of sports utility vehicle or maybe a pick-up truck. I used to drive a big green Dodge Ram pick-up truck years ago, but gas got too expensive and I traded it in for something smaller. 

I always say a Lotus Elise. Don't ask. I like the pick-up truck notion. We call them 'utes' here. We even have 'ute musters'. 

Finally, do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers? 

Thank you!

Like any author, I need fans and while I already have some great supporters, I can always use more. A lot more! So if you enjoy my books, please tell all your friends. You can also connect with me on-line on Twitter. You'll find me @STWick. Or you can send me a friend request over on Goodreads. I'd love for you to add my books to your 'to read' list (Okay, I'll admit it - I'd much rather you actually read my books and then add them to your 'read' list).

But in all seriousness, I appreciate you reading my books and I promise, I'll try my best to keep writing the best books I possibly can.

Happy Reading! 

Thanks for joining us, Shawn, it was a pleasure. You can find out more about Shawn and his books on his blog (which he occasionally updates!) The Ink-Competent Writer (God I love that name!). His books are for sale at many online ebook sources including: Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble.

If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to check out my previous posts if you haven't already. If you're finding yourself here often, you might like to join as a member, sign up to the blog through RSS or email, or subscribe to my newsletter.

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Six Sentence Sunday - Better Left Unspoken

Another excerpt from my short story ‘Better Left Unspoken’. The story wasn’t working and I couldn’t quite work out why, so I’ve done a GMC chart and now, of course, I have to do significant revisions. Serves me right. This should stay, though.

Dirt floor, rocky uncut stone wall. Blue sky, hammering sun. The strange clacking continued unabated out of sight. Rope cut tight into Berkh’s wrists and ankles as he tried to turn his head.

A scream bubbled up his throat. Eyes bulging, he clamped his teeth shut against it.

You can find more Six Sentence Sunday writers here.

In other news, I’ve sent ‘Love Enough’ to Tor.com for consideration. Hopefully I’ll have a response before I have a second baby. Their response time is 9 months, and I’m not pregnant yet, so it’s even-odds!

If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to check out my previous posts if you haven't already. If you're finding yourself here often, you might like to join as a member, sign up to the blog through RSS or email, or subscribe to my newsletter.

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What is Deep Third POV?

Following on from last week’s post on POV and Head-hopping (which you can find here) I’m going to make an attempt to explain something I don’t have a firm grasp on. Hopefully this doesn’t become a complete mess!

In times past, if we wanted the reader to be close to the character, the standard advice was ‘use 1^st person POV’. Deep third is like first, in that sense, but it’s... well... third. So it’s a way of bringing the reader closer to the viewpoint character, and removing that sense of the author being in the scene, and still avoiding (if you’re like me) ‘dreaded first’. And I am sure keen to avoid first, because one of the most definitive pieces of advice to come out of my writer’s group on Saturday was ‘Don’t use first. Just don’t.’ Yeah, OK, so I suck a little at first. 

So that’s the explanation of deep third, but it doesn’t really tell you how to write deep third, or how it’s different from third limited. It’s difficult to explain the differences, so I’ve aimed instead to illustrate how to achieve deep third using some examples of what to do – and what not to do - when trying to create deep third. 

Use he and she sparingly - Personal pronouns should appear in action, but not in description or opinion. So we say ‘He opened the door’ (action) but we don’t say ‘He smelled the bread baking’ (description). Instead we might say ‘The air smelled of baking bread’. Notice the protagonist doesn’t appear in this sentence? And if you remember, this was something I said about first as well – we don’t need to use the pronoun because we know it’s the viewpoint character smelling it. 

Similarly with opinion – ‘Did he really think because she smiled at him she was interested?’ This is an opinion in deep third – it is the character making a judgement about what another character thinks. We could have said ‘She wondered if he really thought she was interested because she smiled at him’ but then we are distancing the reader again. Using ‘he’ and ‘she’ in description and judgements is a sign you are filtering through the author, which is something you don’t want in deep third. You want the reader to come closer... closer... closer... OK, we’re touching noses, that’s good! All right, maybe back off a teensy bit. 

