The Qwillery

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Hayley:  I’ve always wanted to be a writer. It’s at the core of who I am. I don’t remember a time before, or a reason why, to be honest. I started writing from such a young age—about as soon as I learned how to put words together. My earliest stories were done on an old Windows 95, through a program called Paint, Write, and Play. I’m sure my mom still has the print-outs somewhere, haha! From there, I transitioned into writing fanfiction, starting with Jonny Quest and eventually moving on to Legend of Zelda and Star Wars.

Actually, now that I think about it, the reason why I started writing was a love of characters: it was the literary equivalent of creating imaginary friends. In the case of fanfiction, I didn’t want those stories I loved to stop, so I began to make up my own.



TQ:  Are you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?

Hayley:  I’m a panster at heart. I liken it to jumping out of an airplane and figuring out how to open your parachute on the way down. Beyond the thrill of encountering new characters and unexpected twists, I feel pantsing allows for a more natural story progression, and permits the characters to drive the story instead of the other way around. I also love discovering what scenes and relationships grow out of the story organically.

This isn’t to knock plotting, of course! With my sequel, Counterpart, I did write a synopsis about a third of the way through to give myself a kind of road map. And generally speaking, I usually hold an idea in my head of where I’m trying to get to. Still, the journey itself is often a mystery before it’s down on the page. I like it that way.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing? How does being a poet influence or not your prose writing?

Hayley:  This probably goes hand-in-hand with the previous question, but plotting. Ugh.

Being a pantser, I don’t outline if I can help it, which means I tend to hold a lot of scenes in my head at any one time. It can be a challenge to get them down on the page in the right order, and as a consequence, I always run the risk of following the wrong plot bunny down the wrong hole. I’m very particular about pacing, which makes it frustrating to end up with an unnecessary, tangential scene. There have been times when I’ve had to arm-wrestle my plots to get the story to read the way I want it to read.

Being a poet has improved my prose writing tenfold. In fact, one of the things I recommend to writers who are struggling to define their voice or liven up their writing style is to study poetry. Good prose, like good poetry, has a rhythm to it. A musicality. It paints clear and vivid images in the reader’s mind—or should, when done right. Adopting some of these poetic techniques solves a lot of pacing issues within a scene, too, as you learn when to draw out a description and when to cut it short.



TQ:  What has influenced / influences your writing?

Hayley:  Oh, geez. All sorts of things, really!

Books, obviously. I read voraciously, and oftentimes outside of my genre, hoping to gleam some inspiration from totally unrelated subject matter. Movies and video games are another; the latter is a medium that can do tremendously cool things with story. Take a look at any BioWare game, for an example of what I mean.

More than that, though, I’d have to say history informs a lot of my writing. You can learn so much about people, places, and the nature of conflict from the past.



TQ:  Describe Machinations in 140 characters or less.

Hayley:  A clone competes with the legacy of her dead progenitor to lead the resistance against machines intent on wiping out humanity.



TQ:  Tell us something about Machinations that is not found in the book description.

Hayley:  The story takes place in Alaska!



TQ:  What inspired you to write Machinations? What appeals to you about writing Science Fiction?

Hayley:  Thinking back, I believe it was a combination of the Doctor Who episode, “The Almost People,” and the anime Girl With the Third Eye. Both deal with clones or doppelgangers who believe they’re the real thing—or that they could be. This idea floated around my brain for some time until finally coalescing in a dream where I was watching another version of myself be with the people I loved…and with my blessing!

When I woke up, I immediately began to wonder about the circumstances around something like that happening, and Machinations was born. The machines were actually a bit of an afterthought; they showed up in the first paragraph, and I went with it.

Science fiction, to me, is a vehicle to explore human struggles. It’s taking a cool concept like killer robots or FTL travel or aliens, and asking, “What about the people? What are the people doing? How are they surviving or taking advantage of this situation?” Science fiction offers both an escape and a grounding of sort; it lifts a person out of their mundane life—but, amidst all the craziness, also points out flaws in a contemporary system, or offers a solution to a present-day problem. I love its versatility.



TQ:  Do you deal with Asimov's Laws of Robotics in Machinations?

Hayley:  Not explicitly. Countless films and books have already shown that those laws can be overruled or broken, so I didn’t feel the need to go into detail about how they it happened in Machinations world.

Suffice to say, Machinations follows the current trajectory of present-day robotics, with autonomous weapons on the battlefield and a booming technological arms race ultimately leading to the creation of both benevolent and harmful artificial intelligences. I think this fellow has also shown with his thought experiment that at the end of the day, Asimov’s Laws are—to quote Captain Barbossa of Pirates of the Caribbean fame—“more of what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.”



