Dragon's Trail (The Outworlders Book 1) is your first published book. How long did it take you to write it and how far along is book 2 in The Outworlders Series?
The
actual writing of this version of Dragon’s
Trail took
a couple of years.
The
research behind it, though, took about 20, 25 years. I did all the
research in person; from boxing to blacksmithing, I learned it all. I
did this so that I could describe it accurately and create a world
that functioned correctly, with no hand-waving of the mundane
details.
During
that time, I rewrote it at least a dozen times, and it got turned
down by agents and major houses about 50 times. At one point, a major
publisher held it for eighteen months, had me write a series
treatment, assured me it was being read, and then passed.
Book
II, The
New Magic,
is about halfway written. Maybe a little less. I’m about 80,000
words into the first draft, but the first draft is just a fraction of
the writing process.
The
good news is that most of the research is done. I think the final
thing I want to do is spend some time at an indoor skydiving facility
to make sure I get the flying correct.
Which
writers/books inspired you when writing Dragon's
Trail?
I
mostly read action thrillers: Tom Clancy, Stephen Hunter, Brad Thor.
Dragon’s
Trail is
an epic fantasy espionage thriller, so there’s some Umberto Eco and
Trevanian in there, too.
What
are your ambitions for your writing career?
I’m
in the military, with a while left until I retire. I hope to
completely reinvent and redraw expectations for epic fantasy by the
time this series is done, which will likely be about the time I
retire. Once I’ve set a new bar – even if this series isn’t
wildly successful, just having it out there – I would like to write
full-time. I already have two spinoff series plotted, and also an
idea for a collection of shorts about doing all the research that it
took to create this series.
When
did you decide to become a writer?
I
was reading something in high school, I want to say it was the
Dragonlance
series, but in it, there was a scene where someone got shot with an
arrow and it stuck out of their body. They weren’t in armor,
either; it was just, like, lodged partway in. I’ve been bowhunting
since I was a kid. I’d taken enough large game with a bow to know
that arrows don’t stick out of man-sized bodies; even a
hunting-weight bow that I could draw – like, 40 lbs. – would make
an arrow pass through. And
that’s kind of when it hit me, about age 15 or 16, that this it
wasn’t just the magic that was make-believe; that fantasy authors
were apparently making everything
up,
and that someone needs to write fantasy and get the little stuff
correct.
Not
just the fight scenes, either. The little things. Camping. Making
fire. Taking care of a horse.
And
then I discovered Tom Clancy, with all the expository narration and
technical detailing, and figured that someone should definitely take
that approach with fantasy fiction.
Of
all the research you did for Dragon's
Trail,
did any one thing stand out as particularly challenging?
Wow.
Boy. Designing a functional pegasus saddle. Ever jump a horse? What
happens in stirrups in a negative-G dive? And you can’t belt in,
either; you have to be able to crouch in the stirrups. It was an
interesting problem.
Also,
writing experientially (I call it “Method Writing,” like method
acting), there’s a needle to thread: you have to have a good story,
and the chops to tell it, and
the technical knowledge to back it up. And then, you have to be able
to weave the technical details in without derailing the story’s
momentum. I found an editor who understood what I was trying to do,
which was a godsend. I think we strike a pretty good balance. It’s
a fun story and you learn some things.
Another
hard thing is that I don’t read a lot of fantasy anymore. So many
fantasy authors get so many of their minute details wrong – things
that I now know from personal experience – that they lose
credibility with me. It’s really tough to find fantasy that I like;
I’ve pretty much educated myself out of the market. I’ll usually
get a few pages in, and the author will fall back on one of a number
of preposterous inaccuracies, and I’m just like, “We’re done,
here.” Even the giants do this. All the time.
How
did you come up with the story of Dragon's
Trail?
This is quite a departure from the standard fantasy fare.
It
didn’t used to be. In early versions of Dragon's
Trail,
the main character was Ulo, the great sorcerer who's now the villain.
He's a former Criss Angel-type Vegas-show illusionist, who was doing
it all with real magic. He couldn't tell anyone it was real magic, of
course -- he doesn't even know how he's doing it -- and when the
press starts calling him a fraud, he becomes brooding and resentful.
Very goth. He ends up in another world, conjured by another sorcerer.
There, he learns that he's a lost prince, and that his father was not
only king, but a sorcerer. (Hey, come on. I was young; I thought this
was a groundbreaking idea for a book.)
In
this other world, his magic becomes super-powerful, and he uses his
magic, plus what he knows from growing up on Earth - macroeconomics,
political theory, big speeches with quotes from Plato's Republic
-
to rebuild his father's kingdom.
This
was all fun to write, but I learned that it had been done ten
thousand times. Plus, it seemed too easy for him, so I had to cough
up a worthy villain.
So,
Boy
from Earth Becomes King.
What happens next?
The
opposing kingdom, upon realizing that the new king next door is an
alien, go to Earth - they end up at a RenFaire - where they hire an
alcoholic, womanizing, smart-assed loose cannon who was a champion in
the then-burgeoning world of HEMA (Historic European Martial Arts) to
kill him. This is Jarrod Torrealday, who’s now the hero. He was
originally the villain.
He
was fun to write, but I decided his character still wasn't dark
enough, so I added a murder rap and a fictional world of illegal
underground dueling, and when I threw him into that, he immediately
became the most interesting character in the book.
The
more I wrote Jarrod, the more I realized that the real story wasn't
"boy-from-Earth-who-discovers-he's-actually-magic-and-becomes-a-king-in-another-world-fulfilling-a-prophecy(TM),"
but the redemption story of a broken man putting it all on the line
one last time to try and win his soul back.
I
rewrote the whole thing from Jarrod’s perspective, with him as the
center. He's now the hero, and the boy-from-Earth-becomes-king, Ulo,
is the villain. (Ulo’s backstory will be released as a prequel when
the series is done.)
It
became a very adult novel. Not just because of graphic violence and
elf boobs, but it centers on adult characters, and it’s a
redemption story instead of a bildungsroman. And I think there’s a
readership out there – well, I know there is, because they email me
– that loves reading about how a grown adult reacts to, say, a
pegasus, or a ringed moon, or an ogre. I’m told that it gives them
hope that there’s still magic in the world, right under your nose,
even as a grown-up. And that’s pretty cool.
What
do you like to do when not writing?
I
don’t know how to answer this question. I can’t really think of
any time when I’m not writing. I’m always writing. Almost
everything that I’ve come to enjoy in life has been something I’ve
discovered while researching this series. Swordplay, archery, martial
arts, mountaineering. Every experience is something that may end up
in a book eventually, so it’s all writing when it comes down to it.
Even if I’m out hiking, or having a beer with friends, I’m taking
notes the whole time. It all feeds the monster.
How
can readers discover more about you and your work?
First
off, buy the book. Seriously, though. If you like the book, I have a
blog on my website at www.josephmalik.com
that talks about a lot of my experiences creating this series.