Interview With Ty Arthur
Why don’t you begin by sharing a
little about yourself.
Certainly, and first off, thanks
for having me as a guest at your blog! I'm a new dad living in the perpetually
frozen Montana with my wife Megan and our son, Gannicus Picard. I've worked as
a freelance writer and editor primarily covering heavy metal news and gaming
guides for nearly a decade, with the occasional tech piece here and there
thrown in for good measure.
Making the move to fiction has been
my latest endeavor, and it’s been a wild ride of ups and downs. Even for all
the low points though, it’s been well worth the effort, meeting some amazing
people in the indie fiction scene and getting to experience the accomplishment
of seeing my words finally landing on print and digital devices to be devoured
by the readers.
How long have you been writing,
and how many books have you published to date?
In terms of fiction, I've been at
this for about four years now, and it’s quite the trip to look back at those
first short horror stories I came up with when getting serious about writing
anything that wasn't news or entertainment related. The meat grinder that is
the book industry nearly chewed me up and spit me out in those early days, but
I can say without hesitation I came out the other end a better writer.
So far I've had two short stories
published in anthologies (with a whole mess of eye-opening rejections along the
way), a standalone sci-fi / horror novella titled Empty, and now my
full-length dark fantasy novel Light Dawning is slated to arrive at the
end of the month.
Could you tell us a bit about
your latest book?
Although it takes place in a low
fantasy world, Light Dawning is primarily a horror story. Those horror
elements come from multiple angles: cosmic horror from ancient things beyond human
understanding that are inimical to sane life, but also the more down-to-earth
horror of the awful things people are willing to do to one another.
The story revolves around four main
characters who are all trying to deal with the grim reality of living in
Cestia, an occupied city. It's been three years since the invaders arrived, and
no crusading army has ever arrived to oust the soldiers or save the civilians
left behind. Conditions have deteriorated significantly for the lower class,
with death always around the corner and things much worse than death becoming
an everyday fact of life.
It’s in this bleak setting that the
characters have to decide how they plan on living out the last dying days of
Cestia's former glory. Some will do anything to survive just a little bit
longer and want to avoid the notice of their oppressors, while others have
embraced rebellion and are willing to engage in any act of barbarity to seek
revenge or freedom.
While very much a fantasy tale
involving monstrous beasts and people with the ability to wield supernatural
powers, the focus is more on a study of how these characters react to their
surroundings and how the occupation changes them. For instance, how does one
deal with a concept like motherhood in a city where rioting is routine and
people being beaten to death in the street is a regular occurrence? Do you
embrace friendship and lean on those around you, or reject everyone else
entirely since it won't be long before anyone you grow to love will be taken
away from you?
Very much in the grimdark genre,
I've entirely thrown out the stereotypical fantasy notion of a humble and
unsuspecting hero rising to greatness and defeating the world's great evils,
and turned most of the standard genre tropes on their heads.
Do you have a favourite
character? If so, why?
Of all the characters in the book,
two stand out most to me. My favorite would probably be Tala, who is the
strongest character of the bunch. Despite having been dealt a very band hand in
life, she always soldiers on, and she's managed to keep going despite extreme
hardship that would have destroyed anyone else. Harboring a dangerous secret
within her, she has no choice but to remain strong in face of unrelenting
adversity.
Representing how so much is
expected of women in a society while they are frequently treated poorly despite
their contributions, Tala has to spend every waking moment working to keep a
maelstrom of insane whispers and screams from spilling out of her mind. If she
lets her guard down for even a split second, no matter what physical or
emotional hardship being endured, she could inadvertently open a doorway
between sane reality and another place filled with nightmare things. Sadly,
very few will ever acknowledge her constant efforts, but if she ever lapses in
her vigilance, the world will suffer for it.
Besides Tala, I loved writing the
character Father Erret. Not your typical priest or cleric of a fantasy novel,
Erret is an extremist who managed to anger his own religion's hierarchy and
ended up having to leave his home to spread his beliefs elsewhere. Rather than
descending into despair over the city's current condition, Erret is in a
constant state of religious rapture, believing the entire invasion and
occupation to be a testing of his faith and an opportunity to turn the citizens
to his way of thinking. He believes pain to be the proper expression of a life
worth living, and would happily watch the entire city burn if it would convert
the survivors to his religion.
