Brian McClellan’s debut novel, Promise of Blood released last year to great acclaim (including this review by Rob Bedford). The second installment of The Powder Mage Trilogy which it launched is set to publish On May 6 and the book has already gone to a second printing. Brian’s now got one published book under his belt and on the shelves and was kind enough to take some to answer a few questions for this interview.
Q: You’ve had this series, seemingly, mapped out for quite a while. Has anything changed in the second two books once the first was published?
A: Not once the first was published. By that time Crimson Campaign was finished and I had most of Autumn Republic worked out in my head.
Ten months or so before that, when Promise of Blood was first turned in, I had a bit of a crisis. I had sold the second and third on the merit of an outline and spent months trying to make that outline work for book two. It just wasn’t clicking. Finally my agent told me that it was okay if I tried a different angle and I was able to get The Crimson Campaign written.
Q: What kind of note system or glossary do you keep for yourself to make sure things you mention in book 3 are consistent with what you initially introduced in the first book?
A: I write in Scriviner, so it’s pretty easy to keep a big folder of character sheets and descriptive notes all bundled up. My problem is inconsistency. Sometimes I won’t make a special note of something because I think it’ll be a one-off person or place and then it winds up finding its way into a subsequent book or one of my pieces of Powder Mage short fiction. Then I have to go back and comb through 500k+ words of writing to figure out what I said about it.
Q: Promise of Blood received quite a bit of positive attention upon its release, how much of t affected your approach to writing?
A: The positive attention? None at all. If I’m doing something right why change it?
Q: Who is your toughest critic, in terms of looking over your novel drafts? You, your wife or your Orbit Overlords?
A: Whenever I’m being too hard on myself, my wife is the first person to tell me to take it easy and that she’s sure it’s better than I think it is. Whenever I’m being too easy on myself, she beats me over the head and reminds me that I’m just a nobody and I’m slacking and my writing needs to be better. In short: it depends on the time of day.
Q: I follow you on twitter and one thing I’ve noticed is that you’re something of a beekeeper. How long have you been cultivating honey from these creature who sacrifice their lives to sting us?
A: This coming summer will be my third season.
Q: Do you see parallels between the beekeeping and writing or is the beekeeping an escape from the writing?
A: Beekeeping is just one of my hobbies. I wouldn’t call it an “escape” from anything. I’ve always liked hobbies that give me something back in return. If it wasn’t this then it would be woodworking or fishing or something.
Q: What is the most surprising “complication” of being a published writer now that you have two books on the bookshelves?
A: How much there is to keep track of. From “which of my publicists does what” to the relationships between publishers and booksellers. I like to keep informed about how the industry works and what exactly is going on with my own books at any given moment. I know a lot of writers who don’t, and publishers often seem a little thrown off by how specific my questions get. But this is, after all, my career. I see it as the same as balancing your checkbook or routinely glancing over your credit card statements.
Q: Is there any writing advice you received that, initially, didn’t seem to make sense but later on felt more true or fell into place?
A: I don’t think so. It all clicked pretty well for me on a logical level. I’ve forgotten plenty of advice and had to relearn it the hard way, but that’s the curse of having a poor memory.
Q: Is there a specific individual (or specific individuals) who you would want to read your work (outside of the genre market)?
A: Most of my heroes outside of the genre would likely have no interest at all in epic fantasy. I’d probably be crushed by their lack of enthusiasm or outright dislike of my book. But for the sake of argument: Stephen Fry.
What distraction from writing is the biggest one you have to push back?
A: Computer games. I have thousands of hours logged on my Steam account. It makes me a little ill knowing that I have a dozen novels worth of time spent doing nothing.
Q: If you could hang out with one of the Muppets, which Muppet would it be?
A: Fozzie. He seems like he’d be fun.
Click for free download of Brian’s short story in the Powder Mage The Girl of Hrusch Avenue
Join Brian and Brandon Sanderson for a google hangout on May 1st: https://plus.google.com/events/coh8pop746ns7d814tcjamuqvmg
