Welcome back! Today I’d like to share an interview I did with the wonderful Sharon Rivest, where we talk about her books, self-publishing, crafting a great action scene, and even a little about Helen of Troy.
Sharon is the author of the The Striker Chronicles (starting with The Color of Lightning) and the grimdark fantasy series Masks of Discord (starting with Deceit), and I’m absolutely thrilled to talk with her about writing!
James: Hello and welcome! First off, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself.
Sharon: Good to be here. About me… hmm. Life has given me the chance to do many things. I’ve raised cattle. Rode in an endurance competition. Learned to fence. Earned an archery trophy. My flower garden is huge and filled with color all season long. Falls find me out west hunting in the mountains and on the plains. I try to use my experiences with all these to add layers to my stories.
When did you start writing? Did you always want to be a writer?
I’ve been writing fantasy and science fiction for… a long time. My first bit of recognition for my writing came in winning a fan fic competition for a sci-fi tv show based out of Australia. I still have the manuscript signed by all the cast members. But what I really wanted to do was write my own stories with my own characters. The fantasy genre provides me a place to let my imagination run wild. I do my best to build rich worlds filled with the unexpected.
How about inspiration? What authors or genres are you drawn to?
My writing inspiration comes from lots of places. Classical fiction. Documentaries. Strange snippets of fact that I think I can expand and make a great story. In my younger days, I read Clarke, Asimov, Cherryh, and LeGuin. Lately, I’m drawn to Abercrombie, Lawrence, and Weir. Somewhere along the line, I think I lost my happily ever after gene. I like heroes who succeed, but not easily. The fantasy genre allows me to create worlds based on my own rules. When I started, I thought that meant it would be easier to write fantasy, turns out I was wrong.
What are you working on now? Anything fantastic you’re excited about? Current WIP or an upcoming project?
I’m currently working on the fourth and final book of my Masks of Discord series, A Triad Storm. All the twists, secrets, and inevitable turns have to come full circle in Mace’s tumultuous life.
Having completed the Color Trilogy of The Striker Chronicles I’m moving on the the Song Trilogy and have the first (fourth in series) started. I also have a couple of other fantasy books looking for a good edit and a great cover. I’m branching out into one-eyed witches and resurrected ancestors.
Let’s talk characters! Your two series, Masks of Discord and The Striker Chronicles, have two very different main characters. Mace is a fantastic take on the gruff and bitter warrior, while Eleanor is more of a fish-out-of-water, learning as she goes. How do you craft your characters? Do you have a specific method for creating these people?
Crafting characters is tough. The basis for Mace was a good person with a lot of physical gifts who also had the unfortunate knack of making his choices too quickly and suffering the consequences of not thinking them through.
Eleanor was inspired by the question – What would happen if Helen of Troy wasn’t just a prize, but in fact the strongest person in the story? Thus Helen of Sparta, the most beautiful woman in the world, became Eleanor Spencer, the most coveted (and eventually powerful) striker in the world. And, of course, I had a lot of other characters to drag off the plains of Troy and throw into the modern world.
I guess you could say I craft characters based on an initial premise or characteristic that I then build on. The aim is to make them grow, or at the very least learn, from their experiences.
Your action scenes can get quite gritty. Mace has been through some really gnarly fights, both one-on-one brawls and big, sprawling battles. Eleanor has been in several scrapes herself, though the action for her is slightly different.
Do you have any tips for how to manage this? Do you have a process for writing action?
Writing fight scenes should be fun because action is fun, but they take some thought and usually a lot of editing. I used to block out big battle scenes on a piece of paper so that I would get the directions of things right as I wrote, with practice I need that less and less.
Lately, I’ve been trying to incorporate some different techniques for fight writing. Using things like: React-Pause-Act or Goal-Conflict-Disaster. These might take me a while to get comfortable with let alone master.
How have you found the self-published experience? Have there been any big wins or any big setbacks in pursuing this track?
Self-Publishing is a roller-coaster ride. It’s not the path to easy street. If you want to succeed, you need to become your own marketer because you don’t have the might of a publishing house to rely on. So prepare to do more than just write and pick out pretty covers. You will find that there are a lot of people out there happy to help you with your book, for a fee. Developmental editors. Copy editors. Line editors. Proof readers. Cover designers. Marketers. If you’re not careful, you could end up spending a boatload of money self-publishing.
On the flip side of those looking for a way into your wallet, there are a lot of good people who will be willing to help you just because. I would suggest every writer join writing groups with similar goals and in a genre similar to their own. Here you’ll find people you can bounce ideas off of. It will take time to find a group that fits you, but don’t give up. Writer’s groups can steer you in the direction of resources you weren’t aware of such as: places looking for stories like yours, contests you might like to enter, conventions, book fairs, tips on what works and what doesn’t in marketing, the list goes on. And a rich source of beta readers doesn’t hurt.
There will be days when you wonder why you even decided to self-publish, but those are usually outweighed by the good days. Like the day you get a review that is over the top glowing and that person really gets your characters and story and can’t say enough good about it. You get a five star review. Or you simply sell a book.
On the to be proud of side of writing, Deceit recently came in as a semi-finalist in the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off – 9 contest (SPFBO9). Author Mark Lawrence has been putting this contest on for nine years. The Color of Lightning made it to #2 on Amazon’s Best Seller list for freeEbooks in the Superhero Fantasy category during a recent free book campaign.
Both your series have a different feel. The Striker Chronicles is modern day, urban fantasy, while Masks of Discord is grimdark. You do both sub-genres really well. How much research did you do into the styles while crafting these stories?
Genre research? I’ll have to be honest here, I just started writing stories they way I wanted and didn’t do much research into genres. Because of this, The Striker Chronicles doesn’t fit into urban fantasy as well as it could. I mean it does have an urban setting and is a fantasy but it simply doesn’t have vampires, the fae, or werewolves, which seem to be the staple of the genre.
That being said, I did do a ton of research for the Striker series, but it was mostly based on finding people from history with unusual powers (or struck by lightning) so I could use real names to give the story a bit of authenticity.
Deceit, on the other hand, just developed naturally and fell easily into the grimdark genre.
Both your series have multiple books, and more to come for each I believe. Did you plot out everything beforehand, or are the stories unfolding as you go? Do you consider yourself a planner or pantster?
Planner or pantster, tough question. I’m a planner without an outline and a pantster with a plan. I start each story with an end in mind. Getting to that end is the pantster part. But along the way the planner in me says, “You need to put something in here you can use later” or the planners says, “How did we get here? What were you thinking? Scrap this, go back and start over at the scene where…”
Worst yet, the planner suggests something major, like a sidekick for the hero to make things interesting. The pantster pulls out her hair, screaming “That will take a complete rewrite!” The only semi-planned book was The Color of Lightning. I had a Trojan War to somewhat recreate and certain character types and events that had to be approximated.
On that note, can you give us any hints for what’s to come for both Mace and Eleanor?
What’s coming up for Mace? Dragons, or viperion to be precise. In A Triad Storm, Mace will discover the magic he needs to go up against the mystery man who has been making his world hell for four books. Eleanor is going to find herself with a new set of problems in A Song of Chaos. The first of which is being considered a zombie.
And one final question for readers to get to know the REAL you… Peanut butter. Crunchy or smooth?
Peanut butter? Ever the rebel, neither. It’s Almond Butter for me!
Thanks for your time! How can people find your books?
My books can be found on amazon or though links on my website: www.sharonrivest.com
It has been a pleasure, James. Thanks for having me.
LEGACY OF RUKARA 