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Machinations?

Hayley:  I researched Alaskan geography and weather, its pipelines, autonomous weaponry, bunker busters, electromagnetism—all sorts of stuff! Writing a book is always an adventure, in that respect. You can prepare ahead of time all you want, but even if you’re an expert in the subject, you’ll still run into something you don’t know and have to pause to look it up. It’s a constant learning process.



TQ:  In Machinations who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Hayley:  It’ll probably come as no surprise that the easiest character to write was the main character, Rhona. We have a similar stubbornness in the face of opposition, and the same gallows humor.

The hardest… hmm. Probably Rhona’s former lover, Camus. Whereas Rhona wears her heart on her sleeve, Camus tends to keep his locked inside a vault. As a more methodical and calculating personality type, it was sometimes a challenge to indicate what he was thinking, especially from Rhona’s outside perspective. His body language, consequently, provides the most vital clues to his feelings.



TQ:  Which question about Machinations do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Hayley:

Question: What books would Machinations feel most at home sitting beside on a shelf?

Answer: The Confluence series by Jennifer Foehner Wells. Also, while they’re not science fiction, I think Machinations and Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series would strike up some delightful banter. Their protagonists would get along.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from Machinations.

Hayley:


***




TQ:  What's next?

Hayley:  Right now I’m finishing copyedits for the sequel to Machinations, Counterpart, which comes out October 11th this year. So if you’re a fan of the first book, you won’t have to wait long to read the second! I’m also working on an epic fantasy that I can’t talk about just yet.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Hayley:  Thanks so much for having me!

Machinations
Machinations 1
Hydra, July 26, 2016
eBook, 374 pages

Perfect for fans of Robopocalypse, this action-packed science-fiction debut introduces a chilling future and an unforgettable heroine with a powerful role to play in the battle for humanity’s survival.

The machines have risen, but not out of malice. They were simply following a command: to stop the endless wars that have plagued the world throughout history. Their solution was perfectly logical. To end the fighting, they decided to end the human race.

A potent symbol of the resistance, Rhona Long has served on the front lines of the conflict since the first Machinations began—until she is killed during a rescue mission gone wrong. Now Rhona awakens to find herself transported to a new body, complete with her DNA, her personality, even her memories. She is a clone . . . of herself.

Trapped in the shadow of the life she once knew, the reincarnated Rhona must find her place among old friends and newfound enemies—and quickly. For the machines are inching closer to exterminating humans for good. And only Rhona, whoever she is now, can save them.

Counterpoint
Machinations 2
Hydra, October 11, 2016
eBook

The high-intensity sci-fi thriller series that began with Machinations continues as reincarnated insurgent Rhona Long faces off against the one enemy she can’t outwit: her own clone.

The machines believed their extermination of the human race would be over as quickly as it began. They were wrong. As the war against extinction intensifies, people are beginning to gain the upper hand.

Commander Rhona Long understands survival better than most. Killed in combat, she was brought back to life using her DNA, and she’s forged a new, even more powerful identity. Now the leader of the resistance, she’s determined to ensure the machines are shut down for good.

But victory is elusive. The machines have a new technology designed to overcome humanity’s most advanced weaponry. Despite Rhona’s peacekeeping efforts, former nations are feuding over resources as old power struggles resurface. Worse, someone inside the resistance is sabotaging the human cause—someone who, from all appearances, seems to be Rhona . . . or her exact replica.

About Hayley

Hayley (H. N.) Stone is a writer who lives in Rocklin, California. She recently graduated from California State University, Sacramento with a Bachelor’s degree in history—a subject she believes offers a wealth of story inspiration as well as a powerful look into what makes us human.

While at CSUS, she had the pleasure of studying under award-winning poet, Joshua McKinney, who introduced her to a love of poetry, and taught her the value of precise language. Her blank verse poem, “Cinderella Comes Out of Egypt,” was published in the 2014 Calaveras Station Literary Journal, and her free verse poem, “On the Reservation,” appeared in the 2015 edition.

Her debut adult sci-fi, Machinations, releases from Hydra/Random House on July 26th, 2016. Its sequel, Counterpart, is also coming later in the year.

With an eye for detail and a passion for storytelling, Hayley has contributed to manuscripts such as The Paper Magician series (47North) by Charlie N. Holmberg, and Inconceivable (Curiosity Quills) by Tegan Wren. She served as a judge for the 2015 and 2016 NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge, and is currently an acquiring editor for the Romance imprint of Anaiah Press.

