James A. Moore Interview

Today SFFWorld.com interviews James A. Moore. The third book of his Seven Forges series, City of Wonders, is available through Angry Robot Books.

James A Moore is the author of over twenty novels, including the critically acclaimed Fireworks, Under The Overtree, Blood Red, Deeper, the Serenity Falls trilogy (featuring his recurring anti-hero, Jonathan Crowley) and his most recent novels Blind Shadows as well as Seven Forges and the forthcoming sequel The Blasted Lands.
He has twice been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award and spent three years as an officer in the Horror Writers Association, first as Secretary and later as Vice President.
The author cut his teeth in the industry writing for Marvel Comics and authoring over twenty role-playing supplements for White Wolf Games, including Berlin by Night, Land of 1,000,000 Dreams and The Get of Fenris tribe. He also penned the White Wolf novels Vampire: House of Secrets and Werewolf: Hellstorm.
Moore’s first short story collection, Slices, sold out before ever seeing print.

Welcome to SFFWorld.com, James. I love the cover of your book, The City of Wonders. Can you tell me what it’s about?

Well, City of Wonders is the third in the series, but in a nutshell, the people of Fellein, a very vast and old empire, are under attack by a group of warriors called the Sa’ba Taalor. Their attackers claim that their gods have demanded this. Their gods are also literally all gods of war. After a lot of maneuvering and trying to stop a war. The war is upon Fellein and it doesn’t look good for them winning. The survivors from several fronts are on the run and head for Canhoon, the capital of the empire, also called the city of wonders.

Because it’s an epic fantasy, I’m guessing there are a lot of characters in the City of Wonders. Which one is your favorite and which one do you think your readers won’t be able to get enough of?

My favorite? That’s rather like choosing my favorite child, really. I think maybe Swech, who is on the cover. She exemplifies the devotion the Sa’ba Taalor have for their gods. In her own way she is true and pure.

The favorite characters of the readers? Ironically enough they seem to really like the bad guys. Swech is popular, and so is King Tuskandru, and Drask Silver Hand. Other than the bad guys, everyone is rooting for Andover Lashk.

You’re an accomplished author, with over twenty novels to your name. What’s different about City of Wonders? Would you recommend this to first-time readers of your work?

City of Wonders, along with the rest of the Seven Forges series, is really my first foray into fantasy. Apparently (I mean it when I say I can’t judge my own work very well) I’m pretty good at world building. I’m doing a lot of it in the series and I’m enjoying it. As you already stated, it’s a BIG cast, and I love working on that scale. All I can say is I guess that shows.

Is this part of a trilogy?

Okay. Once upon a time, yes. But remember that stuff I said about world building? It got big. So now I’m writing THE SILENT ARMY, which is book four of the trilogy. It WILL be the last part, too, though there’s a very real chance I’ll visit the world again, it will be an entirely different storyline.

You’ve been a past officer in the Horror Writers Association. Why write an epic fantasy and not horror?

Because I’ve never really believed in limiting myself. Listen, Stephen King was doing just fine with small town horror, when he wasn’t writing science fiction or epic fantasy and calling it horror. You doubt me? Tommyknockers and It and Firestarter could just as easily be categorized as science fiction. Cujo and Delores Claiborne and Gerald’s Game could all be called suspense instead of supernatural horror. Oh, and then there’s that Dark Tower thing he did. Fantasy. Some of my biggest influences have been H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Dean Koontz and a few others. Mostly they don’t limit themselves. I follow that philosophy. I wire what I want to write and worry about the market afterward as often as not.

Also, Fantasy has always been my first love. I just never got around to writing it until now.

How long have you been working with Angry Robot Books? Do you like them? Come on, spill the beans!

I LOVE working with Angry Robot. They take the time to work with the writers and artists and to actually pay attention when a book is coming along. I can’t say that for every publisher I’ve been with, God knows. I’ve been working with them since the start of Seven Forges, and we’ve discussed another six books beyond THE SILENT ARMY, three of which are a trilogy of a different sort set in a different world.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of the writing process?

The writing is the answer to both of those questions. I LOVE writing stories. I mean that. It’s my favorite addiction. I enjoy the process. Right up until I don’t. Inevitably self doubt or external distractions bog me down and I have been known to look at the screen and think about writing while accomplishing nothing at all on several occasions.

What’s on your to-be-read pile right now? Any favorite authors?

My TBR pile is over 400 books deep. Right now, the ones that are closest are the new Stephen King short story collection and the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander.

They are two of my favorites, along with Joe Lansdale, Christopher Golden, Thomas Sneigoski, Andre Norton, Joe Abercrombie, Sarah Pinborough, F. Paul Wilson, Mark Morris, Tim Lebbon, Jonathan Maberry, C.L. Moore, David Gemmell, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Michael Moorcock…are you seeing a trend? I have a lot of favorites.

What do you do when not writing?

I work full time as a barista at my local Starbucks, because I love insurance and it gets me out of the house. I like spending time with a few of my friends. But I’m often a bit of a hermit. I love reading and watching TV/Movies.

What are you writing now or what are you working on?

Book Four of the Seven Forges: THE SILENT ARMY, a novel called SPORES (it’s sort of an end of the world thing), a few collaborations with Christopher Golden and Charles R. Rutledge, I have three different novels in progress that have not yet been sold and so I can take my time but I’d like to finish them. They are BOOM TOWN (a weird western starring Jonathan Crowley), FRESH KILL which is somewhere between a horror novel and an urban fantasy, and a novella that is desperately past due and I really need to finish.

Thanks for letting me visit!

It was great having you, James. I look forward to reading your work.

Find out more and meet James A. Moore on his blog and @jamesamoore on Twitter.