I've got a special treat for you this month and next month. I'm going to devote Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays to writers from eSpecs Books. They're a great bunch of folks whom you need to get to know.
Next up, Robert E. Waters!
Tell us a bit about your latest work.
My latest is a novel that I co-authored with Compton Crook Award winner, Charles E Gannon, set in Eric Flint's 1632/Ring of Fire Alternate History series, published by Baen Books. The novel is titled 1636: Calabar's War and it's available now through Barnes & Noble and Amazon, etc.
The 1632/Ring of Fire series is about a small West Virginia town (Grantville) that was transported back in time to fall right in the middle of the 17th century during the Thirty Years War in Germany. The series tells the story of these Americans as they try to cope with the sudden change in their world and location, and how their arrival impacts the people of the period, plus the social, religious, military, and political lives of everyone in Europe.
Since its inception, however, the series has moved into many other parts of the world: India, China, Africa, North and South America. Calabar's War is the 30th novel in the series and is set in South America and the Caribbean. It deals specifically with the issue of African slavery which, unfortunately, has been in place in the Portuguese and Spanish territories since the early 16th century.
The main character of the novel, Domingos Fernandes Calabar, is what the Portuguese at the time called a "Mameluco," a man of mixed Portuguese and native Brazilian heritage. The novel recounts his service to the Dutch in Brazil, but it carries him into the Caribbean as he struggles to save his family from slaveholders and tries to begin the long and arduous task of bringing slavery to an end in Brazil.
What happened in your life that prompted you to become a writer?
Well, I can't say that there was any one thing that occurred to make me want to be an author. I enjoyed stories from an early age. In fact, I recall writing my first story when I was around five or six, though I can't tell you what the story was about, except that the main character was a kid with a switchblade. What he did with that switchblade, I haven't a clue anymore. But from that early attempt, I always had an interest in telling stories. It wasn't until high school, however, that I began to give serious thought to writing. I spent a lot of my high school years writing stories and submitting them. All rejections in those early days, but I kept trying and eventually, I struck gold.
What inspires you to write?
Stories that other authors have written that I have read. I remember back in the mid-90s, shortly after I had moved to Baltimore, Maryland, I rededicated myself to trying my hand at fiction. Science fiction and fantasy, to be specific. But, I was reading a John Updike novel called Brazil, and wow, did it inspire! Updike is known for his mainstream prose, but this one had some fantasy elements in it. But it wasn't those elements that inspired me. It was his writing style, a kind of lyrical prose that I found quite enjoyable. I was so enthralled by his style that shortly after reading it, I sat down and penned a story that almost... almost!... got published. It was a little piece about a woman in an alien concentration camp that survives and thrives against adversity. It was actually accepted for publication, but the magazine that bought it went belly up before the story saw print. Such is life! But the novel was so inspiring that it had me penning my first acceptance and almost first publication. Other stories/novels that I have read since then have been just as inspiring.
What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work?
What would be your dream project?
A multi-book deal with a high 5-figure or 6-figure advance with a highly respected publisher. I have lofty dreams. :)
What writers have influenced your style and technique?
They are legion, and I'm still being influenced today. Early influences were Robert Sheckley, Robert Silverberg, CJ Cherryh, Clifford Simak, Orson Scott Card. Middle career influences were John Updike, TC Boyle, many of the cyberpunk authors like William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Rudy Rucker, and John Shirley. These days, Timothy Zahn, George RR Martin, Scott Westerfeld, Charles E Gannon, Louis L'Amour, Eric Flint. I don't think an author should ever stop finding new authors to read and being influenced by them.
If you have any former project to do over to make it better, which one would it be, and what would you do?
My "Assassin's Lament" series of short stories, which were published in WEIRD TALES magazine and in various online and print anthologies. The world-building in these stories is a little half-baked, to be honest, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd spend more time shoring up the fantasy universe in which they are located. My original idea was to create a kind of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser type of setting and storyline, but it got a little too twisted up in the convoluted mythology of the various gods that the main character had to deal with. If I ever have a chance to revisit that series, I'd improve the world-building.
Where would you rank writing on the "Is it an art or it is a science continuum?" Why?
I'd rank it further on the "art" side of the spectrum. I've known a lot of technical writers in my day, having gotten my degree in technical writing. Many of those professionals can write a good rulebook, or a manual, a brochure, an environmental impact study. But most of them lack the imagination to write a good story. Science plays a part (the grammar, the style, etc), but storytelling is more of an art form IMO.
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
Keeping the details straight, and the longer the story, the harder that is. I wind up copying a lot of tiny snippets, names of characters, unique terms, etc. as I go along, so that by the end of the project, the bottom portion of my file is strewn with errant names, places, descriptions, etc. that I had to refer back to as I wrote the story. For some of my projects, like for my Mask Cycle novels published by Ring of Fire Press (The Masks of Mirada, The Thief of Cragsport), I've created a full glossary of character names, locations, terms etc. just to keep it all together in my mind.
How do your writer friends help you become a better writer? Or do they not?
They absolutely make me better. I've done a number of collaborations and with each one, I've learned something from my co-authors. Everyone has their own unique style and voice. Each approaches narrative in at least a slightly different way than I do, and that difference teaches me something new that I can apply in my next project.
What does literary success look like to you?
I suppose the "ideal" literary success would be both critical and financial: readers liking your work enough to buy it in quantities such that you could make a living doing it. But the sad reality of it is that most authors do not make a living writing. So, if I had to choose one over the other, I'd pick a critical success. I hope that at the end of my days, someone will look back fondly on my work, smile, and say, "I liked it!"
Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug?
In July 2021, Grantville Gazette IX, reprinted stories from the online 1632/Ring of Fire magazine, will have my story "Letters from Inchon." After that, scheduled for December 2021, will be 1637: The Coast of Chaos. This will contain novellas and novelettes set in the New World of the 1632/Ring of Fire series. My contribution will be a novelette called "The People from the Sky," co-authored with Eric S Brown. Our Algonquin warrior, Fast as Lightning in the Sky, will find himself heavily embroiled in the political changes taking place in the eastern United States as the Americans, who came through the Ring of Fire, begin to change the world.
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