Hayley loves to hear from readers and writers.

Website  ~  Facebook  ~  Twitter @hayley_stone

Hayley Stone

Machinations
Machinations 1
Hydra, July 26, 2016
eBook, 374 pages

Perfect for fans of Robopocalypse, this action-packed science-fiction debut introduces a chilling future and an unforgettable heroine with a powerful role to play in the battle for humanity’s survival.

The machines have risen, but not out of malice. They were simply following a command: to stop the endless wars that have plagued the world throughout history. Their solution was perfectly logical. To end the fighting, they decided to end the human race.

A potent symbol of the resistance, Rhona Long has served on the front lines of the conflict since the first Machinations began—until she is killed during a rescue mission gone wrong. Now Rhona awakens to find herself transported to a new body, complete with her DNA, her personality, even her memories. She is a clone . . . of herself.

Trapped in the shadow of the life she once knew, the reincarnated Rhona must find her place among old friends and newfound enemies—and quickly. For the machines are inching closer to exterminating humans for good. And only Rhona, whoever she is now, can save them.

Dark Screams: Volume One
Editors:  Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar
Publisher:  Hydra, December 9, 2014
Format:  eBook, 98 pages
List Price:  $3.99
ISBN:  9780804176576
Review Copy:  Reviewer's Own

Stephen King, Kelley Armstrong, Bill Pronzini, Simon Clark, and Ramsey Campbell are the first contributors to a mind-bending new series of short-story collections that push the boundaries of horror and dark suspense to the bleeding edge. From Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar of the acclaimed Cemetery Dance Publications, Dark Screams: Volume One reaches across genres to take readers beyond the precipice of mortal toil and into the glimmering void of irreality and beyond.

WEEDS by Stephen King
When a meteorite lands on his property, Jordy Verrill envisions an easy payday. Unfortunately for Jordy, this is no ordinary rock—and the uncompromising force inside has found its first target.

THE PRICE YOU PAY by Kelley Armstrong
Never pay more than you owe. Sounds like easy advice to follow. But for Kara and her childhood friend Ingrid, some debts can never be repaid . . . especially those tendered in blood.

MAGIC EYES by Bill Pronzini
Edward James Tolliver has found a weary sort of asylum among the insane. He knows he’s not one of them—but how can he tell anyone about the invaders without sounding that way?

MURDER IN CHAINS by Simon Clark
Imagine awaking to find yourself in an underground vault, chained by the neck to a murderous lunatic, a grunting goliath who seems more animal than man. What would you do to save yourself?

THE WATCHED by Ramsey Campbell
Little Jimmy gets a glimpse of the cold truth when he finds out that it’s not always what you see that can get you into trouble; it’s who knows what you see.

Doreen’s Thoughts

Dark Screams: Volume One is a group of short horror stories from some of the best horror authors in the industry. All of these tales had some type of twist in their endings that made a reader think.

Stephen King’s “Weeds” seemed similar to some of his other short stories in other anthologies. In it, a slow-witted man has a dangerous meteorite land on his property, and while he hopes to sell the stone, the secret inside has another plan. Kelley Armstrong’s “The Price You Pay” was somewhat more satisfying. In it, two best friends suffered during their childhood together and face a new terror in their early adulthood. I thought this story was probably the best of the bunch, mostly because I did not see the end coming.

Bill Pronzini was a new author for me, but his “Magic Eyes” seemed somewhat stale. I saw the end coming from a mile away. A murderer incarcerated in an insane asylum tries to tell his side of the story. “Murder in Chains” by Simon Clark was probably the most different of the five tales, with its protagonist waking up chained to a murderous lunatic. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no way out for anyone in the story.

Lastly, Ramsey Campbell told a ghost story in “The Watched.” This was my second favorite story, with an ominous atmosphere and a child in danger.

Overall, there was nothing really new in these stories – I quickly read them in an afternoon. Only Armstrong and Campbell really gave me chills.

What would the Norse Gods think of all the modern stories about them?

Here’s a weird thing to think about: in the age of the Vikings, between around 800 CE and 1000 CE, the population of the whole of Europe is estimated to’ve been in the vicinity of 30 to 50 million people. In comparison, a little over a thousand years later, in 2012 CE, an estimated 76 million people in the US took themselves off to a cinema to watch the old Viking gods Thor and Loki battle it out in Marvel’s The Avengers.

