We’ve talked to Mark Stone, author of the Calasade series and member of our discussion forum.
First of all can you tell us a bit about the world you have created in your Calasade series?
Oh boy, tough question. Answering it is like quantifying a whole planet and how that planet came to be in a paragraph or two.
Calasade is a Greco-Roman like continent set in an alternate universe. Once there were gods who became bored with their daily toils and created the Unayela, a race to serve them as slaves. The Unayela rebelled after some centuries and almost toppled the gods with the magic the gods had given them. After the rebellion, the Unayela requested their own slaves. These were the Regna, spiritual-descendants of the Unayela who were supposed to possess no magic and thus, be unable to inflict (much) harm.
Still, history has a way of repeating itself and magic of being irrepressible. Regna soon outnumbered their masters and obtained freedom. During this time many Unayela unwilling to live side-by-side with lesser people abandoned Calasade. So many, in fact, only seven hundred remained. These are the Septingenti.
The Septingenti were under the illusion that everything was fine. They had forgotten the gods possess a sense of humor and that when gods grow bored, they seek distraction. The gods created more races in the hopes of facilitating entertainment. They got it by way of the Great Confrontation, a massive war from which Calasade is still recovering and won only because of the Septingenti.
In current-day Calasade there is an uneasy truce between Regna and other races. For this Regna are lucky because the farther they get from their magic-laden ancestors, the less powerful they become. Luck, however, ends sooner or later. Wisdom shrinks. Greed expands in the face of withering fortunes. The leaders of Calasade have seen fit to reinstate gladiatorial games. Regna must conquer new lands across the seas to fuel the games and fill their treasuries, which means their forces at home are lessened, a ripe circumstance for future wars.
In the meantime, before cataclysmic events reoccur, there are individual stories to be told. These books tell an overall story but can be read independently.
Your work has been described as different. What are your own thoughts on what makes Calasade stand out as different and unique?
Some of Calasade being perceived as different has to do with my writing style. I think, too, characterization and the way Calasade comes alive on the page plays a part in differentiation. A lot of times you’ll find that worlds in many Fantasy works are more fleshed out than the people who populate them. That goes the other way, too. A balance is hard to establish for most writers whereas I am fortunate to be equal parts creativity and logic and get off on both. I’m told this shows in my stories. Maybe I get that dual ability from having once played pool for a living. Suck at either and suck at the game. Me, I hate to suck at anything, so I work and work and work to get better. I’m never satisfied with where I am.
Besides that, what sets Calasade apart is it not being based on Medieval Europe. There are few if any tropes between the covers and no clichés. The monsters are new. The lands are new. No elves here. No dwarves. Characters are neither black nor white. They are flesh and blood and live in the gray area as do we all. The so-called good character in one story may be the bad seed in another. Just depends on their motivations, what they have at their disposal to accomplish their goals, the tragedies that have befallen them, their moral code, and how desperate their situations at that time.
The use of illustrations is central in your books. Why do you choose to use illustrations as much as you do? How do you feel this adds to the reader’s experience?
The illustrations started out as just for me, a visual aid to better envision scenes and characters. Some people from a writing group saw a few and encouraged me to include them. I’m glad I did. Readers have told me the illustrations help put them in the story and I’ll do whatever helps towards that end. Reading is all about getting immersed.
How did you start writing? Was there a particular book or moment in your life that spurred you on?
Some books inspire me to continue, but there was not one or any kind of life event that set off a lightbulb in my head. Writing has always been there, along with art, since I can remember. I waited to publish until I found something special.
What is your favorite and least favorite part of the writing process, and why?
Everything and nothing. Oh, I know, most writers will say editing or research, but to me the former is an exciting challenge. How much better can this sentence be? Is this a good word choice? Does the paragraph flow? How does it sound when read back? Am I, the author, coming through? If so, it’s fixing time. An author should never be visible, always behind the curtain, the play’s unseen director.
As for the latter…research. I love learning anything and when it comes to learning about Ancient Rome, yeah, I get lost in the time machine. Research isn’t just searching the web, it’s going places. Italica, Pompeii, Segovia, Tarragona, Rome, so many places that will take your breath away. There is NOTHING like stepping into an amphitheater. NOTHING. Had I been alive in Roman times I would have been one of those fool idiots who surrendered their rights as citizens to die on the sands.
What has been most surprising to you in your writing and publishing career?
Frankly, the loss of control with a traditional publisher. I had a contract with one (we shall refer to said publisher as The Publisher That Shall Not Be Named) which I later abolished due to differences of opinion regarding Calasade. They wanted the world to be your typical Medieval Europe sort of thing. Me, I had to stay true to the Greco-Roman roots since I’m a mere conduit and it’s best to not distort what Calasade wants to say. Otherwise the monsters and folk of Calasade might come after me. We wouldn’t want that. There are some damn scary things and people between its borders.
But I digress. At least those at The Publisher That Shall Not Be Named were good enough to revert my rights. I’ll give them that.