Get deep in the emotion - Last week I noted that when using third limited the reader can only know what the viewpoint character knows, and only see what the viewpoint character sees. This is true in deep third as well, but we go a little deeper. When something is described to us, the character has just noticed it – and an emotional reaction of some kind should follow. An assassin might see a second door, and recognise an escape route. A carpenter might see the same door, and admire the fancy carving. This helps to bring us closer to the character than we might otherwise be in third limited. It’s also an aid to characterisation. 

 

Voice - Of course, when you write deep third, you should always write in the character’s voice. So my protagonist, Astarl, once observes that somewhere is as dark as the inside of a horse’s arse. Because, you know, she’s an assassin, she spends a lot of time with men, and she tends to be blunt. A duchess probably wouldn’t make the same observation...

Word choice - There are some words we can use to better remove the author from the reading experience. These are words that better reflect how we process our observations and thoughts to ourselves. We tend to think of ourselves as the centre, and you need to write the character this way as well to capture deep third. Some of these words include:

• ‘This’ instead of ‘It’ – as in ‘This was what he wanted’ or more simply ‘This was it’, instead of ‘It was what he wanted’. ‘It’ isn’t something we think to ourselves and it distances the reader;
• Relative time – Use last night and tomorrow instead of ‘the night before' or ‘the next day’. Do you think ‘the night before' to yourself? Didn’t think so...
• Relative position – describe movement relative to the viewpoint character, for example, ‘The monster came closer’ or the ‘The monster shied away’. If we say ‘the monster moved across the room’ or ‘the monster stepped closer to him’ then in both cases we are removing the central focus on the viewpoint character and distancing the reader.In particular, in deep third there is no need to say 'to him' for the same reason we don't need to say 'he thought' or 'we smelled'. this is assumed, and spelling it out reminds the reader of the author's presence.

Note, also, the difference between using ‘the’ and ‘a’. If the viewpoint character sees ‘a door’ it’s just a door the character has recognised as present. ‘The door’ signifies it as the exact door the character is looking for. So ‘the’ is important for denoting significance to the viewpoint character in deep third because we are relying on the character for all the descriptions and observations. 

  

Correct use of syntax - For example always make your viewpoint character the subject and not the object of a sentence i.e. the actor, and not the thing being acted upon. The exception is judgements, in which there need be no subject. The subject (the viewpoint character) is assumed because we know we are in their viewpoint and therefore it is their judgement. This relates back to my examples of ‘Did he really think because she smiled at him she was interested?’ versus ‘She wondered if he really thought she was interested because she smiled at him’. There is no subject (no actor) in the first, but only in the second, denoted by ‘she wondered’. Similarly, don’t place the subject in the subordinate clause – because that’s not where the emphasis is! 

So that was more an explanation by way of demonstration, but I usually find that to be more effective. There are other techniques you can use, but I haven’t made an exhaustive list here, and I tend to think some of them overlap anyway. 

I hope it’s helped you to understand the difference, even if it may not have helped you to achieve it. I know I still struggle to create deep third, even though I know how it should work.

So are we all traumatised now? A few people were already scarred after last week’s clash with POV.

 

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Interview with Steve McHugh: Author of Crimes Against Magic

Today I’m welcoming Steve McHugh to Flight of the Dragon to tell us more about himself and his book, Crimes Against Magic. Steve’s been writing from an early age and his first completed story was done in an English lesson. Unfortunately, after the teacher read it, he had to have a chat with the head of the year about the violent content and bad language. The follow up ‘One boy and his frog’ was less concerning to his teachers and got him an A.

It wasn’t for another decade that he would start work on a full length novel, the results of which is Crimes Against Magic.

He was born in a small village called Mexbrough, South Yorkshire, but now lives with his wife and two young daughters in Southampton.

I love the title Crimes Against Magic so much so I wish I’d thought of it myself! How did you come up with it?