Or, to put it another way: today, something like twice the entire population of medieval Eu-rope knows who “Thor” and “Loki” are, in one country alone.

Another data point: in 1999, a Japanese woman by the name of Sakura Kinoshita wrote a manga about Loki. Known in English as Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, it was later made into a TV show. Japan, for the record, is about five thousand miles (by plane), give or take, away from the ancestral home of the Vikings. There’s no evidence the Vikings ever got so far east during their era.

One more: in 1983, approximately one thousand years and ten thousand miles away from Viking lands, yours truly was born in an Australian hospital named after the Norse god of death and wisdom, Odin.

Thirty years later, and these are the things I think of whenever I hear anyone wax poetic on the notion that the old gods are dying. Sure, some of the details of their stories have… evolved over the centuries. But, changes or no, these stories are now told and retold in more ways and more places than ever before in history; in movies, TV shows, novels, video games, and song.

Sometimes, I wonder what Thor and Odin and Loki would think of what we’ve made of them.

Or maybe that’s the wrong question. Because the thing about the Old Norse religion is that it never actually died out. The Vikings officially converted to Christianity over a period of a few hundred years around 1000 CE, but the gods hung around. In modern days, their worship has been revived and has practitioners both in Scandinavia and elsewhere, including places like the United States and Australia. It’s probably a bit of stretch to say there are numerically more people now who believe in Thor and Odin than did a thousand years ago (Loki, on the other hand, who wasn’t actively worshipped in the Viking age now most certainly is), but they definitely do exist and that means that writing about the Norse deities is “borrowing” entities considered sacred in a living religious tradition.

This is something I thought of when I was doing my own modern adaptation as part of Liesmith. The Odin and (in particular) the Loki who appear in that story are very definitely fictionalized versions of their mythological selves. They’re both based on the Old Norse sa-gas, sure. Based on, but… different. And if maybe Odin is a little darker, and if maybe Loki is a little lighter… well. Maybe there are some spoilers there for the book I won’t get into. But, needless to say, I took some artistic license at points, if for no other reason than the sagas saying nothing about giant anthropomorphized archaeopteryxes.

But fictionalized mythology—that is, using sacred figures in secular entertainment—isn’t exactly new. Milton did it with Satan in Paradise Lost. On the other end of the scale, Morgan Freeman played God, literally, in Bruce Almighty, following on from Alanis Morissette who’d done the same in Dogma. Nor is this a trend constrained to Western literary traditions: about 75 years before Milton, in 16th century China, Wú Chéng'ēn wrote the novel Xī Yóu Jì—better known as Journey to the West in, er, the West—featuring versions of Buddhist re-ligious figures like the bodhisattva of compassion, Guanyin.

For the record, Xī Yóu Jì is one of my favorite tales, mostly care of my childhood exposure to it via a Japanese adaptation that used to run, dubbed (badly), on Australian TV under the name of Monkey. I’m hardly alone in my fangirling, and the story remains hugely popular in Asia; walk into just about any shop selling Chinese-language films and I’d bet money there’s at least one poster up depicting a recent adaptation.

There’s just something about retelling myths that humans seem incapable of letting go of.

So this is what we did with the old gods, Vikings and demons and buddhas alike; we turned them into pop culture sensations. And maybe the worship looks a little different—where once people sacrificed animals in Thor’s name, now they sacrifice time and the price of a movie ticket—but… maybe that doesn’t matter.

The old gods live on, bigger and brighter and more loved than ever.

Liesmith
Wyrd 1
Hydra, October 7, 2014
eBook, 308 pages

At the intersection of the magical and the mundane, Alis Franklin’s thrilling debut novel reimagines mythology for a modern world—where gods and mortals walk side by side.

Working in low-level IT support for a company that’s the toast of the tech world, Sigmund Sussman finds himself content, if not particularly inspired. As compensation for telling people to restart their computer a few times a day, Sigmund earns enough disposable income to gorge on comics and has plenty of free time to devote to his gaming group.

Then in walks the new guy with the unpronounceable last name who immediately becomes IT’s most popular team member. Lain Laufeyjarson is charming and good-looking, with a story for any occasion; shy, awkward Sigmund is none of those things, which is why he finds it odd when Lain flirts with him. But Lain seems cool, even if he’s a little different—though Sigmund never suspects just how different he could be. After all, who would expect a Norse god to be doing server reboots?

