Interview with Jon Sprunk
by KatG
We had a conversation with fantasy author Jon Sprunk about his series, starting with Shadow’s Son and Book #2, Shadow’s Lure, which is coming out this month.
1) The first book in your series, Shadow’s Son, tells the story of a mysterious freelance assassin working in the decaying, holy city empire of Orith. Caim has magical powers, threatening rivals and finds himself in a peculiar double-cross on a job. He also has something else – a temperamental, female guardian spirit named Kit whom only he can see. What is Kit and why is she watching Caim’s back?
Kit is from the Fae, which is one of the realms of the Other Side, another dimension that cannot normally be accessed (in either direction). Some individuals, however, are powerful enough to breach the Barrier between worlds. Caim’s mother was one of them. She summoned Kit to watch over Caim, initially. There is some debate over whether Kit could have ignored the geas, but it’s immaterial (pun?) because Kit fell in love with little baby Caim and decided to stick around anyway
2) So tell us, what is the deal with these mysterious shadows that are so powerful and also so dangerous?
Should I preface this with a Spoiler Alert? Caim doesn’t know much about them, except that they sometimes come when he calls, and sometimes help him. We find out in Shadow’s Lure how dangerous they can really be. The only person in Caim’s life who knows anything about them is Kit, and she’s not talking. Not to be obstinate. (Well, not entirely.) But because she’s honestly afraid of what Caim could become. Her way of shielding him is to keep him in the dark.
Now that I’ve danced around the question, I’ll tell you that the shadows come from the Other Side. Over there they are as common as insects and not very dangerous. In Caim’s world, they are quite a different matter, in large part because there are very few mortals with the ability and the knowledge to combat them. And those folks who do have sufficient proficiency in the “dark arts” tend to be, well, dark.
3) In Shadow’s Son, when his lordly target gets taken out by someone else and church politics seem to be involved, Caim has to babysit the victim’s daughter, Josey, who demands his help. How well does that relationship work?Well, Josey didn’t want Caim’s help at first. She wanted his head, preferably on a spike. But once she was convinced that he hadn’t killed her father, she enlists Caim to help her track down the real culprits. Even then, their relationship is rocky. They need each other, and over time they both develop an “us versus the world” mentality. Personally, I wouldn’t trust Caim for a second, but Josey has a bigger heart than I do.
4) The term that seems to get mentioned the most to describe your story-telling is fast-paced. Also fast-paced. And definitely fast-paced. And secondly, good character development. How do you juggle all that action with the intrigue and complicated character interactions?
The fast pace was easy. I just took out all the extraneous material that didn’t contribute to the forward movement of the story. Part of that is just my style. When I revise a manuscript, I tend to cut out the fat with a hacksaw, rather than a scalpel. I figure there aren’t many people who want to read me waxing poetic about the style of the table linen and how it was manufactured by blind nuns in an ancient chapel by the sea. My concern is: there’s a table. It may or may not have a tablecloth, but the important thing is the man across the table who wants to kill you with a boat hook.
Thank you for saying that the character interactions are complicated. That’s something I strive for, but sometimes it gets muscled out by all the action and scheming. I have a note tacked up beside the computer where I write. It’s been there for years, since long before Shadow’s Son was a twinkle in my eye. It says, ‘Character is the story.” That’s my first tenet. No character, no story.
5) Have you had a lot of experience with men with boat hooks trying to kill you?
Not recently. I started studying martial arts when I was ten. I don’t currently belong to a dojo because I haven’t got the time, and I can never find a school that will teach genuine killing techniques. I figure why study a warrior art if death and dismemberment aren’t on the table?
I worked for fourteen years as a juvenile detention guard, which is less interesting than it sounds. Vast gulfs of boredom punctuated by frantic bursts of violence.
6) Caim seems to attract enemies wanting to kill him and is up against some very interesting villains like Ral and Levictus. Can you tell us something about your antagonists?
Well, Ral and Levictus are very different kinds of enemies. Ral is an assassin, a son of privilege who squandered his inheritance and took to the killing game to pay for his extravagant lifestyle. He’s probably also a sociopath, but he’s able to keep his head on straight most of the time. Levictus is a sorcerer, but before that he was a captive in the Church’s dungeons, tortured for his family’s perceived heresy and one day rescued by a high-ranking Church official. The True Church (or Church of the True Faith) took control of the nation about two decades before the story begins.
