Interview: Chris Evans

CE: This first year has been a whirlwind. Like most first time authors, I went from carrying around what over the years seemed an almost impossible dream to suddenly seeing it realized. I still haven't entirely gotten over that, but it's the nicest uneasy feeling I've ever had. I'm getting used to receiving emails from readers now, though in the beginning I was always wondering if I knew them. It just wasn't computing that a complete stranger had read my book and wanted to talk about it. And lest I sound too 'aw shucks' about it all, I also had to overcome the built in suspicion of an editor who always wonders if that hello from a stranger hides a manuscript they want read.

I think the oddest moment so far was when I was talking with the Russian translator about the first book. Turns out that the name for a big, scary monster I'd created would have translated into something like crawfish in Russian, not really what I was going for!

S: You are an editor in the publishing field, yet you do not edit fantasy or science fiction. What made you choose this genre to write in? Have you used your extensive background in military history and current affairs to inform your own writing?

CE: I've always loved fantasy. I grew up reading it as a child and reveled in the sense of adventure and danger fantasy novels gave me. I played D&D way back when and just this last week found my character figure from twenty-five years ago. Choosing fantasy was pretty much pre-ordained. I was also interested in trying something new with fantasy. Not radically so, but some distance off the beaten path. I'd read enough fantasies set in a medieval setting to realize that that had been done very well. I wanted to try something a bit different, so I used my background in history to craft together a world that was inspired by the Napoleonic wars, Kipling's British Empire, a touch of the American Civil War, and even T.E. Lawrence in Arabia, though that doesn't become apparent until the second book, The Light of Burning Shadows.

I've definitely called on my background in military history and conflicts as I've written the Iron Elves series. Probably the most salient has been my day to day work with combat veterans. I know many of these men and women to be the nicest and most charming people you'd ever want to meet, yet I also know that in another time and place their job was to kill. My authors run the gamut from snipers, SEALs, Green Berets, fighter pilots, Rangers, LRRPs, Marines, and that's just the American military. And though their stories are filled with heroism and honor, they've also been brutally honest in talking about the horrors of war and its psychological aftermath. I knew that when I began writing the Iron Elves I wanted to write a fantasy that explored, at least in part, the life of the soldier and his or her view on things.

S: Tell us a little bit about A Darkness Forged In Fire and its newly published sequel, The Light of Burning Shadows. How is your trilogy constructed? What sets it apart from other recently published fantasy series?

CE: I'll start with the last question first. I don't know. My reading by necessity involves a perpetually expanding pile of manuscripts with authors and agents waiting anxiously and not always patiently to hear back from me. So when I do get time to sit down and indulge myself I read widely, so at any given moment I could be reading a Disc World adventure from Terry Pratchett, the new series Traitor To The Crown by C.C. Finlay, Karen Traviss' Republic Commando series in Star Wars, a reread of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History Of Time (one of these days I might actually understand some of it!) while tackling the works of John Keegan, Len Deighton, Terry Copp, Richard Holmes, Barbara Tuchmann, George MacDonald Fraser, and Gerhard Weinberg.

At its core, the Iron Elves series is meant to be an entertaining adventure. While my characters set out to change their world, my goal is far more modest — I'm trying to tell a good yarn with magic and muskets that unabashedly acknowledges the long traditions in fantasy while at the same time pushing a few of the tropes so that you wind up, for example, with an elf who thinks trees are at their best when they're lumber. Go a little deeper and you find the underlying theme of the ordinary soldier in extraordinary situations. We've all read about princes and wizards so when it was my turn I decided to view the world from the trenches as it were.

S: I know some debut writers become fixated on their Amazon rank once their first book is released, checking several times a day to see where they stand among their peers. Ever do something similar?

CE: I'd love to tell you that I'm so busy with my job as editor and my hectic lifestyle in Manhattan, not to mention my absolute lack of insecurity about my writing, that I barely remember to check Amazon to see what the ranking is or what the reviews have to say... so let's go with that. And if my therapist reads this I would simply remind her that doctor/patient confidentiality applies! Oh, and the same goes for my internet provider and Amazon, including but not limited to Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.co.jp, Amazon.ca, Amazon.fr, and Amazon.cn.

S: Contemporary fantasy and paranormal romance seem to be at their high point right now among all of the sub-genres fantasy offers. As a writer of high fantasy, what are your feelings on that?

CE: I've never been one to get too caught up in the whole genre/sub-genre thing. It smacks of just so much tribalism when you hear people espousing one style over another. We're all in the entertainment business whether we acknowledge that or not. It couldn't get more subjective. In my very brief career thus far there are already people who love my writing, others who couldn't care less, and others still who wish I'd take up long walks on short piers... while carrying heavy objects. And they're all reacting to exactly the same books, so trying to make too much out of that will only age you prematurely, no magic necessary. And more to the point, this isn't a zero-sum game. At any given time there are 6 billion people on the planet. I feel pretty confident that there are enough readers in that group to go around for all of us writing to find readers that get what we do.

S: Where are you at in writing the third book? Do you have a title for it
that you want to share? When can we expect it and do you have any plans for
what will come after?

CE: Book III is titled Ashes Of A Black Frost and is in the early stages which for me means a lot of partial scenes and experimental openings until I settle on one. The exact publication date is still being worked out, but the plan is to have it hit shelves sometime in the fall of 2010.

I do have very specific plans for what comes next. I've enjoyed writing fantasy that wasn't set in a medieval time frame and I'd like to keep pushing that, exploring the natural evolution of a fantasy world and seeing just how far I can take it.

S: Some writers spend a lot of time conversing with their fans and blogging
about their day. Some don't do it at all. How much time do you spend blogging and reaching out to your fans?

CE: I blog a few times a week. I talk about everything from a new book coming out by one of my authors to the latest travails in my running adventures to something I found amusing in the news. In other words, it's just me chatting about things I find interesting. I have been talking more one on one with readers who have contacted me, especially some in the service. It's been gratifying to have been so well received in that sector.

S: Have a final word for why people should buy your series?

CE: My sister needs an operation usually works. Seriously though, this business is so subjective that anything I say will resonate with some people with the purity of lightning from the heavens while others will hear nothing but white noise. My goal from the start has been and continues to be to entertain, all while drawing on sources that aren't typically referenced in fantasy. In doing so, my hope has been to create an epic fantasy adventure both familiar and new.

S: Thank you for your time, Chris. We wish you much success!

CE: Thanks, and the same to you and Suvudu.

Chris Evans, author of A Darkness Forged in Fire and The Light of Burning Shadows, can be found discussing any number of odd and fun topics at his blog. Feel free to visit him and ask him any questions that were not answered here during the interview!