As Sigmund gets to know his mysterious new boyfriend, fate—in the form of an ancient force known as the Wyrd—begins to reveal the threads that weave their lives together. Sigmund doesn’t have the first clue where this adventure will take him, but as Lain says, only fools mess with the Wyrd. Why? Because the Wyrd messes back.

About Alis

Alis Franklin is a thirtysomething Australian author of queer urban fantasy. She likes cooking, video games, Norse mythology, and feathered dinosaurs. She’s never seen a live drop bear, but stays away from tall trees, just in case.











Website  ~ Twitter @lokabrenna  ~  Google+
Instagram  ~  Pinterest  ~  Tumblr

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Alis:  Thank you so much for having me, it's great to be here! As to when I started writing... honestly, I can't ever remember not writing. Story exercises were some of my favourite things in kindergarten, and somewhere around then I got my first "publication credit"; an acrostic poem I wrote about a local river. It was collected in an anthology of work from local school children. I still remember most of the words to the poem (it started "Murmuring waters wash / Under, over and / 'Round") because I had to recite it at the book launch. Scary stuff!



TQ:  Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Alis:  Both, I guess. I'll tend to get an idea, let it churn around for a while, write it down as a rough outline, start writing the first draft, then go back to refine the outline if I run into plot walls. It depends on the story.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Alis:  Finding time to do it. Like most noob authors I have a day job, and also a husband, both of which take up good chunks of attention. So I have to grab writing time when it comes. Most of Liesmith was written on my iPhone, for example, when standing in queues at the grocery store or, well, sitting on the toilet. (No comments on that one, eh?)



TQ:  Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors?

Alis:  Terry Pratchett blew my mind when I was a teenager. There's a real highwire balancing act between writing books that are "clever" and writing books that are "self-indulgent". Pratchett is extremely good at keeping on the "clever" side of that equation; his books are full of references and in-jokes, but I never feel like he's talking down to me if I don't "get" them. Plus he deconstructed fantasy for me so effectively I basically stopped being able to read anything else in the genre for years.

A bit later, Michael Marshall Smith (Spares, Only Forward) made me fall in love with unreliable narrators, first-person POV, and deft foreshadowing. Stephen King taught me the importance of character, and Poppy Z. Brite was the first time I'd ever seen queer sexuality depicted in a genre novel which was, again, mind-blowing, since I'd never seen anything before that allowed for gay characters in fiction that wasn't specifically about being gay.



TQ:  Describe Liesmith in 140 characters or less.

Alis:  "Reincarnated Goddesses, Anthropomorphic Archaeopteryxes, and the End of the World (Again), or, What I Did Over Summer" by Sigmund Sussman.



TQ:  Tell us something about Liesmith that is not in the book description.

Alis:  Liesmith is on third sweet romance, one third urban fantasy action-adventure, and one third wall-oozing horror.



TQ:  What inspired you to write Liesmith?

Alis:  I got really interested in Norse mythology as a teenager, partly due to growing up in a place called the Woden Valley. It was kind of a weird feeling to realise that the bus interchange I sat in every afternoon on my way home from school was named after the Viking god of death and wisdom, and it got me thinking about a place where gods really did name shopping malls after themselves.

The second element in Liesmith came from growing up geeky and studying computer science at university, and realising how much of tech culture is a mythology in its own right. I mean, in oldskool hacker circles, arguments over things like operating systems were called "religious issues" and "holy wars", and we still refer to things like the "Cult of Mac" nowadays. Plus I just kind like the idea that kids who grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons and watching Star Trek wouldn't be particularly phased by encountering things like magic and sentient non-humans. It's kind of what they've been prepping for their entire lives, after all!

Finally, the third element... well. Early on, I latched onto Loki as a favourite of all the Norse gods; he's an outsider, who doesn't always make great decisions, but is loyal in his own way and generally tries to help the gods up until the point he kinda... gets sick of it. But the character I was really fascinated by was his wife, Sigyn. We basically know nothing about her, other than the fact she stayed--at great cost to herself--with her husband after his exile from Asgard. I mean, Loki might spend an eternity being tortured in prison but at least he gets to have his revenge when he gets out. But what about Sigyn? She cares for her husband through all that time, so she must feel something for him, but we never know what it is. Is she resigned to his punishment? Does she think he deserved it? Is she with him out of fear or obligation... or is it love? And if it is love, how pissed off must she be over what happened...

... and what price would she pay to fix it?



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Liesmith?

Alis:  I read a lot of books on Norse mythology and played a bunch of video games. It was torture, honest.