7) In your new book, Shadow’s Lure, Caim, with Kit, sets out to uncover the mystery of what happened to his parents. What does he encounter?
Caim returns to his homeland in the north, only to find it infected by the Shadow’s insidious tentacles. The specters of his past aren’t just painful memories; they live and breathe and they want to do him serious harm. And for a man who once prided himself on his independence, Caim must find out how far he’s willing to go when he might be the only hope for an entire people.
8) In Shadow’s Son, Caim dealt with political intrigue and rebellion, but in the new book, he’s facing a full-blown war and the dangers of the Other Realm. How does he handle that?
Not well. Caim’s mental state isn’t something he dwells on much, but it’s always there beneath the surface. He’s torn between doing what’s right and doing what’s expedient. The first book focused on personal battles–internal and external–so you get a lot of small-group action. There’s still plenty of that inShadow’s Lure, but the problem has expanded. Now it’s more than just Caim. He has to adapt to a larger battlefield, so to speak.
9) Can you give us a hint about what might be in store for Caim and Kit in future books?
Well, the future is in flux for Caim and Kit. I’m in the revising stage for book 3, Shadow’s Master, and as any writer can tell you, that involves a lot of tearing apart and building back up. I’m not completely sure where our heroes will end up. But if you’ve read the first two books, you already know that no one is safe. Caim’s world is brutal. Things happen, and people die. I can give you this vague spoiler: Kit is going to undergo some major changes, for better or worse. Caim has some difficult choices to make about where his destiny leads.
10) What was it that drew you to write about an assassin particularly?
You know, I’m not 100% sure. I knew I wanted a criminal type, for both story and thematic reasons, but originally I was thinking of Caim as a cat-burglar or something along those lines. But years before I had written a few chapters of a book about an assassin. The story didn’t go anywhere and I eventually abandoned it, but I always liked the character. At some point during the conception stage of Shadow’s Son, the ideas merged, and Caim the Thief became Caim the Knife. It was like an explosion of Jolt soda and Pop Rocks in my brain.
11) Do you have plans to write some other series as well or are you concentrating on Caim for now?
I look forward to ending Caim’s story with the third book and moving on to something else. I’m in the planning stage for a new fantasy series. I’m juggling epic themes, but I don’t want to get too big for my britches. I think I’m better at tackling personal relationships and small-scale conflicts, rather than monumental clashes between nations and armies. But I never say never.
12) How has your experience of fandom as an author rather than as a reader been so far?
It’s funny. Before I was published, I had never attended a SFF convention, so I didn’t have much of a grasp of the SFF community at large. Now that’s all changed. I’ve met a lot of readers, and I must say that fantasy fans are the best. They are committed and loyal. I’ve gotten so much love for my little book. It’s really amazing.
13) Have you gotten to meet any of your heroes or author influences?
None of my major influences, no. Some of the biggies, like R.E. Howard, are dead. And the livings one are, to me, so far out of my reach that I’d feel weird even approaching them via email.
As far as my author heroes, I met Stephen Erikson and Peter Brett at World Fantasy; both are cool guys. Brandon Sanderson is very nice in person. And Elizabeth Moon, whom I met just last month at Balticon and had breakfast with, is also super nice. Mike Resnick is a grandfatherly/Grand Master of SFF sort of chap. And there are some authors who are just starting out, like myself, and I have the feeling that a couple of them are going to blow up big. At which point they’ll stop taking my calls and pretend they never met me.
I haven’t had any negative interactions so far.
14) What is the one thing you’d most like readers to take away from the Shadow series?
Just enjoyment. Look, I’d love to say one day that my writing has changed the world in some wonderful, positive way, but I write to entertain. I want people to be intrigued, have a good time, get invested in my characters, and then be eager for more when they finish a book. I think there is no higher honor or accolade for an author than when a fan says, “I loved your book and I can’t wait for the next one.”
I write for people, not posterity.
Thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Again, Jon’s next novel, Shadow’s Lure, will be released in the US this June 21st. You can visit Jon’s website http://www.jonsprunk.com for more information.