About writing in general, the thing that most surprised me is what gave me the ability to improve more than any other. Not writing groups or critique groups or help books or even advice from my betters. I get asked a lot, “How did you learn how to write?” My response? In the beginning writing was innate, but innate wouldn’t get me beyond a certain point. What did and still does and forever will is reading. Not dissecting nor reverse-engineering. Just reading for pleasure.
VORACIOUSLY.
The subconscious picks up stuff, you know?
Can you tell us a bit about your experience with self-publishing?
Self-publishing is a lot of work. TONS. And costly if you take your craft seriously and employ all the stages through which traditional publishers take their books. Then after the writing and the edits and all that comes the marketing. The god-awful marketing. That’s when the real work begins (especially for those of us who are not natural sellers).
How do you go about the marketing aspect and especially related to your online presence? Anything you’ve seen work better than other things?
Marketing is new to me so I’m still finding my way. Facebook ads have been pretty useless as have those on Twitter. I suspect that’s due to each site using click-farms. I’m pleased with my ad on SFF, however, and believe advertising where my readers are apt to be is a far more intelligent choice. Yeah, sometimes I learn slow.
Having said that about Facebook and Twitter, I will say Twitter gives me a nice return on interest via tweets. With the artwork and everything I can tweet quite a bit about various things without the tweets seeming like a sales pitch and I’m able to rotate them enough to where they stay fresh.
Apart from advertising I’ve collected a pretty healthy subscriber list and am in the process of conscripting street team members now that I’m gaining some fans. Street teams and subscriber lists are a must for any author be they Indie or traditionally published since publishers nowadays request authors to do the majority of marketing. Additional titles will help, too, by giving me the ability to put a couple on KDP Select and use those as lead-ins for other books.
By the by, my wife is a constant source of knowledge (she’s an editor and translator) and I’m fortunate enough to know a couple of best-selling authors in other genres so I’m not going at this blind thank goodness.
You are also a member of our community here at SFFWorld so we have to talk a bit about that How did you discover SFFWorld.com and why did you decide to join and what keeps you coming back?
I found SFFWorld.com through Google. It and a few other sites, though SFF has become my go-to site. The content is great and the people on the forums are really top-notch. I am hoping to develop a long relationship with the site and must say I was disappointed to learn your reviewers only review traditionally published books. 😛 Yet I can understand why. In all honesty I count on one hand the number of Indie authors I consider excellent writers who take the craft of writing as seriously as they should.
The rest?
Let’s just say the gatekeepers knew what they were doing and it’s unfortunate the likes of Amazon broke the gates.
It’s not about traditionally published or not, but rather the massive number of requests we get actually.
What is your favourite authors and where’s your favorite place to read?
Favorite authors. My goodness. Where to begin and end? Clive Barker, Stephen King, JK Rowling, Terry Pratchett, Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, Robert E. Howard (without him there would be no Sword and Sorcery), Tolkien, Robert Harris, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, William Faulkner (perhaps my favorite author), Jane Austen, Peter Straub, Bram Stoker, Irwin Shaw, Virginia Woolf, Andrzej Sapkowski, C.L. Raven, Cinta Garcia, Elmore Leonard, Frank L. Baum, Kirkus MacGowan, Ruth Downie, Peter Tremayne. I could go on though I won’t.
As for least favorite authors, okay, I shouldn’t point out anyone, but I will. I must. The craft of writing is my religion so it is without hesitation that I curse E.L. James and Stephenie Meyer to burn in hell. Those two women have done more to ruin the world of books and lower the bar of excellence than perhaps anyone ever.
Whew, all right. Rant is over. I feel better.
Favorite place to read? On the beach of Fuengirola, Spain in front of the Mediterranean Sea is a contender and would be perfect if not for the lack of Ancient Rome. Tarragona is an incredibly tempting place to move, but Fuengirola is…well, wonderful and where I choose to remain as far as living full-time. Tarragona, I’ll see you on vacation. SOON. Let’s see. Where else? Sitting in a hotel room that looks out onto the aqueduct in Segovia isn’t shabby. Or perching in the amphitheater ruins of Italica. First time I stepped inside it I cried. That site touched me like no other. Where else to read? Camped out anywhere in Pompeii but especially the garden. Like heaven each and every location. See, I only feel truly at home and at peace when I’m among the ruins. They speak to my soul.
What do you do when you don’t write, any hobbies?
No writer has time for hobbies. Especially one creating his own art, who works as a software engineer in the daytime, is married, and loves to read. No, reading is not a hobby. It’s more than that. I love books.
Finally, what are you working on now?
Calasade: Impetus. It is about Thalarius, an adopted son of a nobilis in possession of everything any sane person could want. Riches, loving parents and siblings, a beautiful and (ah, heck, we’ll just say it) horny fiancé. None, however, are as important to him as fighting in the new arenas, the Bleeding Grounds. He is willing to sacrifice everything, even his freedom, to experience the sands and obtain fame. To him security is a prison with a decades-long death sentence. In the immortal words of Jerry Lee Lewis, he is a real wild one.
Readers can keep up-to-date on Calasade by visiting http://www.authormarkstone.com.
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Interview by Dag Rambraut – SFFWorld.com © 2015
