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Brian Rathbone Interview 7/27/2013 8:31:00 PM
Author of The World of Godsland fantasy series, Brian Rathbone, discusses his novels and the writing life! When I first joined the online community on authorsden.com, one of the first authors to strike up a conversation and befriend me on that site and on Twitter was Brian Rathbone. A self-proclaimed techie geek (and he does know his stuff), Brian is also a talented fantasy author and the creator of The World of Godsland fantasy series!
I’d like to begin by having you share a little information about yourself with our readers, Brian. What do you enjoy doing when you are not writing?
BR: First off, hi everybody! I appreciate Lorna hosting this wonderful interview, and you can't see it, but I'm waving a big hello to all the readers out there.
As you mentioned, I'm a bit of a geek. I love to create fun and innovative software. There have been lots of cool projects over the years, but my most recent was creating video game with my ten-year-old nephew. Together we built http://grumpydragons.com it's not perfect, and the phone / tablet versions are still forthcoming, but I think Mick did a really great job designing the levels and being the creative driving force behind the game.
I've also always loved racing. Some things are just in your blood, and I've always had the racing thing pretty bad. I've won an online racing championship, worked as part of an ARCA team, and even did work for Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Joe Gibbs Racing. The only thing I ever won in horse racing that wasn't horse equipment is a belt buckle, but I really like that belt buckle.
I've also been driven by a passion for getting people in rural areas high speed Internet access. Though I'm fortunate enough to have my writing provide me a full-time wage, I also work as the Senior Telecommunications Specialist for the North Carolina Department of Commerce NC Broadband Division. That's a mouthful, I know. I'm just saying if you see a crazy guy pointing antennas at mountains, it might just be me. Internet for all!
When did writing stories work its way into your life, and was becoming a published author always a lifelong dream?
BR: As a kid, I hated to write and hated to read. It wasn't until I discovered Science Fiction and Fantasy that I became even remotely interested in reading. Later, my older brother and I had a group of friends we would exchange books and recommendations with. Together we shared and read hundreds of books. Somewhere in that time I started to think I might write my own story, and the idea stuck. By the time I met my wife, becoming a published author was high on my list of life goals. I'm not certain I've achieved that goal yet, but that takes nothing away from the things I have achieved.
My teenaged daughter, Nia is an avid reader and she has gone on to co-write our YA fantasy, The Dream Merchant Saga. She has very discriminating taste when it comes to reading, so she was very happy when she got her hands on The Dawning of Power Trilogy, Book One. The only time she reads a book twice is if she really enjoyed it. With DoP, she’s read it at least three times that I know of. What was the inspiration behind The World of Godsland series and can you tell us a little bit about your protagonist, Catrin Volker?
BR: It has always touched me that Nia has gotten so much enjoyment out of the series; it’s the kind of thing that will convince you to keep writing even when writing is difficult.
One problem I had as a reader was that many fantasy stories broke my suspension of disbelief, even though I'm almost exclusively a fantasy reader and have a pretty stout suspension of disbelief. I longed for a fantasy tale that could really have happened and wasn't quite so fantastical. When the idea of magical and supernatural occurrences being tied as closely as possible to real world phenomena and physics as possible, I knew I was onto something.
When I looked at our own history, I saw references to ages of power; times when Gods and Goddesses walked the land and interacted with people. And yet, I saw no such magic in our world today. I began to think of periodic ages of power and what might bring about such a thing, and that's when I thought of comets. The mystical bodies spend most of their time in deep space, and then after hundreds, if not thousands, of years they grace our skies. What if there were tens of thousands of comets in a great storm that came around only once every three-thousand years, I wondered. What if the light those comets emitted brought great power to some, I asked myself. And thus, Godsland was born.
Without giving away too much, can you reveal what’s in store for the readers when they crack open The Dawning of Power Trilogy, Book One?
BR: The Godsland series is Epic Fantasy suitable for young adults and older. While there are adult concepts, violence and war, the series is not dark or gory and does not contain sex or profanity.
Imagine a world without magic or technology, a place where people have lived in relative peace for thousands of years, but all of that changes when the Goddess Istra returns to the skies. A new age of power has begun, and no one knows what to do or expect next.
Catrin Volker, a teenage horse trainer, accidentally unleashes powers she didn't know she possessed in an effort to save her friend. In doing so, she fulfills the prophecy of the destroyer. For Catrin, safety becomes the rarest thing on Godsland.
The road to publication is difficult at the best of times. What made you decide to take the indie route and self-publish your novels?
BR: When I started out, I had no idea what I was doing. I was a naïve dreamer with three finished and professionally edited books that publishers and agents weren't the least bit interested in. With my delusions effectively shattered, I had some growing up to do. I could have given up, and a big part of me wanted to do just that, but I believed in myself and my story. Also, I started looking at publishing from a business perspective instead from the view of a writer. When I finally realized that a writer with no audience was a huge risk for agents and publishers, it all began to make sense. They weren't interested in me because I was a lousy business case. Better to publish some celebrity book that people will actually buy. Not the most pleasant realization, but one I needed to accept.
Armed with this new knowledge, I decided to start my own publishing company and publish the trilogy myself. This was late 2007, and a traditional print run seemed like the right thing to do. It wasn't. Without proper distribution and returnability, book stores didn't want my books and really didn't even have much opportunity to buy them. I sold the books myself and turned a profit, but I wouldn't do that again.