You write in several genres. Do
you have a favourite? And if so, why?
It’s actually surprising to me that
I ended up bouncing back and forth between different genres with each release.
I've been reading epic high fantasy since I was old enough to pick up a book,
so I always figured if I ever got serious about writing that would be my focus,
but that didn't turn out to be the case. Most of my work is based on personal
experiences that I translate into fictional settings and then expand upon, and
it just happened that my first real attempt at a short story was a modern day
horror tale.
My previous novella Empty
was actually first conceived as a story about a man contracting lycanthropy and
having to hide it from those around him, but as the story progressed I didn't
feel like anything was clicking, so I shifted to a space setting with some of
the same themes presented through a sci-fi filter.
Considering that my next upcoming
work again shifts genre, I'd have to say at this point I don't actually have a
favorite, and am having more fun exploring many different facets of fiction
rather than sticking to one single style.
Can you tell us about your
writing process? Where do your ideas originate? Do you have a certain writing
routine?
I work from a “write what you know”
perspective, starting with a small kernel of truth and then extrapolating it
out into something more fictional. It’s easier to get invested in the
characters and create an emotional or riveting experience if I'm personally
attached to the story because it’s something I actually lived through.
There's an old joke that gets
thrown around about “being a drinker with a writing problem,” and that's
actually the process I use for the core of my stories. Before writing a single
word, I spend a lot of time putting together music playlists featuring the
themes or tones I'll be trying to express in upcoming scenes, and then I focus
entirely on building that world with headphones on and a shotglass close at
hand.
When the basic framework of the
story is built and several major scenes written, from there I switch to a more
sober approach with less music, honing in on the details and making sure all
the various concepts are meshing as I intended and that my key ideas are coming
through.
What is your greatest challenge
as a writer?
If you couldn't tell from the way I
switch back and forth between genres, sometimes it’s maintaining interest in
one single tale and not writing the frameworks for five or six at a time! When
I'm on one specific project and seeing it through to completion, I've learned
over time to look for specific mistakes that are easy to miss as you get too
close to a project.
For me, those tend to be things
like repeating specific words and phrases far too often. You don't notice
things like that when you're wrapped up in a story, and it takes some time away
and returning with fresh eyes to realize where those mistakes lie. Having
reliable editors to give you blunt feedback and not just say “it's great, don't
change a thing!” is an absolute must.
What do you like to do when you're
not writing? Any hobbies?
Hah, well, these days most of my
time goes into exclaiming “what is that in your mouth?!?” or “why are you
bumping your head repeatedly against that wall?!?” as my son learns to walk and
explores our home.
Outside of keeping a toddler from
swallowing who knows what and stopping him from getting into electrical
outlets, I'm a huge fan of horror films, and love following all the latest on
indie projects and crowd-funded movies. The Void was the big one I'd
been anticipating for years, and I wasn't disappointed by its portrayal of a Call
Of Cthulhu roleplaying scenario in movie form.
On a similar note, gaming is
probably next biggest passion as I work to build a collection of everything
from classic old pen and paper systems like Earthdawn to newer entries
like Shadow Of The Demon Lord.
What’s your next project? Any
upcoming book secrets you care to reveal?
Light Dawning spent a very
long time in the gestation and creation stages, originally starting in late
2015, so I'm excited to get onto something else finally. I'm really in need of
a sort of “palette cleanser” that lets me explore other styles of writing, so
I'm doing something way outside my comfort zone and putting together a
collection of horror-themed erotica coming out towards the end of the year. I
realize that's not going to be for everyone though, so no hard feelings if
anyone who loved Empty or Light Dawning passes on that anthology.
After that I'm diving into a new full-length
novel exploring an action-packed, dystopian noir future. That book is going to
be a wild ride, and I can't wait for details on that to finally become
available. Looking further into the future, sequels to both of my previous
books are absolutely in the works, so if you want to know what happened
following Hansen's decision in Empty or need more of the grimdark world
of Light Dawning, rest assured they are both coming.
Ty Arthur gets to meld his passions with his work while freelancing for the likes of Metalunderground.com and GameSkinny. His debut sci-fi / horror novella “Empty” was released in early 2016, with many more dark tales still to come. Arthur writes to exorcise his demons and lives in the cold, dark north with his amazing wife Megan and infant son Gannicus Picard.
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