TQ:  In Liesmith who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Alis:  Lain is the easiest to write. Partly because I've been writing in his POV for years, so I'm used to it, and also because I just find present-tense first person flows really easily. The hardest are probably the gods--Baldr, Sigyn, Loki and so on--because the florid Ye Olde Speake, while fun to indulge in, is way too easy to over over-write. It's also easier to do in present tense, so swapping between the present tense first-person (for Loki) and past tense third person (for Sigyn and Baldr) can be a little tricky.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery lines from Liesmith.

Alis:  There's a scene later on in the book where Lain quotes Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings ("fly you fools!"). It's not the line itself so much as the fact I got to have him say it while... well. When people read that scene, just remember Tolkien based Gandalf on the god Odin.

So basically yeah. I'm a huge dork, it's true.



TQ:  What's next?

Alis:  Next is a holiday! We're off round the world later this year. The Hubby is taking me to New York, I'm taking him to Iceland, and it's basically going to be awesome (albeit extremely cold). Plus a bunch of plane flights should (hopefully) give me some decent blocks of writing time; I owe my publisher some sequels for Liesmith in 2015, so... iPhones out and get typing!



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Alis:  And thank you so much for having me!

Liesmith
Wyrd 1
Hydra, October 7, 2014
eBook, 308 pages

At the intersection of the magical and the mundane, Alis Franklin’s thrilling debut novel reimagines mythology for a modern world—where gods and mortals walk side by side.

Working in low-level IT support for a company that’s the toast of the tech world, Sigmund Sussman finds himself content, if not particularly inspired. As compensation for telling people to restart their computer a few times a day, Sigmund earns enough disposable income to gorge on comics and has plenty of free time to devote to his gaming group.

Then in walks the new guy with the unpronounceable last name who immediately becomes IT’s most popular team member. Lain Laufeyjarson is charming and good-looking, with a story for any occasion; shy, awkward Sigmund is none of those things, which is why he finds it odd when Lain flirts with him. But Lain seems cool, even if he’s a little different—though Sigmund never suspects just how different he could be. After all, who would expect a Norse god to be doing server reboots?

As Sigmund gets to know his mysterious new boyfriend, fate—in the form of an ancient force known as the Wyrd—begins to reveal the threads that weave their lives together. Sigmund doesn’t have the first clue where this adventure will take him, but as Lain says, only fools mess with the Wyrd. Why? Because the Wyrd messes back.

About Alis

Alis Franklin is a thirtysomething Australian author of queer urban fantasy. She likes cooking, video games, Norse mythology, and feathered dinosaurs. She’s never seen a live drop bear, but stays away from tall trees, just in case.











Website  ~ Twitter @lokabrenna  ~  Google+
Instagram  ~  Pinterest  ~  Tumblr

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Cleve:  Hi Sally. Thanks so much for inviting me here. I started writing as a kid really, picture books, chapter books, and then comics as I got a little older. I started writing “seriously” in my early twenties; about the same time I started acting. An actor’s job is to tell a character’s story, physically, within the context of the reality in which he or she exists. And I was attracted to a very specific type of character and story. It became pretty obvious pretty fast that if I wanted to see the characters and stories I envisioned, I’d better learn how to write.


TQ:  Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Cleve:  Bit of both. Mostly a pantser, but I’ve learned I should know the end of a story, and have a loose plan for getting there before I start a project. I don’t always follow the plan, but having one helps keep me from spinning in circles.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Cleve:  The writing muse is a demanding mistress, of time and devotion. If she is to grace me with those magic moments of pure inspiration, I have to honor her by writing every day. I have to grind out the words, even when I don’t feel like it, even when I’m too busy, or I have been up all night tending a colicky baby, or my parents or in-laws (especially my in-laws) are in town; even on my wife’s birthday, or our anniversary. The muse doesn’t care about my other obligations. Time is her tribute, and if she doesn’t get it, she gets stingy with her blessings. The challenge is finding balance.



TQ:  Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors?

Cleve:  I like a lot of authors. George R. R. Martin is the first to come to mind. He’s a master storyteller. I like N.K. Jemisin. The worlds she builds are sumptuous and populated with tough, smart women-- my favorite kind. I like Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Mark Onspaugh, Michael Hughes. I’m a big fan of Jim Butcher and David Anthony Durham. This is a tough question because someone inevitably is going to get left out. There are a lot of great reads out there.