It wasn't until ebooks became poplar that I started gaining traction. And then I discovered Podiobooks, thanks to a friend who kept nagging me about putting up free audiobooks versions of my books. I finally gave in and the 850,000+ episodes that have been downloaded have gone a long way to build my fan base. Add the downloads of the ebooks I give away, and the number of readers I've been able to reach has become substantial.
Wow! That is substantial indeed! Now, what is the best and worst part of being an indie author?
BR: I love being in full creative control, especially now that I can afford to hire professional cover artists and voice artists. I love owning ALL of my rights and getting paid on a monthly basis instead of a quarterly or semi-annual basis. Add in the much higher royalty rates, and I don't have a lot of bad things to say about self-publishing.
The worst part for me is time management. Full creative control is all well and good if you can keep up with everything. Sometimes, by the time I'm done with the business end of publishing and the marketing and promotional work, there's just not a lot of time left over for writing. I am constantly searching for a balance between these roles.
It must also be said that self-publishing allows you to do a lot of things wrong. It's easy to make mistakes and easy to do things poorly. If you want to succeed, you need to be one of those who will do it the hard way even though a lower quality product could be produced more cheaply, quickly and easily.
Is self-publishing something you would recommend to other authors, and if so, to whom?
BR: I try not to push people toward traditional publishing or self-publishing, but I do mentor a number of authors who have already decided to self-publish. There are people who know how to write great queries and get picked up by agents and publishers. I am happy for those people and wouldn't want to dissuade someone from taking a shot at it. If they have decided to attract agents and publishers by building a huge audience through self-publishing, then I think I have some useful input and lessons learned that I can share.
What is the most important lesson you’ve learned on the road to publication?
BR: The primary goal of the self-published writer, after the writing of the actual book, is to build readership. If you have the chance to get your book into the hands of a thousand readers and make a thousand dollars or get your book to three times that many people for the same amount of royalty, go for the volume. The more readers you can turn into fans, the more likely your future publishing endeavors will succeed.
Still on the subject of writing styles, are you a plotter or pantser? The readers would like to know if you tend to plot out your story line in great detail or if your writing is more organic with the characters and events unfolding as you write.
BR: I do a bit of both. I do plot out the story in advance, and I write an outline, but I have been known to later discard my outline at will. Thus, much of my outline makes it into the story, but at times the story and characters decide to do things I never foresaw. I kind of like it that way. It keeps it exciting for me, since I never know exactly how it will turn out.
Some authors meditate, others need to fuel up on coffee or listen to music. Do you have any rituals, ones that can be shared with the readers, that you must do before you hunker down for a writing session?
BR: I have a few things rituals that help me. I do a lot of my plotting while walking and while I fall asleep at night. I listen to familiar music at a low volume while I write, which is unobtrusive and holds no surprises. And if I have trouble getting my fingers moving, I play an old video game that I quickly get bored with. Usually I end up thinking, "I'd rather be writing." Perfect.
At one time or another, most writers hit the wall and their work stalls because of the dreaded writer’s block. What do you do to get around or over this mental wall to resume writing?
BR: I've encountered writer's block a few times. Once it was due to grief over the senseless death of a loved one, and other times it has been exacerbated by professional stress. One of the biggest things I do to prevent writer's block is to give myself permission to write bad first drafts. This keeps my fingers moving and prevents me from getting stuck over finding the best word or phrase. Those are things I can think about in editing. Another thing I do is write the little quotes I use at the beginning of each chapter. They are quick, easy, and fun to come up with. By writing those at the top of each chapter first, I rarely feel like I'm staring at the proverbial blank page. After my worst bout of writer's block, I finally wrote, "Procrastination robs the world of countless treasures." That quote has helped me a number of times.
Who is your favourite author and how has he/she inspired you to write or influenced your writing style or choice of genre?
BR: It's really difficult to nail down a single author, but David Eddings probably influenced my younger reading days more than any other author. I also enjoyed Melanie Rawn, Terry Brooks, Weiss and Hickman, and a host of others. Most recently, I give credit to Brandon Sanderson for his excellent writing. I've added many of the books that inspired me to write fantasy to my bookshelf on Goodreads. I encourage readers to look at the books I've read. If you like the same types of books I like, chances are you'll like my books as well. http://goodreads.com/brianrathbone There was never a question as to which genre I would primarily write, but I do like to dabble in Science Fiction in addition to Fantasy. I take a little something from all the authors I read, from things I liked about their work to things that drove me crazy. The whole reason the Godsland series is broken up into trilogies was to avoid the "never ending series" syndrome. I am grateful to those whose shoulders upon which I stand.
What do you foresee in your future over the next five years and do you hope to branch out from YA fantasy into other genres?
BR: I'm excited about the future! The primary story arc of the Godsland series will be told in twelve books. I expect to have those completed within the next three years. I also plan to write a non-fiction book about the future of rural Internet access, as well as writing some fantasy novels outside of the Godsland world. I really can't wait.
Thank you so much for sharing in your writing experiences and your novels, Brian! Catch you on Twitter!
BR: Thanks so much for having me, and thanks to everyone who took the time to read this. I hope you'll allow me to tell you a story.