If I’m honest, I don’t know. I don’t know how I come up with any of my titles. They sort of pop into my head when I’m thinking about the story and if I like it, it sticks. I liked the idea of there being criminal acts using magic, things so bad that if you got caught, you’d be executed for it. It probably came from there.

Well, just the title has got ideas spinning in my head about where I could take this concept. I’d say that’s a pretty effective title! What genre do you consider the book?

Crimes Against Magic is Urban Fantasy, although I’ve heard people describe it as Action, Adventure with magic. Either of those work quite well.

I’m not a fan for strict classification of books, particularly when we start drilling down into subgenres. How did you choose the genre you write in?

It sort of chose me. I’ve always loved mythology and magic and history, so combining them meant Urban Fantasy was a natural fit.

I’m with you on that one. Some of us do just naturally gravitate towards something.  What was your part of Crimes Against Magic to write and why?

My favourite parts to write were probably one fight scene near the end of the book between Nate and a villain and a scene where you’re introduced to Nathan’s young neighbour, Dani. That was a lot of fun to write.

I always feel twisted and evil when I ask this question. Why am I the only one who enjoys writing things like the Black Moment? Anyway, back to Steve… Are there certain characters you would like to go back to, or is there a theme or idea you’d love to work with?

A lot of the characters who make it to the end of the book will be back in future stories in one way or another.

As for themes, the second book is going to be much darker in tone. That was something I made a conscious decision to do, due to what the story is about.

Ahah, so there’s a sequel! Is it your current project?

Yes, I’m currently writing the second book, Born of Hatred, and outlining the third, With Silent Screams. Hopefully book two will be out within the next six months.

That’s not a bad timeframe. So do you ever experience writer's block or that’s just not something you suffer from?

Not really, although I do experience writer’s procrastination, especially when I should be editing.

Don’t we all – I suffer from what I like to call writer’s knurd. What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?

The toughest criticism would be something that was unfair. I’ve had a few, mostly when I went for the Amazon Breakthrough Award, but I tend to ignore it and move on. If someone wants to give constructive criticism, I’m all ears though.

The best compliment? I was told by someone that they don’t read a lot of books, but that they loved Crimes Against Magic. That made me feel superb.

I bet it does. The one thing I love to hear is people stayed up past their bedtime and into the wee hours of the morning reading! OK, so now a few unusual questions, just to give our readers a hint of the ‘real’ Steve McHugh. If you were a Star Trek® or Star Wars®  character, which one would it be?

I could probably be really geeky and come up with something obscure, but I’m going to go with Han Solo. I think everyone wants to be him though.

Yep, even me! So what if I’m a woman? Ahem. So what is your favourite drink?

Alcoholic – Scotch

Hot – Green tea

Cold – Apple juice

Never mix those three together in the same drink.

Dang! *hides apple juice behind back* The thought never even crossed my mind. To wrap up, tell us the last book you read.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. Probably not quite as good as The Hunger Games as it takes a while to get going, but still a very good book. I’ll read the third at some point too.

Haven’t read them, but they are on my TBR list – as is Crimes Against Magic! If you want your very own copy, you can get one here from Amazon or Amazon UK. For more on Steve, check out his blog or follow him on Twitter at @stevejmchugh! Thanks so much for joining us today, Steve, it was a pleasure to have you.

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Six Sentence Sunday – Not Where He Can See

 An extract from a 5000 word short story I’m working on – my third for the month and still ahead of schedule. Here’s hoping it stays that way! Had feedback on the first two stories from my writer’s group yesterday, so time to revise, finalise and submit them.Hopefully I can get them published somewhere and you can have the pleasure of reading the whole story!

The queen seized his elbow hard, leaving bloody fingerprints on his white shirt. ‘Berkh.’

That one word contained unfathomable emotion and entreaty, both a plea and a command. Old guilt welled up.

‘Not here, not where my brother might see.’ Berkh wrenched his arm from her grip.

You can find more Six Sentence Sunday writers here. 

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