As far as influences, my time studying Shakespeare was a big influence. I don’t mean that in a pretentious way. I’m not comparing myself to Shakespeare or anything. But the year I spent studying and acting with the American Shakespeare Center (Shenandoah Shakespeare Express back then) left me with a love of language and some creative ideals about the human condition, philosophies that could be applied to all the creative disciplines, art, music, dance…anything that involves telling stories about people.



TQ:  Describe Full-Blood Half-Breed in 140 characters or less.

Cleve:  A warrior prodigy innovates his world’s sacred martial arts, creating a superior fighting technique and world-changing religious backlash.



TQ:  Tell us something about Full-Blood Half-Breed that is not in the book description.

Cleve:  Names carry power in the world of the 13 Kingdoms. Weapons are always named and warriors—those who distinguish themselves—are sometimes named after their weapons or deeds. Sometimes, it’s not obvious what a character has done to earn their name, for instance, Jambiax, Paladin’s grandfather is called, the Phantom. And while there is speculation, no one is quite sure why he’s called the Phantom. And Jambiax, like most mancers, keeps his own counsel. Not even his son, Rebelde knows what he did to earn the name.


TQ:  You are a writer, director, and actor. How do you feel that writing for theater and film has influenced (or not) your novel writing?

Cleve:  I hope it’s made my character and dialogue work stronger. My son often catches me talking to myself and accuses me of being a little crazy, and maybe I am, but typically when I’m talking to myself, I’m working out scenes in my mind. I I get into the heads of my characters, and try not to judge their actions when I’m speaking for them. I try to avoid characters that are evil for the sake of evil. Like I said before, every character is a hero in his or her mind. I want people to have mixed feelings about all my characters, good, bad or neutral. There are several ways in which Fox the Runt, the antagonist in Full-Blood Half-Breed, is very heroic. His back story is pretty astounding, and he makes a pretty convincing argument for his hatred of the protagonist, Paladin.



TQ:  In the novel, Paladin Del Darkdragón is branded a heretic for blending the 4 schools of martial arts. Can you tell us a bit about the martial arts in the novel? What appealed to you about using martial arts?

Cleve:  Years ago I heard about Bruce Lee combining different styles of martial arts to create Jeet Kun Do. His philosophy dealt with the fighter as an artist, choosing the best of all available martial styles to express his or her self in art of self-defense. That blending—the creation of something greater than the sum of its parts-- seemed somehow analogous to the great American melting pot experience, a particularly eloquent analogy considering the comparatively homogenous culture from which Lee came. And it worked perfectly with how I wanted to spin the genre’s “half-breed” trope.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Full-Blood Half-Breed?

Cleve:  I spent a lot of time researching different styles of martial arts. Each system in Full-Blood Half-Breed has a real world counterpart. I researched several real world languages and cultures that influence the world of the 13 Kingdoms. But I spend 3 interviews talking about all the research that goes into something like this. I still do research, every day. World-building is a full-time job.



TQ:  Who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Cleve:  Oddly enough, the old grandmother, Suki the Skullbender was the easiest to write. Most of us, if we’re lucky, will know someone like her in our lifetimes. She’s lived so long and seen so much, she has lost her patience for foolishness. And let’s be honest, the most agreeable teenager in the world is still 87% foolishness, and Suki’s grandson, Paladin—her magomusuko—is a long way from agreeable. Suki is learned and wise in the ways of the world. She’s fearless with her opinion. She wasn’t in my first draft. She’s a character created in rewrites, born strictly to serve a very specific plot purpose. But she really came to life. I am quite fond of the Skullbender. Even if she was inspired by my mother-in-law.

Paladin’s father, Rebelde the Darkdragón, was the hardest. At least at first. I started this book when my son was a baby, so the father/son interactions—emotionally—were written from the perspective of a new father still very much doting on his precocious baby son. That man had never known the singular fury of confronting a willful little smart aleck screaming, “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!” in the middle of Union freaking Square during the holiday rush. It wasn’t until the third or fourth rewrite that I discovered those particular joys of fatherhood. And I suppose that was when Rebelde began to understand the diverse spectrum of emotions he could experience toward his son. There’s a chapter early in the book, that was all hugs and forgiveness the first time I wrote it, before I understood just how angry a father could be with his son. That scene reads very differently now. Rebelde goes a little ape when Paladin defies him, putting himself at risk. The chapter feels way more authentic.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite lines from Full-Blood Half-Breed.

Cleve:  “We Speak Steel.” And “Your ignorance betrays you.”



TQ:  What's next?

Cleve:  I’m continuing to build the world of the 13 Kingdoms. The sequel to Full-Blood Half-Breed—tentativley titled, Shadow of the Raven, is pretty far along. Also, I’m doing the finishing touches on Geek Mafia, a literary fiction piece about a high school kid looking to reclaim his dignity after a brutal assault by the school’s resident bullies. It’s pretty dark. And violent. And funny. I’m also doing some Graphic Novel stuff as well. Occiaonally, I manage a half decent doodle of Paladin and/or one of the other characters in Full-Blood Half-Breed. I post them on Pinterest sometime (clevelamison) and your readers can also follow me on twitter or facebook-- @lamison or Cleve Lamison (writer)—to get updates on stuff.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Cleve:  Thank you. It was a pleasure and an honor.

Cleve Lamison

Full-Blood Half-Breed
Hydra, March 11, 2014
eBook, 286 pages

In Cleve Lamison’s hard-hitting debut, two young men divided by an intense hatred—yet marked with a common destiny—have the power to save the world . . . or destroy it.

It’s been two thousand years since the bastard spawn of the god Creador lost their war to enslave humankind, transforming the Thirteen Kingdoms into a violent world where the martial arts are exalted as sacred gifts from the gods—and honor is won through arena blood sport.

Paladin Del Darkdragón, a sixteen-year-old warrior-in-training, is a “half-breed.” His battle against pure-blood bullies like Fox the Runt has forced him to master the four fighting forms. But when he blends them, he is condemned as a heretic by authorities and banished from the training temples. Seeking redemption, he enrolls in the arena games, savage trials that end in death.

This year’s games mask an old plot driven by a new prophet. With a horde of Creador’s Bastards and an army of fanatics led by Fox the Runt at his command, the Prophet will bend the world to his will or burn it to ash.

Paladin faces an impossible choice: redeem his honor in a fight he can’t hope to survive, or abandon his loved ones to perish in the sweeping holy war consuming the Kingdoms.

About Cleve

Photo by Charles Chessler

Cleve Lamison, writer and costumed adventurer, was raised in Richmond, Virginia on a steady diet of Star Wars films, fantasy novels, and Marvel Comics. He studied Mass Communications and Commercial Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, and has worked as a soldier in the Army Reserves, a caricaturist and cartoonist, drama teacher, and eventually became a traveling actor and playwright.

He paid his acting dues touring children’s theater out of Richmond, dazzling preschoolers along the east coast with his lauded performance of Fideous Fastidious, the pink frog. Touring and regional theater followed. He portrayed Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet, Iachimo in Cymbeline, and he spent a year touring the country with the American Shakespeare Company portraying Othello and various parts in The Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing. He has participated in workshops throughout the country, teaching about theater in general and Shakespeare in particular.

In 1997, Cleve moved to New York City and worked infrequently as an actor, writer and filmmaker while pursuing his first love of costumed vigilantism. In 2005, with fatherhood looming, Cleve retired from the hazardous world of theater entertainment to concentrate on making the world—or at least Greenwich Village—a safer place for his unborn child and children everywhere.

It was also during this time that Cleve combined his love of writing with his love of speculative fiction, and began work on Full-Blood Half-Breed and the Stormbringer Revelation series. Cleve lives in New York City with his wife, Michelle, his son, Paladin, and the ghost of their pet fish, Fishy.

Website  ~  Facebook  ~  Twitter @lamison  ~  Pinterest

Cleve Lamison

Full-Blood Half-Breed
Hydra, March 11, 2014
eBook, 286 pages

In Cleve Lamison’s hard-hitting debut, two young men divided by an intense hatred—yet marked with a common destiny—have the power to save the world . . . or destroy it.

It’s been two thousand years since the bastard spawn of the god Creador lost their war to enslave humankind, transforming the Thirteen Kingdoms into a violent world where the martial arts are exalted as sacred gifts from the gods—and honor is won through arena blood sport.

Paladin Del Darkdragón, a sixteen-year-old warrior-in-training, is a “half-breed.” His battle against pure-blood bullies like Fox the Runt has forced him to master the four fighting forms. But when he blends them, he is condemned as a heretic by authorities and banished from the training temples. Seeking redemption, he enrolls in the arena games, savage trials that end in death.

This year’s games mask an old plot driven by a new prophet. With a horde of Creador’s Bastards and an army of fanatics led by Fox the Runt at his command, the Prophet will bend the world to his will or burn it to ash.

Paladin faces an impossible choice: redeem his honor in a fight he can’t hope to survive, or abandon his loved ones to perish in the sweeping holy war consuming the Kingdoms.